Wednesday, September 2, 2026 Examples of Gaudentius of Brescia (d. 410) Teaching Baptismal Regeneration in his Tracts My beloved people, the elements will not perish so that they are no more, nor shall we die so that we will not rise better than before. Moreover, on this very day we see the promise of the Lord fulfilled as we observe the souls and bodies of the neophytes restored after the manner of the heavens and the earth. We see now the moon also, that is, the Church, to shine as the sun throughout the whole world. It increases in time of peace and is diminished in persecution. The diminishing, however, is that of its round fullness, not that of its intensity. Furthermore, Christ, the Sun of Justice, gives light today on the earth, but seven times more than formerly. His rays, which illuminate every man coming into this world , are witnesses to this. For now that fiery sevenfold Spirit shines forth from Him, that Spirit who as fire rested upon the apostles and who burns today in each of the believers. Before Christ suffered and arose, God was known only in Judea . Now the splendor of the Lord’s brightness has gone forth to all nations. For, its going forth is from the end of heaven, and its circuit is to the other end, and there is no one who can hide himself from its heat . Therefore, because the world has been repaired today, let us rejoice on this birthday of the world’s restoration. This is the day which the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it . When I say the birthday of the world, I mean our birthday, those of us who are reborn in Christ. We were indeed living in sin before, dead to justice. Now, however, dead to the iniquities of former vices we begin to live to God, first being made conformed to Christ’s death, then to His resurrection. For we have been buried with Him through baptism into death so that as Christ has risen from the dead so also we may walk in newness of life. And we rejoice on this festive day and glory in the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who was taken on the tenth day, and on the fourteenth day of the first month was sacrificed by the Jews at the evening of the world. (Gaudentius of Brescia, “Tract Number Three: Third Sermon on the Exodus,” in Gaudentius of Brescia: Sermons and Letters [trans. Stephen L. Boehrer; The Catholic University of America Studies in Sacred Theology (Second Series) 165; PhD Dissertation, 1965], 68-69) You are able to observe that you have been regenerated and reborn through baptism and from those terms you are called infants. If some of you who are bound in marriage desire to keep your virgins rather than give them in marriage, let them so have partners as if not having and there will be for them a great reward with the Lord, our God’ let them have regard for the quality of the flesh which has been reborn in the sacrament of baptism. Now I say this for your benefit, not to hold you in check , for even if you live in legitimate marriage after baptism you have not sinned. (Gaudentius of Brescia, “Tract Number Eight: First Sermon on the Gospel Lesson,” in Gaudentius of Brescia: Sermons and Letters [trans. Stephen L. Boehrer; The Catholic University of America Studies in Sacred Theology (Second Series) 165; PhD Dissertation, 1965], 110) Neophytes! Flee from the example of uncleanness lest you become sharers in the punishment. The apostles have handed down to us one baptism in accord with the divine intention; for He says: whoever shall drink from this water, shall not thirst forever . You have been washed once by this saving baptism. Coming from the font, do not wish to go back into the mire. Preserve the uncleanliness given you. What is given once is not able to be repeated. (Gaudentius of Brescia, “Tract Number Nine: Second Sermon on the Gospel Lesson,” in Gaudentius of Brescia: Sermons and Letters [trans. Stephen L. Boehrer; The Catholic University of America Studies in Sacred Theology (Second Series) 165; PhD Dissertation, 1965], 123) Faustus Socinus (1539-1604) on John 17:5 But you have still other words of Christ with which you might assail us. For he says, when praying to the Father, that before the world was founded he had with him that glory with which he was asking to be adorned by him. We truly wonder that men otherwise perspicacious are so blind as not to see that Christ means nothing else than that already before the foundation of the world it had been decreed by his Father that he should be adorned with that glory for which he asked. And if truly not a few other places of the divine writings, in which something is said to be “had” or to have been “given” which is merely decreed and destined, could not instruct you concerning the sense of this place, that place at least in the same discourse of Christ ought to have done so, which may be called a king of explanation of this one. For afterwards Christ says: Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me be also