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 Shelf- 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
OUR CELESTIAL HOME: 
 
 AN ASTRONOMER'S VIEW OF HEAVEN. 
 
 BY .- 
 
 JERMAIN G. PORTER, A.M., 
 
 DIRECTOR OF THE CINCINNATI OBSERVATORY. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 
 
 38 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET. 
 
 \ 'S ^ 'T^. "^ 
 

 Copyright, 18.S8. by 
 Anson D. F. Randolph 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 EDWARD O. JENKINS' SON'S, 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The thought that heaven may lie within 
 the starry universe is by no means new. It 
 has been a favorite theme with many writers. 
 But so far as the author is aware, this idea 
 has never been critically examined in the 
 light of astronomical science, certainly not in 
 the light of the most recent investigations 
 and discoveries in the field of stellar physics. 
 A certain class of writers, indeed, have main- 
 tained that the material universe is inevitably 
 destined to decay and death, and therefore 
 not fitted for the eternal dwelling-place of 
 the redeemed. The following passage, quoted 
 from the " Unseen Universe," is a good illus- 
 tration of this philosophic assumption : 
 
 "Supposing that man, in some form, is 
 
 permitted to remain on the earth for a long 
 
 series of years, we merely lengthen out the 
 
 period, but we can not escape the final catas- 
 
 (3) 
 
4 Preface. 
 
 trophe. The earth will gradually lose its 
 energy of rotation, as well as that of revolu- 
 tion around the sun. The sun himself will 
 wax dim and become useless as a source of 
 energy, until at last the present favorable 
 conditions of the solar system will have quite 
 disappeared. 
 
 "But what happens to our system will 
 happen likewise to the whole visible universe, 
 which will, if finite, become a lifeless mass, 
 if indeed it be not doomed to utter dissolu- 
 tion. In fine, it will become old and effete, 
 no less truly than the individual. It is a 
 glorious garment, this visible universe, but 
 not an immortal one. We must look else- 
 where if we are to be clothed with immor- 
 tality as with a garment." 
 
 It is true that the doctrine of the dissipa- 
 tion of energy furnishes some slight grounds 
 for such assertions as these : but this doctrine 
 is not an ultimatum of science. The dissi- 
 pated force is not destroyed. Higher laws 
 and undetected agencies may be at work 
 gathering up and storing this energy. Cer- 
 
Preface. 5 
 
 tainly there is no evidence that He who 
 created the universe can not uphold and pre- 
 serve it so long as He chooses. 
 
 Professor Drummond in his grand work, 
 " Natural Law in the Spiritual World," seems 
 to entertain similar views. He well says that 
 eternal life is not merely existence prolonged 
 forever: it is to know God, to have com- 
 munion with Him. This is the correspond- 
 ence which will never break, with the environ- 
 ment which is truly eternal. But, according 
 to Professor Drummond, this is the only cor- 
 respondence that possesses everlastingness ; 
 all other correspondences are temporal, " they 
 belong to time and to this present world. 
 .... They are in their nature unfitted for an 
 eternal life." These lower correspondences 
 with the material environment "must, in 
 some way, be unloosed and dissociated from 
 the higher elements ; and this is effected by 
 a closing catastrophe — Death." 
 ^ But death is the penalty of sin. The fall 
 was the cause of the imperfect correspondence 
 between man and nature. If Adam had not 
 
6 Preface. 
 
 sinned would it have been necessary for soul 
 and body to be separated before he could 
 enter upon eternal life? It is not because 
 the environment and correspondences are 
 material in their nature that they must pass 
 away, but because they are tainted with evil. 
 Professor Drummond, moreover, appears 
 to have lost sight of the doctrine of the 
 resurrection of the body. Communion of 
 the unclothed spirit with its Maker would 
 beyond a doubt constitute heaven, but not 
 the complete and glorious heaven promised 
 in the Bible. " For we that are in this taber- 
 nacle do groan, being burdened ; not for that 
 we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, 
 that mortality might be swallowed up of life." 
 The very biological analogy which points to 
 a spiritual kingdom rising above the organic 
 kingdom, would also lead us to look for the 
 incorporation of the material into this spirit- 
 ual kingdom. We do not find the organic 
 kingdom existing alone by itseK : it is built 
 up on the foundation of the mineral kingdom. 
 The lower forms of matter are raised through 
 
Preface. 7 
 
 the life forces into the higher forms. So 
 with the spiritual kingdom : the energies of 
 that higher realm are perfectly adequate to 
 transform the baser elements of our nature, 
 and fit them for the exalted life of immor- 
 tality. " If the Spirit of Him that raised up 
 Jesus from the dead dwell in you. He that 
 raised up Christ from the dead shall also 
 quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that 
 dwelleth in you." 
 
 Death will effect a separation between the 
 lower and the higher, between the weak, im- 
 perfect body which has been the home of the 
 natural man, and the regenerated, perfected 
 spirit. But the separation is not to be final. 
 Like the seed buried in the ground, the body 
 shall spring up again at the resurrection, and 
 under the potent influences that hold sway in 
 the spiritual kingdom, shall blossom forth in 
 immortal beauty. Just as the kingdom of 
 life was grafted upon the mineral kingdom, 
 and through its loftier and more subtile 
 potencies, beautified and ennobled a world 
 otherwise barren and dead ; so we believe the 
 
8 Preface. 
 
 spiritual kingdom is destined, not to super- 
 sede the natural, but still further to exalt 
 and glorify it. Sin and all its terrible effects 
 will be banished from the universe and driven 
 into outer darkness. Death and the grave 
 will surrender their prey, and life and im- 
 mortality will forever reign throughout the 
 illimitable sweep of God's mighty empire. 
 
 The author trusts that this Kttle volume 
 will prove acceptable not merely to those 
 who have made a careful study of the sub- 
 ject, but to that far greater number whose 
 ideas of heaven are vague and unsatisfactory. 
 While the views here set forth will not be 
 accepted by all, they may at least serve to 
 invite attention to that ^' silent land '' upon 
 whose borders we are dwelling, and present 
 it in a form which, to some minds, perchance, 
 may prove attractive. If the nature of the 
 theme has necessitated giving special promi- 
 nence to the material side of heaven, it is not 
 because this is considered its most important 
 feature. Far abler pens have many times 
 sought to portray the joy and bliss of the 
 
Preface. 9 
 
 celestial country, and have set forth the 
 spiritual elements which constitute its very 
 atmosphere. Purity and holiness are far more 
 essential than any material surroundings ; for 
 without these no man shall see the Lord; 
 and where He is, there is heaven. " I shall 
 be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness." 
 " It doth not yet appear what we shall be ; 
 but we know that when He shall appear, we 
 shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as 
 He is." Into this soul-likeness to Christ may 
 every reader of this little book seek to grow, 
 that heaven, wherever located, may be to him 
 indeed HOME. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Heaven a Material Locauty, ... 15 
 
 II. Heaven a Part of the Universe. . 27 
 
 in. The Habitability of the Celestial 
 
 Worlds, 43 
 
 IV. Stability of the Universe as to 
 
 Motion, 63 
 
 Y. Stability of the Universe as to 
 
 Force, 87 
 
 VI. Conclusion, 105 
 
HEAYEN A MATERIAL LOCALITY. 
 
L 
 
 HEAYEN A MATEKIAL LOCALITY. 
 
 There is a wide-spread feeling in the Chris- 
 tian Church that heaven is some ethereal realm, 
 entirely beyond and distinct from the phys- 
 ical universe, where God has established His 
 spiritual kingdom uncontaminated by contact 
 with anything so gross as matter. This idea 
 doubtless has its rise in the fact that our poor 
 sin-cursed world is for us the type of the 
 whole created universe, and the corruption 
 and evil which reign in and around us seem 
 necessarily inherent in all matter. Add to 
 this the fact that the Scriptures contrast the 
 flesh and the spirit, making the one the type 
 of the earthly and the other of the heavenly, 
 and we have no difficulty in accounting for 
 the prevalence of the conception of an imma- 
 terial heaven where all is pure spirit. 
 
 (15) 
 
16 Out Celestial Home. 
 
 If, however, we study more carefully the 
 teachings of the Bible, we shall jSnd no sup- 
 port for this idea, but, on the contrary, the 
 strongest presumption for the opposite opin- 
 ion. Heaven is indeed supremely a spiritual 
 world. Its King, its laws, its inhabitants, its 
 occupations, its joys, all are spiritual. Flesh 
 and blood, in the sense of the carnal mind, 
 the lower nature, an existence centered in self, 
 with unworthy motives, desires and aims, can 
 not inherit the kingdom of God. The spir- 
 itual mind, which alone has the promise of 
 life and peace, is centered in God. All its 
 springs are in Him, and He is the perfect 
 fulfillment of all its hopes and aspirations. 
 But there is nothing in this conception of the 
 spirituality of heaven which at all excludes 
 the idea of its being a material locality. 
 
