Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/283

 have prevented its reception among mankind. Hence the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give her light, and the stars will fall from heaven; for the prediction of these things denotes the obscuration of love, the termination of faith, and the destruction of intelligence proper to the Church.

Every one may see, as this state of things goes on from generation to generation, that the intensity of its mischiefs will be successively increased, and that it must result in a crisis which will necessitate a judgment to disperse the evil spirits which have been its cause, and so prepare the way for the amendment of society in the world.

As spirits and men mutually act and react upon each other (a doctrine of the Scriptures admitted upon all hands) it will follow that the state of the world of spirits, will, in some measure, be reflected in the condition of the world of men. If all things were orderly and enlightened in society on earth, it would not be reasonable to infer that all things were irregular and obscure in the spiritual world with which it is associated. But if men are found to be in a corrupted condition, careless about heavenly things, and pursuing all kinds of selfish and sensual loves with relish and delight, it would be reasonable to conclude that something very similar prevailed in the world of spirits, with which such society is connected; for it is a great law that they act upon, and reflect the condition of each other.

When, then, we assert that a disastrous condition of the world of spirits had been arrived at, about a century ago, and that then was the period in which the last judgment was performed, the truth of these assertions does not rest merely upon any verbal authority which may be claimed for them; if true, there must be some corroborative evidence in the history of professedly Christian society at that