The Great Second Advent Movement: Its Rise and Progress

The Fiery Aurora of 1837

“On the evening of Jan. 25, 1837, there was a remarkable exhibition of the same phenomena [meaning the aurora borealis] in various parts of the country, as our readers will doubtless recollect. Where the ground was covered with snow, the sight was grand and ‘fearful’ in a most unprecedented manner. In one place, situated near a mountain, the people who witnessed the scene, informed us that it resembled ‘waves of fire rolling down the mountain,’ and generally, so far as learned, the snow covering the ground appeared like fire mingled with blood, while above (as the apostle says), ‘the heavens being on fire,’ resembled so much the prophetic description of the last day that many were amazed; the children beholding it were affrighted, and inquired if it were the coming of the judgment; and even the animals trembled with much manifest alarm.” GSAM 112.3

It was not alone in America that this sign of the prophet Joel was displayed, but as the doctrine of the Lord’s coming was gaining publicity in Great Britain, the same sign was hung out in the heavens in that country. The New York Commercial Advertiser of Oct. 22, 1839, quotes the following from London papers concerning a remarkable phenomenon witnessed in that country on the night of September 3:— GSAM 113.1