 Let us now see what we can gather from 
 the teachings of the Bible respecting this 
 question. We begin with Eden, the earthly 
 paradise. This was material, and yet it was 
 holy. The Lord God walked in the garden in 
 the cool of day not only, we may well sup- 
 
Our Celestial Home. 17 
 
 pose, to hold communion with the human 
 souls which He had created, but to enjoy as 
 well the quiet beauty of the sunset hour. 
 " The Lord rejoiceth in all His works "; and 
 why should He not ? He created them for 
 His own glory ; and when He looked upon 
 them, behold, they were very good. Paradise 
 and its inhabitants were holy. Sin lurked 
 neither in body nor soul. Spirit and matter 
 were alike untainted. 
 
 Notice also that the temptation which led 
 to the fall not only came through a wicked 
 spirit, but that the temptation itself was pre- 
 sented not so much to the carnal appetite as 
 to the desire for spiritual knowledge. " For 
 God doth know that in the day j^e eat there- 
 of, your eyes shall be open, and ye shall be 
 as gods knowing good and evil." 
 
 We see, then, most clearly that matter as 
 
 originally created was not inherently evil. 
 
 But how is it since the fall ? Nature was 
 
 cursed for man's sake. Have we any reason 
 
 to believe that the curse extended beyond 
 
 our own planet \ Would it not, in fact, be 
 2 
 
18 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 an unwarrantable assumption, and an exag- 
 geration of the importance of the human 
 race in relation to the outlying universe, to 
 suppose that the effect of man's sin has been 
 visited upon other worlds and systems ? Un- 
 less we establish a kind of Ptolemaic system 
 of moral astronomy and make our earth the 
 center of the moral universe, so that a disaf- 
 fection here shall reach out and permeate the 
 whole, we must certainly acknowledge that, 
 with the exception of this one tiny globe, the 
 material universe still exists in its pristine 
 purity, and may well be a fit dwelling-place 
 for immortal, holy beings. 
 
 But not only does the Bible teach that 
 there is no necessary antagonism between 
 the material and the spiritual ; it goes much 
 further. The regeneration of the soul is not 
 more plainly taught and more strenuously in- 
 sisted on in the Scriptures than is the regen- 
 eration of the body. Both are a part of the 
 same redemptive scheme. The body is to 
 partake of the benefits of Christ's sacrifice, 
 and will be raised up in glory at the resurrec- 
 
Our Celestial Home, 19 
 
 tion. It is needless to argue this, for it is a 
 fundamental article of the Christian's faith. 
 
 One theory, however, must be briefly no- 
 ticed. Paul speaks of the spiritual body in 
 contrast with the natural body, and from this 
 expression some have surmised that the resur- 
 rection body will be pure spirit, and there- 
 fore immaterial. This theory is too self-con- 
 tradictory and too plainly opposed to the 
 general Bible doctrine on the subject to be 
 worthy of very serious consideration. It is 
 self -contradictory because a body composed of 
 spirit is not a body at all. If the soul is to 
 be clothed with spirit at the resurrection, 
 how will it then be better off than imme- 
 diately after death ? * For it is already pure 
 spirit. And where will be the triumph over 
 death and the grave ? For death will hold 
 all he ever gets, namely, our material bodies. 
 It is contrary to Scripture, for the patriarch 
 Job exclaims, '^ Though after my skin worms 
 destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see 
 God ; whom I shall see for myself, and mine 
 eyes shall behold, and not another*, though 
 
20 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 my reins be consumed within me." Isaiah 
 prophesies, " Thine eyes shall see the King 
 in His beauty ; they shall behold the land 
 that is very far off " (Hebrew, '' the land of 
 far distances "). Christ says that the children 
 of the resurrection are as the angels of God 
 in heaven. But the angels are almost beyond 
 question beings with physical organizations. 
 In the many recorded appearances of angels 
 they always had the form and attributes of 
 men. They walked, they talked, they ate ; 
 the angel wrestled with Jacob ; the messen- 
 ger to Daniel wps caused to fly quickly and 
 touched him at the time of the evening ob- 
 lation. 
 
 But strongest of all is the proof from the 
 resurrection body of our Lord. Christ was 
 the first-fruits of them that slept. His resur- 
 rection was an earnest and type of that of 
 His followers. "What was the nature of His 
 resurrection body ? Jesus himseK answered 
 this question when He said to the terrified 
 disciples, "Behold my hands and my feet, 
 that it is I myself : handle me and see, 
 
Our Celestial Home. 21 
 
 for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see 
 me have." The spiritual body is not then to 
 be interpreted as meaning an immaterial sub- 
 stance, but rather a body purified and refined 
 of its dross and made fit for the indwelling 
 of the Spirit. Though changed and raised 
 up in incorruption and glory, it will still be 
 the same identical body. We know that force 
 can so change matter here upon the earth 
 that it IS difiicult to recognize the identity. 
 What have the cold, barren, lifeless wastes of 
 polar ice in common with the invisible and 
 almost impalpable steam that drives the ma- 
 chinery ot the globe ? And yet they are com- 
 posed of the same molecules, only changed 
 by force. So our resurrection bodies may 
 differ from our earthly bodies as hydrogen 
 differs from lead, and still be the same, only 
 transformed by forces of which we are now 
 ignorant. 
 
 If the souls of believers are to be clothed 
 with bodies resemblmg the resurrection body 
 of Christ, and are to retain a continuity of 
 existence with the present life, it is only a 
 
22 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 fair and natural inference that their future 
 abode will be a material locality. We can, 
 perhaps, conceive the saints as floating about 
 in empty nothingness; but the idea is un- 
 satisfying and repugnant, as well as unnatural. 
 " We look for a city which hath foundations," 
 "the new Jerusalem, coming down from 
 God out of heaven." 
 
 How, we may well ask, can all the sublime 
 imagery of the Bible be reconciled with the 
 idea of an ethereal heaven where there is 
 nothing but spirit ? Nor is it only the im- 
 agery of the Bible which points to a material 
 dwelhng for the soul. The Apostle Peter 
 describes the final conflagration which is to 
 burn up the earth with all its wickedness, the 
 atmospheric heavens exploding with a great 
 noise, and the very elements melting with 
 the fervent heat. But, as we well know, this 
 conflagration would not annihilate but only 
 alter the form of the matter composing the 
 globe ; and accordingly we read, '' Neverthe- 
 less, we, according to His promise, look for 
 new heavens and a new earth wherein dwell- 
 
Our Celestial Home, 23 
 
 eth righteousness." Is it possible to resist 
 the conclusion that the earth is to come forth 
 from its burning purified and regenerated, 
 and to take its place thenceforth as a part of 
 heaven ? 
 
 We shall recur in a future chapter to this 
 subject. Suffice it to say here that if indeed 
 it be a doctrine of Scripture that this same 
 old earth, which has witnessed the mighty 
 conflict between good and evil, and the vic- 
 tory of our Lord over death and the grave, 
 and shall witness the final triumph of His 
 church, is to come forth from its baptism of 
 fire once again sanctified and holy, and to 
 form part of that heaven wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness ; not only is it a doctrine which 
 accords pre-eminently with the eternal fitness 
 of things, but it should forever set at rest the 
 question of the materiality of the heavenly 
 world. 
 
n. 
 
 HEAVEN A PAET OF THE 
 UNIVERSE. 
 
11. 
 
 HEAYEN A PAET OF THE 
 UNIYEESE. 
 
 Admitting that a material locality best 
 accords with the Scriptural representations of 
 heaven, it is a natural inquiry, where shall 
 we look for this favored spot? In what 
 direction shall we point our telescopes to 
 catch, perchance, a far-off glimpse of those 
 glittering towers and jasper walls and pearly 
 gates ? I say it is a natural query ; but here, 
 aside from the assurance that our own planet 
 will hereafter become a habitation of righte- 
 ousness and, therefore, a portion of heaven, 
 the Bible sheds no light, and we are left to 
 such conjectures upon the subject as seem 
 most in accordance with reason. 
 
 If heaven is material, it is, of course, in- 
 cluded within the bounds of God's created 
 
 universe; and it may lie either within the 
 
 (27) 
 
28 Out Celestial Home. 
 
 fiinits of the stellar cluster to which our solar 
 system belongs, or entirely outside and be- 
 yond it, in some so distant realm that not 
 even the most powerful lens can penetrate 
 the vail of space that hangs between. Which 
 is the more probable view ? In order to form 
 an intelligent opinion upon this question, it 
 will be well to gain some conception of the 
 extent and condition of the visible universe. 
 
 The knowledge of the amazing vastness by 
 which we are surrounded has dawned upon 
 the human mind by slow degrees. As you 
 stand beneath night's glorious canopy, those 
 twinkling stars seem scarcely more distant 
 than terrestrial lights. It is only when the 
 truth is forced upon the mind by laborious 
 research and careful reasoning, that we begin 
 to realize the tremendous sweep of vision 
 which the starry depths afford. The ancients 
 had no idea whatever of celestial distances, 
 except in the case of our own moon. Its 
 distance being but thirty diameters of the 
 earth, was easily measured ; but all attempts 
 to span the chasm between the earth and 
 
Our Celestial Home. 29 
 
 Bun failed utterly. Ptolemy stated the dis- 
 tance at six hundred diameters of the earth, 
 a result which is twenty times too small. It 
 was not until the revival of intellectual 
 activity in the sixteenth century, that the 
 supreme authority of Ptolemy was seriously 
 questioned. Kepler and his contemporaries 
 saw clearly that the old value must be far too 
 small, but the seventeenth century began to 
 wane before the distance was actually meas- 
 ured. 
 
