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Astronomy and the Bible
Lick OBbEk\ aiory. Mount Hamilton, California
ASTRONOMY and the BIBLE
THE EMPIRE OF CREATION SEEN IN
THE DUAL LIGHT OF SCIENCE AND
THE WORD
7
LUCAS A. REED, M. S.
"Teach me your mood, O patient stars.
Who climb each night the ancient sky. Leaving on space no shade, no scars. No trace of age, no fear to die."
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSN., Mountain View, Cal.
Kansas City, Mo. Portland, Ore. Brookfield, 111.
St. Paul, Minn. Cristobal, Canal Zone
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Copyright 1919, by Pacific Press Publishing Association
Preface
The writer of the following pages, throughout his active life, has been a close student of nature, and the starry universe all about us has had its full share of his attention. He has gathered a fine assemblage of most entertaining facts ; and the reader, whether a be- liever in the Bible or not, will be interested in observing that the astronomy of the Bible is far in advance of the time in which it was written, for only after some of the latest research with telescope, spectroscope, and camera, have seemingly obscure and meaningless passages of the Bible been understood.
Dr. Reed has been a popular writer for magazines, as well as of books ; and one of his major themes has been the astronomy of the Bible. The popularity of his astronomy magazine articles, and the urgent demand that many of them be printed over and over again, has led to the preparation of this book.
Vibrant in the pages that follow is the sentiment of the inspired poet that "the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language ; their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun." Ps. 19:1-4.
The invisible God, whose glory is too bright for sin- ful, weakened mortal eye, may be clearly seen through
7
8 PREFACE
the things He has made ; for the apostle is bold to de- clare that "that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it unto them. For the in- visible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divin- ity." Rom. 1 : 19, 20.
The universe is not a mere jumble of suns and worlds, a freak of chance operating blindly through the undirected laws of nature ; neither are some of the suns and worlds about us "young" and growing toward the strength of manhood life and power, while others arc "old" and waxing to decay; but the omnipotent hand of God is behind all of His works, and His infinite in- telligence is directing every star and world and all of the forces of nature in earth and sea and sky.
The marshaling of the facts and of the scriptures which show that God is intelligently, actively, and lov- ingly at work through all of the operations of nature, will be found a constant delight, inspiration, and satis- faction to the reader. God so loves us that He seeks to touch us through many avenues. H He is not able to appeal to us through His written Word, He thea appeals through the forces of nature. He speaks to us by means of sun and moon and all the retinue of celes- tial orbs, so that He may lead us to touch and to know His invisible presence through His visible creation.
One cannot fail to be impressed with the truth and the dependableness of the infinite Creator as he beholds His handiwork in the numberless stars and the orderly movement of all the stellar worlds. The joys and the
PREFACE 9
soul rest that come through actually knowing God and being in touch with Him by a living experience are beyond our powers to describe, but nevertheless we may know them and find perfect rest under the ever pervading shadow of the Almighty.
That those who do know God may have their ap- preciation of Him intensified, and that those who do not know Him may be introduced to Him through the pages that follow, is the earnest wish of
The Publishers.
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I Astronomy and the Bible - - 17
II Astronomy and Faith - - 24
III Science and the Bible - - - 31
IV The Atmospheric Heavens - 41
V The Power of Gravitation - - 53
VI The Transfer of Energy - - 63
VII The Center of the Universe - 75
VIII The Earth in Space - - 81
IX The Impress of Light - - - 87
X Celestial Magnitudes - - 105
XI The Infinitude of Space - - 122
XII As THE Moon _ . - - 127
XIII Stars Innumerable - - - 133
XIV The Fixed Stars _ _ _ 143
XV The Bands of Orion - - - 159
XVI Arcturus with His Sons - - 170
XVII The Gospel of Despair - - - 177
XVIII Difference in Glory - - - 186
XIX The Vastness of His Power - - 200
XX His Definite Foreknowledge - 207
XXI The Clock of the Universe - - 215
XXII God's Dwelling Place, Where? - 223
XXIII The Open Space in Orion - - 236
XXIV Rolled Together as a Scroll - 258
Illustrations
Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, Cal., Frontispiece
OPPOSITE PAGE
Omega Centauri __--_-- i6
The Head of a Comet ------ 17
The Southern Cross ------ 32
Yerkes Observatory, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin - 33
A Peculiar Nebular Formation in Cygnus - - 48
Region of the North American Nebula - - 49
The Land of the Midnight Sun - _ - - 64
A Typical Sun Spot — Highly Magnified - - 65
Nebula in Triangulum ------ 80
The Andromeda Nebula ------ 81
Eclipse of the Sun ------- 96
The Cold Atmosphere of Winter - - - - 97
At the Eyepiece of a Large Telescop;-: - - - 112
A Segment of the Corona of the Sun - - - 113
The Moon in the Eighteen-Day Phase - - - 128
Halley's Comet, as Seen in the Early Morning - 129
Great Star Cloud in Sagittarius _ - - - 144
Region of the Great Nebula of Rho Ophiuchi - 145 Motion of Arcturus - - - - - - -150
Brooks's Comet as Seen Just Before Dawn - - 160
The Constellation Pleiades, Showing Nebulosity - 161
Diagram of the Pleiades _ - - _ _ 164
Nebula in Cygnus ------- 176
The Surface of the Moon - - - - - • i77
SiRius, A Celestial Furnace - - - - - 192
The 36-INCH Lick Telescope ----- 193
Breaking Through the Mist ----- 208
Nebula in Ursa Major ------ 209
The Sword and Belt of Orion ----- 224
The Spiral Nebula of Canes Venatici - - - 225
Saturn Rising -------- 240
The Firmament of Saturn ----- 240
Air in Motion -------- 241
Orion's Nebula as Shown by Photography - - 256
Another View of the Nebula in Orion - - - 257 xii
Introduction
For eight years, Kepler sought unceasingly, with unremitting toil, to solve the law of planetary motion. During those years, he tried nineteen different hypothe- ses. One after another of these he was compelled to lay aside as not conforming to the motion of the plan- ets. His courage and patience transfigured failure into success. When, after days of study and nights of observation, the months showed a theory untenable, he turned from it without regret, knowing that there was one less theory to try. At last, he was compelled to give up every theory of the circle as the explanation of orbital motion. He then chose the next to the circle in simplicity, the ellipse. Here he found all the con- ditions met. The problem at last was solved, and he cried, "O almighty God, I am thinking Thy thoughts after Thee !" When he had established his second and third laws, and written his exposition of them, he said : "My book is written to be read either now or by posterity; I care not which. It may well wait a cen- tury for a reader, since God has waited six thousand years for an observer."
Thus in a realization that the scientist is but tracing the handwriting of the Creator, and with an abiding faith that His writing is intelligible, and contains a divine message, did such men as Kepler and Newton lay the foundations of our present knowledge.
Some of the men accounted great to-day — mere pygmies compared with the men just mentioned —
13
14 INTRODUCTION
have the effrontery to tell us that they see in the heavens no trace of a God. But in making such a statement, they but confess their own blindness and dumbness. They are like one who cannot read, point- ing at the letters of the printed page, and saying there is no trace of knowledge or intelligence there.
To disbelieve in God, a man must believe in a thou- sand anomalies which he cannot reconcile with reason ; and he must accept contradictions and improbabilities without number. He must assume that effects are greater than their causes ; that the greatest effects are without any cause at all ; in fact, that something, and a mighty something at that, came from nothing.
That he may not see evidences of God, the atheist must close his eyes to the light which shines upon him everywhere, from sun and stars, and reflected from satellite and planet, and that also gleams from the eyes of countless intelligent creatures in the world about him.
That he may not hear the message of God in nature, he must close his ears to the voices that sound in crea- tion's harmonies, from the hum of insects and the songs of the birds, up to that silent thunder of un- counted worlds and suns and systems which pour into the ear of the soul the mighty music of the spheres.
The irreligious scientist is a contradiction. The un- devout astronomer has become spiritually deranged. A study of nature will soften and subdue man's heart, if he does not stubbornly harden it. Astronomy will give to the man who rightly studies the wonders of the heavens a modesty and humility regarding his own at-
INTRODUCTION 15
tainments, and an admiration and devotion for the One whose works declare the grandeur and the glory of His holy and exalted personality; and he will turn with added confidence and joy to the Book that ex- plains all. Thus will he know the blessing gained by a study of astronomy and the Bible.
Lucas A. Reed.
Creation
The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue, ethereal sky.
The spangled heavens, a shining frame,
Their great Original proclaim;
Th' unwearied sun, from day to day,
Does his Creator's power display,
And publishes to every land
The work of an almighty hand.
Soon as the evening shades prevail. The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And nightly, to the listening earth Repeats the story of her birth; While all the stars that round her burn. And all the planets in their turn, Confirm the tidings as they roll. And spread the truth from pole to pole.
What though in solemn silence, all Move round the dark terrestial ball? What though no real voice or sound Amid their radiant orbs be found? In reason's ear they all rejoice. And utter forth a glorious voice. Forever singing, as they shine. The hand that made us is divine."
— Joseph Addison.
j6
Omega Centauri
One of the many star clusters, each composed of immense
glowing suns far larger than our own.
2a
The Head of a Comet
This drawing gives one an idea of the size of a comet as
compared with the earth. The brightest spot in the head of a
comet is called the nucleus ; surrounding this are layers of
luminous matter, from which the tail streams away.
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CHAPTER I
Astronomy and the Bible
OF all the sciences, astronomy makes the most nearly universal appeal. Persons who have little interest in even the common things about them, are nevertheless often deeply interested in know- ing something of those heavenly lights which shine down upon them.
What are these stars ? Are they other worlds at all like ours? How many of them are inhabited? What of their distance and of the scale on which the universe is built? What is that large red star, and this bright white one? What is the Milky Way? Why does the North Star always remain north?
These and countless more questions rise at once when the subject is introduced. All these questions are worthy of a careful answer. The science of astronomy deserves to be understood. And of its large and most important features, every student may gain some defi- nite and useful knowledge.
To outline some of the principles of astronomy, never exceeding the limit of true science, and to weigh,
17
18 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
in relation to those principles, the words of the Bible, — these are our aims in this book. Such a view will not narrow our conceptions of astronomy. We shall see, before we are through with the study, that only thus can we comprehend the grandeur, the dignity, the sub- limity, the uplifting urge, of this important science.
Thus viewing it, we are carried back to the ages when the universe began. We view the dawn of crea- tion. We hear the first whisper of the creative word. We see the first appearings of the material world under the manifestations of divine energy.
Thus, too, we learn how the mighty universe is sus- tained. We contemplate its complicated mechanism of wheel within wheel rolling on in the deeps of space, as age follows age. We gaze with eager eyes into the ages to come. We behold order and system and ever advancing variety and magnitude. We pon- der the might of immensity and the greatness of eter- nity. The finite mind expands, seeking evermore to grasp the measures of the infinite.
Were it not for the Bible, our conceptions would take in too little, even though we might be aided by all the means and methods of modern astronomy. In the Word, our vague guesses and groping questions are answered by the most daring of revelations, the grandest of delineations, the most sublime of state- ments.
Indeed, no one can rightly understand astronomy, aside from the Bible. This is paramountly true, whether we contemplate the beginnings of things, "when the morning stars sang together, and all the
ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE 19
sons of God shouted for joy," or run forward In thought to the coming age, when there shall rise a new heaven and a new earth, and the former things shall have passed away. 1/^ The Bible is the supreme textbook. Like a tower- ing rock that fronts the sea, its granite wall is forever receiving the onslaught of the waves. One moment, the waters strike upon its fending sides, and break in forceless spray ; the next, the sunbeams touch and transfigure the old water-washed rock with diamond gleams of light. Thus, with radiant and unbroken front, the Word stands immovable through the ages, our wall of protection from error and folly. That mighty wall of truth remains impregnable to-day as ever.
There is no controversy between true science and the \ Bible. Both are manifestations of divine truth. True ' science but makes more brilliant the gems of Holy Writ ; and the Bible ever guides the mind more deeply and sublimely into the wonders of true science. Each is the handmaid of the other. In the Bible, we find the great principles of truth; in nature, we find facts that explain, illustrate, and make clear the truth of, the Word.
Truth is a unit. It is not separate, antagonistic things. Though manifold — indeed, infinite — in the variety of its manifestation, it is one harmonious sys- tem. And this one truth, revealed in the Bible, "is reflected as from a mirror, in the face of nature."
This complete revelation of truth, inspiration calls ''the Word." And the term "word," or "logos," im-
20 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
plies that a mind has expressed itself, not merely in words, but in "the Word" ; that is to say, a symmetri- cal whole. But the mind that has thus expressed itself is the divine mind; and its expression is a manifesta- tion of realities.
It is "the Word," for it speaks. It produces reali- ties; for that Word is creative, pouring forth divine energy. It spoke at creation ; and what it commanded, obeyed by existing. That Word said, "Let light be ;" and light was. The Bible may give us in words "the Word" of God; but that Word is also manifested in the world it created and still sustains. If in nature there is anything not produced and sustained by "the Word," it is but some temporary thing, the result of some other mind, a mind antagonistic to the divine mind. And this transient element, discerned by its vanity and falsity, will eventually pass away. But "the Word" of God, and He who is in that Word, and makes it vital, efficient, and substantial, will abide for- ever.
As words express the thoughts, or mind, of a man, so "the Word" expresses, reveals, discloses the divine mind. The Bible is the echo of the divine mind, and so it is called "the Word of God." When it is minis- tered to us by the Spirit, it becomes at once the living, acting Word of God; and such it is truly called. Christ is the revelation, the "outgoing," of God's mind, or character; and therefore He is called "the Logos," or "Word." John i : 1-3. And nature, too, though clouded by sin, is a panorama of God's thoughts to His creatures, and hence is called "the other word."
ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE 21
In Christ, the personified Word, ''are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Col. 2 : 3. Think of the all-comprehending meaning of the mar- velous expression, "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." These treasures include all the unsearch- able and unfathomable deeps of the divine mind. In- spiration, catching in one glimpse the infinitude of these treasures, cries out, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" Rom.
II -33-
O the depth indeed!
And all this knowledge and wisdom, all indeed that there is, has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ. He Himself says, "All things that the Father hath are Mine." John 16:15. These "all things," the Spirit receives to show to the disciples of Christ.
And what a comprehending sweep of things is in- cluded in that expression, "all things that the Father hath" ! How much has He ? Look yonder into the heavens. Behold a thousand suns rolling in the abyss of space; and around them, held by them, attendant worlds teeming with life and beauty — stars upon stars, and worlds upon worlds, universe beyond uni- verse, creation beyond creation. All that we see is but a tiny suburb of the great creation.
We take a five-inch glass and look at one mere spot in the heavens. Wonder of wonders ! It is trans- formed into hundreds of suns, so closely studded to- gether that we cannot number them.
We find a stronger glass. Still other suns appear, suns upon suns, as the sands of the seashore, innumer-
22 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
able. It is impossible to pierce to the outer bounds of the gleaming stars ; for still we see lights gleaming from beyond, where all grows cloudy and obscure.
All are Christ's. The fullness of God is there, the complete revelation, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all the deeps of infinite thought and action.
Then the Bible must be our aid in the study of all science, astronomy included; for the Bible is our only means of intelligently receiving and knowing Christ. And these treasures "in Him" include all the treasures of truth, all forms of true science. The word "all" bars any exceptions.
This is not to say that the Bible contains every pos- sible phrasing of truth, or every single detail of it. We are told that if all that Jesus did were written, it is supposed that even the world could not contain the books that should be written. Yet His life, the unity, the completeness of His life, is contained in the Bible. That the world could not contain all the books that might be written of His life, is because the principles represented are manifestations of infinite truth; and infinite truth, to be fully expressed, requires infinite expression. But thus infinitely expressed, all truth would fill the world, and, indeed, the universe itself; and would fill it not only now, but throughout eternity.
Yet in the Bible, in principles of infinite meaning, in words of never ending import, is recorded the all- wisdom of God. All that is of God is in the Word. It is locked in comprehensive statements that cannot fail to be understood, yet so richly stored that they be- come treasures as inexhaustible as eternity and God.
ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE 23
To survey them adequately, demands capacity most mighty and Hves immortal, with means of reaching and observing unhampered His ever expanding domains.
But remember that even now we have in the Bible all the great principles included in these things. In the Bible, they have been committed to man. True, they are locked in the storehouse; but God has given us the key. They are hidden; but He has told us to seek, and we shall find. Though the door is closed, it will be opened to us if we knock.
For this, the study of astronomy and the study of the Bible are combined. We mention astronomy first, not because it is first in importance, but because we give it here the most attention. This book is not pri- marily a study of the Bible, but a study of astronomy. Yet throughout, we seek the aid of the sublime words of Sacred Writ. And we find a better understanding of the Bible through the light that science gives.
May all our science study be after this manner! Let us search both nature and the Word as for hidden treasure. God Himself will be the Teacher; His Word will be our textbook; His works, our field of observa- tion ; His everlasting habitations, our schoolroom ; and eternity, the term of our pupilage.
Thus our lives will grow richer and happier, our minds more vigorous and comprehending, while our vision ''forever widens with the process of the suns."
L
CHAPTER II
Astronomy and Faith
4 4"]f IFT up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number : He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power ; not one f aileth." Isa. 40 : 26.
This is God's invitation to the study of astronomy. Every one should study this science. It is the most delightful and the most inspiring of all the sciences. It elevates and broadens the mind. It rouses and directs the imagination. It gives man a truer idea both of himself and of his Creator. And in a better under- standing of God, science finds its true service.
When we find that the stars are unmeasured dis- tances from us, and that they are innumerable, span- gUng the heavens with jets of radiance infinite in number, we are in better condition of mind to realize the glory of Him who brings "out their host by num- ber," calling "them all by names."
And viewing their eternal constancy, as they move undeviatingly in their orbits, we shall perceive back of
24
ASTRONOMY AND FAITH 25
them the power of God that forever keeps them as they are, "by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power ; not one f aileth."
Rarely nowadays is astronomy studied with any such purpose as is here indicated. Yet, if not so studied, it fails of its highest purpose. In fact, divorced from thoughts of God, it can only discourage man, because of his infinite littleness in contrast with the grand immensity of the universe, into believing that he is a forgotten atom in the dust cloud of the cosmos; or encourage him into thinking that he knows a trifle more than his fellows, and that he, with his giant ( ?) intel- lect, can delve into the profundities of space, and com- prehend the infinite. Thus he is puffed up with pride and self-complacency.
Some one has said that "the undevout astronomer is mad" — mad because, with such a spectacle before him, he is still undevout. H our study of astronomy cannot put some devout thoughts and feelings into our souls, it has proved to us quite a failure.
