The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 241

The European Union in Prophecy
"Almost, if not altogether alone, as the most mysterious and as yet unexplained
phenomenon of its kind, . . . stands the dark day of May 19, 1780,--a most
unaccountable darkening of the whole visible heavens and atmosphere in New
England."--R. M. Devens, Our First Century, page 89.
An eyewitness living in
Massachusetts describes the event as follows: "In the morning the sun rose clear, but
was soon overcast. The clouds became lowery, and from them, black and ominous, as
they soon appeared, lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and a little rain fell. Toward
nine o'clock, the clouds became thinner, and assumed a brassy or coppery appearance,
and earth, rocks, trees, buildings, water, and persons were changed by this strange,
unearthly light. A few minutes later, a heavy black cloud spread over the entire sky
except a narrow rim at the horizon, and it was as dark as it usually is at nine o'clock
on a summer evening. . . .
"Fear, anxiety, and awe gradually filled the minds of the people. Women stood
at the door, looking out upon the dark landscape; men returned from their labor in
the fields; the carpenter left his tools, the blacksmith his forge, the tradesman his
counter. Schools were dismissed, and tremblingly the children fled homeward.
Travelers put up at the nearest farmhouse. 'What is coming?' queried every lip and
heart. It seemed as if a hurricane was about to dash across the land, or as if it was
the day of the consummation of all things.
"Candles were used; and hearth fires shone as brightly as on a moonless evening
in autumn. . . . Fowls retired to their roosts and went to sleep, cattle gathered at the
pasture bars and lowed, frogs peeped, birds sang their evening songs, and bats flew
about. But the human knew that night had not come. . . ."Dr. Nathanael Whittaker,
pastor of the Tabernacle church in Salem, held religious services in the meeting-house,
and preached a sermon in which he maintained that the darkness was supernatural.
Congregations came together in many other places. The texts for the extemporaneous
sermons were invariably those that seemed to indicate that the darkness was
consonant with Scriptural prophecy. . . . The darkness was most dense shortly after
eleven o'clock."-- The Essex Antiquarian, April, 1899, vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 53, 54. "In most
parts of the country it was so great in the daytime, that the people could not tell the
hour by either watch or clock, nor dine, nor manage their domestic business, without
the light of candles. . . .
240