The first
signs the Saviour speaks of, were to be in the sun. Now, all these signs must
be visible to the natural eye, or they would be no signs at all. Now, in
tracing the history of the world from the Crucifixion of Christ down to A. D.
1816, there was not a sign seen in the sun in all that time; therefore when the
Saviour said there shall be signs in the sun, he spake of signs that no future
generation should see except the one that should witness his second advent,
that all men might know when they see the signs in the sun, that Christ would
come in that generation, in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory,
&c. In A. D. 1816 the signs were seen in the sun, and were visible to the
natural eye of all men for months; and they have been seen since but not so
plain. Since then there have been great signs in the moon also, and in the
stars—particularly on the night of the 12th of Nov. 1833, when the whole starry
host seemed to be moving out of their places at once. And this continued almost
the whole night. There have also been seen wonders in the heavens, blood, and
fire, and pillars of smoke; also on the earth there has been distress of
nations with perplexity; the sea and waves roaring. The Paris Temps published an
account from Pondicherry of the 22nd January last, from Yanaon a French
factory, (about 250 miles along the coast from that city,) up to the 7th of
December, which gives numerous details of a dreadful hurricane and inundation
of the sea on that sea on that coast. Upwards of ten thousand corpses had been
found, and many thousands more had no doubt been washed away. This account
states, that such a hurricane and inroad of the sea was never known before in
that country. And here in our own country, the city of Natchez has been almost
entirely destroyed by a hurricane; and there have been great earthquakes in
various parts of the earth, and pestilences such as were never known before,
have raged among the nations in this generation; and surely they have been and
are still in distress and in perplexity. And men’s hearts are failing them for
fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. (Charles
Thompson, Evidences in Proof
of the Book of Mormon [Batavia, N.Y.: D. D. Waite, 1841], 84-86)
(*) If anyone has a scan of the Paris Temps article that Thomson references, please let me know. I would like a copy. Email: ScripturalMormonismATGmailDOTcom