with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world . Hence it is certainly clear: because Christ new that he had been loved by the Father before the foundation of the world—that is, that that glory which he expected was already then destined for him by the Father--, he therefore called it “his” and said that he had already been given him by the Father and that he had had it with the Father before the foundation of the world. And what is to be said of this, that in the same prayer to the Father he says that he has given to his disciples that glory which the Father had given him? For how could Christ do this otherwise than by promise and destination? Wherefore it must be altogether be granted that in this very same sense he said that glory had been given him by the Father—which is the same as: that he had had that glory with the Father. We say nothing meanwhile of this, that the glory with which Christ demanded to be endued by his Father was not that which you would have him to have had with the Father before the foundation of the world; nothing of this, that if Christ had never had that glory devised by you, he would never have laid it aside, and would have been furnished with it even then, when he was praying to the Father, so that he would not have had to ask that it be given him; nothing of this, that there was no cause why he should ask it of the Father even if he had laid it aside, for he could have resumed it of himself; nothing, finally, of this, that—even by your own concession—he who was truly praying to the Father, or Christ in so far as he was praying, had in reality never had that glory. All these things, then, and others besides we pass over, which show that your interpretation of the words of Christ can in no way be maintained. For everyone can see them of himself, and some of you yourselves reject that interpretation and embrace ours. (Faustus Socinus, On the Nature of Jesus Christ: Socinus’s Disputation Against Andreas Volanus on the Essence of Christ and the Expiation of Sins [trans. Marcin Poholski; 2026], 40-42) Thomas Buckley on Baptism in Romans Baptism and the Dialectic of Death and Life Through baptism into Christ Jesus we live (Rom 6:3, 4). Baptism works the palingenesis or rebirth (Tit 3:5). Supernatural in its essence and effect baptism should mean as much to humankind as its very genesis when God created man out of the dust. For palingenesis means literally a second genesis, a regeneration and rebirth. It is through baptism into Christ Jesus that we live (Rom 6:3, 4). In the New Testament baptism is intimately related to faith, as its complement really in the appropriation of God’s justice or his justifying grace. In his letter to the Corinthians Paul argues to the close association of baptism to justification. He writes to them in chapter 6, verse 11, “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11). The three verbs there are all repeated in the same tense, apparently referring then to the same event: washed, sanctified or consecrated, and justified. Washing, of course, refers to baptism. So baptism implies consecration to God. At the same time, this presupposes our justification before him. “You are justified,” Paul tells the Christians, and now that they are Christians he contrasts them to the unjust, or the unjustified of the preceding verses in 1 Corinthians 6:4-11. Hence a new life was implicit in their decision to turn to Christ. But that decision was inseparably connected with their baptism. Paul continues in our text, 6:3, ‘‘Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Rom 6:3) Thus the rite of Christian initiation introduces man into union with Christ, suffering and dying. And the Christian is not merely introduced to the suffering of Christ. He is introduced to the very action by which Christ died to sin. And what is this action but Christ’s extreme expression of obedience and love on the Cross? Through our baptism we can share that expression. We can follow Christ even to the Cross in a new obedience to God through the same love or grace which led him, the grace of the Holy Spirit which is poured forth at baptism (1 Cor 6:11; Tit 3:5). ‘(We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death,’’ Paul continues in verse 4, “so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4). Now the New Testament uses the word new as often as the word joy and both are fairly frequent. Kainos rather than neos is the word most frequently used and it implies something more than recent or fresh. It implies a replacement of the old, but of a higher order. In prophecy the epithet kainos denotes what was thought characteristic of a divine intervention in history. Certainly a new reality was to characterize the messianic era. Thus, Jeremiah spoke of a new covenant ( kainos ) which is in our hearts (Jer 31:31, 33). Ezekiel spoke of the new spirit which characterizes the messianic era. In Deutero-lsaiah the same promise is made and a generation in exile is admonished: Remember