Joseph Lathrop: Solar Eclipse

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[00:00:29] And by Revived Thoughts.

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[00:00:39] This is Troy and Joel, and you are listening to Revived Thoughts.

[00:00:48] The stated course of nature, the order of heavenly bodies, the regular succession of

[00:00:54] seasons demonstrate the existence and providence of God.

[00:01:01] Every episode we bring you a different voice from history in a sermon that they delivered.

[00:01:06] Today's sermon comes to us from Springfield, Massachusetts.

[00:01:09] It was preached on June 22nd, 1806.

[00:01:14] Troy how you doing today?

[00:01:15] I'm doing good.

[00:01:16] I always like when we know the exact date.

[00:01:18] I don't know why, but it just makes me happy when it's like boom, 20 seconds.

[00:01:21] It's like a time machine.

[00:01:22] You dial it in and you pop back.

[00:01:24] Joel, I'm doing great.

[00:01:26] I had to preach this morning, and that was always a blessing when I get the opportunity

[00:01:31] to do that.

[00:01:32] And motorcycle trouble.

[00:01:34] Had to take the motorcycle into the shop.

[00:01:35] Elise's motorcycle had a dead battery, but it all turned out okay, and I managed to get

[00:01:41] everything done that I needed to be done today so that you and I could record.

[00:01:45] I'm in a very happy mood about how that worked out.

[00:01:47] How about you?

[00:01:48] I am.

[00:01:49] Yeah, it's always neat how, I don't know, God seems to provide time when you don't have

[00:01:55] time.

[00:01:56] You know?

[00:01:57] You know?

[00:01:58] I feel like it's kind of a cliche people talk about all the time.

[00:02:00] Like, oh, you serve and then even when you don't have time, and then you somehow still

[00:02:04] have time to get it done.

[00:02:05] But you know, it's kind of true.

[00:02:07] God works it out.

[00:02:08] Yeah, it's true.

[00:02:09] Now, you have 24 hours in a day, and if you follow God, you will have exactly all the

[00:02:13] time you need in those 24 hours a day is what I heard it said once.

[00:02:16] I think that's a pretty well, a pretty good way to say it.

[00:02:20] Joel, I'm going to get to the positive responses.

[00:02:23] I got to be honest.

[00:02:24] These past few weeks have been extremely busy for me.

[00:02:26] So I haven't been able to catch every response that went through, but I did grab a couple

[00:02:30] of them.

[00:02:31] Here was one from the Twitter, from the X, where John Browning said, LOL, I just finished

[00:02:38] listening to your discussion with Joel on the subject of church history conferences.

[00:02:43] Great episode.

[00:02:44] Thank you, John, for listening.

[00:02:45] I'm glad you enjoyed that.

[00:02:46] And we have, I think a lot of responses came in on that.

[00:02:50] And thankfully, they've almost all been positive, which I was really, I was, I think Joel can

[00:02:54] say I was probably more nervous about that episode than I've been of any of our episodes

[00:02:57] in a while.

[00:02:58] And it was really nice to hear that, you know, we didn't get a bunch of one stars or something

[00:03:02] and people upset with us.

[00:03:03] I love...

[00:03:04] I feel like that's probably one of A.

[00:03:07] I don't know if it's your most controversial take.

[00:03:10] I think it's, you were the most bold about it.

[00:03:12] Like you were, you're like, I'm dying on this hill, which is, I don't know.

[00:03:18] You die on a lot of hills, but I thought this one was kind of an odd one to die on.

[00:03:21] But no, it was a fun conversation.

[00:03:22] I'd rather die on a hundred hills than die on no hills.

[00:03:25] Joel and live forever.

[00:03:26] That's my motto.

[00:03:27] I made it up right now, but it doesn't sound half bad.

[00:03:31] I will say, I will say, I yeah, that was definitely one.

[00:03:35] It was, I enjoyed it.

[00:03:36] I enjoyed it.

[00:03:37] And I, one thing I love about our audience, we doesn't, you do not get enough credit

[00:03:40] audience for this, but you are always cool about stuff like this.

[00:03:44] We can give our opinions.

[00:03:45] We can talk about controversial things.

[00:03:47] We've never gotten really too many angry emails.

[00:03:50] For the subjects we tackle and the things we do, we should be getting more angry emails.

[00:03:55] We should be getting more one-stars.

[00:03:56] We should be getting more complaints.

[00:03:57] We tackle some extremely controversial stuff on a regular basis, probably maybe more than

[00:04:02] most shows do.

[00:04:04] And we're not just preaching to the choir.

[00:04:05] We have every, like we have a very wide spectrum of listeners from all across the theological

[00:04:12] spectrum, all across the world listening.

[00:04:14] And yet everyone has always been great.

[00:04:16] Everyone seems to understand what we're doing here.

[00:04:18] Just an appreciation for church history and coming together.

[00:04:21] I've just been really grateful how relaxed and how free we all are just to share our

[00:04:27] opinions.

[00:04:28] Another one, this was not on Twitter.

[00:04:30] This was an email.

[00:04:31] Richard sent an email to us.

[00:04:32] He was asking about being a reader for our show, which is great.

[00:04:35] We always need people to come in and volunteer and read sermons for us.

[00:04:37] So I'm going to be excited to have a sermon for him soon.

[00:04:41] And he added at the end of his email asking to read for us.

[00:04:44] PS, really enjoyed the London Fire deep dive episode.

[00:04:47] I'm making my way through the incredible archive of episodes on Revived Thoughts.

[00:04:50] And I just want to say, it's a little reminder guys, we have a long list of episodes and

[00:04:56] content and it's always great to go back and listen.

[00:04:58] Don't always got to wait for the newest episode.

[00:05:00] There are lots of really great episodes going back.

[00:05:02] And I always am happy when I hear people listening to that London Fire deep dive.

[00:05:06] It's such a random subject.

[00:05:08] Like it wouldn't seem like a subject that would be interesting, but everyone who listens

[00:05:11] to it is always like, I cannot believe that story is true.

[00:05:13] And when I did the research for it, I was pulling all the pieces together.

[00:05:17] And I myself just kept being like, how is this true?

[00:05:19] And how has no one ever talked about this before?

[00:05:20] Yes, indeed, indeed.