 The sun's true distance we now know to 
 be between ninety-two and ninety-three mill- 
 ions of miles. But who can realize what this 
 statement means ? If we were to travel round 
 and round the earth, making the trip four 
 times each year, we should require Methuse- 
 lah's lifetime to accomplish a distance equal 
 to that which separates us from the sun. 
 Could we board an express train bound for 
 the sun and running sixty miles an hour 
 without a single stop, the journey would still 
 consume one hundred and seventy-five years. 
 Beings that traverse celestial spaces must cer- 
 
30 Out Celestial Home. 
 
 tainly have far fleeter wings than any bird of 
 passage that soars through terrestrial skies. 
 
 But we have yet scarcely commenced our 
 outward flight through realms supernal. 
 Jupiter pursues his majestic course five times 
 as far from the sun as our tiny globe, Saturn 
 about ten times as far, and Neptune, sunk in 
 the depths of space nearly three billions of 
 miles or thirty times the earth's distance 
 from the sun, keeps sentry upon the confines 
 of the system. 
 
 Having at last attained to a just conception 
 of the scale of the solar system, the human 
 mind paused. Nearly two centuries elapsed 
 after the sun's distance was determined, before 
 it was possible to bridge the gulf of space 
 which separates our system from the sphere 
 of the fixed stars. Let us see how the case 
 now stood. In order to get the sun's dis- 
 tance it was necessary to take a base-line upon 
 the earth's surface, and from its extremities 
 to measure the direction of the sun ; but hav- 
 ing once determined the diameter of the 
 earth's orbit, it became possible in all future 
 
Our Celestial Home. 31 
 
 triangulations in space to employ this more 
 extended line for a base. Astronomers could 
 not, of course, set up their instruments simul- 
 taneously at each end of the line; but as 
 the earth moves from one side to the other 
 of its orbit in intervals of six months, they 
 could measure the direction of the heavenly 
 bodies alternately from points in space sepa- 
 rated by the tremendous distance of one hun- 
 dred and eighty-five millions of miles. 
 
 Eight here lay a difficulty that nearly 
 proved fatal to the Copernican system of as- 
 tronomy; for the stars, instead of shifting 
 their apparent positions as the earth pro- 
 gressed in its journey around the sun, seemed 
 absolutely immovable. How is it possible, 
 urged the objector, that the stars can appear 
 in the same direction from points so far apart 
 as the opposite sides of the earth's orbit? 
 Either the doctrine that the earth revolves 
 around the sun is false, or else the distance of 
 the stars must be so great that in comparison 
 with it one hundred and eighty-five millions 
 of miles is an infinitesimal quantity. As- 
 
32 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 tronomers of each succeeding generation 
 sought in vain to solve the problem. The 
 years rolled up into centuries,. and yet no ray 
 of light penetrated this dark mystery. CoulU 
 it be that those twinkhng stars which seemed 
 so near, were really plunged in space to such 
 an appalling depth that the utmost refine- 
 ment of astronomic science would fail en- 
 tirely to sound the abyss ? 
 
 The great increase in the power and per- 
 fection of astronomical instruments which the 
 early part of the present century witnessed, 
 led to renewed efforts to fathom the gulf of 
 space. Bessel was the first to achieve success. 
 It is yet scarcely fifty years since he announced 
 that the star named Sixty-one Cygni was 
 separated from us by about sixty millions of 
 millions of miles. Immediately following 
 the now classic labors of Bessel, came Struve's 
 measurement of the distance of the brilliant 
 Yega, and Henderson's determination of that 
 of the southern star Alpha Centauri, Thus 
 the great barrier that had so long restrained 
 the onward march of knowledge, was almost 
 
Our Celestial Home. 33 
 
 amultaneously overleaped at three different 
 points. 
 
 Later measures have reduced somewhat 
 the distance of Bessel's star, making it more 
 nearly forty trillions'^ of miles. Alpha Cen- 
 tauri is, however, so far as we now know, the 
 star which lies in closest proximity to our 
 system. Its distance is not far from twenty- 
 five trillions of miles. So futile is the at- 
 tempt to gain any just conception of such 
 prodigious numbers that it is a common 
 practice with astronomers to adopt a more 
 convenient unit in dealing with the distances 
 of the fixed stars. This unit is the velocity 
 of hght. The most subtile of all the material 
 forces which come within our cognizance, 
 light darts with more than three times the 
 greatest speed of the electric current: it 
 travels a million miles for every breath we 
 draw : it would girdle the earth no less than 
 seven times in a single second, and fly to the 
 far distant sun in eight minutes. Surely here 
 
 * According to the American numeration a triUion 
 is a million millions. 
 8 
 
34 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 is a messenger fleet-winged enough to aunilii- 
 late celestial space, and rival angelic visitants 
 in their journeys from world to world ! But 
 hold ! When we test our fancies by actual 
 figures, and calculate the time that light 
 occupies in coming down the shining track 
 from yon bright star, we find it to be four 
 years : and this from the very nearest. 
 
 We stand in the midst of a mighty forest. 
 Close to us on every side are a few trees, and 
 back of these others and yet others until they 
 are lost in the dim distance; and still the 
 forest stretches on. So we float among the 
 celestial worlds. Some are quite near, twenty- 
 five, fifty, a hundred trillion miles ! But be- 
 yond they yet glitter and gleam and glimmer, 
 till lost in the haze of infinite expanse ; and 
 still the great universe stretches endlessly 
 outward. 
 
 It is obvious that the distances of only the 
 nearest of the stars can ever be measured. 
 Astronomers have thus far succeeded in ob- 
 taining a measurable value for less than fifty 
 stars, and the length of the light journey 
 
Our Celestial Home, 35 
 
 from these varies from four years to nearly 
 a century. It is possible, however, to form 
 a rough estimate at least of the probable dis- 
 tances of stars too remote for actual determi- 
 nation. This method is based on the simple 
 principle that a star's brilKancy will decrease 
 as its distance increases. Let us conceive the 
 beautiful star Yega, in the constellation Lyra, 
 to be removed to ten times its present dis- 
 tance from the earth. ^It would then no 
 longer be one of the brightest gems in the 
 sky, but would have declined to a star of the 
 sixth magnitude, and could just be discerned 
 with the naked eye. Imagine its distance 
 again increased tenfold, and it would shine 
 as a star of the eleventh magnitude, too faint 
 to be distinguished except by a telescope of 
 moderate size. Once more let it plunge into 
 space ten times as far as before ; and now at 
 one thousand times its original distance our 
 noble star would have sunk to the sixteenth 
 magnitude, and only the giant telescopes of 
 modern times would reveal its existence. 
 In all this there is no assumption: it is 
 
36 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 based on actual photometric measurements 
 of the light of the stars, and upon the well- 
 known law of the decrease of brightness 
 according to the square of the distance. It 
 is certain that if Yega were removed to one 
 thousand times its present distance it would 
 still be faintly visible in the largest telescopes. 
 But it now takes light twenty years to come 
 from Vega, and if the distance were increased 
 a thousandfold the length of the light journey 
 would also be increased a thousandfold: in 
 other words, a star of the size and brilliancy 
 of Vega could be seen at a point in space so 
 far away that light would occupy twenty 
 thousand years in traversing the intervening 
 distance. Astronomy can not assert that the 
 faintest stars we see with the telescope are 
 actually so remote, because their size is un- 
 known; but it is highly probable that the 
 stars in the distant regions of space are equal 
 in average size and brilliance to those im- 
 mediately surrounding our system, while it is 
 by no means impossible that some of them 
 are brighter than we have assumed, and, 
 
Out Celestial Home. 37 
 
 therefore, may lie at distances even more 
 immense. 
 
 It is not then an unreasonable assumption 
 that the light which reaches us from the ex- 
 treme Kmits of the visible universe has been 
 winging its silent flight for twice ten thou- 
 sand years. Shall we place heaven still farther 
 away ? Shall we say that these bounds are 
 too narrow for the home of the soul ? As- 
 tronomers are by no means ready to assert 
 that they have reached the confines of space, 
 or that no more starry systems, rising height 
 above height, go towering beyond the most 
 penetrating gaze of their hugest telescopes. 
 But the question ever recurs to the thought- 
 ful mind, must we banish heaven so far away ? 
 The lonely watcher beside the cold clay of a 
 departed one glances longingly upward and 
 asks, whither has the spirit flown ? And like 
 the voyager leaving home and friends, he 
 feels that every added mile increases the 
 home-sickness and the grief. 
 
