Beautiful, wonderful city of light.
Part II. The Noonday.
Or,
The Doctrines Of An Apostate Religion Obscuring The Gospel Light.
The prophet Isaiah said. “The morning cometh, and also the night.” Isa. 21:11, 12. A dark night succeeded the morning of this gospel day. Jesus said to his disciples, “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.” Mark 13:24. The tribulation here spoken of was the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, the city of the Jews, by the son of Vespasian, A.D. 70, in which eleven hundred thousand persons perished. Josephus says of this time, “The sufferings indeed of the devoted inhabitants are such as humanity shudders to contemplate, and over which pity is glad to throw a veil.” This is the tribulation of which our Lord spoke. The darkening of the sun and moon was the fading away of the gospel light.
About the year 96 A.D. the writings of the New Testament were closed. From that time we have only history to tell us of Christianity and its light in the life of men. That the noontime of this gospel day was dark, is unquestionable. To ascertain as near as possible the date of the close of the morning light and the beginning of the dark noonday we must resort to history. No one can rightly object to this. We assure you we will extract nothing that will conflict with the inspired and infallible Word of God. Where the Word of truth is silent and we can gain information from authentic history it must certainly be proper and right. Historical facts only verify and explain the truthfulness of the Scriptures.
Chapter I. The Date Of The Beginning Of Noonday.
Sabine's Ecclesiastical History.
In speaking of Constantine's expedition to Rome in the year 311, when there appeared supernaturally a cross above the sun, he says: “During the vicissitudes in the state, the church exhibits nothing peculiarly great. Among the common people there were doubtless many truly devoted in the spirit of their mind, and among them many that loved the divine [pg 372] Savior above life itself; but among the bishops and pastors nothing like what we saw in the past century. Indeed the principal events in the internal department of the church are rather more to its disgrace than its honor.”