[00:05:21] But today we're talking about Joseph Lathrop.

[00:05:24] He was born in 1731 when he was just eight years old.

[00:05:29] His father would die in this kind of tragedy.

[00:05:31] He was a construction worker and they were building a bridge and he fell off and plummeted

[00:05:36] 40 feet onto a pole and it killed his father.

[00:05:40] So a pretty traumatic thing for an eight year old to experience as he's developing and growing

[00:05:46] up over the years.

[00:05:47] When he was a teenager, the great awakening was happening throughout America.

[00:05:51] And so this was a phenomenon that we've covered on the show.

[00:05:55] It's interesting to see it from his perspective though, because he recognized what God was

[00:05:59] doing in retrospect.

[00:06:01] He talks about recognizing and seeing the emotional power that was moving throughout

[00:06:07] the country and through so many of the people around him.

[00:06:10] But he says it seemed to skip him over.

[00:06:12] It wasn't until college, he had some experiences.

[00:06:18] He got very sick twice and came close to death.

[00:06:21] He blamed it on his lack of exercise, which sounds like a very medical diagnosis.

[00:06:28] I mean, I suppose a lot of things could just be blamed on a lack of exercise.

[00:06:33] But back then that was a common way of thinking.

[00:06:35] I want to start that kind of trend back up.

[00:06:37] Like, oh man, I had a fever the other day, blame the exercise.

[00:06:42] Actually, maybe this is just the countries I've lived in Indonesia, or like in parts

[00:06:47] of Asia.

[00:06:48] But I've lived in China, Indonesia, and Cambodia.

[00:06:50] And they don't blame a lack of exercise, but sometimes they'll blame sugar.

[00:06:54] If I get a fever or something, they'll be like, it's because you drink too many sugary

[00:06:58] drinks Mr. Frazier.

[00:06:59] And I'm like, is that really why I got the flu?

[00:07:03] So they'll put it on sugar.

[00:07:05] Random ailments are always sugar's fault.

[00:07:07] Have you ever had, speaking of international travels, have you ever heard a lot of places

[00:07:12] I go, they will claim that cold beverages will make you sick.

[00:07:16] Have you heard of that?

[00:07:17] Yes.

[00:07:18] Or bad for you?

[00:07:19] Oh yeah, the cold beverages, especially China was big on the don't drink.

[00:07:23] They would give you, it wouldn't matter how hot it was outside, you would sit down and

[00:07:26] North China, they would put a hot boiling cup of water in front of you.

[00:07:30] And that would be because if you drink cold drinks, it makes you sick.

[00:07:32] That was what they said.

[00:07:34] And Elise one time was sitting outside and she said that a friend of ours came up to

[00:07:39] her and was like, you can't sit on a cold sidewalk outside.

[00:07:41] It will freeze your uterus and you won't be able to have babies.

[00:07:44] And we're like, I don't think that's medically how that works.

[00:07:48] Nothing but the most sound medical advice.

[00:07:52] There are lots of fun things out there.

[00:07:54] Yeah, I'll never, I don't know.

[00:07:57] It's a very strange feeling to go to like a fast food restaurant and go up to the fountain

[00:08:01] and drink.

[00:08:02] And they just literally just don't have like an ice machine.

[00:08:05] It's just room temperature soda coming out.

[00:08:07] And it just feels weird having a new cup with new soda coming out of the fountain.

[00:08:13] No, just room temperature.

[00:08:17] I will say Indonesia likes ice.

[00:08:19] Indonesia, there's all, they like, they actually have, if you're from the South in the United

[00:08:23] States of America, you like sweet tea probably.

[00:08:26] And Indonesia makes like a lemon sweet tea, which is basically sweet tea.

[00:08:30] And they do it with ice and it's the first country in Asia to have that as like a regular,

[00:08:33] or at least I've been to, as a regular drink.

[00:08:36] And it makes me very happy.

[00:08:37] I feel like I'm, you know, I've got a little cup from back home here.

[00:08:40] It's not, they wouldn't, they don't not, they do not know about Southern sweet tea culture,

[00:08:44] but they basically, you know, they have the equivalent of that.

[00:08:46] And it's been a very nice beverage to have.

[00:08:49] And it does come with ice.

[00:08:50] I'm glad you were able to find a sweet tea replacement.

[00:08:53] Joseph Lathrop in college, sick due to not exercising.

[00:08:59] It's clearly some type of ailment going around campus.

[00:09:01] Cause it was a rough year for that college.

[00:09:04] Several of his classmates actually did pass away.

[00:09:08] And so there seems to be some type of sickness going around, but there's, there's very little

[00:09:13] if no information on what's causing these deaths, but whatever it was, it shook Lathrop

[00:09:19] up as far as thinking about afterlife, you know, what happens in the Lord used to that

[00:09:25] in his life.

[00:09:26] And it was there at school that he accredits his conversion and salvation.

[00:09:32] But as soon as he did, he became very anxious that he wasn't really saved.

[00:09:37] He spent a lot of his early days wrestling with the feeling of not being saved.

[00:09:41] Eventually he would overcome it, but I feel like that's a relatively common thing in many

[00:09:47] people's salvation journeys.

[00:09:49] It's, it's a, it's a big thing to wrap your head around and to accept and grasp.

[00:09:53] Yeah, that was actually why I wanted to put that in the episode was because I, when I

[00:09:57] read that, I was actually, so this whole story we have is from his memoirs.

[00:10:01] And when I read that part of the story, I was kind of like, I think that other people

[00:10:05] also have that, especially young believers.

[00:10:07] I get the opportunity to interact with young believers and newer Christians.

[00:10:13] And I find that they really spend a lot of their early days wrestling with that.

[00:10:17] Am I actually saved though?

[00:10:18] Do I actually know the Lord or is it in my head and stuff like that?

[00:10:21] And I think, I think sometimes older believers can kind of forget that period of your life

[00:10:26] and how important it is.

[00:10:27] So that's why I wanted to put that in there.

[00:10:28] It's just kind of a reminder that that's a common thing to do when you're a young believer.

[00:10:33] And if you know some young believers, that might be something they're wrestling with that

[00:10:36] they're not talking about that they're, that they're going through.

[00:10:40] All right.