 The Bible is silent, and doubtless for 
 wise reasons, respecting the exact location of 
 
38 Our Celestial Hmne. 
 
 heaven ; but this much it has plainly revealed, 
 that constant intercourse is going on between 
 this earth and the celestial realms. Eecall 
 the many instances, both in the Old Testa- 
 ment and the New, of angelic visitations. 
 During the earthly life of our Savior He 
 was continually watched and attended by 
 these heavenly ministers, from the choir 
 which announced His birth, on even to the 
 shining one who rolled back the stone from 
 the door of the sepulcher upon the resurrec- 
 tion morn. The Bible gives not a little sup- 
 port to the doctrine that each believer has his 
 guardian angel. "Their angels do always 
 behold the face of my Father which is in 
 heaven." "Are they not all ministering 
 spirits, sent forth to minister for them who 
 shall be heirs of salvation % " 
 
 If such constant intercourse is going on 
 between heaven and earth, can we consider 
 it at all probable that they are separated by 
 the whole diameter of immeasurable space ? 
 For it is to be remembered that angels, 
 whether we think of them as possessed of 
 
Our Celestial Home. 39 
 
 material organizations or as pure spirits, are 
 subject to the laws of space and time. Were 
 they free from these limitations, they would 
 be omnipresent and eternal, attributes of the 
 Almighty, Uncreated God alone. Of Him 
 it is said that He inhabiteth eternity. His 
 presence fills all space and all time. But 
 created, finite intelligences are restricted by 
 the inexorable laws of their being, and can 
 only be and act in one place at a time. This 
 is the teaching both of the Bible and of com- 
 mon sense. When we find, then, such fre- 
 quent communication between the heavenly 
 land and ours, does it not furnish a strong 
 presumption against such an awful chasm of 
 intervening space as must exist if we banish 
 heaven beyond the limits of the visible uni- 
 verse ? May it not be true that, 
 
 "Not far away does that bright city stand ; 
 'Tis but the mist o*er its dividing stream 
 That wraps the glory of its glittering strand, 
 Its radiant skies and mountains' silvery gleam. 
 Oh ! often in the blindness of our fate. 
 We wander very near the city's pearly gate." 
 
m. 
 
 THE HABITABILITT OF THE 
 CELESTIAL WOBLDS. 
 
III. 
 
 THE HABITABILITY OF THE 
 CELESTIAL WOELDS. 
 
 The question of the physical condition of 
 the celestial bodies and of their habitability, 
 has ever possessed a peculiar interest, an in- 
 terest which can but be increased in view of 
 the suggested possibility that among them 
 may lie the city of our hope and love, the 
 heavenly Jerusalem. A brief review of our 
 present knowledge upon the subject will not, 
 therefore, be out of place in this connection. 
 
 The body most favorably situated for a 
 study of its surface details, and, in fact, the 
 only body concerning which we can ever ex- 
 pect to gain any very definite information, is 
 our own moon. Even here no object smaller 
 than a massive building, like the pyramids 
 or the great cathedrals, would be visible in 
 
 the telescope. If living beings existed upon 
 
 (43) 
 
44 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 our satellite, therefore, we should not be able 
 to see them directly, although we might de- 
 tect evidences of their presence. But in re- 
 spect to the general character of the moon's 
 surface and the conditions which reign there, 
 we can speak with certainty. We find it a 
 rugged, mountainous globe, with no waving 
 forests or smiling meadows no rivers or lakes 
 or oceans, no elements capable of supporting 
 animate existence, nothing but an arid waste, 
 a decrepit world, an ancient cinder suspended 
 in the sky. The entire absence of water and 
 air would render life as we know it impossi- 
 ble upon the moon. Aside from the lack of 
 the very elements of life, the extreme and 
 sudden variations of temperature between the 
 lunar day and night would also be fatal to 
 terrestrial beings. The direct rays of the 
 sun beating down uninterruptedly for a fort- 
 night, with no air to dissipate the heat, and 
 with never a sheltering cloud or cooling 
 shower, must raise the temperature of the 
 moon's surface nearly to that of melting lead ; 
 while with the disappearance of the sun be- 
 
Our Celestial Home. 45 
 
 neatli the horizon, there being no atmospheric 
 envelope to hinder radiation, an intensified 
 arctic cold would, in a few short hours, en- 
 wrap the dreary landscape. 
 
 We can say, therefore, with almost certain- 
 ty that the moon is not an inhabited world 
 like ours ; but it does not necessarily follow 
 that celestial beings who have the power to 
 traverse space, can not exist upon or may not 
 visit it from time to time. A creature who 
 can breathe that ethereal, light-traiismitting 
 medium which pervades all space, who hun- 
 gers not nor thirsts, whom the heat does not 
 smite by day nor the cold chill by night, such 
 an one would be independent of the unfavor- 
 able conditions which our satellite presents, 
 and might roam through the wild, unearthly 
 scenery unharmed by influences that would 
 instantly stamp out the spark of mortal life. 
 
 We can scarcely conceive of a celestial be- 
 ing even, taking up a permanent abode upon 
 such a world. As we shun the waste and 
 desert places of the earth and choose our 
 residence rather amid its fairest beauties, so 
 
46 Our Celestial Home, 
 
 we may well suppose that angel and arch- 
 angel, cherubim and seraphim, whose endow- 
 ments and sensibilities far outrank our own, 
 would pass by the desolate spots of the uni- 
 verse to dwell among the blooming bowers 
 of paradise. 
 
 The moon, however, is not to be regarded 
 as a representative type of the celestial bod- 
 ies. Indeed, so far as our knowledge goes, 
 it is an isolated example of a world without 
 air. It is certain that Yenus possesses an 
 atmosphere, and highly probable also in the 
 case of Mercury. This latter planet, it is 
 true, revolves so near the sun that the heat 
 and light it receives are many fold greater 
 than we experience on the earth. The sea- 
 sons too run their course with surprising 
 quickness, from midwinter to midsummer 
 being but forty -four days. The extreme 
 eccentricity of the orbit of Mercury, by vir- 
 tue of which it alternately approaches to 
 within thirty milhons of miles of the sun, 
 and then recedes to forty-three millions of 
 miles, greatly adds to the fluctuations of tern- 
 
Our Celestial Home. 47 
 
 perature. But it would be unsafe to draw 
 inferences as to the climate of the planet 
 from these facts alone. Other causes may 
 modify it very materially. 
 
 It is probable that we never see the solid 
 surface of either Mercury or Yenus. No 
 permanent markings have been detected upon 
 them, and the most trustworthy physical ob- 
 servations point to the conclusion, at least in 
 the case of Yenus, that the atmosphere is 
 densely cloud laden. It will be readily seen 
 that such an envelope about a planet might 
 modify and equalize the temperature to a 
 marked degree. 
 
 In Mars we find a planet which presents 
 many striking similarities to the earth. There 
 is here no doubt that we see the real surface, 
 for the shadings upon its disk appear always 
 the same, and can be followed as they grad- 
 ually rise into view on the eastern side and 
 sink upon the western side, with the rotation 
 of the planet. Complete maps of the Martial 
 globe have been constructed, and names as- 
 signed to the different features. Many as- 
 
48 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 tronomers are inclined to regard the light 
 and dark portions as continents and oceans, 
 and the brilliant white regions which unmis- 
 takably surround each pole, as ice-caps resem- 
 bling those that exist upon the earth. , There 
 is also at times an apparent dimness of the 
 surface details, giving rise to a suspicion of 
 clouds floating in the Martial atmosphere. 
 In support of these conjectures of analogy 
 between the earth and Mars, it may be said 
 that if our globe were viewed under the same 
 conditions, it would doubtless present a sim- 
 ilar aspect ; but at the same time it is well to 
 recognize the possibility that if we could gain 
 a much nearer view of Mars, the resemblance 
 might completely vanish. 
 
 In another respect, however, we are sure 
 of a striking likeness between the two planets. 
 The day upon Mars is only about fhirty-seven 
 minutes longer than our day, a difference so 
 trifling that an inhabitant transferred from 
 one planet to the other would scarcely notice 
 it. Owing to the greater distance of Mars 
 from the sun, its revolution is necessarily 
 
Out Celestial Home. 49 
 
 slower, and the year is equal to nearly two 
 earth years ; but the inclination of the equator 
 to the plane of the orbit, and the consequent 
 vicissitudes of the seasons, are much the same 
 on both planets. 
 
 Turning to mighty Jupiter, slow-coursing 
 in its majestic orbit, we find conditions far 
 different from any that we have yet contem- 
 plated. The belts which surround his huge 
 globe are not permanent, but are constantly 
 undergoing transformations; and the spots 
 which occasionally appear upon his disk seem 
 to have a drifting motion of their own, so 
 that the time of the planet's rotation as de- 
 termined by one spot varies from that found 
 by others. All this plainly shows that these 
 belts and spots are not features of a solid 
 globe, but are clouds or vapors floating in the 
 planet's atmosphere. But while in the case 
 of Mercury and Yenus we are at liberty to 
 conjecture that underneath the cloud vail 
 there may lie fair landscapes and verdant 
 scenes of beauty, far otherwise is it with 
 
 Jupiter. Below the mists that enshroud his 
 4 
 
50 Our Celestial Home, 
 
 colossal form we know tliat there are wild 
 tempests raging. Furious hurricanes and 
 cyclones sweep across his sky, agitating even 
 the upper stratum of the clouds which forms 
 the surface visible to our telescopes. 
 
