Hence the old expression used of very bad weather: it is like the last day.
They will signify the death-agony of nature at the dissolution of the world. And what is the meaning of all that, my dear brethren? To what end that great disturbance and consternation of all creatures? First, says Abulensis, it is a sign of compassion, and as it were a fainting and death-agony of all nature at the destruction of the world. When the head of a household is at the point of death the whole family is disturbed and bewildered; the wife weeps and tears her hair in an agony of grief; the children give vent to their sorrow in noisy cries; the relatives weep; the servants run hither and thither sighing and moaning; the death-knell tolls its sorrowful note from the church-tower; friends and neighbors clad in mourning come to the funeral. All is grief and lamentation. So shall it be when the end of the world approaches, and the human race, the head of this household of the world is at the last gasp; all nature shall be stricken with fear and consternation; the sky shall lose its luminaries and put on the sable garb of night; the elements shall, as it were, weep, and become quite bewildered, while the atmosphere resounding with thunder and violent hurricanes shall be, so to speak, the death-knell of the dying world.
And the anger of God against sinners. Moreover, these signs shall show forth the great anger and displeasure of the Almighty at sinful men. The heavens now announce the glory of God, as the Prophet David says: “The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of His hands.”[1] “But then,” says Barradius, “they shall declare the anger of God against the wicked.”[2] For He will cause all creatures to rise up against them; by making the stars to lose their light, He will, so to speak, shut up the windows by which any light might penetrate to the earth, that He may smite in the dark without mercy, as Isaias prophesies: “Behold, the day of the Lord shall come, a cruel day, and full of indignation, and- of wrath, and fury, to lay the land desolate, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and their brightness shall not display their light: the sun shall be dark ened in his rising, and the moon shall not shine with her light.”
And what then? “And I will visit the evils of the world, and against the wicked for their iniquity, and I will make the pride of infidels to cease, and will bring down the arrogancy of