[00:10:41] Shortly afterward, he started working his way into ministry and eventually he had his own

[00:10:46] congregation, but he felt very unworthy of that congregation.

[00:10:50] And in the beginning of his ministry time, he spoke of spending several days in secret

[00:10:54] devotional time with God because he just felt so unworthy of being able to lead a

[00:10:58] congregation.

[00:10:59] And just as he had to kind of basically talk himself and work himself through, I am

[00:11:04] actually saved.

[00:11:05] He also had to like talk himself and work himself through, I will be able to do this

[00:11:08] because God will give me the strength to do this.

[00:11:11] And he wouldn't have put me here if it wasn't from him.

[00:11:14] One day early on, he had an incident which almost cost him his life.

[00:11:19] He went out to visit a congregants home and as he was on his way back, it was nearly

[00:11:23] midnight. And I never actually thought about this before this story.

[00:11:26] But you know, we take for granted when we drive around at night and stuff like that,

[00:11:29] that we have lights on our motorcycles or our cars or however we're getting around.

[00:11:33] Right. Or you have a subway or something.

[00:11:34] Well, you have lights. You can see where you're going.

[00:11:36] And he doesn't have that experience.

[00:11:38] When you're back in the day with a horse, you're just riding on the night streets with

[00:11:43] whatever moonlight and starlight you have.

[00:11:45] And the horse is probably going pretty fast.

[00:11:48] And if it doesn't see where it's going, it could step on anything.

[00:11:51] And that seems to be what has happened.

[00:11:52] He, this horse late at night stumbled, hit kind of maybe hit a hole or something it

[00:11:56] couldn't see in the dark.

[00:11:57] And he was kind of thrown off the horse.

[00:11:59] But his leg was stuck in the stirrup.

[00:12:02] And so he began to drag on the ground as the horse, you know, kind of wildly ran in

[00:12:06] every direction. And this is, I mean, a death sentence.

[00:12:09] Like if you don't know, historically speaking, this can kill you because horses can step

[00:12:13] on you. You can get dragged and hit your head against a rock as it's going very quickly.

[00:12:18] Like this is an extremely, lots of people have historically died based on this movement

[00:12:22] where the horse drags the person.

[00:12:25] And he kind of just says that he realized I'm probably going to die.

[00:12:29] He suddenly just felt very calm and accepted it and was just like, God, this is how I'm

[00:12:33] going to die. So be it. I trust you.

[00:12:36] And just relaxed. And while he was there getting dragged, feeling the hooves of the horse

[00:12:40] almost stepping on him, his shoe just snapped and he fell off of the horse and the horse

[00:12:46] got away. Everybody's OK.

[00:12:47] And other than the scratches you would normally expect from being dragged on the ground, he

[00:12:51] was he was completely fine.

[00:12:53] I was able to get up and he said it was just a work of God.

[00:12:56] And his way out that morning or whenever it was, he had put on these old decaying shoes

[00:13:01] that were just about to fall apart.

[00:13:03] He hadn't worn them in a really long time, but he felt like, ah, today's a good day to

[00:13:06] wear the broken down, you know, your lawn mowing shoes almost basically.

[00:13:10] And he puts them on. And if those shoes hadn't been on, they wouldn't have probably

[00:13:15] snapped out of the stirrup and he wouldn't have gotten out of that situation.

[00:13:18] He was just like, man, God, you know, I was ready to go, but God wasn't ready to take me.

[00:13:23] At another point in his ministry, he explained about a time when a pastor moved to town

[00:13:28] who started like preaching secret messages to families in his church.

[00:13:32] And he would go from home to home and gather some of the members of his church together

[00:13:35] and preach these secret messages.

[00:13:37] And then one day he announced a new church and all the families that he'd been working

[00:13:42] with all suddenly joined his new church on the same day, kind of surprising the church

[00:13:46] and making like a big, a big move, a big show of force.

[00:13:49] Everyone's like, oh, there's a new church in town.

[00:13:51] What's going on? And he just talked about how hard that was, how it tested him greatly,

[00:13:56] how it nearly destroyed his ministry.

[00:13:58] But he just felt like God was saying, don't let this destroy you.

[00:14:01] Don't lose, much like with the horse, don't don't lose your calm.

[00:14:04] Just stay, just stay faithful to me, persevere.

[00:14:07] And eventually all will be right.

[00:14:08] And it took a while, took I think years, but eventually almost every family returned to his church.

[00:14:13] And the other guy had to basically kind of get out of town, not because he was chased out.

[00:14:17] Not just his, his ministry fell apart.

[00:14:19] And he was, he came out of that going, yeah, you know, the slow and faithful worked out in the end.

[00:14:25] On another occasion, Lathrop, he was riding down kind of adjacent to a river there and he took his horse down to the water to get some, to get a drink out of the river.

[00:14:44] When he noticed there was a woman and an infant little girl kind of floating by on a makeshift raft there.

[00:14:53] And he was just about to reach out to her and ask her if she needs a ride.

[00:14:56] Are you guys okay over there?

[00:14:58] And as he was doing that, the woman fell into the water with her baby.

[00:15:03] And it was a pretty book concurrent here.

[00:15:05] And so he sprung into action trying to figure out where this girl went under the water and he couldn't find her.

[00:15:11] And eventually down the river way, some ways he found this woman clinging onto a rock that was just below the surface.

[00:15:20] And he was able to pull her out.

[00:15:21] And thankfully her and the infant were unharmed.

[00:15:24] And he brought them back to his house.

[00:15:28] Lathrop appears to be married with children at this point.

[00:15:32] And so he was able to bring her back home and kind of share some time with his family and kind of make her feel welcome and homey.

[00:15:39] And during that experience, he got to share the gospel with her.

[00:15:43] Lathrop's family seemed to go through some hard times itself.

[00:15:48] You know, I feel like everyone that we cover, everyone that, well, pretty much everyone we cover because it's all from olden times.

[00:15:54] But it's hard for children to say.

[00:15:56] People had lots of kids because it was more than not likely that some of your kids would pass away.

[00:16:04] And sure enough, he has one child that died when he was 10 months old.

[00:16:07] And then another one later when he was 28 years old, wrestling with a sickness.