 Now all such phenomena upon the earth are 
 due to the sun's heat, which acting on large 
 masses of air disturbs their equilibrium, and 
 so gives rise to storms and tempests. But 
 the intensity of the sun's heat on Jupiter is 
 less than a twenty-fifth as great as on the 
 earth. When we find, therefore, that the 
 disturbances in the Jovian atmosphere are 
 vastly greater than in our own sky, we are 
 forced to look for the cause within the planet 
 itself. Various other facts conspire to prove 
 that Jupiter is still intensely hot. His density 
 is scarcely one-fourth that of the earth, indi- 
 cating that the substances composing his globe 
 are greatly expanded by the internal heat. It 
 seems probable that no solid crust has yet 
 formed, but that the seething vapors are in 
 direct contact with the white-hot interior. 
 
 Jupiter thus resembles far more closely the 
 
Our Celestial Some, 51 
 
 sun than the earth, and is in no sense a habit- 
 able world. It is, however^ at least a plausi- 
 ble view, that in the revolving ages a time 
 may come when, having lost its excessive 
 heat through radiation, this great planet may- 
 emerge from its tempestuous chaos into a 
 dwelling-place for organic life. If science 
 has read aright the history of the earth, it 
 would seem that our own globe has passed 
 through a state not unUke that which we now 
 find upon Jupiter ; and the continuous action 
 of the same laws may yet render that orb a 
 fitting theatre for the display of life and 
 beauty on a scale far grander than this insig- 
 nificant terrestrial baU has ever witnessed. 
 
 Coming to Saturn, we reach a point so re- 
 mote from the earth that the most powerful 
 telescopes fail to give us any definite knowl- 
 edge concerning the surface details. Ranking 
 next to Jupiter in size among the bodies of 
 the solar system, it appears to bear a close re- 
 semblance to that planet also in its physical 
 condition. Its density is even less than 
 Jupiter's. In fact, so light is this huge, ring- 
 
52 Our Celestial Some. 
 
 encircled sphere, that, could it be cast into 
 some vast ocean, it would actually float upon 
 the surface. Such lightness is, of course, in- 
 compatible with the idea of a solid globe; 
 but if in the far future it shall reach a habit- 
 able state, and be endowed with life, its occu- 
 pants will behold a spectacle both singular 
 and grand. Surrounded by its magnificent 
 overarching rings, and accompanied beside 
 by eight moons, the night scenery on Saturn 
 must be glorious beyond description. We 
 may well imagine that celestial travelers 
 sometimes pause in their flight, to admire 
 the unique and incomparable beauty of the 
 Saturnian system. 
 
 Two mighty orbs lie still beyond Saturn. 
 Uranus and Neptune pursue their majestic 
 courses upon the confines of the system ; but 
 of their nature the telescope reveals nothing. 
 The attraction which they exert upon their 
 satellites gives us the means of ascertaining 
 their masses, and hence their densities, which 
 do not differ much from that of Jupiter. 
 We, therefore, conjecture that they may like- 
 
Out Celestial Home, 53 
 
 wise be in a chaotic state, and that, perchance, 
 for them too the distant future has in store a 
 glorious career when they shall become the 
 abodes of life. 
 
 From this rapid review of the physical 
 conditions of the planets, it is evident that 
 only a small proportion of them at the most 
 can be ranked as at present possibly habitable 
 worlds. It is, indeed, very improbable that 
 man could exist for a moment on any planet 
 except the earth ; for he is a creature whose 
 adaptations to surroundings are very limited. 
 A slight change in the proportion of the 
 gases which form the atmosphere, a compara- 
 tively small variation in the mean amount of 
 heat or in the annual range of temperature, 
 or various other slight causes, would soon 
 lead to the extinction of the race. But other 
 beings may be adapted to different conditions. 
 Upon the earth lower forms of plant and 
 animal life are discovered under circum- 
 stances the most diverse that can well be 
 imagined. We find life upon the mountain 
 tops and in the ocean depths^ in the burning 
 
54 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 heat of the tropics and the frost-bound regions 
 of eternal snow, in rayless caverns as well as 
 in the blazing light of day. Earth, air and 
 water all teem with their myriad inhabitants. 
 And so it requires no stretch of the imagina- 
 tion to suppose that other planets may be 
 filled with forms of life specially fitted to 
 their environment. 
 
 Let us admit that the earth may be the 
 only inhabited orb in the solar system ; but 
 what shall we say of the innumerable families 
 of worlds that cluster about other suns ? It 
 is true that the telescope has never revealed 
 these worlds to our gaze, nor is it within the 
 bounds of possibility that any increase of 
 optical power will ever render them visible. 
 Uranus, though over four times as large as 
 the earth, can only just be discerned by the 
 naked eye ; and Neptune, still larger, is totally 
 invisible without a good-sized telescope. But 
 as we have seen, the distances within the solar 
 system are almost infinitesimal compared with 
 the interstellar spaces. Were we to start upon 
 a flight towards the nearest star, before we 
 
Our Celestial Home. 55 
 
 had traversed a hundredth part of the dis- 
 tance, all the planets would have sunk utterly 
 out of sight, and the very largest lens would 
 fail to detect their presence. The fact 
 that we can not see the revolving orbs of 
 other systems affords, therefore, no presump- 
 tion whatever of their non-existence. 
 
 When, in traveling at night, we see lights 
 in the distance, then we know that yonder 
 lies a town or city : so looking out into the 
 universe of God and beholding the shining 
 stars, which we surely know are blazing suns, 
 many of them far surpassing our own in size 
 and luster, reason tells us that around them 
 there are worlds basking in their light and 
 warmth. That the stars were created solely 
 with reference to the earth is a most unworthy 
 conception. Doubtless they do take their 
 place with the moon as rulers of the night ; 
 and so far as our planet is concerned, this is 
 their only function. But to suppose that 
 these great lights were formed and scattered 
 far and wide throughout the universe, with 
 no other purpose in view than to illuminate 
 
56 Our Celestial Rome. 
 
 the night shades of this one most insignificant 
 globe, is to impugn the wisdom of the 
 Creator. 
 
 We may rest assured that the glorious 
 suns which roll and shine in the blue em- 
 pyrean, are not wasting their light and heat 
 upon empty space, but that brilliant retinues 
 of planets, satellites and comets attend their 
 triumphant march through the sky. What 
 magnificent orbs there must be among those 
 distant systems ! We look upon Jupiter as a 
 stately planet. His diameter is ten times, and 
 his surface area one hundred times that of 
 the earth. But as Sirius exceeds the sun in 
 mass a score of times, it may well have plan- 
 ets revolving about it which surpass Jupiter 
 tenfold in size and splendor. Think of worlds 
 with a domain a thousandfold the extent of 
 earth's broad expanse ! What mighty conti- 
 nents, what boundless seas, what majestic 
 rivers, what lofty mountains, what sublimity 
 of scenery beyond imagination's power to 
 picture, might we not look for upon such 
 worlds ! 
 
Out Celestial Home. 57 
 
 Nor is mere size or extent the only ele- 
 ment of grandeur which we may attribute to 
 the system attendant upon Sirius. The light 
 with which he floods his circling planets is 
 fifty times as brilHant as that which our sun 
 emits. When after a night of darkness the 
 sun's rays strike across the landscape, or when 
 for days the storm clouds have hung like a 
 pall above us, and suddenly a flood of radi- 
 ance bursts through, scattering the dismal 
 gloom, how glorious the transformation! 
 But to the inhabitants of other systems, this 
 effulgence, which cheers our eyes and fills 
 our hearts with praise to the Giver of Hght 
 and life, may, by reason of the glory that 
 excelleth, seem but as night to noon. 
 
 Beauty also, strange and weird, dwells in 
 the rays of some of those far-away suns. 
 Many of the stars, it is well known, are 
 double, the separate components revolving 
 about each other ; and not infrequently these 
 twin suns exhibit the curious and beautiful 
 phenomenon of contrasted or complementary 
 colors. Antares, a fiery red star, has a small 
 
68 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 green companion : Beta Cygni is deep yellow 
 with a blue attendant : others are orange and 
 lilac, white and purple, orange and yellow. 
 " Indeed, it may be easier suggested in words 
 than conceived in imagination, what variety 
 of illumination two suns, a red and a green, 
 or a yellow and a blue one, must afford a 
 planet circling about either ; and what charm- 
 ing contrasts and grateful vicissitudes a red 
 and a green day, for instance, alternating 
 with a white one and with darkness, might 
 arise from the presence or absence of one or 
 other or both above the horizon." ^ 
 
 What other elements of beauty and sub- 
 limity may exist in the celestial realms we 
 know not. The distant glimpses that we have 
 been enabled to obtain, are sufficient to over- 
 whelm the intellect and ravish the imagina- 
 tion. The vistas of glory that shall open be- 
 fore the ransomed spirit, when, liberated 
 from these fetters of mortality, it shall wing 
 its flight to paradise, no tongue can tell, no 
 pen portray. 
 