And while this view of nature as a means of quick- ening faith seems a reasonable one to take as the in- tent of astronomical study, nevertheless there are per- sons who will oppose this idea. However, there are those who have gained distinction as scientists and astronomers, who view the subject in this attitude of faith and reverence. A few quotations from some of these may have an influence in starting us in the right direction.
"The great dome of the sky, filled with glittering stars, is one of the most sublime spectacles in nature.
26 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
. . . Some shine with a vivid hght, perpetually chang- ing and twinkling; others, more constant, beam softly and tranquilly upon us; while many just tremble into our sight, like a wave that, struggling to reach some far-off land, dies as it touches the shore.
"In the presence of such weird and wondrous beauty, the tenderest sentiments of the heart are aroused. A feeling of awe and reverence,' of softened melancholy mingled with a thought of God, comes over us, and awakens the better nature within us." — Joel Dorman Steele, Ph. D.
Another has said that as w^e study astronomy, "the common authorship of the worlds and the Word be- comes apparent; their common unexplorable wealth is a necessary conclusion." — Henry White Warren, D. D.
Both of the writers quoted above are the authors of textbooks on astronomy. The latter of the two did not fail, in his "Recreations in Astronomy," to carry out the principles he states.
Herschel, one of the greatest of astronomers, has said, "All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more strongly the truths that come from on high and are contained in the Sacred Writings."
And General Mitchel, astronomer, and moving spirit in the building of the observatory on Mount Adams, near Cincinnati, has spoken words that should never be forgotten:
"If there be anything which can lead the mind up- ward to the omnipotent Ruler of the universe, and give to it approximate knowledge of His incomprehen-
ASTRONOMY AND FAITH 27
sible attributes, it is to be found in the grandeur and beauty of His works.
"If you would know His glory, examine the inter- minable range of suns and systems which crowd the Milky Way., Multiply the hundred millions of stars which belong to our own 'island universe' by the thou- sands of these astral systems that exist in space, within the range of human vision, and then you may form some idea of the infinitude of His kingdom; for, lo! these are but a part of His ways. Examine the scale on which the universe is built. Comprehend, if you can, the vast dimensions of our sun. Stretch outward through his system, from planet to planet, and cir- cumscribe the whole within the immense circumference of Neptune's orbit. This is but a single unit out of the myriads of similar systems. Take the wings of light, and flash with impetuous speed day and night, and month and year, till youth shall wear away, and middle age is gone, and the extremest limit of human life has been attained; count every pulse, and at each speed on your way a hundred thousand miles; and when a hundred years have rolled by, look out, and behold ! the thronging milHons of blazing suns are still around you, each separated from the other by such a distance that in this journey of a century you left only half a score behind you.
"Would you gather some idea of the eternity past of God's existence, go to the astronomer, and bid him lead you with him in one of his trips through space; and as he sweeps upward from object to object, from universe to universe, remember that the light from
28 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
those filmy stains in the deep pure blue heaven, now falling on your eye, has been traversing space for un- numbered years.
"Would you gather some knowledge of the omnipo- tence of God, weigh the earth in which we dwell, then count the millions of its inhabitants that have come and gone for the last six thousand years. Unite their strength into one arm, and test its power in an effort to move this earth. It could not stir it a single foot in a thousand years; and yet under the omnipotent hand of God, not a minute passes that the earth does not fly for more than a thousand miles. But this is a mere atom; the most insignificant point among His innumerable worlds. At His bidding every planet and satellite and comet, and the sun himself, fly onward in their appointed courses. His single arm guides the millions of sweeping suns, and around His throne circles the great constellation of unnumbered universes.
"Would you comprehend the idea of the omniscience of God, remember that the highest pinnacle of knowl- edge reached by the whole human race, by the com- bined efforts of its brightest intellects, has enabled the astronomer to compute approximately the per- turbations of the planetary worlds. He has predicted roughly the return of half a score of comets. But God has computed the mutual perturbations of mil- lions of suns, and planets and comets and worlds with- out number, through the ages that are passed and throughout the ages that are yet to come, not approxi- mately, but with perfect and absolute precision. The universe is in motion — system rising above system.
ASTRONOMY AND FAITH 29
cluster above cluster, nebula above nebula, — all ma- jestically sweeping around under the providence of God, who alone knows the end from the beginning, and before whose glory and power all intelligent be- ings, whether in heaven or earth, should bow with humility and awe.
"Would you gain some idea of the wisdom of God, look to the admirable adjustments of the magnificent retinue of planets and satellites which sweep around the sun. Every globe has been weighed and poised, every orbit has been measured and bent to its beautiful form. All is changing, but the laws fixed by the wis- dom of God, though they permit the rocking to and fro of the system, never introduce disorder, or lead to destruction. All is perfect and harmonious, and the music of the spheres that burn and roll around our sun, is echoed by that of ten millions of moving worlds, that sing and shine around the bright suns that reign above.
"If overwhelmed with the grandeur and majesty of the universe of God, we are led to exclaim with the Hebrew poet king, 'When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained ; what is man, that Thou art mind- ful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?' If fearful that the eye of God may overlook us in the immensity of His kingdom, we have only to call to mind that other passage : Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have do- minion over the works of Thy hands ; Thou hast put all
30 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
things under his feet.' Such are the teachings of the Word, and such are the lessons of the works of God."
"Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things." These are the divine words that are chiseled upon a marble tablet in the wall of the astronomical observatory at Williams College. No more appropriate words for such a building could be chosen. They are the prophet's call to the skeptics of his time, and they are as forceful to-day as they were then. When a French infidel said to a Vendean peasant, ''We will pull down your churches, destroy your pictures, and demolish everything that reminds you of God," the peasant repHed^ "But you will leave us the stars."
Yes, the stars speak to us of God. The French of- ficers could dispute and deny the existence of a Crea- tor as they sailed down the Mediterranean beneath the splendors of the evening skies; but when Napo- leon, wearied of their babble, pointed upward to the myriad stars above them, and said, "All very well, gentlemen ; but who made these ?" they were silent, as all atheists must be.
"Lift up your eyes on high, and behold" — this is the study of astronomy. And herein we find our field of observation; namely, that of the unmeasured uni- verse, with its glories of shining suns and rolling worlds. "Who hath created these things?" — this is the question the study should arouse. And thus we find the purpose of astronomy; namely, to reveal the greatness and goodness of God.
CHAPTER III
Science and the Bible
WHEN, upon a cloudless, moonless night, we look above us into the overarching heavens, we are charmed by the spectacle of many points of light, scintillating and quivering in the deeps of the sky.
We say to ourselves : Can any one really tell us aught about these and how they came there? What is their purpose and what their destiny? Did they at some time come into being, or did they always exist? And what shall be their end, if any end for them there be? It is true that science alone can partly answer some of these questions; yet some of the more important she cannot answer at all. But as we delve into these problems of astronomy, we discover that the Bible says something decisive about them. We find it speaking with authority in the realm of science. Thus we soon learn that both science and the Bible have something to say w4th reference to the answers; and as we carefully go to both for knowledge, we become consistent in our study of astronomy and the Bible.
31
32 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
For example, we ask, What is the origin of the uni- verse? The scientist, unaided by the Word, searches all parts of the universe that are available to his tests. He computes the times or movements, the paths or directions, the powers or velocities, of the stars within the reach of his instruments. He multiplies instances. He compares one with another. He computes into the hundreds of years. He goes back in times past. He reckons forward into times to come.
When he has satisfied every element of the problem, which is to him wholly a mathematical one, he avers : "There is no danger of collision or of interference among any of the heavenly bodies. Though their paths cross, though their orbits often interweave, yet each heavenly body always moves in such a way and place as in no wise to jeopardize itself or its fellows. Everywhere is perfect order. So far as I can see, the universe may go on as it is to all eternity. And so far as I can reckon, it has been going on in this perfect way from all eternity."
But in making this last statement, the scientist has run into controversy with the Word of God. He has contradicted the statements of the Bible. Thus we are shown that the Bible is the great guide, after all, in some of the important things of science.
In saying that the universe never had beginning, the scientist denies the statement of Genesis, "In the beginning God created." The Word admonishes us to look up and behold the manifestations of a mighty and orderly universe, but its appeal is to behold "who hath created these things." He "bringeth out their
The Southern Cross
This beautiful constellation is a stranger to those dwelling in
the Northern Hemisphere. Note the immense
company of lesser stars.
Yerkes Observatory, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 33
host by number;" that is to say, with mathematical precision and order. He so brought them out in the beginning — created them, or gave them existence. And He still continues to bring them out ; that is, main- tains their existence.
Or again, the scientist asserts that gravitation holds all the heavenly bodies in place. And the Bible shows that in this, the scientist has not thought deep enough. We ask. What is gravitation? The scientist answers, Gravitation is the attraction between the particles of matter; it is the bond of relationship by which they are held together. But we press the question. What is this attraction? We find that his answer is merely a description of the thing, and really no explanation of it at all. "The attraction between particles of matter" is but another name for gravitation. What is gravitation — what is this attraction ? How and why does it exist? In short, what causes the pull between the particles?
Sir Isaac Newton demonstrated the existence of the bond ; yet he did not explain its mystery, but confessed to that mystery. He said that for a thing like gravi- tation to exist was apparently unreasonable. "How can anything be where it is not ?" How can one world pull another world that is millions of miles away from it ? How can it maintain an influence where it is not ?
Science alone has no answer, and she has no sug- gestion of an answer. On a purely material basis, no adequate answer can ever be proposed. Therefore science does not pretend to answer, and she acknowl- edges that she does not.
34 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
But in the Bible, we learn that this power is the upholding power of the creative word. Heb. i : 1-3. Thus the things that are made reveal the invisible things of God, "even His eternal power." Rom. i : 20. Gravitation is the power of God through Christ hold- ing all things together ; that is, making them "consist." Col. 1 : 17. It is out of God's unfailing might that they endure. Isa. 40 : 26.
Even those most interested in teaching and believing some other theory, have no real argument to offer against the plain statements of the Word, except that some other explanation than that given in the Scrip- tures is more credible to them. One of the greatest exponents of evolution could swallow the preposterous idea that sometime in the remote ages of the past, life sprang from no-life. Believing such an unscientific, self-contradictory conception, he nevertheless admits that science can really present nothing against the Bib- lical idea of a personal Creator. We quote his words :
"If, ... in some indefinitely remote past seon, the cosmic process was set going by some entity possessed of intelligence and foresight, similar to our own in kind, however superior in degree; if ... it is held that every event, not merely in our planetary speck, but in untold millions of other worlds, was foreknown before these worlds were, — scientific thought, so far as I know anything about it, has nothing to say against that hypothesis." — Thomas Huxley, Fortnightly Re- viezv, November, i8p2.
But though science can say nothing in denial of the Word, the Word has something to say against such
SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 35
science as Mr. Huxley too often believed and taught. And true science, too, joins in the denial of his self- evident errors. How, for example, can life come from something that is not life? One of the highest laws of his beloved evolution is the law of "conformity to type"; that is to say, "Like begets like." Yet he believed — because, and only because, he needed the thing in his business — that something entirely dif- ferent from life begot life.
The whole creation speaks, if it speaks at all, in a way to demonstrate the statements of the Word.
There is, for example, no possible way for us to conceive how the universe itself can maintain itself. How can each and every particle of matter constantly maintain an attractive energy for each and every other particle of matter? How can this mighty flow of power be maintained undiminished throughout the ages? We cannot conceive of such a flow without an idea of an adequate source from which it flows.
Again, the heavenly bodies are all in motion. That motion is unceasing from age to age. The average is constant. In the case of the rotation of the earth on its axis, causing day and night, there is not the slight- est variation in velocity, not by the fraction of a second.
We know how difficult it is with us to maintain motion. We must have some supply of energy by which to accomplish it. But the stars drive on through space with untiring power. Can they drive them- selves? Even our automobiles, "self-moving ma- chines," are in reality gasoline-moved machines. They
36 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
must be constantly supplied with the source of energy ; and after a given length of time, the mechanism breaks down.
We say again, On a material or mechanical basis alone, there is no real explanation for this living, stir- ring universe.
Take again the problem of the direction of the stars. We see that everywhere there is wonderful order. The universe is a delicately adjusted unit. Every part is placed with perfect reference to every other part. All are guided by perfection of wisdom. Where does this wisdom reside? Does each sphere contain its own intelligence? And if so, whence came it, so that it should comprehend the entire universe, and be always perfectly related to all the activities of the cosmos ?
Then, too, there is the question, unanswered by science, concerning the mystery of radiant energy. The light of the stars shines on in unfailing luster from age to age. What feeds the fiery flames ?
And with all the rest of the marvels, we contemplate the wonder of the speed of light. It moves with the enormous rapidity of 186,000 miles a second. That is a distance equal to about 7% times around the world. And all this in a second of time! One swing of the pendulum, and light has swung 186,000 miles away. Before you have read this sentence, it has traveled more than 800,000 miles.
And the speed does not slacken with the distance traveled. A man or a horse travels slower as the dis- tance increases, until, without rest, motion ceases alto-
SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 37
gether, the energy is exhausted. But Hght is still speeding 186,000 miles a second when it has traveled a thousand years. Time or distance makes no change in its velocity.
There is a star yonder in the heavens. To come from it to us, light must travel day and night for a hundred years. When light left that star, it was travel- ing 186,000 miles a second; and when it reaches the earth after its century flight, it is still traveling 186,000 miles every second. There is no slowing up with the distance traversed.
A fact like this can never be explained on any purely material or mechanical basis. The cause of all this flow of unflagging energy lies far back beyond the measure of yardstick or balance arm, of telescope or prism glass.
God is the cause of all, and He is invisible both to the eye of man and to the instruments that man may devise. Yet in the realm of spirit, we may seek and find Him. He may be discovered by the eye of faith. We may know Him not only as Originator and Up- holder, but as God and Father. And finding and knowing Him, we find and have the life eternal.
Thus we see that the Bible and science should not be separated. Yet some may ask, In just what sense does the Bible aid in the study of science?
In answering the question, shall we assume that the Bible has nothing to do with science, and that science has nothing to do with the Bible? Shall we accept the position of Hugh Miller, the celebrated geologist, that the Bible does not in any sense reveal the great
38 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
physical truths of nature, that science alone is fully competent to discover these, and that therefore God ''left them to be developed piecemeal by the unassisted human faculties"?
Not by any means.
We have found that those scientists who say that the Bible and science have nothing to do with one an- other are radically wrong. We know that certain so- called scientific teachings are constantly coming into clash with the statements of the Word. This of itself must show that the Bible does say something on the question; otherwise there would be no controversy.
Yet, while it is perhaps recognized or acknowledged that there is some sort of relation between the two, there is seen to be also somx sort of distinction or divi- sion between them.
Now, the Bible, we know, does not answer all the questions we might ask concerning nature. The Bible does not record the distance from here to the sun. It does not record the number of petals in a sweetbrier rose, nor does it describe the notes of a lark.
If these things are not found in the Bible, where are we to find them ? — In nature, of course. It is nature's work to show forth facts. Nature is, indeed, but a cosmos of facts or realities. And facts can best be learned by observation, by acquaintanceship with them. How could words present to you the song of the lark? How could descriptions reveal the tender, ravishing color of the rose?
But though nature teaches us facts, great guiding principles, on the other hand, may be stated to us in
SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 39
words. And this is what the Bible does for us. The Bible contains the great principles that concern our salvation. We may study the facts of the natural world ; but when we seek to formulate a principle that affects man's relation to his Creator, we at once come within the jurisdiction of the Word of God.
And we assert, without fear of successful contradic- tion, that wherever and however men draw conclusions regarding the relation between God and His creation, right there, always and forever, will be found some- thing from God's Word confirming or denying the hu- man conclusion.
This is infallibly true.
Fact is conformity to truth. When God stated the infinite truth of the Word, He saw all the facts of the universe that lay within the meaning of that truth, and God's statement did not contradict a single truth, and there was not a fact in the universe left unex- plained by the truth. Truth is conformity to fact, and fact is conformity to truth. The Bible is ''the truth," and nature consists of facts ; and so there is perfect conformity between the Bible and nature. The facts of nature illustrate the truth of the Bible, and the Bible guides us in our contemplation of nature. Thus each illuminates the other.
The Bible gives us, if you please, the working hy- pothesis regarding all the fields of knowledge. If we attempt to unite truth with error, or good with evil, the statements of the Word drive a line of cleavage between the two, separating them for us. Thus we are kept from being ensnared. We are saved from
40 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
error, which is the perversion of truth; and we are saved from evil, which is the perversion of good.
The study of astronomy in the Hght of the Bible is therefore the only rational study of it. By a con- templation of God's Word and His works, we shall rise to a measure of real knowledge. We shall con- stantly attain both wisdom and judgment. Thus we shall never lose reverence for God nor confidence in His Word.
CHAPTER IV
The Atmospheric Heavens
No one can have any adequate idea of astronomy without some knowledge of the atmospheric heavens. The ignorant in past ages may have thought that the heavens encircling us were but plates that held us in, parts of a huge crystal sphere.
Had the Bible expressed this childish idea, that would at once suggest to us an earthly origin for the book ; but though it was written in times when all sorts of queer ideas were current, yet it is nowhere contami- nated by the folly of the times.
Its pure stream flows unsullied down the ages. Its adherence to truth is so close and unbroken that the lives of some of its greatest men are told in all the sorrow and shame of their sometime lapses into sin.
When the English translators a few centuries ago rendered the Bible into English, they sometimes used words more in harmony with their own ideas of science and theology than with the original terms.
One example of this is found in the first chapter of Genesis. "God made the firmament, and divided
41
42 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament." Gen. i : 7. Thus, in a few words, the Bible records the creation of that which scientific men call the atmosphere. It gives a very simple description of a very complex thing, yet it opens the very heart of the wonderful fact.
This scripture, as well as the whole narrative of creation, is intended for the instruction of all mankind, and not of the learned reader only. Also, it is intended for all mankind in every age of the world's history, no matter what relative knowledge of science that age may possess.
For a book like the Bible, addressed to the souls of all mankind whatever their educational attainments, no other course is possible or permissible. The lan- guage must be so simple, must so touch the root idea of things, that any man, or even a child, can gather some knowledge of its meaning. At the same time, the wording must be so clear and pure that no scien- tific attainments, however great, shall ever be able to reveal defect in it or to supersede it.
Such, we shall find, is this statement concerning the creation of the atmosphere.
There have been times when men believed and taught that the earth was flat. They thought then that the heavens were a crystal dome resting on all sides upon the firm support of the earth.
And some men in our days seek to show that the w^ord "firmament" of the Scriptures means this same thing. One writer, greatly impressed with his own
THE A TMOSPHERIC HE A VENS 43
narrow conceptions of the ancient Book, translates the word "hammered plates." In so doing, he shows more invention than knowledge.