[00:16:13] We really take for granted in today's modern age that you can have a family and they can all be relatively healthy into old age.

[00:16:20] But it's a relatively new phenomenon in the course of history.

[00:16:25] As he got older, around 60 years old, he was offered a position as a professor.

[00:16:30] And he felt very unworthy.

[00:16:32] And I feel like that's a theme we see throughout his life is he seems like a pretty humble dude.

[00:16:36] He did end up taking the position there.

[00:16:38] And, you know, despite feeling unworthy, he seemed to have liked it.

[00:16:42] He taught there for another 22 years.

[00:16:44] Yeah, that humble theme, I really picked up on that too.

[00:16:47] His, again, all of this came from his memoirs.

[00:16:51] You won't really go if you look around for this guy online, you won't find anything really.

[00:16:55] But in one of his book of sermons that opened with his own personal memoirs that were published after he died, but they were written by him.

[00:17:02] And it was just interestingly to me how, I don't know how to say this in an insulting way, but like it was to me, it was just pleasant how simple his life was.

[00:17:11] And what I don't mean by simple was like unimportant.

[00:17:14] But I mean simple as in like he wasn't in big theological controversies.

[00:17:17] He wasn't, you know, preaching the kings.

[00:17:20] He wasn't involved in wars.

[00:17:22] Like he just he felt like a very normal pastor that you would know in your own life where he's going around just ministering, doing God's work day in and day out.

[00:17:31] Faithfulness.

[00:17:32] And at the end of his life, people wanted to hear his sermons and they became published and they became a bit of a phenomenon.

[00:17:37] But he himself was just a straightforward run of the mill guy.

[00:17:41] It feels like he feels like that.

[00:17:42] He felt like it felt like reading the story of a pastor in your town probably.

[00:17:46] But he had these cool stories he would interweave, but they were all just regular everyday stories.

[00:17:50] For example, he had an encounter he had where a man was walking home.

[00:17:57] He offered him a ride on his horse and they just talked about the gospel and how this guy felt like he was too evil a person to ever come to Christ.

[00:18:04] But he was able to show him that wasn't true.

[00:18:06] And then another time he was staying at a tavern as he was traveling, you know, like a hotel, and ended up running into a universalist.

[00:18:13] And he was able to talk to him about how, you know, universalism was broken.

[00:18:17] Another opportunity where he had a young man who was only 15 years old dying and he was able to counsel him through his dying days.

[00:18:23] And then the funeral he had to give when four women went out for a swim, but they ended up drowning because of an incident.

[00:18:28] You know, and not like not a murder or something.

[00:18:30] Just the water caught them sadly.

[00:18:32] And just all of these things are very serious.

[00:18:35] But I feel like if you were to go, you know, to your own local church, find a pastor who's been serving for 50 plus years somewhere faithfully day in and day out.

[00:18:43] And he probably has a lot of those same kind of stories where he just can tell you the normal ups and downs of ministry.

[00:18:49] It's not the big stuff, you know, it's not a Spurgeon preaching to 20,000 people or a George Whitfield traveling the world kind of stuff.

[00:18:56] But it's still just that awesome day in and day out faithfulness of a local pastor doing what he was called to do and the interactions he has.

[00:19:04] And so I really liked this guy.

[00:19:06] I think I was really encouraged just by that.

[00:19:07] You know, he didn't have any reason to embellish or anything.

[00:19:10] He was just sharing his final thoughts as he came close to death.

[00:19:13] Faithful pastors and men who spend all their days working, you know, oftentimes the revived thoughts were highlighting,

[00:19:19] you know, history.

[00:19:20] One of our taglines is history's greatest sermons and we are tagging them.

[00:19:23] And that's usually some of history's greatest people.

[00:19:26] But oftentimes these obscure and forgotten people are, I think, full of some of the greatest stories.

[00:19:31] And they had these moments that God uses in people's lives.

[00:19:34] God is using the regular pastor down the street to do amazing things in the lives of his congregations, probably just as much as the big famous people that you think of too.

[00:19:43] And in this guy's life at one point in the year 1806, there was a solar eclipse.

[00:19:50] And the person who sent this sermon into us said, hey, there was a solar eclipse recently.

[00:19:55] And it reminded them of this sermon.

[00:19:57] Actually, they said their dad knows that they listened to our show and they sent them this sermon.

[00:20:01] And after they read it, they said, I should send this to the guys at Revive Thoughts and see if they want to make an episode out of it.

[00:20:06] And I know that America just had an eclipse, I think about a month ago, right Joel?

[00:20:11] Was it a month ago?

[00:20:13] And so even though this is a month late, this is a sermon on an eclipse from 215 years or so ago.

[00:20:19] But I think the thoughts when I read through it, I thought this is a pretty cool sermon.

[00:20:23] And even though it's a little late for the last solar eclipse, it's probably pretty early for the next one.

[00:20:28] So it'll still be around.

[00:20:30] And yeah, I just wanted to hear it.

[00:20:31] So this is his sermon on a solar eclipse.

[00:20:42] Amos 8, 9.

[00:20:50] It shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon and I will darken the earth in the clear day.

[00:21:06] Amos was born a farmer and a shepherd.

[00:21:09] From his rural employment, he was called to the office of a prophet.

[00:21:15] He says, I was not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit.

[00:21:26] And the Lord took me as I followed the flock and said to me, go prophesy to my people Israel.

[00:21:34] Many expressions in his book are taken from observations, which a shepherd would naturally make in attending to the business of his calling.

[00:21:46] In Judea, the shepherds watched their flocks not by day only, but also by night to guard them against beasts of prey in which that country abounded.

[00:21:58] And in their attendance on their flocks, they would naturally observe the motions of the planets and the appearances in the heavens that they might foresee changes of weather and approaching storms.

[00:22:13] And that's why the prophet calling on the degenerate tribes of Israel to renounce their false gods and to worship the great author and governor of nature uses a language suggested by his former pastoral occupation.

[00:22:30] Seek not Bethel, enter not into Gilgal, nor pass to Beersheba, the idolatrous places where the sun and moon and hosts of heaven were worshipped.

[00:22:44] But seek him who makes the seven stars in Orion and turns the shadow of death into the morning and makes the day dark with night.