 *Herschers ** Outlines of Astronomy." 
 
Our Celestial Home, 59 
 
 We speak of the realms of the blest, 
 Of that country so bright and so fair ; 
 
 And oft are its glories confessed ; 
 But what must it be to be there I " 
 
IV. 
 
 STABILITY OF THE UNIVERSE AS 
 TO MOTIOl^. 
 
IV. 
 
 STABILITY OF THE UNIVERSE AS 
 TO MOTION. 
 
 The Bible contracts heaven with earth. 
 This world is unstable, fleeting, transitory: 
 its fashion soon passeth away. Heaven is a 
 city which hath foundations, a kingdom which 
 can not be moved, the eternal portion of the 
 soul. It may well be asked, can we hope to 
 find within the universe such an everlasting 
 habitation, over which change shall have no 
 power ? Does not the universe contain with- 
 in itself the seeds of decay and death ? The 
 final catastrophe which would destroy it in 
 its present form, might be brought about in 
 two ways; first, by the gradual gravitation 
 of all the worlds and systems into one mighty 
 mass of chaos ; or second, by the slow cool- 
 ing of each body, until all should sink at last 
 
 (63) 
 
64 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 into death, and the universe go out in utter 
 darkness. Let us examine these possibilities 
 separately. 
 
 The problem which presents itself first, 
 then, is this : are the motions of the heavenly 
 bodies so adjusted that they will forever pur- 
 sue their courses as at present, without danger 
 of collision ; or will there come a time, long 
 ages distant, when gravitation will begin to 
 overcome the original momentum that now 
 keeps the planets and systems apart, so that 
 they will fall together one by one, and finally 
 all become merged in a huge mass of dis- 
 organized matter ? 
 
 With reference to the solar system, the 
 question of stability has been most profoundly 
 investigated. Such illustrious mathematicians 
 as Euler, Clairaut, Laplace and Lagrange de- 
 voted their lives to the solution of this great 
 problem. Their labors have proved that, 
 while the planetary orbits are undergoing con- 
 stant mutations in all their elements, yet the 
 changes never progress so far as to disturb 
 the regularity of the system. These perturba- 
 
Our Celestial Home. 65 
 
 tions, as they are called, are due to the mutual 
 attractions of the planets on each other, which 
 cause the planes of the orbits to rock to and 
 fro, their figures to slowly expand and con- 
 tract, and their perihelion points to revolve 
 in vast periods ; but all of these oscillations 
 are confined within narrow limits, every 
 change shall wear away, and the spheres con- 
 tinue to roll in their appointed paths, declar- 
 ing forever the wisdom and glory of their 
 Creator. 
 
 Once, indeed, it did seem that an instance 
 had been discovered where decay had begun 
 to manifest itself. It was found tliat the 
 moon was very slowly but surely approach- 
 ing the earth, and had been doing so since 
 the time of Hipparchus. This fact was shown 
 by the increased rapidity of its motion ; for 
 the nearer a body is to the center of revolu- 
 tion, the faster must it move. Although the 
 whole amount of the moon's gain is only 
 about one degree or twice its own diameter 
 in two thousand years, still this is sufficient, 
 
 if it shall continue to accumulate, to render! 
 6 ' 
 
66 Our Celestial Home, 
 
 certain the final precipitation of our satellite 
 upon the earth. Unless then this acceleration 
 of the moon can be accounted for by the law 
 of gravitation, we must admit that the doom 
 of our system is sealed ; and though millions 
 of years may intervene, yet the fatal day will 
 come as surely as the march of time. 
 
 Laplace, however, finally succeeded in trac- 
 ing the cause of this singular phenomenon. 
 He found it in the slow change of the form 
 of the earth's orbit, which is gradually ex- 
 panding and approaching more and more 
 nearly to a circle. The eflEect of this change 
 is to increase very slightly the average dis- 
 tance of the earth and moon from the sun. 
 The attraction of the sun upon the moon is, 
 therefore, constantly becoming less, and the 
 earth is permitted to draw its satellite closer 
 to itself. But when the earth's orbit reaches 
 the limit of its oscillation, and begins to re- 
 turn to the elliptical form, this influence upon 
 the moon will be reversed, and it will finally 
 fall back to its original distance. 
 
 Thus it was supposed that this question 
 
Our Celestial Home. 67 
 
 was forever settled; but mathematicians of 
 the present century have discovered an error 
 in the computations of Laplace, and the result 
 is that only a portion of the moon's accelera- 
 tion is accounted for by the decrease in the 
 eccentricity of the earth's orbit. The great 
 complexity of the moon's motions renders the 
 lunar theory, perhaps, the most difficult of 
 all the problems of astronomy ; and hence it 
 is scarcely to be wondered at that slight disa- 
 greement between observation and computa- 
 tion still exists; but no astronomer of the 
 present day for a moment supposes that the 
 moon is breaking loose from its ancient orbit, 
 and will at last involve the earth in ruin. 
 Some of the best mathematicians, indeed, con- 
 sider the cause of the discrepancy to lie, not 
 in the moon's motion at all, but in a gradual 
 change which is taking place in the length of 
 the terrestrial day. This is a somewhat start- 
 ling statement, and may rudely shock our pre- 
 conceived notions of the absolute uniformity 
 of the earth's rotation ; but it is difficult to 
 see how we are to escape from the conclusion 
 
68 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 that the energy which causes the globe to 
 spin on its sleeping axle, is gradually wasting 
 away. 
 
 The phenomenon of the tides is well 
 known; and it is commonly supposed that 
 all the force expended in producing them, 
 resides in the moon. But this is far from 
 being the case. The moon's attraction does 
 raise the tides ; but it is the earth's rotation 
 that causes them to sweep across the oceans, 
 and break against the shores ; and whatever 
 power is thus consumed must be drawn 
 directly from the rotational energy of our 
 globe. To put it in another way, we might 
 say that the tides produce a certain amount 
 of friction, and this friction, of course, tends 
 to retard the velocity of the earth's rotation, 
 which must then be slowly abating ; and if 
 the speed be decreasing, the length of the 
 day must be increasing. 
 
 The connection between the lengthening 
 of the day and the acceleration of the moon 
 in her orbit, is apparent. Having a longer 
 time in which to accompUsh her journey, she 
 
Our Celestial Home, 69 
 
 will be further advanced than if the days 
 were still of the same length as in the age of 
 Ilipparchus. It is impossible to compute 
 from theory how much the effect of the tides 
 on the rotation of the earth should be ; but 
 from the acceleration of the moon's motion, 
 it is evident it can not be mor^ than ten 
 seconds per century. Al chough this is so 
 minute a quantity that the most perfect clock 
 could never detect the variation from abso- 
 lute uniformity, yet if it is to go on forever, 
 it must in the course of ages seriously affect 
 the condition of the earth as a habitable 
 world. But science sets a definite limit to 
 this lengthening of the day. A time will 
 finally come, though how many millions of 
 years hence we can not even conjecture, when 
 the earth will rotate on its axis in exactly the 
 same period in which the moon completes a 
 revolution. The same hemisphere of the 
 earth will then always be turned towards the 
 moon; and though the tides will still be 
 raised, they will no longer sweep around the 
 globe. The expenditure of force from this 
 
70 Our Celestial Home, 
 
 cause will, therefore, cease, and with it the 
 decrease of the speed of rotation. The earth's 
 day and month will then correspond, just as, 
 in fact, they do at the present time upon the 
 moon. 
 
 It will be noticed that this change, which 
 we have here sketched, in no way affects 
 the stability of the solar system. Indeed, 
 the investigations that have led to our 
 wonderful knowledge of the effects of the 
 tides, have also led to the discovery of a 
 grand principle known as the " conservation 
 of the moment of momentum," which teaches 
 that, whatever changes may take place in the 
 distribution of this " moment of momentum " 
 in the system, none of it can ever be dissi- 
 mted or lost. 
 
 We must, however, notice one other in- 
 stance where an apparent evidence of decay 
 has been by some supposed to exist. This 
 was in the case of Encke's comet, a body 
 which revolves entirely within the limits of 
 the solar system, and which showed such 
 deviations from its computed orbit, that 
 
Our Celestial Home. 71 
 
 Olbers, to account for them, suggested the 
 famous hypothesis of a resisting medium in 
 space. This medium was supposed to be so 
 rare that its effect on the massive planets was 
 not perceptible, while the comet, being very 
 light, would experience a retardation. A 
 recent investigation of the motions of this 
 comet by Von Asten confirms the conclusions 
 of Encke, that it was subject to a retarding 
 action prior to 1865 ; but during the period 
 from 1865 to 1871, within which the comet 
 made two entire revolutions, no evidence 
 whatever of any resistance was discovered. 
 Between 1871 and 1875 a slight retardation 
 was again observed. But even were we cer- 
 tain that the comet met with a uniform re- 
 sistance to its motion, a medium pervading 
 space would not be the only cause which 
 might produce it; and when we take into 
 account the fact that other comets, so far as 
 is known, exhibit no such anomalies, we are 
 forced to abandon the hypothesis of Olbers. 
 