not the former things nor consider the things of old. behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness rivers in the desert (Isa 43:18). Through baptism and through the power as much as the glory of the Father (Rom 6:3), Christians may walk in the newness of life. Though they grow old in years, in the face of sin and death they can remain strong in spirit and inner strength. For their strength is from God. They are children of the resurrection (Rom 6:5). Upon such the burden of age and the claim of death itself can be but tentative and passing. ‘‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). Yet the resurrection remains wholly eschatological. “If we have been united with him ina death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his’ (Rom 6:5). Käsemann notes well, ‘‘Participation in the resurrection is spoken of not in the perfect tense but in the future. Baptism equips for it, calls to it, but does not itself convey this gift. If baptism makes the new obedience possible, this is still only an anticipatory hint of what in the temporal sense is undoubtedly in the future.’ 54 And this is only consistent with Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 15. The resurrection must be deferred to the last day. It is true also that the newness of life which Paul predicates of the baptized in verse 4 and the living with Christ in verse 8 are also spoken of in a future sense. Perhaps that is because such life must wait upon an eschatological fulfillment. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face” (1 Cor 13:12). But already the Christian who has been baptized into Christ’s death is withdrawn from the sphere of sin and released from its power. ‘For he who has died is free from sin” (Rom 6:7). At least he is freed in that he is no longer a slave of sin (Rom 6:17, 20). In the light of the eschatological reservation which appears in this chapter (vv. 4, 5, and 8; especially 5), however, Christians are not wholly free from sin. ‘This we know,” Paul says in verse 6: “‘our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed and we might no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom 6:6). Here the old self, the sinful body, is tantamount to flesh or the natural man (cf. Rom 7:24), and the figure of the Cross is invoked because through the Cross the new man prevails and the sinful body is destroyed. Now the sense of our association with Christ is very strong in Romans. Baptism inaugurates a real union with Christ. It also admits the crucifixion of our old self, that the sinful body might be destroyed. The language is very strong in reference to the destruction of the body, that is, the body as enthralled by sin and doomed to die. To be sure at baptism the Christian dies to sin and through the same love or grace which led Christ to the Cross and victory over sin the Christian dies to sin (cf. 2 Cor 5:14-15). Yet in evoking the figure of our crucifixion with Christ “so that the sinful body might be destroyed” (Rom 6:6), Paul suggests also that an elementary ascesis be part of Christian life. Not that our body is to be destroyed but the extirpation of that sin which literally takes possession of a man’s members (Rom 6:12ff.; 7:23) implies some violence, an ascesis. He had already addressed the Christians in Galatia, ‘‘And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). Later he will admonish the Colossians, ‘Put to death therefore what is earthly in you...” (Col 3:5). But the program of this ascesis should be the way of the cross. In Galatians it is the flesh which is crucified with its passions and desires. Paul’s usage of desire ( epithumia ) would be familiar enough in the ancient world. The word was popular with Stoic moralists but here in Galatians it refers to the whole perspective of flesh or the natural man. Flesh is egocentric, alienated from God and prone to sin and death. It must be renounced. In Romans it is renounced through baptism and union with Christ but it is a union which revolves about Christ crucified. Again Paul had already written to the Galatians, “| have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer | who live, but Christ who lives in me...” (Gal 2:20). And as Schnackenburg notes, the perfect usage in reference to having been crucified with Christ, ‘‘makes it obvious that Paul not only considers entry into the fellowship of Christ as a becoming crucified with Christ, hence that he can bring the act of baptism into closest connection with the event of Golgotha; he also looks on the Christian existence itself as an abiding union with the Christus crucifixus .’’ But this union with Christ crucified and the overcoming of our old self is with a view to the resurrection. The way of the cross remains the path to glory. The resurrection is reserved to the last day. Paradoxically in this life we experience only through fidelity to the Cross, the power which derives from Christ. In 2 Corinthians especially Paul will draw out the dialectic between weakness and divine strength, between suffering and divine consolation, between the drifting toward death and the life of Christ in those whom he had addressed. He will write to the Corinthians that Jesus may also be revealed in our bodies, “For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you” (2 Cor 4:11, 12). In the weakness of Christ’s servant the divine power can express itself (cf. 2 Cor 12:9). Death with Christ that we might live with and through him derives from baptism. The way of the Cross strengthens the union and deepens the wellspring of Christian life and heroism. To be, to act, is the privilege of men to an exceeding degree. A blade of grass may glorify its Creator in the exquisiteness of its texture, a drop of rain in its purity, and dumb animals in their simplicity, but man is the moral counterpart of God. He can return love for love and in God’s overruling purpose engage freely and bravely. ‘‘Yield yourselves to God,” Paul urges the Christians (Rom 6:13). “Eor sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law but under grace” (Rom 6:14). As in the letter to the Galatians Paul argues that grace or God’s love is the key to Christian liberty. Otherwise sin can tyrannize and before its power the law itself is powerless. Grace alone is of advantage. For the balance of the chapter (Rom 6:15-23) Paul contrasts the deference to sin with that offered to God. The verses are a kind of homily on what he had already set forth in w. 1-11. The Christian who through his baptism into the death of Christ was freed from sin (Rom 6:7, 1) especially should realize that he ought to sin no longer. One cannot serve two masters. For the claim of the one excludes the other. Freedom from the power of sin depends on the deference to God and grace implied in baptism. Certainly we have no license to sin because we are no longer under the law. We are under grace and grace alone can be our principle of liberty. Freedom from sin’s power means freedom for the new obedience which, adhering to the standard teaching (Rom 6:17), leads to justification (Rom 6:16). This obedience derives from the heart (Rom 6:17) where God’s grace can penetrate (Rom 5:5). The wellspring of such obedience then is finally grace or love. And, as we have seen, whatever is done out of love is done freely. Paul does speak of a kind of ‘‘slavery” to righteousness (Rom 6:38) and to God (Rom 6:22) but the compulsion must be one of love. Christ’s love constrains, Paul writes to the Corinthians (2 Cor 5:14). If God is indeed his master how could a Christian defer to the tyranny of sin (Rom 6:20)? Sin does offer recompense to its slaves: death. “For the wages of sin is death’ (Rom 6:23). But the surpassing gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23). In chapter 6, then, Paul argued that in the wake of the redemption men were set free from sin so that they were discharged from the law (Rom 7:6). Christians are now under grace. (Thomas Buckley, An Apostle to the Nations: The Life and Letters of St. Paul [Boston: Daughters of St. Paul, 1981], 185-90) Faustus Socinus (1539-1604) on John 8:58 and πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι, ἐγώ εἰμι Now here these words must necessarily depend either on the verb λεγω or the verb ειμι . And since both of these verbs are of the present tense, the verb γενεσθαι too must therefore be understood of the present looking towards the future; and for that reason πριν ‘ Αβρααμ γενεσθαι in this place altogether signifies “before Abraham comes to be”. And truly no one can be so unskilled in languages as not to notice a solecism in the words “I say to you: before Abraham was made, I am”. But they say this solecism was committed in order that it might be understood that Christ is and who is, namely Jehovah, God. To this we say, first: perhaps nowhere in the sacred writings is God called simply “he who is”. For those famous places— I am who I am and “ he who is ” has sent me to you —read, as even boys know, otherwise in the Hebrew, namely: I shall be who I shall be , and: “I shall be” has sent me to you . Then we affirm: that is not enough, unless this strange expression, or one like it, be found elsewhere also—where, namely, God is described by the verb “am” in the present tense at the same time answer is made to a verb of the past tense. Moreoever we say: we can then suspect that such solecisms have been committed when it is manifestly established from elsewhere concerning the thing itself which could be their cause. That this is the case in this place we constantly deny—for about this very thing the controversy between us turns. Finally, this is most certain: since nothing compels us to admit this solecism, it is better to reject it; or at least from this place, being doubtful, nothing solid can be gathered in a matter so arduous. But someone will say: what then would Christ have meant if—as you take his words—he had said: “I say to you: before Abraham