be aware that the day of the Lord, either in the Old Testament or in the
New, does not mean merely the final day of judgment, but any striking
event, any great crisis in the world's history, which throws a divine
light upon that history, and shows to men--at least to those who have
eyes wherewith to see--that verily there is a God who judges the earth in
righteousness, and ministers true judgment among the people;--a God whom
men, and all their institutions, should always be prepared to meet, lest
coming suddenly, He find them sleeping. If you are not aware of this,
the real meaning of a day of the Lord, a day of the Son of Man, let me
entreat you to go and search the Scriptures for yourselves; for in them
ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of the
Lord, of that Eternal Son of whom the second Psalm speaks, in words which
mobs and tyrants, the atheist and the superstitious, are alike willing to
forget.

In the time of Amos, the rich tyrants of Israel seem to have meant by the
day of the Lord some vague hope that, in those dark and threatening
times, God would interfere to save them, if they were attacked by foreign
armies. But woe to you that desire the day of the Lord, says Amos the
herdsman. What do you want with it? You will find it very different
from what you expect. There is a day of the Lord coming, he says,
therefore prepare to meet your God. But you are unprepared, and you will
find the day of the Lord very different from what you expect. It will be
a day in which you will learn the righteousness of God. Because He is
righteous He will not suffer your unrighteousness. Because He is good,
He will not permit you to be bad. The day of the Lord to you will be
darkness and not light, not as you dream deliverance from the invaders,
but ruin by the invaders, from which will be no escape. "As if a man did
flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house and leaned
his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him." There will be no escape