[Illustration: AN ANCIENT FLOUR MILL

"Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and
the other left." Matt. 24:41.]

FOOTNOTES:

[B] It was in the autumn that the army of Cestius closed in upon
Jerusalem. According to the careful record of Graetz, the Jewish
historian, it was evidently on a Wednesday that the Roman army retired,
pursued by all the forces of the city. This was the instant for the
flight of the Christians. Next day "the Zealots, shouting exultant war
songs, returned to Jerusalem (8th October)."--_"History of the Jews,"
Vol. II, p. 268._ The day before was the time for unhindered flight.

[C] Apollonius, the friend and counselor of Titus, left a similar
testimony to the latter's conviction that there was something
supernatural about the forces of destruction let loose upon Jerusalem:
"After Titus had taken Jerusalem, and when the country all round was
filled with corpses, the neighboring races offered him a crown: but he
disclaimed any such honor to himself, saying that it was not he himself
that had accomplished this exploit, but that he had merely lent his arms
to God, who had so manifested His wrath."--_Philostratus, "Life of
Apollonius," book 6, chap. 29._

[Illustration: LISBON FROM ACROSS THE BAY

The scene of the great earthquake and tidal wave, Nov. 1, 1755, when in
six minutes sixty thousand people perished.]

THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE OF 1755

"Lo, There Was a Great Earthquake"

The first of a series of signs of the approaching end is thus described
by the revelator:

"I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great
earthquake." Rev. 6:12.

[Illustration: THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE

"There shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers
places." Matt. 24:7.]

The verses immediately preceding this scripture plainly describe the
days of persecution of the saints of God, and the era of protest and
reform that cut short that time of tribulation. Then this first sign
appears. This is in harmony with Christ's statement that the signs of
His second coming should begin to appear following the tribulation of
those days.

Just about the close of the days of tribulation occurred the Lisbon
earthquake, as it is called, though its effects reached far beyond
Portugal. Prof. W.H. Hobbs, geologist, says of it:

"Among the earth movements which in historic times have
affected the kingdom of Portugal, that of Nov. 1, 1755,