The whole earth The earth which has hitherto served even “wicked men for their nourishment, clothing, dwelling-place, medicine, and pleasure, supplying them with fruit, trees, herbs, and flowers which it brought forth in such plenty—the earth will then open with continual quakings, and as it were cry out for vengeance against the sinner for having so wantonly and ungratefully misused its gifts. The wild beasts will come forth out of their caves and dens with horrible howlings, and follow up the sinner everywhere, filling him with terror. “The whole world shall fight with Him against the unwise;” the universe shall take up arms with the angry God and fight against the foolish sinner, and by its ragings announce to him that the terrible day is at hand on which the Judge shall be revenged on all His enemies; that day which the Prophet Sophonias calls the great day of the Lord: “A day of wrath; a day of tribulation and distress; a day of calamity and misery; a day of darkness and obscurity; a day of cloud and whirlwind;… the voice of the day of the Lord is bitter, the mighty man shall there meet with tribulation.”[1] Where will they creep in order to hide themselves, or to find comfort and consolation, when heaven and earth are in such disorder and are uniting their forces to attack them? Our Lord has already told us how men shall feel on that day: “Men withering away for fear and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world.”[2] But this shall be the case only for sinners; for no matter how terrible the signs that are to precede the last day, the servants of God shall find them an occasion of rejoicing and exultation, as we shall see in the
Second Part.
Shown by a simile. Suppose that a Turkish city, say Constantinople, in which many Christians are held captive and groan in chains, is beleaguered by a Christian potentate; the roaring and crashing of artillery resounds the whole day, so that one can hardly hear his own voice; the walls and towers are here and there thrown down by the cannon-balls; fire-spreading bombs and grenades are flying about incessantly in the air, burning and destroying the houses in all directions, and throughout the whole city nothing is heard but the roar of artillery, the crash of tumbling walls,
- ↑ Dies iræ dies illa, dies tribulationis et angustiæ, dies calamitatis et miseriæ, dies tenebrarum et caliginis, dies nebulæ et turbinis; vox diei Domini amara, tribulabitur ibi fortis.—Soph. i. 15, 14.
- ↑ Arescentibus hominibus præ timore, et exspectatione, quæ supervenient universe orbi.—Luke xxi. 26.