comes to be, I am”? First it must be examined to which verb those words “before Abraham comes to be” attach to the verb “I say” or to the verb “I am”. And since Christ has elsewhere used this expression “I am” simply and absolutely, and that twice in this very discourse which he held with the Jews, it must be said that he used it here too in the same manner. So that the words “before” and so forth are to be joined not with the verb “I am” but with the verb “I say”—as we see done in words of the same Christ in similar places in the same Evangelist. So that it is the same as if had been said: “I say to you, before Abraham comes to be, that I am he”—but not: “I say to you that, before Abraham comes to be, I am.” Next it must be inquired what that expression “I am” signifies. This can be recognized from those two places mentioned before. The one runs thus: Unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins . But the other thus: When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he. But the same Christ said also to his disciples: From now on I tell you before it comes to pass, that when it has come to pass you may believe that I am he . Whence it is established that “I am he” means the same as “I am the light of the world”, “I am the way and the truth and the life”—as he speaks elsewhere--, that is, in a word: “I am the Christ.” But you will say: what then do those words “before Abraham comes to be” mean? Had Abraham, then, who had existed so many centuries before, not yet come to be? That man Abraham had indeed already come to be; but there had not yet come to be that which his name signified and on account of which that name had been laid upon him by God. Not yet had many nations obtained the faith, and therefore that man Abraham, who is the father of believers, had not yet become the father of many nations; nor further could it yet be said that Abraham himself had truly come to be, since “Abraham” is nothing else than “father of a multitude”, that is, of many nations. For God says: And thy name shall no more be called Abrahm, but thou shalt be named Abraham; for I have appointed thee a father of many nations . As therefore Christ on another occasion admonished the Jews that they should walk while they ahd the light, and repeatedly threatened them not obscurely that it would come to pass that the kingdom of God would be given to the nations, but they themselves deprived of it, so in this place too he admonishes them, not without silent threats, that before the door of faith is opened to the nations they should acknowledge that he is the Christ. And in this way he wonderfully deludes them, while they try to catch him in his words—for he himself had not said that he had seen Abraham, as was objected to him by them: he takes the name Abraham as an occasion, meanwhile answering as it were nevertheless what had been objected to him, and turns his discourse elsewhere, namely to the aim he had pursued from the beginning. Yet so that they perceived it and at the same time felt the gravest threats. Whence it came about that in anger they took up stones to cast at him. (Faustus Socinus, On the Nature of Jesus Christ: Socinus’s Disputation Against Andreas Volanus on the Essence of Christ and the Expiation of Sins [trans. Marcin Poholski; 2026], 37-40) Tuesday, September 1, 2026 Robert R. Cargill on Psalm 110:1 (LXX: 109:1) . . . Ps. 110 was actually written by a psalmist to praise David and his subsequent descendants. The Hebrew term לַאדֹנִי ("to my lord") in verse one, which the LXX renders as τω κυρίω μου, is the common means by which to refer to anyone of higher rank or authority. There are ample examples inside and outside of the Hebrew Bible of the term אדני ("my lord") referring to a higher-ranking individual. However, because the term אדני ("my lord" or adonai ) had already become the standard replacement for the Tetragrammaton (יהוה) when reading Hebrew texts, and because the LXX does not distinguish between יהוה and אדני, rendering both as κύριος ("lord”), the Greek phrase κυρίω μου ("my lord") came to be identified more so with the "divine" than its original use in the Hebrew of Ps. 110, where it was clearly a euphemism for referencing the enthroned king of Israel. (Robert R. Cargill, Melchizedek, King of Sodom: How Scribes Invented the Biblical Priest-King [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019], 83) On the use of אדני as a referent to “a higher-ranking individual”: See Gen 23:6, 11, 15 where the Hittites respectfully refer to Abraham as אדני and as a “prince” (נשיא) during the negotiations for the Makpelah Cave. The word אדני is used in Gen. 24:18, when Rebekah refers to Abram’s servant at the well and offers him drink. In Gen. 32-33, Jacob refers to his elder brother, Esau, as אדני repeatedly. The soldier-author of Lachish Letter 3 repeatedly uses אדני (“my lord”) to address his commanding officer. (Ibid., 162 n. 5) Monday, August 31, 2026 Le Roy Edin Froom on the Leonid Meteor Storm (November 12, 1833) Being Regarded as a Sign of the Latter Days The following is taken from: Le Roy Edwin Froom, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers: The Historical Development of Prophetic Interpretation , 4 vols. [Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1954] 4:297-300) Regarded as Sign of the Latter Days Various observers who described the great 1833 meteoric shower regarded it as a forerunner of the last day. Let us now examine some extracts from contemporary prophetic applications. 