264 ASTRONOMYANDTHEBIBLE
thenon. Immediatelytheactorswillappear,andthe
sceneswillbeportrayed.
Forsixthousandyears,thisworldhasbeenatheater
totheuniverse andtoman;butthelastgreatactin
thedrama,atthecloseoftheages,involvesachange
ofscene. Hereonearth,forthousandsofyears,men
havetakentheirpartshonorablyorbasely,asthecase
maybe. Godhaskeptsilence,whilemenhavespoken
;God hasremainedinvisible, whilethethings oftime
have beenevervisible. But nowmankind aretobe
broughtintouchwiththegreatinvisibleforces. They
aretoview,asneverbefore,thegreatworldhitherto
unseen;theyaretoviewwithastonishment, through
anopencurtain,thatwhich forages hasbeenveiled
fromtheirsight.
Andso,inthecloseoftime,thegreatcurtainofthe
skieswillrollback. Asitdoesso,instinctivelyevery
eyewilllookupward. Somethingportentousisabout
tooccurintheheavens. Astheatmospherepartsand
rolls back,men will bebrought, asit were,into the
verymidst ofthestars. Whereas nowthe light of
these celestialbodies shines tothe eyeof manwith
broken,uncertaingleam, theywill then shine witha
strong,brightlight,astheeyeofanavenger. Every
star will seem to come thousands of miles nearer.
Whatnowseemsfaraway,andvagueanduncertain,
willthenbecomethrillinglyimminent. Starsnowob-
scuredbytheatmosphere, and therefore invisibleto
theeye,willshineoutwithclearandsteady rays,re-
vealingthousands of diamond points oflightwhere
nowtherearenone;andsothegreatuniverseofthe