 The solar system in respect to its motions 
 shows no signs of decrepitude. Tlie planets 
 
Y2 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 roll on in their swift courses unchanged by 
 the flight of ages, declaring with each return- 
 ing period both the evanescence of time and 
 the eternity of God. 
 
 We have as yet, however, considered but 
 a single isolated system of the universe. Let 
 us grant what, indeed, we have no reason to 
 question, that every other system is as accu- 
 rately adjusted as our own, so that each sepa- 
 rate family of worlds is perfect in itself. 
 There still remains the question, how are 
 these systems connected with each other? 
 Does the force of gravity which controls the 
 revolving planets, extend still further and 
 bind together the distant stars into one 
 gigantic brotherhood of suns? Very much 
 has been written upon this theme of late 
 years. The daring conjecture of Kant that 
 the stellar universe bore a close resemblance 
 to the solar system, and that the stars would 
 all be found to be revolving in the plane of 
 the milky way about some common center, 
 has furnished the basis for endless speculation. 
 Lambert elaborated the ideas of Kant still 
 
Out Celestial Home, Y3 
 
 more, considering the universe to be formed 
 of systems rising one above another in rank. 
 First come the planets with their attendant 
 moons, then the suns controlling the revolv- 
 ing planets. These solar systems he imagined 
 to be grouped into still greater systems which 
 appear to us as clusters of stars, and the 
 clusters again to revolve in yet grander orbits, 
 the whole making up the galaxy, near the 
 center of which our own sun lies. Beyond 
 this mighty system of systems he placed 
 other galaxies, the combined light of whose 
 myriad suns sometimes appears in our tele- 
 scopes as a faint spot of nebulosity. The 
 smaller systems of Lambert's scheme all 
 have, as we know, a, massive central body 
 controlling the movements of the orbs that 
 revolve about it. This feature he extended 
 to the larger systems, and conjectured that 
 the center of each was occupied by an im- 
 mense but opaque and, therefore, invisible 
 body, and that thus all were bound together 
 by the universal law of gravitation. 
 
 All this was mere speculation, not based 
 
74 Out Celestial Home. 
 
 at all on observation ; bnt more recently 
 Madler, the Dorpat astronomer, has attempted 
 to show by an actual examination of the 
 proper motions of the stars that they are all 
 revolving in definite orbits, and that the 
 center of motion for our stellar universe is 
 Alcyone, the brightest star of the Pleiades. 
 The high standing of its author, and the 
 grandeur of the theory itself; have led to its 
 almost universal adoption by popular writers 
 on astronomy; but it is, nevertheless, as 
 utterly without foundation as the wild dreams 
 of Kant and Lambert. Professor Simon 
 Newcomb, who is probably the highest au- 
 thority on astronomy in this country, styles 
 it a baseless speculation to which astronomers 
 have never given the slightest weight."^ 
 
 What then is the system of the universe ? 
 If the stars do not revolve about some center, 
 what keeps them from gravitating together % 
 To these questions astronomy can at present 
 give only a partial reply. It is in general the 
 motions of the stars which prevent them from 
 
 * See Newcomb's ** Popular Astronomy," p. 454. 
 
Our Celestial Hom^e. T5 
 
 falling to a common center ; but the precise 
 character of these motions is unknown. So 
 far as observation can inform us, the stars are 
 advancing in straight lines. They are also 
 moving in every direction, and with various 
 velocities. The only trace of regularity that 
 can be discovered in their movements, is a 
 general drift from one part of the heavens 
 towards the opposite point, a drift which is 
 undoubtedly due to the motion of our own 
 sun. We also find in certain groups of stars 
 a community of proper motion, indicating 
 that they are traveling together through 
 space. The Pleiades afford a conspicuous 
 example of this. The triangulation of this 
 group recently completed by Dr. Elkin, and 
 compared with a similar triangulation made 
 by Bessel half a century ago, yields no evi- 
 dence of any internal motions in the cluster. 
 The stars composing it seem to form a rigid 
 system, which is, however, very slowly drift- 
 ing along through the celestial regions. 
 
 While modern research has to some extent 
 confirmed the idea of Lambert that the stars 
 
Y6 Our Celestial Rome. 
 
 were arranged in groups, we have as yet no 
 proof of any revolutions taking place within 
 these aggregations of stars. It is undoubtedly 
 too soon to predict with certainty that no 
 such revolutions ever will be discovered ; for 
 in the case of the binary stars there is good 
 reason to believe that the orbits are some- 
 times so vast that a single circuit may require 
 thousands of years. It is not beyond the 
 bounds of possibility then, that some of the 
 star clusters may form veritable systems of 
 revolving suns, their motions during the brief 
 interval in which they have been observed 
 being so minute as to be completely masked 
 by the inevitable errors of observation. 
 
 But with respect to the stellar universe at 
 large, the hypothesis of revolution about a 
 common center is disproved not merely by 
 negative testimony. There are certain phe- 
 nomena among the stars which are utterly 
 irreconcilable with such a theory. The first 
 of these phenomena is the extreme irregu- 
 larity of their proper motions. If the stars 
 moved in orbits around a central body, as the 
 
Our Celestial Home. Tl 
 
 planets move around the sun, we should be 
 able to discover a marked uniformity in the 
 motions of all the stars in the same part of 
 the sky. But instead of this the motion of 
 each individual star is in general totally differ- 
 ent from that of its neighbors. An argument 
 more convincing still, perhaps, is to be found 
 in the very rapid proper motions of certain 
 stars. The velocities of some of these stars 
 are, in fact, inexplicable according to the 
 theory of gravitation. In order to understand 
 this subject it is necessary to remember that 
 the velocity which an attracting body can 
 impart is limited by its mass. If a stone falls 
 to the ground, the speed it acquires depends 
 on the height from which it has been drop- 
 ped. But even could it start from an infinite 
 height, its velocity on reaching the earth's 
 surface would not be infinite. The highest 
 speed which the earth could impart would be 
 only about seven miles a second. The sun, 
 having a mass vastly greater, would cause a 
 correspondingly swifter velocity; so that a 
 body might strike its surface with a speed of 
 
78 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 nearly four hundred miles a second. But 
 only close to its surface could tlie sun cause 
 such high velocities. At the distance of the 
 earth's orbit the maximum velocity due to 
 the sun would be twenty-six miles per second, 
 at Neptune less than five miles per second, 
 and at the distance of the nearest fixed star 
 only about three miles per minute. 
 
 When we find a body moving very rapidly, 
 we naturally conclude that it is quite near to 
 some attracting center. A comet "in the 
 full flush of its perihehon swoop '' may travel 
 two hundred miles or more in a second ; but 
 as it leaves the sun Its speed quickly decreases, 
 until at the outer end of its journey it loiters 
 along most leisurely. W^hile swift-winged 
 Mercury fairly flies around its orbit, traveling 
 thirty miles a second, distant Neptune courses 
 majestically onward with but little more than 
 one-tenth of that speed. The heavier the 
 central orb, the greater would be the velocity 
 of a body revolving about it. Sirius is the 
 most massive of all the stars which astrono- 
 mers have as yet been able to weigh ; but even 
 
Our Celestial Home. 79 
 
 in this case the speed of its companion sun, 
 completing its revolution in the compara- 
 tively brief time of fifty years, is only about 
 fourteen miles per second. 
 
 Now there are stars in the sky vrith veloci- 
 ties ranging from one hundred to two hun- 
 'dred miles per second, and in all probability 
 even greater than this. If they are revolving 
 in orbits, what power controls them ? Since 
 there are no visible stars of such preponder- 
 ating size as would be demanded to restrain 
 these flying suns, it may naturally be asked, 
 have we not here evidence of the existence of 
 Lambert's opaque attracting centers ? To this 
 we must emphatically answer no. These stars 
 have been observed for over a century, long 
 enough to prove that they are revolving in no 
 contracted orbits. .They appear to be flying 
 straight onward through space, and if revolv- 
 ing at all it must be in gigantic circuits ; and 
 any attracting center powerful enough to 
 cont^rol their motions, would soon drag all the 
 elow-moving stars in its neighborhood from 
 their paths, and quickly subvert the system. 
 
