The Life Of Jesus Christ In Its Historical Connexion

The wise men from the East were led to the Redeemer by the remarkable phenomena which attended his birth; and similar wonders accompanied his death. As the unity of the world as a whole [the world of nature and of spirit], is seen in natural signs accompanying epoch -- making events in history, so we need not marvel to find the greatest event of history -- shown as such by its fruits in the spiritual renovation of mankind even to those who cannot comprehend its internal import -- attended by similar manifestations. At the moment of Christ's death there was an earthquake; and at the same time, and perhaps from the same cause, a darkness spread over the sky, producing effects like those of an eclipse of the sun. [790] The veil of the Holy of Holies in the Temple was rent asunder, [791] signifying that the Holy of Holies in heaven is opened to all men through the finished work of Christ; the wall of partition between the Divine and the Human broken down; and a spiritual worship substituted for an outward and sensible one.