The word raqia, from which "firmament" is trans- lated, is from a root word meaning to hammer or pound. The idea of "plates" is not in the original word. It was wholly supplied by this modern skeptic. To hammer metal out into plates is to cause it to ex- pand; and so in time the word which at first meant only to hammer, came to mean to expand.
Thus in the Hebrew language, the word has two meanings; one, to hammer; and the other, to expand. And that which was expanded was called raqia, an expanse. But not once in the Hebrew Bible does this word stand for our two English words "hammered plates." In fact, there is no such expression as "ham- mered plates" anywhere in the Bible. The nearest like it are the terms "beaten gold" and "beaten work" ; but for these, entirely diflferent words in Hebrew are used.
The only suggestion, in the Hebrew, of the idea given in the crude translation of the modern critic is found in two expressions. Thus in Ex. 30 : 3, we read of gold beaten into thin plates. But here the root word appears in order to represent the spreading out of the metal by the beating, and a separate word is used for "plates." The other example is Isa. 40 : 19, where the goldsmith is mentioned as spreading an image over with gold. But it is for the "spreading over" that the root word is here used, and not at all for the metal, which is indicated by another word.
44 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
One can readily see that since the word means that which is expanded, it might possibly have been used to designate a metal plate so expanded; yet not once has inspiration so used the word.
But when we examine the term "expanse" as ap- plied to the atmospheric heavens, we discover a deep and great significance to it. We understand that air is made up of a mixture of two gases, oxygen and nitrogen; and we know that all gases tend to expand unless in some way confined or restricted in space. Furthermore, science teaches us that the expansion of any gas is caused by the hammering upon one an- other of the atoms of which the gas is composed. We do not aim here to condone the atomic theory; but supposing that science is somewhat right, we begin to see how the idea of "hammer" might come into the word denoting the atmosphere. All matter, and par- ticularly gaseous matter, is vibrant with force; and force is but the energy of the creative word.
When God, therefore, wrapped the earth about with a gaseous envelope, vibrant under the constantly im- pressed energy of the word, the very vibrating and clashing and hammering of the atoms of the gases, particularly under the heat of the sun, caused these particles to seek wider room and thus expand until the stress of expansion was in perfect balance with the restraining stress of gravity.
And thus it is even to this day.
We can picture how, when God created the con- stituent gases of the air, they moved out into a great atmospheric expanse, to the bounds fixed for it by the
THE A TMO SPHERIC HEA VENS 45
will of the Creator. Thus we have a hammered ex- panse; for the particles of the gases have been ham- mered by the energy of the creative word. And we have even now a hammered expanse; for the power of that word is forever active, still causing the parti- cles to vibrate and thus continue to maintain the ex- panse. The first impulse from God created the air ; the second impulse continues and maintains it.
We do not deny, for it is true, that men came in time to think of the sky as a dome of crystal. Thus the Greeks and the Romans viewed it. The Jews even, by contamination with the heathen — and the New Testament record is proof enough of their final apostasy — might give the Scriptures an improper rendering. But this is all apart from the work of in- spiration. And to-day we see the result of heathen ideas, the result of a misunderstanding of the works as well as the Word, in our common English transla- tion of the word raqia by "firmament," as something firm or substantial.
But we cannot believe that Abraham had this re- stricted idea of the heavens when the Lord led him abroad at night and revealed to him that the stars of the sky were not merely a few thousand, as his unaided eye would think, but that they were as numberless as the sands of the ocean shore. They were, as Abraham found when God strengthened his sight, beyond the count of man. How could such a conception accord with the idea of some shining plates holding within their walls a few lights ? Leave such foolish ideas for the heathen to hold, but charge them not to the seer of
46 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
God. When Moses speaks of "the heaven and the heaven of heavens," he is saying, according to the real meaning of the Hebrew, '^the lofty and the lofty of the lofties" ; and by this, we know that he means some- thing far beyond any heathenish idea of a low dome above us. Deut. lo : 14. The prophet Jeremiah brings to us the revelation that the heavens above cannot be measured by man (Jer. 31 : 37) ; and this of itself dis- poses of any such limitations to the sky as the heathen held. Immediately afterward the same prophet could appeal to this might of God in creating an unmeasured expanse above us and about us, as a proof of God's omnipotence. Jer. 32 : 17. Men's ideas of God's Word, and that Word itself, are quite separate things. Revelation gives us the truth of science, the real fact, in the word "expanse" ; and science is left to search out the details which revelation thus suggests. Here we see again the concord between the Bible and science, their true harmony.
Last of all, the Scriptural word for "atmosphere" is better than the one that science gives. The lan- guage of science is more the language of mere appear- ance. Thus books on astronomy speak of "the sun entering Aries," by which they do not mean that the sun actually enters the constellation of Aries, but that it passes a certain point in space, called "the ver- nal equinox." They also speak of the conjunction of heavenly bodies, but do not mean by this that these bodies actually conjoin; they merely appear to do so. And scientific men, nonscientific men, and the Bible also, put the appearance for the reality, when they
THE A TMO SPHERIC HE A VENS 47
speak of the rising and the setting of the sun. It is perfectly proper to use such an expression; for we speak of the phenomenon only, without any reference to the cause producing it. To do otherwise would be to place upon us a burden that neither we nor our lan- guage of common conversation could bear.
We have said that the Scriptural name for the at- mospheric heavens is a better word than that given by science; and so it is. The word that science gives, means "a ball of vapor." It describes the appearance of the thing. But the Bible word suggests the real condition and nature by using the word "expanse," suggesting to us the inner fact, and prompting us to learn what was expanded, and what caused this ex- panse.
A tree is known by its fruit. The Word of God does not give men narrow, foolish ideas of even this material universe. It gives us, indeed, the mightiest of spiritual truths; but its words regarding the ma- terial creation, though fewer and briefer, are so grand and so sublime as to comport with the first.
The Bible has given the germ truth of all the great scientific discoveries of these modern times. As we proceed with the subject, this will be more and more clearly discerned. These principles of the Word hold true even in the fields of mathematics, physics, chem- istry, and biology. If men had used the truth of God's Word as a basis of scientific investigation, there would to-day be seen a far better state of affairs. But re- ligion, too often, has been made the means of fetter- ing men's souls rather than of freeing them. This
48 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
must be laid at the door of bigotry and priestcraft. It is not the influence of the Bible.
Take another example of the inerrancy of the Word : Men have always known something of the air. It has propelled their ships, thrust itself against the bodies of men, and overturned their works. But the great reason for all this, the great principle by which these atmospheric phenomena are to be explained, had never once entered their heads. They witnessed even the devastation of the whirlwind, but never once dreamed that weight was necessary to give momentum. They could only attribute the work to some of their idol gods. And so long as men did not think of air's having weight, they would not, of course, make any investigations in that direction. At last, however, the question was raised. Men asked, Has the air weight? How this question first arose, no one now can say. Possibly it was suggested by the phenomena them- selves. If so, the facts of nature were pointing men toward the truth. Or it may be that men read Job 28:25, and then went to nature with the question. If so, it was the Word leading men to the facts that ex- plained the truth of the Word. How one could read this text in Job and not have the question suggested, it is not easy to understand. But in some way, at last, the question was raised, Has the air weight?
"During the earlier period of the revival of learn- ing in Europe, the question was occasionally discussed, and was always decided in the negative. No such pressure could be felt. All experience and sensation seemed to be opposed to the idea of its existence.
A Peculiar Nebular Formation in Cygnus
4a
Region of the North American Nebula
Vast numbers of stars, most of them larger than our sun, that
stagger the imagination, and overwhelm the reason. In their
midst is the weird, mystic nebula. Note the peculiar outlines
that give it the name.
THE A TMO SPHERIC HE A VENS 49
"Men were everywhere using their rude devices for raising water in pumps, without the least idea of what they were doing. The action that was taking place before their eyes never entered into their compre- hension. If any one had told them that, in raising a pump bucket, they were lifting a portion of the weight of the atmosphere from the water under the bucket, so that the excess of this pressure, exerted on the sur- face of the water in the well, would force the column of water in the pump barrel up after the bucket, there were centuries when such a teacher would have been in danger of being burned up.
"This, with all similar phenomena, was explained by the dictum that nature abhors a vacuum. This nonsense passed for science through many ages. It is interesting to recall the long period during which this was assumed as an axiom that no one dared to question. . . .
"The raising of the question whether the atmos- phere might have weight, was itself a notable event, as marking the beginning of scientific inquiry. But an experiment was made, which was long regarded among the learned as settling this question in the nega- tive. This experiment consisted in weighing a bladder, when distended with air and when empty. No differ- ence could ever be detected."
Men did not see the fallacy of this experiment.
"This fallacy lay in the unobserved fact that the bladder was filled with, and immersed in, the same fluid. Whether full, or approximately empty, it always displaced, in addition to its own proper bulk, very
50 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
nearly the same weight of air that it contained. A similar experiment would just as well prove water, or even mercury, to be without weight. So this great fact was hidden from men. Copernicus, Galileo, died without the sight."
Though God had said, ages before, that He had given to the air weight (Job 28: 25), men trusted the result of their own blind guess instead of the infallible Word of God. So they were still in error.
"In endeavoring to raise water from a deep well in Florence, it was found possible to lift it only about thirty-two feet, which led Galileo to observe that nature, evidently, did not abhor a vacuum above thirty- two feet. Dying, Galileo commended the investigation of this subject to his pupil and successor, Torricelli. The reflections of TorricelH led him to the conviction that the atmosphere must have weight [he had found the true theory, the one given in the Bible], and that it must be by its pressure that the water was caused to rise in the pump barrel. In considering how this question might be tested, he at last thought of mer- cury. This substance, between thirteen and fourteen times heavier than water, would be caused by the same pressure, if it existed, to rise only about thirty inches. So he reasoned that, by the employment of mercury, the existence or nonexistence of this pressure might be shown in a glass tube.
"It is interesting to imagine the feelings of this philosopher when preparing for this experiment, which was so remarkable at once for its simplicity, its con- clusiveness, and its importance. It was almost as
THE A TMO SPHERIC HEA VENS 61
simple as that of standing the tgg on its end, yet no other finite mind had conceived it. Was it with trembhng expectation, or in the calmness of conscious strength, that he filled with mercury his glass tube, four feet in length, sealed at one end, placed his finger over the open end, inverted the tube, plunged the open end in a vessel half filled with mercury, and then — removed his finger ?
**What were the emotions with which he saw the column of mercury fall, and, after completing the os- cillations produced by its momentum, stand at a height of between twenty-nine and thirty inches, in equilibrium with the pressure of the atmosphere on the same area of the mercury in the vessel; or with which he realized the fact that the glass tube above the column of mer- cury inclosed the absolute void, then first obtained by man, since only approximations to it could be reached in the pump barrel, and which was ever after to be known as the Torricellian vacuum ! And what would his emotions have been if he could have imagined — what, indeed, no one can adequately conceive — the influence that this discovery was to exert in prompting the industries and the civilization of his race!
"The discovery of the pressure of the atmosphere is one of those discoveries by which the boundary of human knowledge has been enlarged in a remarkable degree. It was a radical discovery; and out of it there have sprung an endless series of discoveries and inventions, which, while they have contributed to an incalculable measure to the welfare of man, have at the same time still further added to the extent of his
52 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
knowledge and the power of his understanding." — Charles Talbot Porter.
We know that the weight, or down pressure, of the air, is enormous. Its pressure, or weight, is about fifteen pounds to the square inch, or over a ton for each square foot of the earth's surface. This is not felt; for it is through us as well as about us; we are immersed in it. The whole pressure of the air on the surface of the earth, expressed in tons, would require sixteen digits. In round numbers, we may say, it is five thousand milHons of millions of tons; or if you want it more exactly, it is close to 5,517,823,961,480,- 000 tons.
Thus we know that the weight of the air is tremen- dous. God gave air this weight. He regulated it with mathematical nicety to our needs. And He did not leave us in ignorance of the fact, but told us of it in His Word. The air binds the earth with an elastic hoop. If God were to unclasp this air from about the earth, and take off this enormous pressure, would not the pent-up forces within the earth break forth? Some day He will remove it, as one removes the peel- ing from an orange. Some day it will be rolled to- gether as a scroll. Rev. 6: 14. What about your science then? Will you, with all your science, be founded on His immutable Word? If so, you may look calmly up, in that awful hour, and say. We will not fear, "though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof."
CHAPTER V
The Power of Gravitation
THE work of Sir Isaac Newton in ascertaining that there is in the universe a mysterious force acting between all particles of matter, regard- less of how remote, and his work in measuring the pull of this power between given bodies, is something no man should belittle. What he accomplished speaks for itself in the gigantic results that have followed.
Yet this was but a development of things already grasped by the inquiring mind of man. For years, men had used pumps ; but had they been told that the mechanism of the pump, thoroughly understood, would explain the force operating between the heavenly bodies, the announcement would have been met with absolute incredulity. Yet solving the problem of the pump led to the discovery of the fact that air has weight; and from this, men came to the conclusion that all things have weight. But this is universal gravitation, only put in other words.
"Out of pumps grew the discussion about nature's abhorrence of a vacuum; and then it was discovered
53
54 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
that nature does not abhor a vacuum, but that air has weight ; and that notion paved the way for the doctrine that all matter has weight, and that the force which produces weight is coextensive with the universe, — in short, to the theory of universal gravitation and end- less force." — Thomas Huxley.
We have found in the Word an announcement that air has weight. Since the truth of a coextensive force lies in that revelation, it follows that so far, at least, gravity is pointed out. But the Scriptures are plainer and more explicit regarding gravity than this ; for that there is such a force is more than once declared.
The Bible places before us a very striking picture. The apothecary, in filling a prescription, or in com- pounding a mixture, first measures out the materials. He then knows in just what proportion the ingredients are used, and the combined weight of the whole.
That such a picture with reference to the Creator should be given us in the Word of God ages before the so-called discovery of Newton, is most significant. The Creator is represented as weighing out and measuring, when He established the universe, all the elements that enter into it. He is represented as know- ing the weight of all the different parts of the earth, even as a man knows the weight of the parcels he places in the scales.
''For He looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven." Why does the Creator do this? — "To make the weight for the winds; and He weigheth the waters by measure." Job 28 : 24, 25. "He made a law for the rain, and a way for the sound-
THE POWER OF GRAVITATION 55
ing storms." Job 28:26, Douay version. Again: "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and com- prehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a bal- ance?" Isa. 40: 12.
This is but one aspect of the great law of gravita- tion. Scientists now see that any atom of the uni- verse is assigned to its place with a recognition of what effect it will have on every other atom, and what effect every other atom will have upon it. With all other parts of the universe as they are, and the earth's orbit of the size and in the relative position that it is, the weight of the earth could not be increased or made less without most serious consequences not only to the earth but to the whole universe.
Let us look more closely at this matter for a mo- ment. Suppose the earth to have its present distance from the sun, and its present orbital velocity of motion.
According to the first law of motion, a moving body left to itself moves forever in a straight Hne, with a uniform velocity.
Now the earth has been set in motion with a velo- city of about eleven hundred miles a minute. But as has been said, if left to itself, the earth would move in a straight line.
However, the earth does not move in a straight line, but instead, moves in a path nearly circular, or what is called a closed orbit. The attraction of the sun is the force that deflects the earth from a straight path and gives it this orbital direction.
56 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
But the attraction of the sun is determined, outside of the sun itself, by the amount of matter in the earth. If there were somewhat less matter in the earth than there is — that is, if the earth weighed slightly less than it does now — its orbital velocity being as now, the attractive power exerted by the sun would be weaker than it is now, and the earth would not be sufficiently deflected to move in a closed orbit around the sun.
With every revolution, the earth would be farther away from the sun, until at last, breaking away from the sun's control, it would fly out on a career of its own into the wilds of space.
If, on the other hand, the earth weighed slightly more than it does at present, and its orbital velocity were unchanged from what it is now, the attractive power of the sun would be greater than it is at present, and the earth would be deflected inside of its present orbit.
At each revolution, it would approach nearer and nearer the sun, until eventually, with a frightful speed, it would crash into the great central luminary.
But either of these supposed circumstances could but work ruin with all other parts of the solar system. And what happens in the solar system must be felt to the outermost bounds of the unfathomable universe. If one member suffers, all others must suffer with it.
The universe, grand and infinite as it is in its ex- panse, nevertheless is a unit. And it is made a unit by this power which acts between all its component parts. This force is the hand of God, so to speak,
THE PO WER OF GRA VITA TION 57
which holds each element of the whole in its relative place, and guides all in their infinite paths.
The Word declares that, even as men have now found, the earth hangs on nothing. "He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." Job 26 : 7. But it is just as ex- plicit in declaring that the earth is nevertheless up- held. Furthermore, it declares that all things as well are upheld. And it even affirms how the earth and all things are upheld. Scientists are right in attributing this work to a force. So the Bible attributes it; but the Bible goes a step farther, and gives the cause and origin of this force, ascribing it to the word of al- mighty God. ''Upholding all things by the word of His power" Heb. i : 3.
When we read the scriptures in Isaiah where God is represented as measuring the waters, meting out the heavens, comprehending the dust of the earth, and weighing the mountains and the hills; when we read that He not only measured these, but determined their specific gravity and total weight (Job 28:25; 38:4-7; Hab. 3:6), — we are so struck with the greatness of the Creator, that all other ideas in the Scriptures seem to fade out of view. We find it so great a revelation of God, that we stop with that revelation, and go no farther. But that is not all there is in the disclosure. As we have seen, the fundamental truth of universal gravity is included in the greater revelation of God.
When, on the other hand, we study what science has done, we see only the great revelation of gravity; and looking no farther, we fail to see a revelation of God
&8 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
But it was not designed that, having seen the workings of infinite power, we should cease our investigations, until we had come to the all-sufficient source of that infinite power.
Thus viewing the Word, we have seen the God of power, but have failed to study the workings of that power; and viewing the workings of that power, we have failed to perceive the God of the power. Which mistake is the greater, we need not discuss. God meant us to make neither. A free knowledge of God must in time lead us to a knowledge of His workings ; and an ignorance of God, as in the Dark Ages, must produce ignorance of His workings — that is, stagna- tion in science and in scientific researches.
But let no one think that any theory of gravitation will be complete which leaves out of consideration the great Primal Cause. That there are absurdities as well as things beyond human conception in the hypothesis scientists have adopted with reference to this power, all scientists know.