[00:23:00] The stated course of nature, the order of heavenly bodies, the change of day and night in the regular succession of seasons demonstrate the existence and providence, the wisdom, power, and goodness of God.

[00:23:17] Day to day, uttering speech, night to night, showing knowledge, God has not left himself without witness in that he gives rain and fruitful seasons and fills our hearts with food and gladness.

[00:23:35] But common appearances, as they become more familiar, are less impressive.

[00:23:42] Unusual phenomena, though no less the effects of natural causes, more powerfully grab the attention and more deeply affect the mind.

[00:23:54] The prophet, therefore predicting some dire calamities on the house of Israel, alludes to an unusual and solemn appearance in the skies, which probably they had lately seen a total eclipse of the sun in the midst of a clear day.

[00:24:17] So says the Lord, I will cause the sun to go down at noon and I will darken the earth on a clear day.

[00:24:26] The phenomenon which we saw last Monday will naturally lead us to understand the words as poetic descriptions of a solar eclipse.

[00:24:39] Archbishop Usher in his Annals of the World says that in Amos's time, there were two remarkable eclipses of the sun which happened at solemn festivals and struck the people with great anxiety.

[00:24:56] In ancient times when astronomy was but imperfectly understood, eclipses were by many considered a supernatural foreboding.

[00:25:08] The prophet, therefore foretelling the judgments coming on the land of Israel, might with great propriety figure to them the changes soon to take place in their political hemisphere by an allusion to the change which they had seen with terror and amazement in the natural hemisphere.

[00:25:33] God would cause their sun to go down at noon, darken the earth in the clear day, turn their feasts into mourning and their songs into lamentation, and bring up sackcloth on all loins.

[00:25:52] The use which the prophet makes of a solar eclipse will justify us in some moral and religious reflections on the singular scene which was seen in the past week.

[00:26:07] First, we have reason to rejoice in the progress which has been made in the sciences and particularly in the noble science of astronomy.

[00:26:20] By this we are freed from many superstitious terrors which in the dark ages of the world tormented mankind.

[00:26:28] Eclipses have been observed in the most ancient antiquity and of these which were most remarkable, accounts have been transmitted to us by some of the earliest historians who have also related the disastrous events which followed, in which the eclipses were supposed to foretell.

[00:26:52] The causes of eclipse must have been known long before they could be the subjects of mathematical calculation.

[00:27:00] It was well understood many ages ago that an eclipse of the moon was caused by its passing through the shadow of the earth when the earth was between that and the sun.

[00:27:15] And that eclipse of the sun was caused by the moon's passing between us and the sun and intercepting its light.

[00:27:23] This knowledge however was not common to the average man nor did the more learned view these causes as operating by regular and stated laws of the natural world.

[00:27:37] There were predictions of some eclipses which appeared several centuries before the birth of our savior but these predictions were probably like the present predictions of comets, conjectures grounded on a course of observations and not the result of exact calculations.

[00:27:55] The relations, distances and motions of the heavenly bodies are now so well ascertained that accurate calculations can be made of all the eclipses which will be in ages to come and of those which have been since our system was framed.

[00:28:13] These calculations are of great usefulness to mankind in husbandry, navigation, geography, chronology and history.

[00:28:22] These phenomena also have their moral uses. They enlarge our view of the works of God and of the grandeur and extent of his creation and providence.

[00:28:35] They display his wisdom, power and goodness and his continual agency in the government of the world.

[00:28:44] They teach us his constant care for the creatures which he has made and call us to reverence and adore him who manifests himself to us in the works of his hands.

[00:29:01] We see innumerable worlds rolling around us at vast but various distances and with different but inconceivable rapidity.

[00:29:13] These all perform their motions with regularity and observe their times with exactness.

[00:29:21] They obey their destination, they keep their order, they never interfere. Will we not fear the power, admire the wisdom,

[00:29:34] adore the goodness of that being who made and adjusted, who sustains and directs such a stupendous system and renders it subservient to our happiness?

[00:29:51] These rational sentiments are pleasant and delightful in themselves and are far more conducive to piety and virtue than the terrors of that superstitious ignorance which views every comet flaming in the sky,

[00:30:08] every shadow of the sun at noonday, every failure of the full-orbed moon at night, every unusual noise bursting from the clouds,

[00:30:19] every strange appearance in the heavens and in the earth as an awful foreshadowing of some dire but unknown calamity.

[00:30:31] Superstitious terrors may operate as a temporary restraint from vice, but when the dreaded calamity is delayed, the restraint ceases and vice regains its dominion.

[00:30:50] A rational fear of God arising from a calm contemplation of his agency and government displayed in his works and taught in his word will have a steady and permanent influence.

[00:31:05] You do not fear me, says the Lord. Will you not tremble at my presence who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea,

[00:31:15] who give the former and the latter rain and reserve to you the appointed weeks of harvest?

[00:31:24] The more just are our thoughts of God's government and the more rational our reverence of his majesty,

[00:31:31] the more uniform and cheerful will be our obedience to his will.

[00:31:38] Secondly, an eclipse of the sun, though it is not an omen of any particular calamity, yet may properly lead us to contemplate the gloomy changes which await us in this guilty and mortal state.

[00:31:53] By a total obscuration of his glorious luminary, at noon in a clear day a gloom is suddenly spread over the face of nature.

[00:32:04] Not only the human mind but the animal and material creation is deeply affected.

[00:32:12] Night seems to anticipate the time of its return. The stars hand out their lamps.

[00:32:18] The dews descend on the earth. The grazing beasts forget their hunger. The fowls hurry to their resting places.

[00:32:29] The bird of night chants his evening ditty and everything wears a sober and mournful aspect.

[00:32:38] Here is a symbolic reminder of declining age and approaching death.

[00:32:43] The time is coming. To some of us it is near when the sun and the lights will be darkened.

[00:32:50] The eyes which look out at the windows will be dimmed. Surrounding objects will be hidden and we

[00:32:58] will go to our long home, to the land of darkness and the shadow of death,

[00:33:04] without any order and where the light is as darkness. While we have the light, let us walk

[00:33:13] in the light or else darkness comes upon us. Let us give glory to God before he causes darkness

[00:33:21] and before our feet stumble on the dark mountains or else while we look for light

[00:33:29] it be turned into the shadow of death. The eyes of our understanding still remain

[00:33:37] unextinguished and the sun of righteousness shines upon us with salvation in his beams.