1. EDITOR OF "OLD COUNTRYMAN" PRONOUNCES IT "HARBINGER."-Henry J. Pickering," New York editor, said of the sixth seal: "We pronounce the raining fire which we saw on Wednesday morning last [Nov. 13] an awful type, a sure forerunner, a merciful sign, of that great and dreadful day which the inhabitants of the earth will witness when the sixth seal shall be opened. "That time is just at hand described not only in the New Testament but in the Old; and a more correct picture of a fig tree casting its leaves when blown by a mighty wind, it was not possible to behold. "Many things now occurring upon the earth tend to convince us that we are in the 'latter days,' This exhibition we deem to be a type of an awful day fast hurrying upon us. This is our sincere opinion; and what we think, we are not ashamed to tell.” [27] 2. DOUGLASS SAW IT AS TOKEN OF THE TIMES.—FREDERICK DOUGLASS, [28] noted colored orator and journalist, but still a slave in 1833, saw it as a sign of the times and later wrote: “I witnessed this gorgeous spectacle, and was awe-struck. The air seemed filled with bright descending messengers from the sky. It was about daybreak when I saw this sublime scene. I was not without the suggestion, at that moment that it might be the harbinger of the coming of the Son of Man; and in my then state of mind I was prepared to hail Him as my friend and deliverer. I had read that the ‘stars shall fall from heaven,’ and they were now falling. I was suffering very much in my mind. . . . I was looking away to heaven for the rest denied me on earth.” [29] 3. EPISCOPALIAN CLERIC VIEWS AS SIGN OF LAST DAYS.— Dr. Henry Dana Ward, well-known Episcopalian clergyman of New York (to be noted later), after observing the scene of the starry firmament breaking up, as it were, and the stars falling like flakes of snow, wrote immediately to the editor of The New York Journal of Commerce : “We felt in our hearts, that it was a sign of the last days. For, truly, ‘the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken by a mighty wind.’—Rev. 6:13. This language of the prophet has always been received as metaphorical. Yesterday it was literally fulfilled. The ancients understood by aster in Greek, and stella in Latin, the smaller lights of heaven. The refinement of modern astronomy has made the distinction between stars of heaven, and meteors of heaven. Therefore, the idea of the prophet, as it is expressed in the original Greek, was literally fulfilled in the phenomenon of yesterday, so as no man before yesterday had conceived to be possible that it should be fulfilled.” [30] Ward stressed the exact fulfillment of the apocalyptic prediction: “And how did they fall? Neither myself nor one of the family heard any report; and were I to hunt through nature for a simile, I could not find one so apt to illustrate the appearance of the heavens as that which St. John uses in the prophecy, before quoted. ‘It rained fire!’ says one—Another, ‘it was like a shower of fire.’ Another, ‘it was like the large flakes of falling snow, before a coming storm, or large drops of rain before a shower.’ “I admit the fitness of these for common accuracy; but they come far short of the accuracy of the figure used by the prophet. ‘The stars of heaven fell unto the earth;’ they were not sheets, or flakes, or drops of fire; but they were what the world understands by the name of ‘Falling Stars;’ and one speaking to his fellow in the midst of the scene, would say, ‘See how the stars fall;’ and he who heard, would not pause to correct the astronomy of the speaker, any more than he would reply, ‘the sun does not move,’ to one who should tell him, ‘the sun is rising[.]’ “The stars fell ‘Even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.’ Here is the exactness of the prophet. The falling stars did not come, as if from several trees shaken, but from one: those which appeared in the east fell toward the East; those which appeared in the north fell toward the North; those which appeared in the west fell toward the West, and those which appeared in the south (for I went out of my residence into the Park,) fell toward the South; and they fell, not as the ripe fruit falls. Far from it. But they flew , they WERE CAST, like the unripe fruit, which at first refuses to leave the branch; and, when it does break its hold, flies swiftly, strait off , descending; and in the multitude falling some cross the track of others, as they are thrown with more or less force. “Such was the appearance of the above phenomenon to the inmates of my house. I walked into the Park with two gentlemen of Pearl Street, feeling and confessing, that this scene had never been figured to our minds by any book or mortal, save only by the prophet.” [31] Ward then said: “In this narrative I have spoken not of causes, [32] but of appearances, and the appearances according to the impression they made on men. . . . No Philosopher or scholar has told or recorded an event, like that of yesterday morning. A Prophet of 1800 years ago foretold it exactly, if we will at the trouble of understanding stars falling, to mean falling-stars.” [33] 4. MANY SEE CORRESPONDENCE WITH PROPHETIC FORECAST.— The New York Journal of Commerce (November 27, 1833) quoted a report from the Columbia Spy that many thought the last days had arrived, and that in the neighboring township a clergyman reported a large prayer meeting attendance that night. The Republican , of York, Pennsylvania (November 13, 1833), said editorially, “Some refer these things to the ‘falling stars’ spoken of in Revelation.” A correspondent from Bowling Green, Missouri, was forcibly “reminded of that remarkable passage in the Revelations, . . . calling to mind the ‘fig tree, casting her untimely figs when shaken by a mighty wind,’” [34] as was likewise the clergyman-scientist Dr. Thomas Milner. [35] And Elijah H. Burritt said later that the fiery scene “suggested to some the awful grandeur of the image employed in the Apocalypse, upon the opening of the sixth seal, when ‘the stars’ of heaven fall.” [36] Thus various laymen and clergymen alike recognized it at the time as a sign of the approaching end, just as other men had, on the basis of prophetic depiction, looked forward to and predicted its appearance. Many, feeling that the 1833 falling of the stars had met the full demands and descriptions of prophecy, were constrained to say that we have indeed entered the “last days.” [37] Notes for the Above: [27] The Old Countryman (New York), Nov. 20, 1833; cited widely, as in the New York Star, and Portland Evening Advertiser, Nov. 26, 1833. The New York Journal of Commerce observes editorially (Nov. 23), "The Editor of the Old Countryman makes a very serious matter of the 'Falling Stars.” [28] FREDERICK DOUGLASS (1817–1895), born a slave, escaped in 1838 and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 1847 he founded The North Star at Rochester, New York, and in 1870 The New National Era , at Washington, D.C. He was U.S. Marshal, then Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, and United States minister to Haiti, 1889–91. [29] Frederick Douglass, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass , p. 117. [30] The New York Journal of Commerce , Nov. 14, [i.e. 16], 1833, p. [2], dated Nov. 15. For Ward as the author, see Signs of the Times , Oct. 11, 1843, pp. 62, 63. [31] Ibid. It is noteworthy that The New York Journal of Commerce in its issue of November 27 repeated part of the foregoing statement from Ward. [32] Ward said in the concluding paragraph, “Natural causes undoubtedly produced this phenomenon.” [33] Ibid. , Nov. 14 [16]. [34] Quoted in Olmsted, “Observations,” The American Journal of Science , January, 1834, p. 382. [35] Thomas Milner, The Gallery of Nature , p. 14. [36] Elijah H. Burritt, Geography of the Heavens , p. 163. [37] For an example of a prophetic expositor outside the United States who saw this meteor shower as a prophetic sign—José de Rozas, prominent jurist of Mexico—see p. 308 of the present volume. Further Reading: Resources on Joseph Smith’s Prophecies Le Roy Edwin Froom on Contemporary Accounts of the Leonid Meteor Storm (November 12, 1833) The following is taken from: Le Roy Edwin Froom, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers: The Historical Development of Prophetic Interpretation , 4 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1954) 4:294-95. 297: Matchless 1833 Spectacle Unsurpassed in History According to astronomers, the meteoric shower of the night of November 12/13, 1833, was the most remarkable of its kind on record. The noted contemporary observer, Denison Olmsted, professor of astronomy at Yale, who collated all the available data, called it "an exhibition of the phenomenon called SHOOTING STARS, which was probably more extensive and magnificent than any similar one hitherto recorded.” [18] "A modern Harvard astronomer" describes it thus: "In the early morning of November 13, 1833, the people of the United States were waked by early risers to turn out and see the stars fall. And fall they did—silently, singly, in bursts and sheaves, tiny ones and balls like the moon. All the observers saw that the meteors darted away from a single point in the sky [in the constellation Leo]; the meteors 'were like the ribs of a gigantic umbrella.' So plain was this that two quite amateur observers made sketches, . . so far as we know