How some of them feel about these difficulties is well stated in the following words:
**We must not imagine the word 'attract' to mean too much. It merely states the fact that there is a tendency for the bodies to move toward each other, without including or implying any explanation of the fact. So far, no explanation has appeared which is less difficult to comprehend than the fact itself. Whether bodies are drawn together by some outside action, or pushed together ; or whether they themselves can act across space with mathematical intelligence, —
THE POWER OF GRAVITATION 59
in what way it is that 'attraction' comes about, — is still unknown, — apparently as inscrutable as the very nature and constitution of an atom of matter itself; it is simply a fundamental fact." — Young's "General Astronomy."
The Bible has its part in revealing the truth of the attraction of gravitation. It declares:
1. That there is such a power;
2. That it upholds all things; and —
3. That the causative agent is the word of God. On these three points it stands, above all science and
scientific research; and it always must, in the very nature of the case, so stand. Science only shows its utter folly and weakness when it attempts to enter this domain of the Word with any other doctrines and philosophies.
But in that matter of the study of gravity, science has its lawful and helpful place. There are some facts involved in the great principle announced in the Word. Just what these facts are cannot be ascertained by a study of the Word alone, or by the Word at all; they are not there revealed. Only the truth is there re- vealed; the facts are revealed elsewhere. The facts must be found by a study of the works. And only by a study of the works can they be found.
The facts which science may discover and announce, and which, indeed, it has found and made known, are two: namely, that this force of attraction between particles is (i) directly proportioned to the mass of the attracting particles, and (2) inversely proportioned to the square of the distance between them.
60 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
The first fact may be stated thus : The power acting between bodies of equal mass increases when the num- ber of particles is increased, and decreases when the number of particles decreases. That is, the power act- ing is always proportioned to the number or mass of the particles it acts upon.
As to the second fact: When we increase the distance between particles, we decrease the pull between them; and when we decrease the distance between particles, we increase the pull. That is, the pull is inversely proportioned to the square of the distance between the things pulled.
These tzvo facts, and what they mean, are well stated by Henry White Warren, D. D. We make a slight change in the wording, to fit our purpose. "The laws governing this attraction are two. When these par- ticles are associated together, the attraction is in pro- portion to the mass. A given mass pulls twice as much as one half the size, because there is twice as much to pull. And a given mass is pulled twice as much as one half as large, because there is twice as much to be pulled. A man who weighed one hundred and fifty pounds on the earth might weigh a ton and a half on a body as large as the sun. That is one law of attrac- tion; and the other is, that masses attract inversely as the square of distance between them. Absence affects friendships that have a material basis. If a body like the earth pulls a man one hundred and fifty pounds at the surface, or four thousand miles from the center, it will pull the same man one fourth as much at twice the distance. That is, he will weigh, by a spring bal-
THE POWER OF GRAVITATION 61
ance, thirty-seven and a half pounds at eight thousand miles from the center, and nine pounds six ounces at sixteen thousand miles from the center, and he will weigh or be pulled by the earth one twenty-fourth of a pound at the distance of the moon. But the moon would be large enough and near enough to pull twenty- four pounds on the same man, so the earth could not draw him away. Thus the two laws of attraction are : (i) Gravity is proportioned to the quantity of matter; and (2) The force of gravity varies inversely as the square of the distance from the center of the attract- ing body."
Now these two facts belong to the domain of science. Men are left entirely free to know all that they may be able to discover regarding these. The Bible is utterly silent relative to them.
But to the three points which revelation declares, science is allowed to add all that it may by way of illustration. Man is invited to reecho the words of God by working. The Bible says (i) that there is a universal force acting in the universe, and (2) that it upholds all things, and (3) that it is due to the power of the word of God. Science may in any legitimate manner reaffirm and reecho these truths of God. But the two facts discoverable by science, the Bible in no way attempts to state or name. In other words, the Word invites confirmation of its statements, but leaves science entirely free in the investigations which belong to its own peculiar domain.
Thus there are two fields of knowledge, — one for revelation, the other for science. There should be no
62 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
conflict between them. Each is helpful to the other, and each sheds light upon the other.
And this is an example of all other fields of knowl- edge. God has done His part, and done it so well that no man can in truth condemn or amend it. He gives man also a part to act, and a field of knowledge to work, to which the Word will give him infinite aid, but in which he is left by it profoundly free. And as man labors, acting well his part, he may some day come to know that he is even thus a laborer together with God, and that in this wider knowledge lies a broader liberty.
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CHAPTER VI
The Transfer of Energy
THE book of Job contains many references to the things of the material world. The Creator, in the closing chapters of the book, lays before the puzzled Job some of the fundamental problems of science. The reason of this is easily discovered.
Job had been sorely afflicted. Bereft of family and all earthly possessions, suffering of a loathsome dis- ease, he is at length visited by three of his friends. The three know but one philosophy : Suffering is always on account of sin, and is ministered in exact proportion to the enormity of that sin. If a man is well and prosperous, that is evidence of his righteous- ness; if he is afflicted, that is proof of his sin.
The three do not see in Job any semblance to his former self. They lift up their voices and weep, rend their mantles, sprinkle dust upon their heads, sit down upon the ground seven days and seven nights, offering not a word.
At last, the suft'ering of Job becomes so great that he curses the day wherein he was born. The three
63
64 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
listen to him for a time; but eventually their pent-up feelings find vent, and their philosophy that suffering is always visited because of sins committed, is poured out in words and figures and arguments in overwhelm- ing confusion upon the miserable Job. "Who ever perished," say they, "being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? . . . They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same."
But Job knows that such philosophy is not complete ; he knows, even as the facts in the case attest, that their words do not apply to him. Nevertheless he is groping in the dark. He does not understand the meaning of his condition. He knows, however, that he is innocent of any evil intent or deed. Then begins the long and heated argument. The three counselors are silenced at last, and a fourth, named Elihu, attempts still fur- ther to clear the mystery.
None of Job's comforters would admit that the innocent could suffer, or the righteous be afflicted. The bright light from the cross had not as yet lighted the mystery. In Christ, we see the innocent afflicted, and the upright suffering death. Job was, though he knew it not, but filling up "of the afflictions of Christ." Col. 1 : 24. All unconsciously, he was fellowshiping in the sufferings of Jesus.
Then when Job's darkness had grown most intense, and the problem of his condition seemed incapable of a solution, God appeared. In His address to Job, He taught the afflicted man that this mystery of the inno- cent suffering for the guilty was only one of the many great problems that confronted the pygmy mind of man.
The Land of the Midnight Sun As the earth might appear if one could only "stand off" look at it when the sun is "farthest north."
A Typical Sun Spot — Highly jMagnified Photographed from a drawing by Scriven Bolton.
THE TRANSFER OF ENERGY 65
In imagination, He carried him back to creation's morning, then out into the great universe, and finally brought him to the simplest, most familiar things of the world about him, causing him to realize that every- where are questions unanswered and problems un- solved— mysteries too high for man's mind in this his infant state and in these his few years of sojourn.
But if he could not solve intellectually the problems of his life. Job, face to face with the Creator, could realize God's love and goodness, and at once resigned himself to the peace and holy shelter of the ever- lasting arms.
The Creator's questions to Job call to our minds some of the mysteries all about us. These mysteries mean, first of all, that there is still something more for us to learn, a mine of riches as yet all unexplored. These mysteries should teach us modesty, and produce in us, while we grope and ponder, a willingness to wait for the full unfolding of the truth.
Much has been said and written concerning light. Many think it is quite fully understood. But it is not. In some of its simplest aspects, it is still a pro- found, impenetrable mystery. God, when He appeared to Job, asked him the still unanswered question, "By what way is the hght distributed ?" Job 38 : 24, literal translation.
Some in our day would say that the answer to this question is very simple. "Light is distributed," they say, "by vibrations, or waves, in the luminiferous ether." And then this lucid definition is explained somewhat as follows:
66 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
As a pebble, dropped in water, causes ripples in the water to travel outward across the surface, so notes and tones cause vibrations, or waves, in the atmos- phere; and these, reaching the ear, set up a vibration of the drum of the ear, causing at last a sensation of sound. In a similar manner, a vibration in the ether, reaching at last the eyes, gives one the sensation of light.
But all this being said and understood, the fact still remains that no one can explain how light reaches across an intervening"" space. We cannot, even now, with all our boasted science, answer the question God addressed to Job; and the conviction grows that it is unanswerable — the simple question, "By what way is the light distributed?"
And this mystery of the transfer of light is also the mystery of the transfer of gravity, electricity, heat, and all radiant forces whatsoever. We know, in some measure, what these forces do; but how they do it is a question as yet very imperfectly answered.
'*We must carefully bear in mind that the origin of phenomena is not explained because, in the language of science, they have been referred to an assumed force with a high-sounding name. Names are not things; and we know nothing more of the cause which brings the apple to the ground because Newton has called it the force of gravitation, than we did before. He gave us the law of motion, and showed us the formula of its working, and enabled us to predict how every apple would fall, and how every planet would move through- out space; but the cause of the motion is as closely
THE TRANSFER OF ENERGY 67
hidden as ever. In regard to the law of gravitation we know a great deal; but in regard to the force of gravitation — whatever we may think or believe about it — we know absolutely nothing, and the same is true of every other force." — Josiah Parsons Cooke, Erving professor of chemistry and mineralogy in Harvard University.
Newton, over and over again, insisted that he had nothing to do with gravitation as a physical cause. He said: "How these attractions of gravity, magnet- ism, and electricity may be performed, I do not here consider. What I call attraction may be performed by impulse or by some other means unknown to me. I use the word here to signify only in a general way any force by which bodies tend toward one another, what- ever be the cause." — "Optics/' query ji.
"Newton assuredly lent no shadow of support to the modern pseudo scientific philosophy which con- founds laws and causes." — Huxley.
"All we know about the force of gravitation, or any other so-called force, is that it is a name for the hypo- thetical cause of an observed order of facts." — Huxley.
Huxley calls this force a hypothetical cause. "Hypo- thetical" has reference to a hypothesis ; it is something "assumed without a proof, for the purpose of reason- ing and deducing proof." But a hypothetical cause is, in the absolute sense, no cause at all. Forces are not causes; for they themselves in turn must be ac- counted for. Notice how it works: Bodies tend to move toward each other; what is the cause? "The force of gravitation," says the scientist. But what is
68 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
this force? — "It is the force which draws bodies to- ward each other." But how does this force produce this effect? Coming back to our first question, what is the cause of this attraction? Our question remains unanswered. While we search for the cause, the pseudo-scientist continues to repeat his formula, "Bodies are attracted toward one another by the force of gravity; and the force of gravity is that which draws them together." He ends where he began, and he begins where he ended. He is reasoning in a circle.
"It is certain that light consists in the transference of energy, not of matter; and the undulatory theory is based upon this fact. But as to the manner in which energy is thus transferred, we are entirely ig- norant."— "International Cyclopedia," article "Undu- latory Theory of Light."
How do light and the force of gravitation travel across the abyss of space? In the words of God to Job, "By what way is the light distributed ?" Scientists cannot tell. The theory that light travels by vibrations in the light-bearing ether does not explain it. The theory, in its very constitution, is self -destructive. By this theory, one thing is supposed to act upon another through a space absolutely empty.
To see more clearly how difficult is this question of the transfer of force through space, let us take, as an example, the light and heat of the sun. The sun acts upon us to produce the sensation of light and heat. The sun is over ninety millions of miles away from us; and the light and the heat are here on the earth, having traveled the immense distance from the sun
THE TRANSFER OF ENERGY 69
to us. We find that the Hght and the heat, in passing from the sun to us, have consumed some eight minutes.
Now, in this instance of the transfer of light and heat from sun to earth, we have the idea of a motion — the motion of this force passing from sun to earth. But in conceiving motion, we always think of some- thing moved. Therefore we argue that the exercise of force through ninety millions of miles, or through any other distance, for that matter, of absolute vacuum, where there is nothing that can in any wise be moved, is inconceivable. We cannot think of a force as trav- eling unless it has something in which or upon which to travel. Hence we naturally reason about as follows : Between the sun and the earth there is a motion shown by the transfer of heat and light, and hence something moved. This something that moves, and hence trans- fers the energy of Hght and heat — what is it? Scien- tists call it the ether. Some of them think it is a sort of thin air; others think it is an elastic solid, which pervades all space, being always present everywhere. As has been said, waves in the ether are supposed to carry the energy of light and heat, somewhat as the air carries sound waves^ or somewhat as the surface of the water carries the waves produced by the drop- ping of a pebble.
But now, having assumed the existence of this ether — having assumed it because we cannot conceive of force as traveling without something set in motion to carry it — how much better off are we than before?
What is the constitution of this ether, which we have thus introduced between the earth and the stars ?
70 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
All matter is assumed by scientists to consist of atoms, or particles, which attract and repel each other. If these atoms attract each other more than they repel, we call the matter a solid. If the attraction and the repulsion are about equal, we call the matter a liquid. If tlie atoms repel more than they attract, we call the matter a gas. Now, this ether, like all matter, is sup- posed to be made up of atoms that attract and repel each other ; only the atoms of the ether are very much smaller than those in ordinary matter, and very much farther apart.
A necessary part of the ether hypothesis is the sup- position that the ether is imponderable — that is, has no weight; for if it had weight, it would fall in the direction of the strongest attracting force, and thus cease to be a uniform medium everywhere present. If it is imponderable, or without weight, we are shut up to the conclusion that the ratio between the inter- spaces of these atoms and the atoms themselves is vastly greater than the like ratio in ordinary, or pon- derable, matter. To put the case plainly: The atoms of the ether, in order to fit the theory, are as small with reference to the spaces between them, as the sun and the earth are as compared with the space between them. And between these atoms there is absolutely vacant space. Therefore we have abandoned the first difficulty of how the force passes from the sun across the interspace to the earth, only to come to a second just like it, — How does the force pass from one atom of the ether to another atom through the vacant space that always exists between them? The illustration
THE TRANSFER OF ENERGY 71
shows what we mean. The large circle represents the sun, the smaller one the earth, and the dots the ether. Let us ask again the original question, and let the scientist answer. "How is light to pass from sun to earth over ninety-three million miles of vacant space ?"
"By means of waves in the ether," says the scientist.
"But hold ! Your theory of the constitution of the ether is that it is composed of atoms which are never in contact — which have, like the sun and the earth, vast spaces between them ?"
"Yes."
"Then how does this force, in passing through the ether, move from one of these atoms to the other?"
He is silent ; he cannot tell.
With our ether hypothesis, we are no better off than we were before. We still have to imagine a body as acting where it is not, and in the absence of anything by which its action may be transferred. The phi- losophy of the thing is the same whether the exercise of force be on a large or a small scale. In the words of Herbert Spencer: "We see . . . that the exer- cise of force is altogether unintelligible. We cannot imagine it except through the instrumentality of some- thing having extension ; and yet when we have assumed this something, we find that the perplexity is not got rid of, but only postponed. We are obliged to conclude
n ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
that matter, whether ponderable or imponderable, and whether aggregated or in its hypothetical units, acts upon matter through absolutely vacant space, and yet this conclusion is positively unthinkable."
Now, as in the days of Job, no man knows by what way the light is distributed. In the springtime, the sunlight touches the earth, and wakes the dormant life beneath the sod, and all the hillsides grow radiant with beauty; but how this light reaches us, no man can tell. And this is not the only mystery.
The world is full of mysteries; but this is because the world is larger than the measure of man's mind. And, too, there are mysteries in God's providence, mysteries in His Word ; but they are mysteries because that providence and that Word are larger than our feeble thought. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts than our thoughts. Isa. 55:9.
Shall we ignore these mysteries, as some so-called scientists do, and say that all the things of nature are explained without the necessity of a Creator? Or shall we allow the mystery to throw about our minds the darkness of doubt and unrest? Or shall we, like Job, find our souls' rest in Him who is greater than all mystery, and confide our all to Him who knows, uxd who will make known as we are able to endure and understand?
Let us digress from the subject of light long enough to consider this matter of mysteries and our attitude toward them. The mysteries of nature and of providence and of the Word are but examples of the
THE TRANSFER OP ENERGY 73
mysteries that must, in the nature of the case, forever surround the manifestations of God Himself. He is incomprehensible to us, and hence His acts arc shrouded in more or less of mystery. But some will say: "If God is incomprehensible, how can we worship Him rationally? Blind worship is possible, but that is superstition; rational worship of an incomprehen- sible being is impossible."
"On the contrary," says Professor Le Conte, "it is only of such a one that rational worship is possible. In order to worship rationally, we must be able to apprehend, but we must not be able to comprehend. We must be able to take hold of, but we must not be able to inclose and determine the limits of the object of our worship. In order to worship him rationally, we must be able to lay hold of and cling to him, even if it be but the lowermost skirts of his outer garment; but we must not be able to embrace, except only his feet.
"We love that which is like ourselves and which we can also entirely comprehend; that which is on our own level, or even below us. It is thus we love our friends and our children. We love and reverence that which, though like ourselves, is above us, but not beyond our comprehension. It is thus we love and reverence the wise, the great, and the good, among our fellow men. But we love, reverence, and worship only that which is still like ourselves, but which is not only above us, but in its highest parts incomprehensible to us." — "Religion and Science,'' page 102.
It is not consistent for the skeptic to call his Chris- tian friend unreasonable for believing in some things
74 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
that are incapable of a full explanation. So long as the skeptic cannot explain by what means light or gravity travels across the oceans of space, so long as he cannot explain how light from a lamp reaches his eye, he should not complain of his Christian friend for believing some of the experienced but unexplained realities of the higher life.
We believe that gravity reaches across the abyss of space to clasp all worlds in one bond of unity, and we believe that light and heat travel from star to star; but we cannot explain what thus we know is so.
And the Christian believes that a man can be and is bom again into a life that transcends mortality, but we cannot understand or explain it all. Like the transfer of light, heat, and gravity, it is covered with more or less of mystery; but nevertheless, it is fact.
CHAPTER VII
The Center of the Universe
ERROR and truth on any particular point cannot reside in the same mind at the same time. Error and truth are opposites ; the one is entirely an- tagonistic to the other. A particular error retained in the mind keeps out of that mind the opposite truth.
In astronomy, for ages, one radical truth was not generally apprehended, — the truth that the earth is not the center of the universe. The idea that the earth was the center, was the great mistake which held men from any large advancement in astronomical science. All their investigations were colored by it; and the entire universe of the visible heavens, tried by it, was woefully out of joint. The whole system of ancient astronomy was built upon a huge mistake.
"Men held, as a fact of absolute, unquestionable certainty, that this earth of ours, — this small whirling globe, less than eight thousand miles in diameter, — was a vast and immeasurable plain, extending to perhaps infinite distances, and firmly fixed upon immovable foundations. They held that around this
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great and motionless center moved the other heavenly bodies, — a little sun, a little moon, and a few thousand tiny stars, all placed near, for the sole purpose of lighting and warming our mighty earth.