[00:33:44] Let us attend to the glorious discoveries which are made to us and apply ourselves to the momentous

[00:33:53] work before us. Let us work while it is day. The time is short. Night is at hand. What we find to

[00:34:03] do, let us do it with our might. There is no work in the grave. Some of you are in youth and in full

[00:34:11] strength. My friends, your morning sun shines bright and pleasant. You think your day will be

[00:34:18] long but oh, do not flatter yourselves. Your sun may go down at noon and your prospect will be

[00:34:27] darkened on a clear day. Work these morning hours in the work of your salvation. You do not know

[00:34:35] what a day or an hour may bring. The darkness of an eclipse the prophet improves, though not as an

[00:34:42] omen yet as an emblem of national judgments. He warns his people that a metaphorical and political

[00:34:51] darkness may overspread their country in the same surprising manner. As literal darkness in a solar

[00:35:00] eclipse falls on the unsuspecting earth, so says the Lord to me, an end has come upon my people. I

[00:35:09] will not pass by them anymore. Hear this, you that swallow up the needy and say, when will the new

[00:35:16] moon be gone that we may sell corn and the Sabbath that we may set out the wheat? The Lord has sworn

[00:35:24] by the excellency of Jacob. Surely I will not forget any of their works. Will not the land

[00:35:32] tremble for this and everyone mourn that dwells there? So says the Lord, I will darken the earth

[00:35:39] in the clear day. I will turn their feasts into mourning and their songs into lamentation.

[00:35:48] Sudden darkness caused by eclipses, clouds, vapor, and storms in the prophetic writings,

[00:35:55] a common figure of great and unexpected plagues such as war, discord, pestilence, and famine.

[00:36:04] The prophet Isaiah, describing the calamitous state of the Jews on the invasion of the Chaldeans says,

[00:36:12] they will look to the earth and behold trouble and darkness and dimness of anguish. They will be

[00:36:20] driven into darkness. In the same figurative language, Joel describes the devastating famine

[00:36:29] caused in the land by clouds of devouring locusts and the rage of subsequent fires. Let all the

[00:36:37] inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord comes and is near at hand. A day of darkness

[00:36:46] and gloominess of clouds in thick darkness. There will be wonders in the heavens and in the earth.

[00:36:52] There will be pillars of smoke and the sun will be turned into darkness. When we see the sun

[00:36:59] darkened in the heavens and the earth covered with a gloom, we are reminded how easy it is

[00:37:05] for him who in a moment extinguishes the sun to cast a cloud over our earthly prospects to turn

[00:37:14] our joys into anguish, our confidence into terror, and our songs into lamentation to subvert our

[00:37:21] national security, to let loose the infernal spirit of discord, to remove the restraint from

[00:37:30] hostile nations, to set a blast on all the labors of our hands, and to spread among us pestilence

[00:37:39] and death. On God we are dependent not only for the daily visits of the sun but also for his

[00:37:48] friendly beams when he returns. The moon which chases away the gloom of night now and then steps

[00:37:59] in and intercepts the light of day. If it should make a stand in that position, our day would become

[00:38:09] night and the warmth of summer would be changed into the frost of winter. But the moon obeys the

[00:38:17] divine command, moves the cheering beams which it had for a few moments held back, the creatures

[00:38:25] which are our ordinary comforts may by God's direction or permission become the occasions

[00:38:32] of affliction and anguish. The sun which gives life to the rational animal and vegetable world

[00:38:39] may dart malignant fires and scatter pestilential diseases. The rain which refresh and grow our

[00:38:50] fields may wash away the things which grow out of the earth and destroy the hope of man.

[00:38:55] The friends in whom we confide may become our tormentors, and a man's foes may be those of his

[00:39:03] own household. Government, which is our defense against injustice, fraud, and violence, falling

[00:39:11] into the hands of cruel and unprincipled men, may be made an instrument of oppression and misery.

[00:39:20] They who lead us may cause us to err and destroy the way of our paths. Where then is our security?

[00:39:30] It is in the protection of Him who created and upholds the frame of nature, who made and guides

[00:39:37] the seven stars and Orion, turns the shadow of death into the morning or makes the day dark with

[00:39:47] night, who calls the waters and sends them on the earth and restrains the flood, who rules

[00:39:55] the raging of the sea and stills the timults of the people, who turns the hearts of men as the

[00:40:02] river of water are turned, who causes the wrath of men to praise Him and the remainder of that

[00:40:09] wrath He restrains. How will we enjoy His protection? He has told us, If you will walk by my statutes,

[00:40:19] keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary, then I will give you rain in due season, your fields

[00:40:27] will yield their increase, I will give peace in your land, and you will lie down, and none will

[00:40:33] make you afraid. But if you walk contrary to me, I will walk contrary to you and make your plagues

[00:40:44] terrible. Learned astronomers can calculate with exactness the times when, the places where, and

[00:40:51] the quantities in which the luminaries of heaven will be eclipsed. But they cannot, with the same

[00:40:59] accuracy, predict the judgments of God. Nor do we here need their astronomical skill. There are other

[00:41:07] signs by which we may discern impending judgments. Our Savior has taught us a kind of moral astronomy

[00:41:17] to direct our awareness of such events. The prevalence of infidelity, immorality, and vice,

[00:41:26] as surely indicates approaching calamities, as clouds indicate a shower, winds forebode a storm,

[00:41:34] or the conjunction or opposite of the sun and moon in certain places in the heavens foretell

[00:41:41] an eclipse. He said to the people, when you see a cloud rise out of the west, immediately you say,

[00:41:48] there comes a shower, and so it is. When you perceive the south wind blow, you say,

[00:41:55] there will be heat, and it comes to pass. You hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky

[00:42:03] and of the earth, but how is it that you cannot discern the time? Yes, and why even of yourselves

[00:42:12] you do not judge what is right? The blindness and stupidity of the ancient Jews to the impending

[00:42:22] judgments of God, the prophet rebukes by referring them to the wisdom and discernment apparent in

[00:42:30] the birds of heaven, the stork in the heavens knows her appointed time, the turtle, the crane,

[00:42:36] and the swallow observe the time of their coming, but my people knows not the judgments of God.

