uences of
the Word of God, and there the persecution continued.

Even as late as near the end of the seventeenth century, in 1685, France
revoked the Edict of Nantes, that had granted toleration, and
persecution raged as of old. The church was driven again to the desert.
Speaking of the early decades of the eighteenth century, Kurtz says:

"In France the persecution of the Huguenots continued.... The
'pastors of the desert' performed their duties at the risk of
their lives."--_"Church History," Vol. III, p. 88._

There was severe persecution of the Moravians in Austria, in these
times, many of the persecuted finding refuge in Saxony. It was in 1722
that Christian David led the first band of Moravian refugees to settle
on the estates of Count Zinzendorf, who organized through them the great
pioneer movement of modern missions.

But by the middle of the century, the era of enlightenment and the force
of world opinion, in the good providence of God, had so permeated the
Catholic states of Europe that general violent persecution had ceased.
One incident will suffice as evidence of this.

The scene was in France, where alone, of all the Catholic states, there
were any great numbers of Protestants. In 1762 a Huguenot of Toulouse,
unjustly charged with crime, was put to torture and to death, under the
pressure of the old persecuting spirit. Many Huguenots thought the
persecutions of former times were reviving, and prepared to flee to
Switzerland. But Voltaire took up the matter, and so wrought upon public
opinion that the Paris parliament reviewed the case, and the king paid
the man's family a large indemnity.

This shows that by the middle of that century the days of any general
persecution had ceased. In the nature of the case, we may not point to
the exact year and say, Here the days of tribulation ended.

From these times, then, we are to scan the record of history to learn if
the appointed signs began to appear. As we look, we find the events
recorded, following on in the order predicted:

1. The Lisbon earthquake, cf 1755.
2. The dark day, cf 1780.
3. The falling stars, cf 1833.
4. General conditions and movements betokening the end.

"There shall be signs," the Saviour said. We are to study the record of
events, watching to catch the signs of the approaching end as earnestly
as the mariner watches the beacon lights when he nears the longed-for
haven on a dark and stormy night.