"The one entirely accepted fact being that our earth was the moveless center of all things, other matters had to fit in with that theory as best they might. The study of the skies was long hopelessly hampered by this one stupendous error. It is singular to glance through records of early astronomical notions, and see the variety of theories that arose, one following another, all designed to explain the things which were seen to happen, all hopelessly wrong because of this one foundation mistake.
"The early Greeks at one time steadfastly believed the sun to be a torch, the stars to be candles, by turns lit and put out. One of their philosophers improved, later, upon the theory, by maintaining that the stars were a kind of meteors, an emanation from the earth, — a sort of 'terrestrial effluvia.'
"Another explanation in vogue among them was that our earth floated in a boundless ocean; and that when the sun vanished at night, he was boated by Vulcan around the north pole, behind certain lofty mountains, which served to hide his radiance, and so he reached the other side in time for next morning's due appearance.
"After a while, it became evident to their minds that this explanation was hardly satisfactory. Then they conjectured that the earth, instead of floating on the waters of an ocean, was built upon enormous pillars,
THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE 77
and that the sun really did go down at night under- neath the earth, finding a passage among said pillars, and coming up on the other side." — "Radiant Suns," pages 75, i6.
So men clung to the idea that the earth was the center of all things, tried everything by that idea, and endeavored to make everything harmonize with it. But truth cannot be harmonized with error; and, holding error as their foundation, they made painfully slow progress toward the truth.
This world is not the center of the universe. Such a basal truth, I had long believed, must be in the Word, though I could not find it. The Word is a perfect guide for every age and every condition, and so this truth must be there. At last, I found it revealed in more than one place. The one most significant to me is Job 26 : 14. From the rendering in our authorized version, we do not catch the idea at all. There is little wonder at this, however. God spoke the truth in the Hebrew language, and there it was; but when our translators attempted to state the same truth in the English language, they were either unable or afraid to give it the literal rendering. It could not mean just what it said; yet there it was all this time, waiting the mind that could believe it. Knowledge has ad- vanced; men now see that this statement of Holy Writ can be literally true.
I have special reference to the first clause of the verse, which reads, "Lo, these are parts of His ways." Another translation, with a note upon it, is : " *Lo, these are parts of His ways: and what whisper- word is
78 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
heard of Him!' The word rendered 'parts' signifies 'the extremities of Hnes,' mere points; but I know not of any good English word which I could substitute. The 'whisper-word' is the barest literal rendering, and it is too beautiful to be lost, as in the common ver- sion."— Dr. Pye Smith.
From this authority, we find that the word rendered "parts" means "the extremities of Hues" ; that is, "the ends of lines," or "the outlying points." "Lo, these are the outlying points of His works." And in har- mony with this idea, we have several other transla- tions of good authority:
"Lo, these are but the borders of His works; how faint a whisper we have heard of Him!" — Noyes's translation.
"Lo ! these are only the outlying borders of His works. What a whisper of a word we have heard of Him!" — Quoted by Henry White Warren, D. D.
"Lo, these are but the outskirts of His ways: and how small a whisper do we hear of Him!" — Revised Version.
All these translations help us to catch the load of meaning in the original; and their combined testirrony shows that this verse is up with all the astronomical science of the present day — yes, and infinitely ahead of it, daring to assert as a certainty what astronomers merely regard as probable.
And when men have caught glimpses of these sub- lime truths, and have thought to express their awakened emotions, do you know that the Scriptures alone give them language adequate for their thoughts? It has
THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE 79
taken the almighty power of God to make human words sufficient to express His infinite truths. Says an astronomer of no Httle note: ''However vast the universe now appears, however numerous the worlds which may exist within its boundless range, the lan- guage of Scripture, and Scripture alone, is sufficiently comprehensive and sublime to express all the emotions which naturally arise in the mind when contemplating its structure. This shows not only the harmony which subsists between the discoveries of science, but also forms, by itself, a strong presumptive evidence that the records of the Bible are authentic and divine." — Elijah EL Burritt.
"Lo, these are but the outskirts of His ways;" and the word ''these" refers not alone to the earth, but also to the garnished heavens, mentioned in the verses preceding. Though we study the expanded heavens as we may; gather facts so many as we can; get as large a conception of space as possible; yet, studying and toiling to the extent of our ability, we shall never get beyond this verse. It will never grow old. Human minds will never frame in better words the truth it contains. Human minds will never, either here or hereafter, find all the depths of its meaning. It is an infinite truth.
True, it does not say that the earth is not in the center of the universe. But it tells far more than that; for though it does not say where the earth is not, it does define just where the earth is, — on the outskirts. If the earth is on the outskirts, it certainly cannot be in the center. And as the -garnished heavens that we
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see, are also but "the outskirts" of God's works, and as these are but a "faint whisper" of the word that spoke them into existence (Ps. 33:6, 9), then the dis- tance to that center must be immense, wherever that center be.
But why did men think that the earth was the center of the universe? What led them to this conclusion? The apparent motion of the heavenly bodies was probably one great reason why they believed as they did. But there is a certain fitness, after all, in a self- centered man's believing in an earth-centered universe. It is the heathen rendering of, "All things are yours."
But the self-subdued man is prepared to view all this far differently. To such a man, it seems highly appropriate that this earth should be but a speck, the extremity of a line, in immensity, and that it is not nearly so important in the machinery of the universe as the untamed intellect might believe it to be.
By these two views are we shown that material things are to be seen through the spiritual, being spiritually discerned. We also see that the unregen- erate man labors at a tremendous disadvantage in seeking to understand God's works. And thus we realize something of the blessed import of the term "Christian education." Last of all, we are more and more confirmed in our belief that the Word is an all- sufficient guide to man; and, furthermore, that the Word of God and the works of God are indissolubly connected, — the works testifying of the Word, for they are its manifestations; and the Word testifying of the works, for through it they have existence.
Nebula in Triangulum
The Andromeda Nebula This is not really a nebula, but a vast cluster of stars.
This
galaxy of suns is immensely larger than our planetary system.
CHAPTER VIII
The Earth in Space
CLOSELY associated with the old error that the earth was the center of the universe, was an- other, equally erroneous, and possibly more fatal to advancement in the truth. It was the belief that the earth had a material support. Some supposed the earth to be flat, and afloat on an immense ocean. Others, while they believed that it was flat, declared that it was supported by enormous pillars. What the pillars rested on, all seemed to be perfectly willing to leave to uncertainty. They must have a support for the earth; they did not care to trace the matter hack further than that.
One advance from this enslaving error was appre- ciation of the fact that the earth is round. As nearly as we can now tell, there have always been at least a few who have realized that the earth is round ; but it was not generally believed. Hundreds of years ago the Word declared the same great truth. There are a number of texts which cannot be explained except in the light of this truth; and in one place, we have
8i
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a plain declaration of it: "It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth." Isa. 40:22. "It is He that sitteth upon the glohe of the earth." — Id., Catholic translation of the Latin Vulgate. "He sitteth upon the sphere of the earth." — Id., Gesenius, quoted by Warren. For the word "upon," the American Revised Version gives "above." Thus we may have, as a pos- sible rendering of this text, "He [God] sitteth above the circle, sphere, or globe, of the earth."
But while some men could conceive that the earth is round, the idea that it is without visible support was always beyond any of them. To present it to them was to appall them. They could see that such an idea would demolish all their systems of astronomy, and leave them utterly bewildered in the midst of a scien- tific chaos. Put yourself, if you can, in their place. Get an idea of a solid, stable earth, resting on firm foundations of pillars and rocks, turtle, elephant, or whatever the conjecture. Let all your ideas of astronomy be determined by this. Then try to think of what it would mean to discover suddenly that the earth is rolling in space at the rate of one thousand miles an hour, and shooting onv/ard at the far more rapid, almost frightful speed of over eleven hundred miles a minute, with nothing above or below or round about it to give support.
Could a mind at once take in such a truth? — It seems not : error is too enslaving for that. "The very thought of such a restless, whirling globe, where all had been reckoned as absolute fixity, was startling to the imagination until men grew used to it." Rome
THE EARTH IN SPA CE 83
was against the new idea ; but even Rome had to give way before the truths of astronomy. Men might be led to believe the word of Rome, though it was plainly against the statement of the Word of God ; but it was difficult to make them believe the word of Rome where nature uttered a plain denial. The opening truths of astronomy shook Rome to her very foundations. Men were racked and burned; but the truth in its majesty moved on. The Word was beginning to lighten the earth. Those truths were the truths of the Word. God's Word had been a witness all through those dark days, but Rome had sought to impeach its testimony. Then, behold! God called another witness into court. Nature began to thunder forth the truth which proved Rome unreliable. Nature was against the pope, be- cause the pope was against nature; and men would believe nature in preference to the pope.
While Rome racked the bodies of men, truth racked their minds. Thus the contest raged; and the battle still is on. But that truth was the truth of the Word, and that advancing light was the light of God. And so, from the idea of a flat earth set on pillars, men have come to the great truth that the earth is round and hung in space.
For a man to get away from the old idea, to cut loose the earth from all visible support and launch it forth into space, his mind itself had to be cut loose, in a sense, from all visible supports, and swung out into a vast unknown. And it was truth which cut men's minds loose, and set them free. "The truth shall make you free." A mind thus set free from error was like
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a ship loosed from its moorings, to sail the broad oceans before it. It was like a bird beginning to mount on its pinions to view more broadly the works of God.
To have such a narrow and mean conception of the works of God as these men had, was to have, unavoid- ably, a narrow and mean conception of God. God wants every one to have true ideas of His works ; for thereby the mind is led to true ideas of God. He has given us revelations, in His Word, concerning these things; but we learn so slowly! Ages ago the Lord asked Job, "Whereupon are the sockets of the earth made to sink?" Job 38:6, margin. And if the same question had been asked the scientists of old, they very probably would have said: "Sockets? The earth has no sockets, much less anything upon which they would be made to sink."
But we know that the question was not utterly lost upon Job. He saw the pertinence of the question, "Whereupon?" He had said previously, "He stretch- eth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." Job 26:7. I^^ this, Job attempted to tell whereupon the sockets of the earth were made to sink. He said that the earth hangs on nothing. Scientists have got about that far now. They say that the earth hangs on no thing, but that it is upheld by a pozver, which they call "gravitation." Job said that God "hangeth the earth." In this, he shows that indeed power suspends the earth, and more, that this power is the power of God.
But Job evidently had not yet got the ultimate an- swer in such a way that he could rest from further
THE EARTH IN SPACE 85
inquiries in that direction; for shortly afterward the Almighty asked Job the ever unanswered question, "Whereupon are the foundations of the earth made to sink?" No matter what man's attainments, that question, like all the others which God asked Job, is forever beyond man's complete answering. We to-day can answer the question no better than could Job. We shall never be able to answer it fully. To answer com- pletely any one of God's questions is to measure Him on that one point. We shall never be able to do that. The ultimate and full answers lie in the inscrutable mind of the Creator Himself. One mystery cleared, countless others, deeper and more baffling, appear. "The rate of scientific progress increases from decade to decade, and yet the new problems increase more rapidly. The divine intellect can never be exhausted by the human."
God wants man to know the truth in regard to all He has done. He has lightened the earth and heaven with His revelations ; He has given to men His Spirit ; and He has left to them His Word, all flooded with light. God thus reveals truth after truth with a lavish hand. He tells us that the earth is not in the center of the universe, but on the outskirts; that it is not flat, but round; and that it is not supported by things material, but by a power (which men call gravita- tion, but) which God calls the power of His Word, manifested through Jesus Christ.
These truths are revealed as truths having a bear- ing upon the souls of men. Everywhere that God has revealed a scientific truth, it is found to have a bearing
86 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
upon the eternal destiny of men. All truth is spiritual truth. All truth is of God; and as God is a Spirit, truth is spiritual. God Himself says that His Spirit is the truth, (i John 5:6.) Then away forever with the idea that there is any truth dissociated from God, and which does not minister to the soul !
There is no truth but the truth of God ; and it saves the soul. God has literally filled His world with facts, the manifestation of truth. God scatters the light as the farmer sows the seed, — not a few kernels, not a few rays; He sows it. "Light is sown!' And He scatters the light with the same intention with which the farmer sows the seed; namely, that it may yield in- crease. "Light is sown for the righteous!' Ps. 97 : ii.
God grant that we may be among these righteous ones for whom the light is sown. God grant that we may be the "wise," who "understand these things." God grant that we may be the "prudent," who "know them." Hosea 14:9. And God forbid that any of us should be the "wicked," who "do wickedly" ; for "none of the wicked shall understand." Dan. 12 : 10.
I
CHAPTER IX
The Impress of Light
*i"J'T is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment." Job 38 : 14. For a long time, I had thought that this verse in some way was meant to teach the rotation of the earth. But when I sat down to a consideration of the scripture, its meaning seemed vague and indefinite. I at length de- termined to make a careful analysis of its every shade of meaning, and determine what it really does say.
I noticed that the verse asserts that something, specified as "it," is turned. But what is that which is turned? I concluded first of all to investigate the word "turned." Shall it be translated, "It is changed," or, "It is rolled" ? Does the scripture mean that some- thing is changed from one thing to another, or that it is turned over or around? By some, it is rendered, "It is changed as clay under the seal;" by others, "It is rolled as clay to the seal." Which is preferable? Which is correct?
I find that the original Hebrew word is haphak. It is a primitive root, meaning, to turn about or over.
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By implication, it may mean, to change, overturn, re- form, pervert. I then went to other places in the Word to ascertain its use. A few passages will show how it is employed.
In Hosea 7:8, I read, "Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned." Here we have a familiar scene brought to view. The batter for a griddlecake is spread upon the pan, and there it is left ; it is not turned over. The word here used, unmistakably means to make at least a half revolution.
In the thirty-seventh chapter of Job, — the chapter preceding the one that contains the verse under con- sideration,— we have this word used with two adverbs that throw light upon its significance. "He scattereth His bright cloud : and it is turned round about by His counsels." Verses 11, 12. Then the words "round" and "about" may follow this word. This shows that it is sometimes used in the sense of revolve. In Job 9:5, we have a further illustration. "Which removeth the mountains, and they know not : which overturneth them in His anger." Here the word is rendered "over- turneth," and the meaning is very manifest.
But we have a still more significant illustration of the meaning of this word. "When Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along." Judges 7: 13. The words "tumbled" and "overturned" are both from
THE IMPRESS OF LIGHT 89
this Hebrew word haphak. The barley loaf rolled, or tumbled, — turned over and over, — till it came to a tent ; then the tent, being smitten, fell, was overturned, and lay along.
Then there is no mistake. This word is often used in the sense of turning over or around. It may mean overturn, or turn over and over. It is translated "tumble." It has in it the idea of rolling or revolving. This is its first and inner meaning. Any other use is by implication, and is therefore secondary ; it came as an afterthought. And if you or I were writing in the Hebrew, and wished to use a word to denote the rotation of the earth, I think you will admit that we would use the one employed in Job 38 : 14.
Then so far as the meaning of the word "turned" in this verse is concerned, we see that it may be used in the sense of revolve. And if the word "it" refers to the earth, this verse declares that the earth is re- volved, or turned around or over. But to what does the word "it" refer? What is its antecedent? We must go to the preceding verse to discover.
"It" is a pronoun, and therefore refers to some noun used before. It stands for some thing under consid- eration. Furthermore, "it" is singular, and therefore a plural noun cannot be its antecedent. I find that the twelfth verse begins the discussion ; therefore* the twelfth or the thirteenth verse must name the thing which in the fourteenth verse is mentioned as being turned.
I find four singular nouns used — four single things mentioned — in these two verses. The "it" must refer
90 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
to some one of the four. The things mentioned are morning, dayspring, place, and earth. All the other things mentioned are in the plural number, and would require the pronoun "they" instead of the singular pronoun "it." If we supply these words one after another in the place of "it," we shall have these sen- tences: The morning is turned as clay to the seal. The dayspring is turned as clay to the seal. His place is turned as clay to the seal. The earth is turned as clay to the seal.
Only one of these sentences will make any sort of sense. The figure is, "as clay to the seal." It is not, "as seal to the clay." Keep the order carefully in mind. The seal is not, as is usually the custom, turned to the clay ; the figure is reversed. Why is it reversed ? There must be some purpose in employing a figure exactly the opposite of what is usual. If we had here the usual process, something would be turned as a seal is turned upon the clay to make its impression.
What a magnificent illustration this would be to a flat-earth, stationary-earth, revolving-sun theorist! The dayspring, the sun, is turned, as a seal to the clay, to place its impression upon the earth! If the earth is stationary, and the sun rolls around it, and if the Bible is to affirm this, here is a noble chance to do so.
We know that the sun does act upon the earth much as a seal acts upon the clay. Wherever the sunlight rests, the earth responds to its touch as clay responds to the seal. This part of the picture seems very appro- priate. But to suit our stationary-earth friends, the
THE IMPRESS OF UGHT 91
language should be, "It [the sun] is turned as the seal to the clay." But it reads, "as clay to the seal."
Let us supply "earth" in the place of "it," and see what meaning we gather. "It [the earth] is turned as clay to the seal." The earth, by its daily rotation, is turned to the sun as clay is turned to the seal. But to state this scientific fact, it was necessary to rearrange the figure, and state it in just the reverse of the usual relation of the seal and the clay, to do which shows careful thought. Consider this. A figure most happy and appropriate is discovered. This is the figure of the clay and the seal. But with clay and seal, the seal, or signet ring, is turned to the clay, while in the case of earth and sun, the reverse is true; that is, the earth, the clay, is turned to the sun, the seal. There- fore, to use the figure and be scientifically exact, it was necessary to reverse the figure. This gives us still all the lesson the figure can give, and it makes the statement scientific ; but to one searching into its mean- ing, it is at first a little puzzling. Yet, understanding it, we must admire its wealth of thought, and the con- ciseness and clearness of its language.
But what does the rest of the verse mean ? To what does that last clause refer, — "and they stand as a gar- ment" ?
Turning to the Revised Version, I read, "and all things stand forth as a garment."
"And all things stand forth as in rich apparel." — Noyes's translation.
"And they stand forth as in gay apparel." — Trans- lation of the American Bible Union.
92 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
"And everything fashioneth itself as in a garment." — Translation by Delitzsch.
"And that everything might appear there with new garments." — Translation from the French, by Mrs. H. R. Salisbury.
Do you catch the meaning? The earth is turned as clay to the seal; and in catching its impression as clay receives the impression of the seal, everything grows green and beautiful under the influence of the sunbeams.