[00:42:45] There are now, as there were in former times, many who ask, Watchmen, what of the night? Watchmen,

[00:42:53] what of the night? And the Watchman's answer then is, seasonable now. If you will inquire,

[00:43:01] inquire you wisely. Return, come, return to God by repentance. Then come and inquire,

[00:43:10] and you may hope for a favorable answer. It is common for people to look forward and inquire,

[00:43:17] what will be our national state in future years? What will be the result of certain public measures?

[00:43:23] What will be done to obtain this preferred outcome and avert that threatening evil and to make

[00:43:31] future times better than these? But they inquired not wisely concerning this matter.

[00:43:36] Let them inquire what iniquities abound, and what share their own iniquities have in this

[00:43:43] common guilt. Let each one repent of his own wickedness and apply himself to his own duty.

[00:43:49] Let each one use his best influence to correct the errors and reform the manners of those with whom

[00:43:57] he is connected. The things will go well, righteousness will exalt a nation, sin will be

[00:44:04] a reproach to any people. Third, the darkening of the earth on a clear day brings to mind the final

[00:44:12] judgment. The Scripture assures us that God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world

[00:44:20] in righteousness and to render every man according to his works. It teaches us that the judgment

[00:44:27] will come on a guilty world by surprise, that when men will say, peace and safety, then suddenly

[00:44:36] destruction comes. The manner of its coming is compared to the catastrophe of Sodom, as it was

[00:44:43] in the days of Lot. They ate, they drank, they bought, they folded, they planted, they built.

[00:44:49] But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone out of heaven

[00:44:56] and destroyed them all. Even so it will be on that day when the Son of Man is revealed.

[00:45:04] To heighten the solemnity of this scene, the sacred writers tell us, the sun will be darkened

[00:45:11] and the moon will not give her light. The stars fall from heaven and the powers of heaven will

[00:45:17] be shaken. The heaven will depart as a scroll when it is rolled together and every mountain

[00:45:23] and island will be removed out of their place. What effect the expectation of such a day should

[00:45:33] have. Saint Peter instructs us, seeing all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons

[00:45:39] we should be in a holy conversation and godliness looking for and hurrying the day of the Lord.

[00:45:46] Let us be diligent that we may be found of the Lord in peace without spot and blameless.

[00:45:55] You think that such a great day is far away. Perhaps it is, but whether it is near or far,

[00:46:02] it will come and when it comes, it will be as real and important as if it were now present.

[00:46:11] Count the long suffering of God's salvation. He is not willing that you should perish, but that

[00:46:19] you should come to repentance. If you were sure that within 10 years the frame of nature as well

[00:46:25] as the works of man would dissolve, the heavens with all of their splendors would vanish and the

[00:46:31] earth with all her furniture and inhabitants would pass away, how vainly would all your property,

[00:46:38] all your designs and works appear. What folly would be stamped on avarice, ambition, worldly

[00:46:47] grandeur and pride, political intrigues, party contests and animosities, but my fellow mortals,

[00:46:56] where is the mighty difference to you and me? Whether the world is to be dissolved within 20

[00:47:03] years or whether within that time we are to leave the world forever, the latter will certainly be

[00:47:12] the case with many of us in a shorter time and with all of us in a little longer time than this.

[00:47:20] Under an impressive sense of this solemn truth, let us banish all worldly passions and direct

[00:47:28] our cares to the interests of the future. And fourth, total darkness at noonday reminds us

[00:47:36] of the solemn scene of the Savior's crucifixion. The evangelists tell us that when Jesus hung on

[00:47:44] the cross, there was darkness over all the land from the sixth to the ninth hour, or according

[00:47:50] to our calendar, from midday to the third hour. And the sun was darkened. The darkness continued

[00:47:58] for three hours. This, we know, could not be a natural eclipse. For in the eclipse of the week

[00:48:08] which appeared to be central, the total obscuration continued but about four minutes.

[00:48:16] The darkness at the crucifixion was very extensive. It was over all the land. Yes, it was beyond the

[00:48:25] land of Judea or over all the earth, as the words are in one place rendered. It was observed in

[00:48:34] countries distant from Judea and is even related by profane historians as a phenomenon for which

[00:48:43] no natural cause could be assigned. In a natural eclipse, the total darkness cannot be a very great

[00:48:50] extent. I have had correct information that within the space of less than 200 miles from north to

[00:48:57] south, a segment of the sun appeared during the whole time of the late eclipse. No, farther at

[00:49:06] the time of the crucifixion there could be no natural eclipse. For the sun and the moon were

[00:49:12] then in opposition. Christ was crucified at the time of the Passover. The Passover was to begin

[00:49:20] on the fourteenth day of the month. The Jewish month began at the first appearance of the new

[00:49:27] moon. On the fourteenth day, the moon, being full and in opposition to the sun, could not cause an

[00:49:36] eclipse. The event therefore must have been supernatural and miraculous. That there really

[00:49:43] was such an obscuration is not doubted. It is recorded by three of the evangelists who published

[00:49:51] their narrative so soon after the crucifixion that many spectators of the scene, both friends

[00:49:58] and enemies to Christ, were still living. They would not have asserted such a strange phenomenon

[00:50:05] as being universally known in that and as having happened on a certain day if it had not been a

[00:50:13] fact. For every man, woman, and youth living in that time would have been able to contradict it.

[00:50:19] Had the evangelists been impostors, they would not have published a falsehood of this kind.

[00:50:25] For nothing could have been more fatal to their cause. There is no room to question the reality

[00:50:31] of the fact. This darkness, the earthquake, and the rending of the veil in the temple,

[00:50:37] which occurred at the same time, had great effect on the spectators. The commanding officer who

[00:50:43] stood by the cross of Jesus, struck with astonishment, said, surely this was the Son of God.