the only drawings of the phenomenon that have survived."' [19] Beginning about midnight, the meteors came more frequently, until they were described as being thick as snowflakes,' [20] just before dawn blotted out the sublime spectacle. The sky was "literally ablaze," as "in a few hours more than a billion shooting stars appeared over the United States and Canada alone." [21] This "rare and wonderful display" of "terrible magnitude" [22]' was seen in nearly equal splendor and duration from Canada to Mexico, from mid-Atlantic to the Pacific.' [23] The American Indians in the West were so impressed by it that various tribes used it as "a milestone in their calendars." [24] In these calendars, as, for example, among the Dakota tribes, the winter of 1833/34 was designated in picture writing by some symbol of a star shower, and called the winter when "the stars fell," "it rained stars," or "the stars moved around," the "storm-of-stars winter," and similar names." [25] With the general population of the country "the falling of the stars" was an occasion of awe-tinged with delight or fear, as the case might be. Many gathered in groups in churches, schoolhouses, and homes. Some dropped to their knees to pray; others ran to neighbors to confess wrongs. On this "night of restitution," as it was also called, stolen things were suddenly returned. Many felt sure the day of judgment was at hand. And many devout students of the Word believed God had written in the sky. Notes for the Above: [18] Denison Olmsted, "Observations on the Meteors of November 13th, 1833 ." The American Journal of Science , January. 1834, p. 363. For other astronomers' accounts, see Simon Newcomb, Astronomy for Everybody (1st ed.), p. 280; W. J. Fisher, "The Ancient Leonids," The Telescope , October, 1934, p. 83; Clyde Fisher and Marian Lockwood, op. cit ., p. 89. [19] W. J. Fisher, op. cit. , pp. 79, 80. These cuts first appeared in The Old Countryman , interesting New York weekly, for Nov. 20, 1833, and were then quickly reproduced in various journals and newspapers, such as Mechanics Magazine (November, 1833), and The New York Journal of Commerce (Nov. 27, 1833). Fisher tells us (p. 80) that one of The Old Countryman's editors, Henry J. Pickering (who gave a really Biblical exposition of the phenomenon over his initial, as noted later), personally, as an observer of the star shower, superintended the drawing of these wood cuts. [20] Fletcher G. Watson, Between the Planets , p. 118. [21] Peter M. Millman, “The Falling of the Stars,” The Telescope , May-June, 1940, p. 57. Estimates for the number visible at one place vary from 10,000 to 200,000 an hour. The only actual count would indicate 34,000 an hour as the display was already ceasing, two hours after the peak. (Charles Olivier, Meteors , p. 25.)

[22] Alexander C. Twining, “Investigations Respecting the Meteors of Nov. 13th, 1833,” The American Journal of Science , July, 1834, pp. 337 ff. 351. [23] Denison Olmsted, Letters on Astronomy , p. 349. [24] Clyde Fisher and Marian Lockwood, op. cit. , p. 89. [25] Garrick Mallery, “Picture-Writing of the American Indians,” in Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1888-89), plate XX (between pp. 266 and 267), pp. 209, 320, 723; James Mooney, “Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians,” in the same Bureau’s Seventeenth Annual Report (1895-96), pp. 260, 261; Leslie Spier, Yuman Tribes of the Gila River , pp. 138, 139 (also pp. 15, 16). From Ibid., 4:296: INDIAN ANNUAL CALENDARS NOTE 1833 STAR SHOWER (Upper) In Long Dog's Winter Count the Year 1833 (Circled) Indicated by Falling Stars (Upper Yanktoni Tribe). The Dating by Years Is From 1800, Painted on a Buffalo Hide. (Lower) Set-t'an Annual Calendar (Kiowa Tribe), With the Same Event Chosen for the Year. Both Are Native Drawings; (Inset) Only Surviving Contemporary Drawing,- by "Mr. Pickering," Editor of The Old Countryman, Which Shows the Divergence Point, of Radiant, From a Common Center. (Reprinted in Mechanic's Magazine for November, 1833) (Ibid., 4:297) Further Reading: Resources on Joseph Smith's Prophecies ▼ 2026 (1320) ▼ September (5) Examples of Gaudentius of Brescia (d. 410) Teachin... Faustus Socinus (1539-1604) on John 17:5 Thomas Buckley on Baptism in Romans Faustus Socinus (1539-1604) on John 8:58 and πρὶν ... Robert R. Cargill on Psalm 110:1 (LXX: 109:1) ► August (110) ► July (69) ► June (182) ► May (271) ► April (186) ► March (81) ► February (195) ► January (221) ▼ September (5) Examples of Gaudentius of Brescia (d. 410) Teachin... Faustus Socinus (1539-1604) on John 17:5 Thomas Buckley on Baptism in Romans Faustus Socinus (1539-1604) on John 8:58 and πρὶν ... Robert R. Cargill on Psalm 110:1 (LXX: 109:1) Examples of Gaudentius of Brescia (d. 410) Teachin... Faustus Socinus (1539-1604) on John 17:5 Thomas Buckley on Baptism in Romans Faustus Socinus (1539-1604) on John 8:58 and πρὶν ... Robert R. 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