"It is God that hath appointed the dayspring to visit the earth (turns the earth to the light), and dififuseth the morning light through the air, which receives it as readily as the clay doth the seal (verse 14), imme- diately admitting the impression of it, so as of a sud- den to be all over enlightened by it, as the seal stamps its image on the wax; and they stand as a garment, or as if they were clothed with a garment. The earth puts on a new face every morning, and dresseth itself, as we do." — Matthew Henry.
"It is rolled (turned) as clay to the seal; and (all things) stand forth as in splendid attire." — Transla- tion by Prof. Homer R. Salisbury.
" Tt is rolled.' The 'it' refers to the earth, and the verse speaks of the earth shone upon by the morning sun." — Salisbury.
I believe that this verse states the relation of the earth and the sun as truthfully as any living man can put it. More than that, it states in few words all that men have decided after years of study. The earth, day by day, even hour by hour, by the rotation on its
THE IMPRESS OF LIGHT 93
axis and by the yearly journey in its orbit, is turned to the sun. And the sun touches the earth with light, and leaves there its impression, even as the seal touches and impresses the clay.
And now, having studied this passage which declares that the relation of earth and sun is that of clay to seal, let us read a few lines from a noted scientist, and see how nearly the same idea is expressed by him, though no one would suppose that this verse from the Bible was in his mind :
"Our world is a halting place where this energy [from the sun] is conditioned. Here the Proteus works his spells; one selfsame essence takes a million shapes and hues, and finally dissolves into its primi- tive and almost formless form. The sun comes to us as heat; he quits us as heat; and between his en- trance and departure the multiform powers of our globe appear. They are all special forms of solar power, — the molds into which the strength is tem- porarily poured, in passing from its source through infinitude/' — John TyndalL
Though these two illustrations are not identical, they are aimed at the same great truth. The Bible speaks of earth's myriad forms as the response of clay to seal; they are the stamp of the sunlight upon the earth. The scientist calls these forms molds into which the sunlight is poured. Doubtless Tyndall himself would admit that the Bible illustration gives far the truer conception. Scientists never grow tired of tell- ing how much we receive from the sun. I quote a few paragraphs from a popular book :
94 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
"It is true that from the highest point of view the sun is only one of a multitude, — a single star among millions, — thousands of which probably exceed him in brightness, magnitude, and power. He is only a private in the host of heaven.
"But he alone, among the countless myriads, is near enough to affect terrestrial affairs in any sensible de- gree; and his influence upon them is such that it is hard to find the word to name it ; it is more than mere control and dominance. He does not, like the moon, simply modify and determine more or less important activities upon the surface of the earth, but he is al- most absolutely, in a material sense, the prime mover of the whole. To him we can trace directly nearly all the energy involved in all phenomena, mechanical, chemical, or vital. Cut off his rays for even a single month, and the earth would die; all life upon its sur- face would cease."
"There has always been a more or less distinct rec- ognition of this fact. ...
"But while the material supremacy of the sun has always been recognized by thoughtful minds, and has even been made the foundation of religious systems, as with the Persians, it has been reserved for more modern times, and to our own century, to show clearly just how, in what sense, and how far the sunbeams are the life of the earth, and the sun himself the symbol and viceregent of the Deity. The two doctrines of the correlation of forces and the conservation of energy, having once been distinctly apprehended and formu- lated, it has been comparatively easy to conform them
THE IMPRESS OF LIGHT 95
by experiment and observation, and then to trace, one by one, to their solar origin, the different classes of energy which present themselves in terrestrial phe- nomena— to show, for instance, how the power of waterfalls is only a transformation of the sun's heat; and that the same thing is true, a little more remotely, but just as certainly, of the power of steam, of elec- tricity, and even of animals. The idea is now so familiar that it is hardly necessary to dwell upon it, and yet, for some of our readers at least, it may be worth while to examine it a little more closely.
"Whenever work is done, it is by the undoing of some previous work. When a clock moves, it is the unwinding of a spring or the falling of a weight which keeps it going, and some one must have wound it up to begin with. If the water of a river falls year after year over a cataract, and it is intercepted to drive our mill wheels, the river continues to run because some power is continually raising and return- ing to the hilltops the water which has flowed into the sea — a process precisely equivalent to the daily re- winding of the clock. If the powder in a rifle ex- plodes and drives out the bullet, its explosive energy depends upon the fact that some power has placed the component molecules in such relation that, when the trigger is pulled, and the exciting spark has, so to speak, cut the bonds which hold them apart, they rush together just as suspended weights would fall if free.
"Before the same substance, which once was a charge of gunpowder, but now is dust and gas, can again do
96 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
the same work, the products of the explosion must by some power be decomposed, and the atoms replaced in the same relation as before the firing of the gun; and this process is mechanically analogous to the lift- ing of fallen weights and placing them upon elevated shelves, or hanging them from hooks, ready to drop again when the occasion may require.
"Precisely the same thing is true of the heat pro- duced by the combustion of ordinary fuel : It is due to the collapse of molecules, for the most part of oxygen on one side, and carbon and hydrogen on the other, which have been separated and built up into structures by the action of some laboring power.
"The same can be said of animal power, for all in- vestigation goes to show that in a mechanical sense the body of an animal is only a very ingenious and effective machine, by means of which the living in- habitant which controls it can utilize the energy de- rived from the food taken into the stomach. The body, regarded as a mechanism, is only a food engine in which the stomach and lungs stand for the furnace and boiler of a steam engine, the nervous system for the valve gear, and the muscles for the cylinder. How the personality within, which wills and acts, is put into relation with this valve gear so as to determine the movements of the body it resides in, is the in- scrutable mystery of life; the facts in the case, how- ever, being no less facts because inexplicable.
"And now, when we come to inquire for the source of the energy which lifts the water from the sea to the mountain top, which decomposes the carbonic acid
Anier. Mas. Nat. History, New York.
The Total Eclipse of the Sun, June 8, 1918 From the painting by Howard Russell Butler, N. A. The corona and the prominences appear as observed through thin clouds at the U. S. Naval Observatory Station, Baker, Oregon.
Tiih C(iLi» Atmosphere of Winter
THE IMPRESS OF LIGHT 97
of the atmosphere, and plant foods of the soil, and builds up the hydrocarbons and other fuels of animal and vegetable tissue, we find it always mainly in the solar rays. I say mainly, because, of course, the light and heat of the stars, the impact of meteors, and the probable slow contraction of the earth, are all real sources of energy, and contribute their quota. But, as compared with the energy derived from the sun, their total amount is probably something like the ratio of starlight to sunlight; so small that it is quite clear, as we said before, that a month's deprivation of the solar rays would involve the utter destruction of all activity upon the earth." — "The Sun/' Young,
All this is true enough. But while we keep in mind the influence of the sun, let us not forget the other side of the subject. The sun, it is true, acts with marvelous power upon the earth; but suppose the earth, like the moon, perhaps, did not respond to that influence — what then? While we get a true value of the position and power of the sun, let us not forget that to the earth has been imparted the power to re- spond to the sun's influence. If this power of re- sponding had not been imparted to the earth, the sun might shine here forever, without effect. But while the sun, like the seal, can give its impression, the earth, like the clay, has the power to respond.
If I should press a seal upon the hard surface of a granite rock, there would be no impress. The granite cannot respond to the seal. But when I place the seal upon the softened, yielding, responsive clay, or wax, I get an exact impression of the seal.
98 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
Scientists may well admire the power that the sun exerts; but they should not forget this other great fact, — that the earth is endowed with the ability to respond to the sun's influence. We should have a just conception of the sun as a motive power in the earth; but it need not hide from our minds the fact that the earth has its part to do in making the proper response.
The sun must touch the earth and wake it to its work, energize it in its labors. Without the sun, the earth would remain passive, dead. It is like the lump of passive clay: if it does not receive the stamp of the seal, there will be no image. If the earth is not touched by the sun, it, like the clay, must remain a barren void.
The response of the clay has its part in forming the image of the seal. And it is the response of the earth to the sunlight that makes all terrestrial activity possible. The sun must impress, but the earth must respond. Let us take a few examples.
Suppose there were no air on the globe. The quan- tity of vapor would almost instantly adjust itself to any variation of temperature. The maximum amount possible would thus always be present at a given place.
"An elevation of temperature would be attended by rapid evaporation, and the amount of water required to fill the space would suddenly flash into vapor ; while, on the other hand, a corresponding depression in tem- perature would be accompanied with an equally sudden precipitation of the excess of water which the air
THE IMPRESS OF LIGHT 99
could no longer contain, not in genial showers or dif- fuse rain, but in terrific torrents, of which the delug- ing showers of the tropics can give us only a feeble conception; for the drops falling without resistance, would be as destructive in their effect as volleys of leaden shot." — Josiah P. Cooke, Erving professor of chemistry and mineralogy in Harvard University.
Let us take another illustration. A general law of nature is, that all substances are expanded by heat and contracted by cold. Water, except within certain very narrow limits, to be considered shortly, form no ex- ception to the general rule. In fact, but for this ex- pansion, it would be difficult to heat or cool large quantities of liquids.
"All liquids are very poor conductors of heat, and can be heated only by bringing their particles suc- cessively in contact with the source of heat. When you set a teakettle over a fire, the first effect of the heat is to expand the particles of water resting on the bottom of the kettle, which, being thus rendered spe- cifically lighter, rise, and are succeeded by colder par- ticles, which are heated and rise in their turn ; and thus the circulation is established by which all the particles are successively brought in contact with the heated bottom of the kettle, and in the course of time the temperature of the whole mass is raised to the boiling point.
"The case is similar when you add ice to a pitcher of water in order to cool it. The water at the top of the pitcher, in contact with the ice, is, of course, cooled, and being rendered specifically heavier than the water
100 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
below, sinks and gives place to the warmer water, which is cooled and sinks in its turn, and thus, as before, a circulation is established, which continues until the temperature of the whole water is reduced to 40°. But at this point, the circulation is entirely arrested; for in consequence of its singular constitu- tion, water at 39° is lighter than water at 40°, and con- sequently remains at the top. And so it is as the tem- perature sinks toward the freezing point. The colder the water, the lighter it becomes, and the more per- sistently it remains at the surface. Hence, although the upper layers of water may be readily cooled to the freezing point, yet, in consequence of its poor con- ducting power, the great body of the liquid will re- main at the temperature of 40°.
"The cold atmosphere of winter acts upon the ponds and lakes exactly as the ice on the water in the pitcher. They also are cooled from the surface, and a circula- tion is established by the constant sinking of the chilled water until the temperature falls to 40°. But at this point, still eight degrees above the freezing point, the circulation stops. The surface water, as it cools below this temperature, remains at the top, and in the end freezes; but then comes into play still another pro- vision in the properties of water. Most substances are heavier in their solid than in their liquid state; but ice, on the contrary, is lighter than water, and there- fore floats on its surface. Moreover, as ice is a very poor conductor of heat, it serves as a protection to the lake, so that at the depth of a few feet, at most, the
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temperature of the water during the winter is never under 40°, although the atmosphere may continue for weeks below zero.
"If water resembled other liquids, and continued to contract with cold to its freezing point, — if this ex- ception had not been made, — the whole order of na- ture would have been reversed. The circulation just described would continue until the mass of water in the lake had fallen to the freezing point. The ice would then first form at the bottom, and the congela- tion would continue until the whole lake had been changed into one mass of solid ice. Upon such a mass, the hottest summer would produce but little effect ; for the poor conducting power would then pre- vent its melting, and instead of ponds and lakes, we should have large masses of ice, which during the summer would melt on the surface to a depth of only a few feet.
"It is unnecessary to state that this condition of things would be utterly inconsistent with the existence of aquatic plants or animals, and it would be almost as fatal to organic life everywhere; for not only are all the parts of the creation so indissolubly bound together that, if one member suffers, all the other members suffer with it, but moreover, the soil itself would, to a certain extent, share in the fate of the ponds. The soil is always more or less saturated with water, and, under existing conditions, in our temperate zone, the frost does not penetrate to a sufficient depth to kill the roots and seeds of plants which are buried under it. But were water constituted like other liquids,
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the soil would remain frozen to the depth of many feet, and the only effect of the summer's heat would be to melt a few inches at the surface.
"It would be, perhaps, possible to cultivate some hardy annuals in such a climate, but this would be all. Trees and shrubs could not brave the severity of the winter. Thus, then, it appears that the very existence of life in these temperate regions of the earth depends on an apparent exception to a general law of nature, so slight and limited in its extent that it can only be detected by the most refined scientific observation." — Josiah P. Cooke, Erving professor of chemistry and mineralogy in Harvard University.
These illustrations are sufficient to show us how things terrestrial are adapted to, and respond to, the sun and its heat. It is true that the heat of combus- tion, the energy of life, the thunder of the express train, are but sun power working in some other form. This is all wonderful. But that the things of earth are adapted to this energy and are able to employ this sun power is no small part of the wonder.
And in the study of this adaptation of sun to earth, and earth to sun, with all their multiform phenomena, there is science enough for any man, though he lived for untold ages. But the earth is only one planet out of eight, we know; and each planet carries its own wealth of mysteries and wonders. And the sun is only one out of millions in the universe. What a wealth, then, of adaptations of suns and planets, and planets and suns ! What interweaving of power and influence, of impression and of response ! How marvelous the
THE IMPRESS OF LIGHT 103
structure of the universe ! What a field for the human mind! What infinite problems and untold mysteries! What countless truths ever being revealed, yet never fully understood !
"It is turned." The earth is turned by some agency. The words are not, "It turns," but instead, "It is turned/' This puts the agency, the power, not in the earth, but outside the earth. Therefore that science is wrong which teaches that the earth makes these movements through its own inherent energy. Then by what power is it turned? I answer the question in the words of another:
"It is not by an original power inherent in nature that year by year the earth produces its bounties, and the world keeps its continual march around the sun. The hand of infinite pozver is perpetually at work guiding this planet. It is God's power momentarily exercised that keeps it in position in its rotations. The God of heaven is constantly at work." — Mrs. E. G. White.
Science is correct in saying that the earth moves around the sun; it is correct in saying that the earth rotates; but it runs into error when it seeks to show that the earth so moves through inherent energy, and that in this work, it is sufficient unto itself. He that made "the seven stars and Orion" (Amos 5:8), and hung "the earth upon nothing" (Job 26:7), that "meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure" (Isa. 40: 12), that brings out the host of heaven by number, calling them all by their names, in "the greatness of His might"
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(verse 26), He it is who sends the earth upon its des- tined way.
Ever and ever the earth, as the Word declares, is turned to the sun, as clay to the seal. And ever and ever, like the clay, the earth responds to the touch of the sunlight, "and all things stand forth in splendid apparel." The sun" paints the earth with the hues of its light reflected in sky and cloud, in the tinting of the flowers and the verdure of the fields. It stamps the earth with the impress of its light and heat, and vege- tation starts forth as at the touch of a magic wand. Energized by its power, and made radiantly glorious in its light, the earth rolls on its destined way, keeping time to "the music of the spheres."
CHAPTER X
Celestial Magnitudes
44
L
O, these are but the outlying borders of His works; and how small a whisper do we hear of Him ! But the thunder of His power who can understand?" — Job.
"The planetary system occupies a portion of space nearly six thousand millions of miles across, yet this immense distance seems to be but a mere speck in im- mensity. Compared with the nebula of Orion alone, which is only a spot in the heavens, it is a mere point ; and outside of the planetary system are a multitude of shining orbs, some radiant with splendor, some faintly glimmering with beauty. The smallest telescopic aid suffices to increase their number in an incredible de- gree, while with the full power of the grand instru- ments now in use, the scenes presented in the starry heavens become actually so magnificent as to stun the imagination and overwhelm the reason. Worlds and systems and schemes and clusters and universes rise in sublime perspective, fading away in the unfathom- able regions of space, until even thought itself fails
105
106 ASTRONOMY AND THE BIBLE
in its efforts to plunge across the gulf by which we are separated from those wonderful objects." — Gen. O. M. Mitchel.
It is quite impossible to get any proper idea of star distances. Miles are far too small as units in the great computation necessary to express these dis- tances. A larger unit becomes absolutely necessary. Astronomers have therefore employed the light unit, or light year. Light seems almost instantaneous ; but so far as our eyes are concerned, it really takes time to travel. Its velocity has been measured many times, by many different persons, and by a number of thoroughly reliable methods ; and the results are quite uniform, showing that it travels at a rate of 186,000 miles a second, or a little over 11,000,000 miles a minute. The distance that light would thus travel in a year is obtained by multiplying 16,070,400,000 miles, one day's travel, by 365, or 5,865,696,000,000 miles. This is the light year ; it is the unit for measuring dis- tances to the fixed stars. It is to the astronomer what feet are to the carpenter, or what rods are to the sur- veyor.
The immense distance over which light can move in a year is inconceivable to us. Yet there are stars so far removed from us that it takes their light hundreds of years to reach us. Some of the distances from us to these stars have actually been measured.
'Tn case a luminous body were to be suddenly called into being, and located in space at the distance of 11,- 160,000 of miles from the eyes of an observer who was on the lookout for its light, this light would not
CELESTIAL MAGNITUDES 107
reach him until one minute after the creation of the object; and should it suddenly be struck from exist- ence, the observer would behold it for one minute after the extinction."
And now just a few words as to the parallax of the fixed stars. 'If it were possible to measure on the earth's surface a base line of a thousand miles in length, by locating an observer at each extremity of this base with instruments suitable to fix the moon's place among the fixed stars, the telescopes of these two observers, directed to the moon's center at the same instant, would incline toward each other, and the visual ray from each of these instruments would meet at the moon's center, and form an angle with each other."
This gives a triangle whose angles are marked by the moon at the apex, an observer at each end of the base line. One observer sees the moon from one direction, and the other observer sees it from another direction. That is, to each observer, the moon seems to be in a different spot in the sky. This displace- ment, or difference in direction, owing to the different position of the eye that views it, is called the parallax.
A very simple experiment will help you to see that a change in the viewpoint will produce an apparent change of position in the object under observation. For example, look toward the wall of one side of your room; hold the index finger of your hand erect in front of you, at some distance from your face, and close the left eye. You will now see that your finger covers a certain spot on the wall, as at A. Do not
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move your finger, but open your left eye, and close your right. The finger will seem to change its posi- tion to the right, and cover another spot on the wall, as at B. In the language of astronomy, this apparent change in the position of your finger is called its parallax.
The apparent change in the position of the moon is called the lunar parallax, that of the stars is called the stellar parallax.
In the measurement of the triangle before mentioned, the value of the base line is known, being marked by the position of the two observers. By the methods of trigonometry, given the base line and the opposite angles, it is a very simple matter to ascertain the length of either side, which in this case would be the distance from the observer to the moon.
"Parallax, then, in general, is the apparent change in the place of an object, occasioned by the real change in the place of the spectator."