[00:50:51] And all the people who came together at that site, beholding what was done, beat their breasts

[00:50:59] and returned. These miraculous appearances in the earth and in the heavens at the time when

[00:51:06] Jesus was suffering on the cross, were such divine attestations in his favor as reason could not

[00:51:15] resist it. And they were also most awful indications of the wrath of God against the

[00:51:22] horrid and impious work which the infidel Jews were then transacting. But were these the only

[00:51:29] persons against whom the darkness denounced the anger of heaven? No. It equally manifested

[00:51:35] and still it manifests the amazing guilt of all unbelievers under the gospel, of all who are

[00:51:42] enemies to the blessed Jesus, of all who despise and oppose his religion. Infidelity and impiety

[00:51:51] involve in them the same guilt now as in former times. The gospel comes to us with equal evidence

[00:52:00] and authority as it came to the Jews. They who reject it crucify afresh the heavenly author

[00:52:07] and are bringing on themselves swift destruction. To such is reserved the blackness

[00:52:16] of darkness forever. As they walk in the darkness of unbelief and wickedness,

[00:52:22] they will fall into the darkness of misery and despair. When the Lord Jesus will be revealed

[00:52:30] from heaven, he will come in flaming fire and will take vengeance on those who don't know God

[00:52:39] and those who don't obey the gospel. Fifth, the temporary darkness of an eclipse is followed with

[00:52:47] cheerful light which shines more and more to the perfect day. This is a natural emblem of that

[00:52:55] moral change in which a soul is brought out of the darkness of sin and guilt into the marvelous

[00:53:02] light of purity, pardon, and peace. How sad and gloomy is the condition of a guilty mortal who,

[00:53:10] convinced by his numerous transgressions, feels himself condemned to eternal death.

[00:53:17] The divine law which was delivered from Mount Sinai in smoke and darkness, in clouds and tempest,

[00:53:25] thunders, terror, and destruction in his ears. But how happily is his stated reverse when light

[00:53:33] beaming from Mount Zion in the discoveries and promises of the gospel breaks in on his soul,

[00:53:40] exhibits to him a dying Savior, a forgiving God, a sanctifying Spirit.

[00:53:48] What joy springs up when he finds the power of sin subdued, his enmity to God slain,

[00:53:56] his opposition to the gospel conquered, and every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

[00:54:04] The light is ceding to the previous darkness, so the hopes and comforts of religion in the soul

[00:54:11] are exalted by their contrast to preceding anxieties and fears. You awakened, desponding

[00:54:18] souls, looking up to the Son of Righteousness. He shines from heaven with salvation in his beams.

[00:54:25] However guilty, unworthy, and impotent you feel, there is grace sufficient for you.

[00:54:32] There is righteousness to justify you, promises to support you, the Spirit to help you.

[00:54:40] Light arise in the darkness. Turn your eyes from the cloud and direct them to the Son Christ,

[00:54:47] came a light into the world that whoever believes in him should not walk in darkness.

[00:54:54] Look at him and you will be saved. Finally, the obscuration of the sun in the sky

[00:55:00] bids us to contemplate the uninterrupted brightness of the heavenly state. Could we

[00:55:07] rise above the moon? The sun, which is eclipsed to the inhabitants of the earth, would shine to

[00:55:14] us in all its splendor. When the Christian has the moon under his feet, he will be clothed with the

[00:55:22] sun and crowned with the stars. There is no darkness, no night in heaven. All is light,

[00:55:30] all is glory there. In heaven there is light of purity and love. The pure in heart see God. He

[00:55:38] is light. In him is no darkness. Nothing enters into his presence that defiles. There is light

[00:55:47] of knowledge, glorious discoveries of God, of the Savior, of the works of providence and grace,

[00:55:53] of the wonders of creation and redemption. Here we see through a glass darkly. There we see

[00:56:02] face to face. Here we know in part. There we know as we are known. The light of heaven is constant.

[00:56:13] It is never eclipsed nor clouded. The holy city does not need the sun to shine in it,

[00:56:21] for the glory of God does lighten it. And Jesus is that light. The nations of them who are saved

[00:56:32] walk in the light of it and there will be no night there. How different will the state of good men in

[00:56:41] heaven be from that which they experienced on earth. Here they have some light, but it is often

[00:56:49] interrupted and always dim. How little do they know of God and his works? How much error is mixed

[00:56:59] with their faith? How much doubt with their hope? How much fear with their courage? How much

[00:57:07] carnality with their devotion? In heaven it will be different. Knowledge there will be full without

[00:57:17] error, certain without perplexity, and clear without confusion. Holiness will be perfect

[00:57:25] without sin and refined without dross and corruption. And they will serve God continually

[00:57:34] without reluctance or weariness. Let us begin the life and accustom ourselves to the works of heaven

[00:57:42] while we dwell on earth that we may be prepared for admission into heaven when we depart. Here

[00:57:50] God sheds down some beams of heavenly light to invite our thoughts and affections upward. The

[00:57:57] light is mingled with shades and interrupted with clouds because this is a state of trial and our

[00:58:07] faith and patience must be exercised. Here we must walk by faith. We cannot walk by sight. It is by

[00:58:19] faith and patience that we inherit the promises. We are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not

[00:58:27] hope for what a man sees. Why does he yet hope for it? And if we hope for that which we do not see,

[00:58:34] then do we with patience wait for it? And the Spirit helps our infirmities and makes intercession

[00:58:43] for us according to the will of God. It is but little that we can at present know of heaven,

[00:58:52] but then we will know if we follow on to know the Lord. Let our souls hard after him for what is there

[00:59:02] which we can desire in comparison with him. It doesn't appear yet what we will be, but when our

[00:59:10] Lord will come, we trust that we will be like him and see him as he is. And having this hope,

[00:59:23] let us purify ourselves as he is pure.

[00:59:39] Thank you for listening to today's episode of Revived Thoughts. Today's sermon was narrated by

[00:59:45] Adam Parker. Adam Parker is a host on the Bold Apologia podcast. You can check that out by the

[00:59:53] link in our show notes. And I just want to say thank you to Adam. He's a wonderful person. He's

[00:59:58] had me on his show to share about Revived Thoughts and church history, and he himself has spoken

[01:00:03] another sermon for us in the past as well. He's just a very nice, very good guy. So seriously,

[01:00:08] check his show out. He does a lot of great work online. It's very encouraging in the faith. If

[01:00:13] you are listening to Revived Thoughts and you have not left us a five-star review or a comment

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