It is a dark and challenging dispensation of providence when the world and nations of the world are filled with confusion and bloodshed, and no just reason appears for it to be so. When our Saviour predicts a difficult season in Matt. 24 and Luke 21, he says, "There will be terrible times, such as never were; nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be wars, bloodshed, and earthquakes; and the very elect will barely escape." Therefore, God refers to such a time as "a day of darkness," indeed, of "thick darkness," Joel 2:2, a dark, gloomy day.