A remarkable expression occurs in the Apocalypse, chap. 16:18, where we read, "And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great." The advent of man, as an inhabitant upon earth, is here formally given as an epoch after which so great earthquakes did not occur. It is well known now that earthquakes must have rent this globe before the birth of man; but how was John, the fisherman of Galilee, led to employ 1800 years ago, a phraseology which the researches of our own day have now for the first time shown to be philosophically correct?
Speaking of this verse, and quoting it freely, John Bunyan says, "For the earthquake it is said to be such as never was so mighty an earthquake and so great." ("Reign of Antichrist.") He thought the phrase, "Since men were upon the earth," equivalent to "never," so he wrote and fell into the blunder. Who led John the apostle safely past the mistake into which John Bunyan fell?