With the sun, the moon, and the planets, a base line equal to the diameter of the earth, or about eight thousand miles, has sufficed to give a sensible and measurable parallax ; but when we attempt by this base line to detect a movement on the part of the stars, we fail utterly. If we view a star with the proper instru- ment, and measure its position in the heavens, and move eight thousand miles from that spot and make another measurement, we find our two angles the same. With a base line only eight thousand miles in length, we can detect no apparent movement on the part of the star; it has no parallax. If the star
CELESTIAL MAGNITUDES 109
were anywhere within 160,000 times the length of our base Hne, or 1,280,000,000 miles, we should have been able to detect a movement. Therefore the star is more than one billion two hundred and eighty millions of miles away; but how much outside of this, we have no idea until we have made other calculations.
To assist us to understand how small must be the stellar parallax, we have but to consider that the paral- lax of the moon is 57'; Venus and Mars, 40"; and the sun, only 8.8".
But can we get no longer base line than this eight thousand miles? We have made one observation on one side of the earth, and another on the opposite side of the earth, and these two points are eight thousand miles apart. Can we find a longer base line? — Yes. We may make an observation at a given date, wait just half a year till the earth has carried us half around her orbit to a spot in space precisely opposite to our first observation, and here we may take a second. Our base line now is a straight line through space, inter- sected at its center by the sun, and hence measures in length twice the distance from earth to sun, or about one hundred and eighty-five millions of miles. We now have a base line more than twenty-three thousand times as long as before. Surely with such a change in our position, we shall be able to detect an apparent movement of the star.
But even with this immense base line, men sought for years to find the parallax, before they were at length successful. "The efforts to obtain the distance of the stars had been unavailing. ... A negative solu-
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tion had indeed been reached. That their distance was enormous, was made evident from the fact that the parallax had remained insensible, even under the most careful and delicate instrumental tests. Any absolute solution began almost to be despaired of, when hope was again revived by the magnificent refracting tele- scopes, for which the world was indebted to the skill and genius of the celebrated Fraunhofer, of Munich. This great artist, aided by the profound science of Bessel, contrived and executed an instrument of ex- traordinary power, and especially adapted to the re- search for the parallax of the fixed stars.
"Armed with micrometrical apparatus of wonder- ful precision, and capable of executing measures of great as well as minute distances, the telescope was so arranged as to be carried forward by delicate ma- chinery, with a velocity exactly equal to the diurnal motion of the object under examination. To give some idea of the delicacy of the contrivance with which these telescopes have been provided, it is necessary only to state that the micrometer of the great refractory of the Cincinnati Observatory is capable of dividing an inch into 80,000 equal parts! When mechanical in- genuity failed to construct lines of mathematical mi- nuteness, the spider lent his aid, and it is with fibers of his delicate web that these measures are accom- pUshed. Two parallel threads of a spider's web are adjusted in the focus of the eyepiece of the microme- ter, and when the light of a small lamp is thrown upon them, the eye, on looking through the telescope, sees two minute golden wires, straight and beautiful, drawn
CELESTIAL MAGNITUDES 111
across the center of the field of view, and pictured upon the heavens. These are within the control of the observer. He can increase or decrease their dis- tance at pleasure, and so revolve them as to bring them into any position, every motion being accurately measured by properly divided scales.
"Suppose, then, it is desired to take the distance and position of the stars forming a pair. The tele- scope is directed to them, and they are brought to the center of the field of view. The clockwork is set in action; it takes up the ponderous instrument, weigh- ing more than 2,500 pounds, and with the most as- tonishing accuracy it bears it onward, keeping its mighty eye fixed on the object under examination. The observer is thus left with both hands free to make his measures. He first revolves his micrometer spider's lines round until one of them shall exactly pass from center to center of the two stars. This position is noted, and from it is deducted the angle framed by this line with the meridian. He then revolves them a quarter of the circumference, and they are perpen- dicular to their former position. He now separates the wires until the one shall exactly bisect one star, while the other wire passes through the center of the second star, reading this distance on the proper scale. He has fixed, in these two observations, the position and distance of the two components of the double set. Such is the precision attained in this work, that the most minute motions cannot escape detection. If the stars separate from each other at so slow a rate that a million of years would be required to perform
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the circuit of the heavens, their motion would be de- tected in half a year.
"With machinery more delicate even than this, and better adapted to the purpose, and of a kind some- what different, Bessel once more renewed the re- search after the unattainable parallax of the fixed stars. His great instrument, called the heliometer, was mounted as early as 1829, but a multitude of causes and some unsuccessful efforts delayed his prin- cipal operations up to August, 1837. Three great principles guided him in his selection of 61 in the Swan as the star on which to perform his observations. First, it was affected by a very great proper motion, . . . which indicated it to be among the nearest of all the stars. Second, its duplex character adapted it especially to the instrument he was about to employ. Third, the region occupied by 61 Cygni contains a number of minute stellar points, close to the double star, and presenting admirable fixed points, to which the relative motion of the two components of the star to be measured might be referred.
"With these advantages, and a magnificent instru- ment, Bessel commenced his observations. He meas- ured the distance from the center of the line joining the two stars, to two of the small stellar points, which served him as points of reference; and this kind of observation was repeated night after night, whenever the stars were visible, from the middle of August, 1837, up to the end of September, 1838. The entire series of observations was then taken and corrected for every possible known error, and in case any ap-
At the Eyepiece of a Large Telescope
Sa
A Segment of the Corona of the Sun P^rom a pholograph taken at the ]\Iount Wilson Observatory, in southern California, when the sun was in total eclipse.
CELESTIAL MAGNITUDES 113
preciable change remained, it could only be attributed to parallax.
"After a most careful and elaborate investigation, a variation commenced to show itself, increasing pre- cisely as parallactic variation ought to increase, and diminishing as it ought to diminish. The period of these changes was precisely a year, and in all particu- lars there was an exact correspondence in kind with the changes which ought to be produced by parallax. But such was their minute character that Bessel hesi- tated.
'^During another year, the observations were re- peated. The same results came out and the previous values were confirmed. A third year's observations, yielding precisely the same values, removed all doubt, and the great Konigsberg philosopher announced to the world that he had passed the impassable gulf of space, and had measured the distance to the fixed stars! But how shall I convey any adequate idea of this stupendous distance? Millions and millions of miles serve only to confound the mind. Let us employ a different kind of unit.
"Light, as we have seen, travels at a velocity of 11,160,000 miles every minute of time. Hence to reach us from the most remote of all the planets, Nep- tune, whose distance from the sun is about 2,791,600,- 000 miles, will require a journey of slightly over four hours; but to wing its flight across the interval which separates our sun from 61 Cyg^i, will require a period not to be reckoned by hours, nor by days, nor months. Nearly ten years of time must roll away before its
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flight, flying in every second 186,000 miles, can com- plete its mighty journey!
"If the mind revolts at this conclusion; if the dis- tance be too great for comprehension; if the scale of the universe thus suggested even staggers the imagina- tion, I can only say that all subsequent observation has confirmed in the most satisfactory manner the accuracy of Bessel's results. This great astronomer first led the way across the mighty gulf which separates us from the fixed stars. The distance once passed, the route has become comparatively easy, and succeeding observers have determined the parallax of a sufficient number of stars to show that their results are entirely trustworthy." — Gen. O. M. Mitchel.
The polestar, or north star, one of the most distant measured, is between forty-five and sixty light-years from us ; that is, the light from the polestar, speeding at the rate of over eleven millions of miles a minute, occupies from forty-five to sixty years in measuring the distance between the star and us. Yet such enor- mous distances are as mere points compared with the awful measure of space itself.
Another star, Alpha Centauri, was observed for its parallax in 1842 and in 1851, by two different observ- ers. The first result was 3.6, and the second 3.5, Hght years. "Observations made to determine whether the star shows any sign of an annual change of place cor- responding to the earth's annual orbital motion, were rewarded by the detection of a very appreciable dis- placement. In fact, owing to the motion of the earth, each year, in a nearly circular orbit 185,000,000 miles
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in diameter, the star Alpha Centauri appears to trace out each year a minute oval path on the celestial sphere, the greater axis of the oval being equal in length to about %oo part of the moon's apparent diameter.
"It follows from this that in round numbers the distance of Alpha Centauri from us is about twenty milHons of millions of miles. The distance of the earth from the sun shrinks into insignificance beside this enormous gap. Even Neptune, though circling round the sun at a distance thirty times farther than that which separates us from that luminary, is yet relatively so much nearer than Alpha Centauri, that a sun filling the whole orbit of Neptune would appear, as seen from that star, but about %oo as large as the sun appears to us." — Richard Proctor.
Do not miss this. Let us put it in another way : If the sun were so large that it reached out on all sides as far as to the orbit of Neptune, — in other words, if it were a blazing sun 5,583 millions of miles in diameter, — seen from Alpha Centauri, it would appear but %oo as large as the sun appears to us; it would seem like a mere point of light in space.
Viewed at such stupendous distances as only as- tronomy comprehends, systems and universes seem to dwindle to mere pin points when related to some distant parts. "It is found by the most eminent as- tronomers of the age, and the most perfect instruments ever made, that the parallax of the nearest stars does not exceed the four-thousandth part of a degree, or a single second." Alpha Centauri is the nearest, having a parallax of .9 of a second, "so that, if the whole great
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orbit of the earth were lighted up into a globe of fire 600 millions of miles in circumference, it would be seen by the nearest star only as a twinkling atom ; and to an observer placed at this distance, our sun, with its whole retinue of planetary worlds, would occupy a space scarcely exceeding the thickness of a fiber of a spider's web." — Burritt.
Thus whole systems, as that of our sun, "dwindle to mere pin points" as viewed from some distant fixed star. This is what astronomy says; but the Word of God goes further, for it mentions all the visible stars of heaven, and asserts that these, all that are within our view, are but the extremities of the lines of His works — that is, mere points, as seen from the immense distances of His universe. Not merely that the whole space included within the orbit of Neptune is a mere extremity of a line as seen from some distant confine of space, but that all the visible heavens are but mere points when compared with the rest of God's works. And all this was stated as long ago as the days of Job. In spite of the gigantic strides of modern as- tronomy, the old Bible is still ahead, and so far ahead that science may well despair of ever overtaking it.
Getting some idea of the import of parallax, we are better able to understand James i : 17. These con- siderations impart a force and sublimity to the ex- pression of the apostle, which no power of v/ords could improve. In the passage, it is stated literally that with God there "is no parallax nor shadow of turning." "As if the apostle had said, peradventure, that in trav- eling millions and millions of miles through the re-
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gions of immensity, there may be a sensible parallax to some of the fixed stars; yet as to the Father of lights, view Him from whatever point ... we may, He is without parallax or shadow of change."
Thus does inspiration anticipate the discoveries of science, by seizing upon the very words of science and giving them a meaning that will ever grow grander and more sublime as our knowledge advances toward the true conception. What a magnificent picture of the immutability of God! It will require all eternity to fathom the meaning of this one passage (James i : 17), for all the universe is employed to illustrate its significance. Thus does God pack an eternity of meaning into His words, and load a whole universe of science into the infinite truths of the Scriptures. Therein has He revealed His eternal purpose. This is a textbook that can never grow old, a science that can never be exhausted.
But how much of an idea have we even now of the immensity of the universe? All our efforts to under- stand the tremendous distances only confuse and as- tonish the mind. But though this is so, let us make one more attempt to get a view of space. Let us take an imaginary journey to some of the visible stars.
"If it were possible, to-night, to wing our flight to any one of the bright stars which blaze around us, sweeping away from our own system until planet after planet fades in the distance, and finally the sun itself shrinks into a mere star, we might alight on a strange world that circles around a new and magnificent sun, which has grown and expanded in our sight until it
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blazes with a magnificence equal to that of our own. Here we pause, and look out upon the starry heavens which surround us.
"We have passed over sixty millions of millions of miles. We have reached a new system of worlds, re- volving about another sun; and from this remote point, we have a right to expect a new heaven, as well as a new earth on which we stand. But no; lift up your eyes, and lo! the old familiar constellations are all there. Yonder blazes Orion, with its rich and gor- geous belt; there comes Arcturus, and yonder the Northern Bear circles his ceaseless journey round the pole. All is unchanged, and the mighty distance over which we have passed is but the thousandth part of the entire diameter of this grand cluster of suns and sys- tems, the Milky Way. Although we have swept from our sun to one of the nearest fixed stars, 6i Cygni, and have traveled a distance which light itself cannot trav- erse in less than ten years, the change wrought by this mighty journey, in the appearance of the heavens, is no greater than would be produced in the relative posi- tions of the persons composing this audience to a person near its center, who should change his seat with his immediate neighbor.
"Such, then, is the scale on which the starry heavens are built. If, in examining the magnificent orbits of the remoter planets, and in tracing the interminable career of some of the far-sweeping comets, we feared that there might not be room for the accomplishment of their vast orbits, our fears are now at an end." There is infinite room.
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'It has been considered probable, from recondite in- vestigations, that the average distance of a star of the first magnitude from the earth is nine hundred and eighty-six thousand radii of our annual orbit, or nine hundred and eighty-six thousand times ninety-two million miles, a distance which light would require fifteen and a half years to traverse; and further, that the average distance of the sixth magnitude (the small- est distinctly seen without a telescope) is seven mil- lion six hundred thousand times the same unit, to traverse which, light, with its prodigious velocity, would occupy more than one hundred and twenty years. If, then, the distances of the majority of the stars visible to the naked eye are so enormously great, how are we to estimate our distance from those mi- nute points of light discernible only in the powerful telescopes?" — Hind's ''Astronomy," quoted in "The International Cyclopedia."
Thus do the starry systems about us seem to be but suburbs of a vast creation. Whichever way we may turn our eyes, and no matter how powerful we make our sight, there is always something shining beyond our farthest reaches into the unending universe of God. Job was right ; and with him we cry, "Lo, these are but the extremities of the lines of His works ; and how little a whisper do we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?"
"God called up from dreams a man into the vestibule of heaven, saying, 'Come thou hither, and see the glory of My house.' And to the servants that stood around His throne He said, 'Take him, and undress
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him from his robes of flesh; cleanse his vision, and put a new breath into his nostrils : only touch not with any change his human heart, — the heart that weeps and trembles.' It was done : and with a mighty angel for his guide, the man stood ready for his infinite voyage; and from the terraces of heaven, without sound of farewell, at once they wheeled into endless space.
"Sometimes with the solemn flight of angel wing they fled through Zaarahs of darkness, through wil- dernesses of death that divided the worlds of life. . . . Then, from a distance that is counted only in heaven, light dawned for a time through a sleepy film ; by unutterable space the light swept to them, they by unutterable space to the light. In a moment, the rush- ing of planets was upon them; and in a moment, the blazing of suns was around them.
"Then came eternities of twilight, that revealed, but were not revealed. On the right hand and on the left towered mighty constellations . . . that seemed ghostly from infinitude. Without measure were the archi- traves, past numbers were the archways, beyond mem- ory the gates. Within were stars that scaled the eternities below; above was below, below was above, to the man stripped of gravitating body. Depth was swallowed up in height insurmountable; height was swallowed up in depth unfathomable. Suddenly as thus they tilted over abysmal worlds, — a mighty cry arose, — that systems more mysterious, that worlds more billowy, other heights and other depths, were coming, were nearing, were at hand.
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"Then the man sighed, and stopped, shuddered, and wept. His overladen heart uttered itself in tears, and he said: 'Angel, I will go no farther; for the spirit of man acheth with this infinity. Insufferable is the glory of God. Let me lie down in the grave, and hide me from the persecution of the infinite ; for end, I see, there is none.' And from the listening stars that shone around issued a choral voice: 'The man speaks truly: end there is none that ever yet we heard of.* 'End is there none?' the angel solemnly demanded; 'is there no end? And this is the sorrow that kills you?' But no voice answered, that he might answer himself. Then the angel threw up his glorious hands to the heavens of heavens, saying: 'End there is none to the universe of God. Lo, also, there is no beginning !' " — Richter.
CHAPTER XI
The Infinitude of Space
IT is impossible for the human mind to put any limit to space. We run out into the unfathomable abyss as far as imagination will carry us, and when we have reached the utmost limit, and imagina- tion carries us no farther, we cannot say to ourselves, "Here is the end;" for immediately the only barrier we can conceive is something like a huge wall, and beyond this exists still untraced and immeasurable space. We can imagine as much beyond our limit as exists this, side of that limit ; and we can call this dis- tance a unit, and multiply it by any factor that we are pleased to choose, — a thousand, a million, or a bil- lion,— and still we can think of as much space beyond as that which we have covered by our multiplication. Mathematically the human mind can find no limit to space. From this fact of mind, many argue that there can be no limit to space, — that it extends out beyond forever, like eternity. But when we come to this decision, the mind is struck with the awful dis- closure,— space without any limitation whatever ! The
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THE INFINITUDE OF SPACE 123
mind grows dizzy with the thought ; the heart is dumb with awe. Can it be so? Is there no limit to space?
We will suppose it is evening. Look yonder at the Milky Way. "A band, or irregular stream, of soft light is perceived, with stars at intervals dotting its surface. We get an opera glass, and look through it. Behold, many more stars are visible, with the band of light still beyond. We get a small telescope, and look through that. Very many stars may be counted; and still the band of soft light shines beyond. We go to an observatory, where a large telescope may be found; and through its great tube, countless stars gleam forth, hundreds and thousands of them, where first, with the naked eye, we saw only a few twinkling specks; yet, still the band of light shines on beyond, unchanged. Lastly, we go to America, and observe the Milky Way with the most powerful telescope yet made. A won- drous company of innumerable stars gUtter; yet, still, beyond and behind, we have, as ever, the dim, soft light, not even now done away, not even now resolved wholly into stars." — Agnes Giberne.
Can we ever get to the end of it — this vast uni- verse? Can we ever be able, no matter what our powers, to say, "This is the limit ; we have seen every- thing in this direction"? Is there no Hmit to space? Have we no certain answer to this question ?
"Suppose that one of the highest order of intelli- gences is endowed with a power of rapid motion su- perior to that of light (186,000 miles a second), and with a corresponding degree of intellectual energy; that he has been flying without intermission for six
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thousand years, and will continue the same rapid course for a thousand million years to come. It is highly probable, if not absolutely certain, that, at the end of his vast tour, he would have advanced no farther than the 'suburbs of creation,' and that all the mag- nificent systems of material and intellectual beings he had surveyed during his rapid flight, and for such a length of ages, bear no more proportion to the whole empire of Omnipotence than the smallest grain of sand does to all the particles of matter contained in the ten thousand worlds.
