I said to myself that I could not have
"made up" those rhymes. Nevertheless we all laughed at them
together.
A comet appeared at about the time of the Miller excitement, and
also a very unusual illumination of sky and earth by the Aurora
Borealis. This latter occurred in midwinter. The whole heavens
were of a deep rose-color--almost crimson--reddest at the zenith,
and paling as it radiated towards the horizon. The snow was fresh
on the ground, and that, too, was of a brilliant red. Cold as it
was, windows were thrown up all around us for people to look out
at the wonderful sight. I was gazing with the rest, and listening
to exclamations of wonder from surrounding unseen beholders, when
somebody shouted from far down the opposite block of buildings,
with startling effect,--
"You can't stand the fire
In that great day!"
It was the refrain of a Millerite hymn. The Millerites believed
that these signs in the sky were omens of the approaching
catastrophe. And it was said that some of them did go so far as
to put on white "ascension robes," and assemble somewhere, to
wait for the expected hour.
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