''Were a seraph, in prosecuting the tour of creation in the manner now stated, ever to arrive at a limit beyond which no further displays of divinity could be perceived, the thought would overwhelm his facul- ties with unutterable emotions; he would feel that he had now, in some measure, comprehended all the plans and operations of Omnipotence, and that no further manifestations of the divine glory remained to be ex- plored. But we may rest assured that this can never happen in the case of any created intelligence."
And now the brain, lost in the frightful sweep of its thought, fairly swims in its efforts to comprehend the infinite. But is this all true ? — It seems true ; it seems reasonable, and almost certain. But in answer to this question, have we naught but speculations, and reason- ings, and almost certain probabilities? Is there no word from God ? — Yes. Wondering and questioning, I turn to His Word, and read : "Thus saith the Lord ; // heaven above can he measured, ... I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have
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done, saith the Lord." Jer. 31 : 37. Ah, my soul, that Word must be sure! "Saith the Lord" comes as the introduction, and "saith the Lord" follows as the close. "Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, ... I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord." "Saith the Lord" and "saith the Lord" — surely this must be true !
And what is it that the Lord says ? — He says that if heaven above can be measured, — not if you or some- body else can measure it, but if it can be measured, no matter how, — He will give Israel up, and thereby acknowledge that He has failed. If even His works can be measured by His creatures, then He acknowl- edges that He will no longer appear before them as God. It will go on record that God has failed. But blessed be His name, He cannot fail. He "never fail- eth." I Cor. 13:8. ''He shall not fail nor be dis- couraged." Isa. 42 : 4. "Thus saith God the Lord, He that created the heavens, and stretched them out ; . . . I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and zvill keep thee. ... I am the Lord : that is My name : and My glory will I not give to another.'' Isa. 42 : 5-8. Israel will not be cast off, and therefore the heavens cannot be measured. One is as sure as the other, and each is as sure as God is true.
Space is immeasurable, and God has taken this fact as the everlasting foundation of one of His promises. Thus does He link His Word and His works. And when you think of the awful infinitude of space, will
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it help you to realize the surety of His covenant? As you look out yonder into the abyss that reaches onward to the stars, — yea, that stretches into an expanse as measureless as eternity, — will your soul rise to the thought that thus there is no limit to all that He will do for your soul? God help us all to realize that forever and ever we shall be unable to see all that there is to see of His goodness, and of "the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus," even as we see, and ever as we see, that there is no limit to the infinite fullness of His works. May God's promises be to us all this. And filled with thoughts of the majestic and stupendous power that upholds the soul that trusts in God, like Jeremiah when the truth was first revealed to him, may we say : "Ah Lord God! behold, Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for Thee." Jer. 32 : 17.
CHAPTER XII
As the Moon
WHENEVER you consult an almanac to know when there will be a full moon, or to know when the moon will rise or when it will set, and when you consult a table of the tides to learn the time of the high or the low tide, you are in that study- ing, though it may be unconsciously, a commentary on one of the verses in the Bible. You are simply showing your practical reliance upon a great fact, and that is the faithfulness of the moon. *'Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever. ... It shall be estab- lished forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven." Ps. 89 : 35-37.
The moon is a faithful witness in the heavens. Through the ages, it has kept its appointed place, fol- lowed its destined path, and never disappointed hu- manity. Our astronomers have mapped its orbit, have outlined its course years ahead; they tell us when it will be new, when it will wax old, just how long it will be in each quarter, just what part of the heavens it
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will occupy; and this is possible because it keeps its way steadfastly, faithfully, never erratic, never whim- sical, never doing anything unexpected or unan- nounced. It is a faithful witness in heaven.
This faithfulness is not due merely to the perfection of the machinery of the solar system. It is rather a reflection of the perfection and faithfulness of Him who ordained it. God is the cause of the uniformity of nature. He it is who has made the universe what it is, and given us its stability, perfection, and en- durance.
David speaks of the moon in words like these: "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast or- dained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" Ps.
8:3,4.
This question is asked, not by one who believed what the heathen believed, — that the earth was set in the center of a crystal globe, and that out not so very far away there were lights which were lighted at night and extinguished in the morning, — a child's picture of the universe. No, indeed !
These are words spoken by one inspired by the Spirit of God, that Spirit which searches all things, even "the deep things of God." It reveals a knowl- edge of the universe which modern astronomy has not begun to approach. When a person grasps some of the revelations of modern science, when he views the skies with the mightiest of our modern telescopes, when he sweeps the heavens with all the power that
The Muun in thk Eightekx-Dav Phase
Halley's Comet, as Seen in the Early Morning
Named from Halley, who first ascertained its return around
the sun in a period of about seventy-five years. It appeared
last in 1910.
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modern science has placed at the command of the eye and mind of man, what language can adequately ex- press the feelings that enrapture him? Where alone can man turn for words suitable to voice his emotions when the sights of the skies thrill the imagination, stir the conscience, and awaken the heart? Only the lan- guage of inspiration can cover all the range of the feelings; only the words of Scripture can flux the thoughts, and make them flow unimpeded, absolutely free, through the great channels of the soul.
It is at such times that one turns with gladness, with rapture, to quote the words given by inspiration of God. It is then that the devout astronomer exclaims, "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast or- dained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him ?"
This is true because every word of God is pure, and unlimited in the fullness of its meaning. When God's Word speaks in facts of nature, it does not glimpse just a few of the facts, as would be the case if depend- ent upon a partial knowledge ; but the Spirit of God, when it mentions the great things of God, has in full view every fact of God's universe that is involved in the statement, and it speaks in language large enough, grand enough, that no future discoveries or ages of study can possibly make it in any sense out of date.
Before men swept the heavens with gigantic tele- scopes, the Spirit of God read everything in all the vast ocean of the universe. Telescopes will never peer beyond its unmeasured scrutiny. Eye of man will
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never behold anything not comprehended by its un- limited knowledge. The mind of man will never grasp anything but that which the Spirit of God has already searched out and given for the benefit of man in its inspired lessons.
Sometimes the intellect divorced from faith views these stupendous spectacles in the heavens to point the soul only to despair; but not so the Word. Agnosti- cism and philosophical speculations and scientific soph- istry would read but a portion of this scripture. It would change it to something like this : "When I con- sider the heavens, the incomprehensible work of the universe, the moon and stars in their vastness, what is man?" The whole import of the question is then to overwhelm man with his insignificance, and make him feel that he is merely a bubble of foam on the great tossing waves of immensity. As Daniel Webster once said, "Philosophical objections have sometimes shaken my mind with regard to Christianity, especially the objection drawn from the magnitude of the uni- verse contrasted with the littleness of this planet." And the argument becomes more striking, the feelings are affected more intensely, when we contrast all this might not merely with the planet, but with each one of us as a puny individual ; but faith arises and faces the difficulty.
The quotation from Daniel Webster is not complete. He continued, "But my heart has always assured me and reassured me that the gospel of Jesus Christ is a divine reality." And he began his statement with the words, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief."
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These words he left to be inscribed on his sepulcher, and they are chiseled in the marble that rests over his dust at Marshfield. Worthy faith !
The Scriptures would call our attention to the great- ness of God's universe, and therefore to the might of the God of the universe, but not to discourage or to awaken distrust. The scripture reads: "When I con- sider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained ; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visit est him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor."
This was true of man when created ; and though by sin he has lost it for himself, through Christ it is still true for men. In Christ, God still makes him a little lower than the angels ; and in Christ, God still clothes him with glory and honor. And this is the great result of a proper study of astronomy. When rightly we consider the heavens, the work of God's fingers, the moon and the stars, which He has ordained, it does not arouse any distrust; it merely causes us to realize the love of God, that He should remember anything so small as a human being. It magnifies the love of God, but does not throw any discredit upon Him. It wonders at the condescension of God as it says, "What is man," that God should do this ? It cries out in faith, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath be- stowed upon us."
What the stars alone, what the moon itself, could not tell, the gospel of the Son of God does tell. And
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if we have been awed by the might of God displayed in His vast universe, we are awed by the depth of His love displayed in the blessed gospel of His Son ; for we know that He who is so great that He has stretched out the universe as you and I would pitch a tent, nevertheless "so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
As we look at the skies, — at the stars in their ap- pointed course, at all the celestial bodies keeping their mighty orbits, the spheres rotating in the vast deeps of the creation, — we cannot dispute the might of God; and when we view the cross of Christ, the wonderful condescension of the Father in giving His Son, we cannot dispute the immeasurable love of God.
CHAPTER XIII
Stars Innumerable
AGES ago the Word declared the stars of the heavens to be innumerable. Years have come and gone; man's knowledge of the skies has been augmented; research through times and seasons has added its stores of facts to the science of astron- omy. To-day we say still, the stars are innumerable.
In Abraham's day, even as now and always, the eye could count all the stars seen in the skies. If it were a mere human task God called Abraham to undertake, he could soon accomplish it. It would not be difficult to count all the stars visible even in his fine climate. With a little skill and perseverance, he could soon know the number in sight.
But it was the Creator of the universe who called Abraham forth, and thus he saw by the more than telescope of God's enabling. He could look deeper than any others of the sky gazers of his time. He could fathom the universe spread out to his sight. To Christ were shown the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, even by the ability of a fallen angel.
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John saw beyond the crash of earthly empires to the kingdom of God. And Abraham saw to the deeps of the material universe.
It is therefore clear enough that if Abraham could have counted all the stars to which God called his at- tention, and they were but what one would ordinarily see, say about fifteen hundred, then this whole passage in Genesis from the life record of Abraham is a piece of nonsense, and presents a stupendous farce. God speaks as though the task were impossible: "Tell the stars, if thou be able to number them." If Abraham had found himself able to number them, we are quite sure that he would have obeyed God, and told the number of the stars. But Abraham was silent, awed by the sight. The task was beyond him.
According to the modern skeptic, who views it only from the merely human standpoint, it was an easy task; "there were but fifteen hundred." Think of the all-wise Creator of the universe calling Abraham out to look at fifteen hundred stars, and saying, "Tell the stars, if thou be able to number them."
But as Abraham beheld the countless shining orbs of heaven, now first made visible to him as seen from the Creator's viewpoint, God broke upon the awful silence with the revelation of another great fact : "So shall thy seed be." If Abraham saw the stars as they really were, what an overwhelming fact it was: "So shall thy seed be." Surely it must draw upon the faith of even Abraham ; but we read that Abraham "believed in the Lord; and He [God] counted it to him for righteousness." But as the modern critic would have
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it, all this was done to reveal to Abraham that he was to have fifteen hundred descendants! There were wandering nomads in those days with a larger pos- terity than that. Thus does the too wise man charge God and His Word with folly. Here is an occasion where we may well say, "Let God be true, but every man [who disputes Him] a liar."
God did not say that there is no number to the stars of heaven; but He appeals to man's inability to count them. God "telleth the number of the stars." Yes, He even "calleth them all by their names." Ps. 147: 4; Isa. 40:26. Likewise God did not say that Israel should be of the precise number of the stars or the number of the dust of the earth. True, He said, 'T will make thy seed as the dust of the earth." But in what respect were they to be made as the dust of the earth? — ''So that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered." Abra- ham's seed were not to be of the precise number of the dust of the earth, but "as the dust of the earth," and "as the sand of the seashore," for the reason that they would be beyond human computation. So God said concerning the stars : "Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: , . . so [beyond human computation] shall thy seed be." Surely God meant what He said, and Abraham did well to believe; for John caught a view of that same company, "a great multitude, which no man could number/' Rev. 7 : 9.
In this text of Genesis just as it reads, with no allowance or modification, we find revealed a truth of
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astronomy which is far beyond human ideas or human conception, and that modern astronomy itself is only beginning to appreciate. I believe God has held that truth before man ever since man took his place upon this earth; and nearly four thousand years ago He gave it to Abraham and his seed, coupled with the great truth of those who should be saved.
*'Of the number and economy of the stars which compose this group [the Milky Way], we have very little exact knowledge. Herschel informs us that, with his best glasses, he saw and counted five hundred and eighty-eight stars in a single spot, without moving his telescope; and as the gradual motion of the earth carried these out of view, and introduced others suc- cessively in their places, while he kept his telescope steadily fixed to one point, there passed over his field of vision one hundred and sixteen thousand stars; and at another time, in forty-one minutes, no less than two hundred and fifty-eight thousand. At other observa- tions, when examining a section of the Milky Way, apparently not more than one yard in breadth and six in length, he discovered fifty thousand stars large enough to be distinctly counted; and he suspected twice as many more, which, for want of sufficient light in his telescope, he saw only now and then." — ''Geog- raphy of the Heavens" page 142.
Let us in imagination visit some large observatory.
"We enter the building, lantern in hand, and rolling open a large segment of the dome, stand beside the telescope under the starry sky. Looking up at the glorious spectacle of the midnight heavens, we recall
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the fact that from two thousand to two thousand five hundred stars are visible in the northern hemisphere to the naked eye. . . .
"But the stars which are thus visible form only a small part of those whose existence is known to us. On that table there lies a binocular glass. Take it up and look at any part of the heavens through it, and see what a multitude of stars, it brings into view utterly invisible to the naked eye ! The binocular forms an admirable and inexpensive instrument for elementary astronomical research, especially when used with maps of the starry heavens. Proctor's star atlas is one of the simplest and best for this purpose, showing, with- out crowding, all the stars in the British Association catalogue down to the sixth magnitude.
"As we turn over the twelve maps of this atlas, we note the fact that they exhibit 2,487 and 3,466 stars in the northern and southern hemispheres, 5,953 in all, and that the British Association catalogue from which they are taken, professes to include all the stars visible to the naked eye.
"But now turning to a more extensive catalogue, we take down a volume of 1,200 pages — Lalande's cata- logue of stars — which gives the right ascension and north polar distances of 47,390 stars, or nearly 48,000 stars; and as the heavens are divided by astronomers into twenty- four parts, corresponding with the twenty- four hours of the day and night, each of the hour sec- tions would contain on an average 2,000 of these stars, or about as many as are ordinarily seen in the entire hemisphere by the naked eye. But what are even
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48,000 stars compared with the number which can be seen with a small telescope of three inches aperture? Look at the stars on this chart of the northern hemis- phere representing those seen by Argelander and his assistants during their persevering survey of the north- em heavens with a 2^-inch telescope. There are no less than 324,198 stars marked on that chart! They lie almost as crowded together as the sands upon the seashore ; and in parts, especially along the Milky Way, the crowding is frequently so great as to make it im- possible to distinguish star from star! That chart is a photograph made by Proctor from Argelander's maps. Turning the light of the lantern full upon it, you may observe that some hand has written with pen and ink below its marvelous picture of the star-filled hemisphere the sublime yet simple and touching words of Jesus Christ, *In My Father's house are many mansions.'
"But now let us use the larger instrument to scan some of the wonders of the heavens. Let us direct it first to the constellation Perseus; and as we have to find a particular spot in the constellation, we set the equatorial telescope by means of its hour circle to 2 hr. II m. right ascension, and elevate it to 56 38 north declination, and having rotated it so that the hour on the meridian corresponds with that shown at the moment by the sidereal clock, we mount the steps of the ladder and look through the instrument. A bril- liant mass of stars, apparently countless in number, now fills the field of view! That is the magnificent cluster of stars in the sword handle of Perseus. After
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gazing for a time at this sublime celestial spectacle, on slightly moving the direction of the instrument, a second glorious cluster comes into view, also of stars from the seventh to the fifteenth magnitudes; and all these stars are, as separate objects, invisible to the naked eye.
"We might spend the whole night in thus examining star clusters, and would only then have begun their survey. But let us glance for a moment at one of the many clusters remarkable for spherical form and com- pactness. Directing the telescope to i6 hr. 37 m. right ascension and 36 39 north declination, a wondrous ball of stars blazes up in the center of the field of view. That mighty system is known to astronomers by the modest name of 13 M. Herculis, indicating that it is the thirteenth in Messier's catalogue of nebulae, and is situated in the constellation Hercules. It was dis- covered by Halley in 1714, and examined by Messier with a four-foot Newtonian instrument fifty years later, who was able to resolve it into separate stars. With this large equatorial it is perfectly resolved even with low power eyepiece, while with the eyepieces of higher power it seems to blaze and break into separate stars and star branches streaming out from a dense core of glittering light points. Language utterly fails to adequately describe such an object. It has been truly said that none could behold it for the first time without uttering a *shout of wonder.' And yet that system of worlds is only one among thousands, and has not even a name assigned to it, being only known among astronomers by its number, 13 M. Herculis I
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"And now, changing again the direction of the telescope, we bring it to bear on the Milky Way, that faint, mysterious river of light, which streams all across the midnight sky. Pointing the telescope to the edge of the Milky Way, and moving it slowly across its breadth, and then in the direction of its length, we see that it really consists of miUions of minute stars closely crowded together, along with larger stars and star clusters. And the Milky Way thus traversing the sky goes completely round the world, crossing the southern hemisphere, and return- ing again to the northern, in a vast ring-like form, made up of closely compacted stars and star clusters all the way.
"We have spoken of star catalogues and star maps representing thousands of stars, but here are mil- lions! It has been reckoned that the highest tele- scopic power brings into view no less than fifty or sixty millions of stars, and photography has of late enormously increased the number known to exist by revealing multitudes of stars too faint to be detected even by the most powerful telescope." — "Creation Cen- tered in Christ," pages 40^-412.
"Wider and wider fields are ever opening before the human gaze. Vaster and vaster universe depths are ever sought into. And still, boundless fields be- yond, unfathomable depths below, reward the utmost efforts of which man is capable. Many different com- putations have been made from time to time, as to the probable number of the stars, bright and dim, which may lie within the grasp of the most powerful
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telescope yet made. The sum of some sixty or seventy million seems at present to be a moderate reckoning."
"There are stars in the sky so distant that the most huge object glass ever constructed cannot catch enough of their feeble glimmer to impress their image in the human eye. No man has ever seen those stars from this world ; perhaps no man, looking from this world, will ever see a great many of them. And yet those very stars are known to astronomers ; and the position of many of them is marked on the celestial map. You do not need to ask how this can be. You already know that the weak shining, which cannot make itself felt by the retina of a man's eye, can slowly impress its image on the photographic plate. Hundreds of stars, thousands of stars, utterly invisible to man, have had their photographs taken as truly as you have had your photograph taken, only it has been a longer business."
*Tf the stars which are known, and which can be known, through photography alone, are added to the list of those known through the telescope, the numbers again rise fast. According to one supposition, the total of one hundred miUion may be fairly given; ac- cording to another, two hundred million may be well within the mark. And even this vast mass may still be, for aught that we know to the contrary, as a mere corner of the universe." — ''Radiant Suns."
Magnificent glasses now scan the heavens. The photographic plate nightly is turned to the