80 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 But again, it may be asked, if no single 
 body would fulfill the requirements, may not 
 the combined attraction of all the other stars 
 be the force which guides these careering 
 suns ? Professor Newcomb has investigated 
 this question with regard to the star known 
 as Groombridge 1830. Assuming that the 
 stellar universe within the range of the most 
 powerful telescopes, contains one hundred 
 millions of stars, and that these stars are on 
 the average five times as heavy as the sun, he 
 finds that the maximum velocity which this 
 system could impress upon a body, would be 
 twenty-five miles a second. Any greater 
 speed than this would cause the body to pass 
 completely through the system, and finally 
 to fly off into infinite space never to return. 
 But the star Groombridge 1830 is moving at 
 least two hundred miles per second, or eight 
 times the highest calculated speed. The laws 
 of motion show that to impart eight times a 
 given velocity requires sixty-four times the 
 attracting mass. We see, therefore, that this 
 star is utterly beyond the control of the at- 
 
Our Celestial Home. 81 
 
 tractive force of the visible universe. Pro- 
 fessor Newcomb thus concisely puts it : 
 
 " Either the bodies which compose our uni- 
 verse are vastly more massive and numerous 
 than telescopic examination seems to indicate, 
 or 1830 Groombridge is a runaway star, fly- 
 ing on a boundless course through infinite 
 space with such momentum that the attrac- 
 tion of all the bodies of the universe can 
 never stop it." ^ 
 
 This, though perhaps the most remarkable, 
 is by no means the only star of which a simi- 
 lar statement might be predicated. Whence 
 did these careering suns receive the impetus 
 that has sent them whirling through the 
 abysm of space with such uncontrollable 
 speed? From what unknown realms have 
 they come, and whither are they going? 
 Before these queries science is dumb. While 
 these swift stars are sweeping along through 
 our own stellar universe, the astronomer can 
 determine their velocities and map their 
 courses ; but when, after the lapse of millions 
 
 *Newcomb's "Popular Astronomy," p. 488. 
 6 
 
82 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 of years, they fade from his view and pass 
 beyond the ken of his greatest telescopes, 
 then he can no longer predict their track, 
 for the laws of their motion are unknown. 
 Whether they will ever again return, and, if 
 so, in how many countless millenniums, all 
 his science is powerless to foretell. 
 
 It is evident that our present knowledge of 
 the system of the starry heavens is very im- 
 perfect. We can say with a degree of cer- 
 tainty that all the stars are moving, some 
 slowly and some rapidly, and that our own 
 sun partakes of this general motion, and is 
 majestically sailing onward at the rate of a 
 hundred million miles or more a year; but 
 what determines the amount and direction of 
 these motions, and whether their character is 
 oscillating or continually progressive, we can 
 only conjecture. Here we approach the arcana 
 of nature, and the vail of mystery hangs darkly 
 before us. To those who have been entranced 
 with the sublime ideas of Madler, this may 
 appear like a plunge backward into chaos. 
 But because we can not measure its orbits 
 
Our Celestial Home. 83 
 
 and unravel the complexity of its motions, 
 shall we, therefore, believe that no order ex- 
 ists in the cosmos ? Shall we set up our weak 
 intellects as the standard of all knowledge and 
 wisdom in the universe ? When we find per- 
 fection in the minor systems, we surely should 
 not look for confusion in those that are larger 
 and grander. If the planets are fitted to run 
 their circuits forever, we can scarcely believe 
 that the mighty suns are flying about at ran- 
 dom, and may at any moment plunge into 
 each other and bring ruin and desolation into 
 nature's fair domain. 
 
 In conclusion then, we are entitled to say 
 that, so far as astronomy has been able to 
 solve the problem of celestial motion, the 
 machinery of the heavens is absolutely per- 
 fect. There is no gradual loss of momentum, 
 no slow decline in the power of gravity, and 
 no danger of collision and wreck. The very 
 fact that we find among the stars velocities 
 exceeding the capability of our mechanics to 
 account for, should only prove to us that the 
 energies of that supernal realm are on a scale 
 
84 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 commensurate with its infinite expanse. The 
 order that reigns throughout the length and 
 breadth of heaven's unbounded sweep may 
 far transcend the utmost stretch of our im- 
 agination. The human intellect may never 
 here on earth rise to a comprehension of its 
 grandeur and sublimity ; but when we enter 
 upon the better life, and are enabled to pur- 
 sue our study of God's universe from higher 
 stand-points and with angelic assistance, we 
 may then come to know the full riches of 
 His wisdom as exhibited in the works of 
 creation, as well as in the nobler works of 
 providence and redemption. 
 
STABILITY OF THE UNIVERSE AS 
 TO FORCE. 
 
V. 
 
 STABILITY OF THE UNIYEKSE AS 
 TO FOKCE. 
 
 Having seen that there is no good reason 
 to question the stability of the universe in 
 its present form so far as motion is concerned, 
 we next take up the other branch of our in- 
 quiry as to the gradual cooling of the indi- 
 vidual bodies in this universe. We here ap- 
 proach one of the most obscure and difficult 
 problems of cosmical physics. Science now 
 teaches that there is a constant dissipation of 
 energy going on in nature, that light and 
 heat can not be produced except by the ex- 
 penditure of force, and that the supply of 
 force in each body is strictly limited. Take 
 the sun as an example. The gravitating to- 
 gether of its gaseous mass produces heat. This 
 heat is radiated into space ; but the cooling 
 thus brought about leads to renewed contrac- 
 tion, and the heat generated by this contraction 
 
 (87) 
 
88 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 suflSces to maintain the solar temperature. 
 A gaseous body, therefore, though con- 
 stantly losing heat, does not necessarily grow 
 cooler. It must, however, constantly grow 
 smaller ; and when it has contracted to a cer- 
 tain extent, it will solidify, and the produc- 
 tion of heat from gravity then ceases. Up 
 to this time there has been a loss not of 
 actual, but of potential heat; that is, the 
 amount of energy which could be changed 
 into heat has been all the time lessening; 
 but after the body has solidified, its tempera- 
 ture begins to fall, for the heat that is radi- 
 ated away can not be renewed by further 
 contraction. 
 
 In a condition more or less resembling this 
 we now find the earth. The interior of the 
 globe is very hot, as is shown by the phenom- 
 ena of hot springs, geysers and volcanoes. 
 The temperature is known to rise as we de- 
 scend into the earth at such a rate, that at a 
 depth of one hundred miles or less we should 
 reach the melting point of most of the sub- 
 stances which compose its surface. Doubtless 
 
Our Celestial Home. 89 
 
 the immense pressure keeps them from lique- 
 fying, but the heat must, nevertheless, be 
 intense. This heat is slowly but constantly 
 conducted to the surface and lost by radia- 
 tion. With this gradual cooling of the earth's 
 interior, a corresponding absorption of water 
 and air must take place ; until finally, unless 
 some power interpose to arrest the course of 
 nature, our beautiful planet must sink into 
 the arid condition exhibited by the moon, a 
 condition far more gloomy than primeval 
 chaos, because there is in it no promise for 
 the future. Earth's history will be accom- 
 plished, its usefulness ended. It will still roll 
 onward through the sky, but its life will be 
 quenched, it will be an extinct world. 
 
 Science tells us that even the glorious sun 
 must eventually come to this sad fate. He 
 may continue for millions of years to radiate 
 his bounteous supply of light and heat. But 
 his energy is constantly ebbing with the ages ; 
 and by and by he will go out in darkness, 
 leaving his retinue of worlds, all of them per- 
 haps long since cold and dead, to pursue their 
 
90 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 gloomy courses by the glimmering light of 
 the stars. And this starlight will grow dim 
 and ever dimmer, as one by one the lamps of 
 heaven burn low and expire ; until at last the 
 night of death shall settle over the universe. 
 SucL, according to the most advanced 
 science, is the end towards which the whole 
 vast structure of the heavens is tending. Pro- 
 fessor Newcomb aptly illustrates this by a 
 clock which one might find in a deserted 
 building. He sees the pendulum swinging 
 and the hands moving ; and if he is ignorant 
 of mechanics, he may fail to understand why 
 it should not go on running forever. "But 
 let him be instructed in the laws of mechanics, 
 and let him inquire into the force which keeps 
 the hands and the pendulum in motion. He 
 will then find that this force is transmitted to 
 the pendulum through a train of wheels, each 
 of which moves many times slower than that 
 in front of it, and that the first wheel is acted 
 upon by a weight with which it is connected 
 by a cord. He can see a slow motion in the 
 wheel which acts on the pendulum, and per- 
 
Our Celestial Home. 91 
 
 haps in the one next behind it ; while duriDg 
 the short time he has for observation he can 
 see no motion in the others. But he will 
 know that they must all be moving; and 
 tracing back the action through the train of 
 wheels, he sees that the motion of the first 
 one must be kept up by a gradual falling of 
 the weight. He can then say with entire cer- 
 tainty : ' I do not see this weight fall, but I 
 know it must be gradually approaching the 
 bottom, because I see a system of moving 
 machinery the progress of which necessarily 
 involves such a slow falling of the weight. 
 Knowing the number of teeth in each wheel 
 and pinion, I can compute how many inches 
 it falls each day ; and seeing how much room 
 it has to fall in, I can tell how many days it 
 will take to reach the bottom. When this is 
 done I see that the clock must stop, because 
 it is only the falling of the w^^ight that keeps 
 the pendulum in motion. Moreover, I see 
 that the weight must have been higher yester- 
 day than it is to-day, so that I can calculate 
 backward to a time when it was at the top of 
 
92 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 its course. Thus, altliough no motion is ap- 
 parent, I see with the eye of reason that the 
 weight is running through a certain course 
 from the top of the clock to the bottom ; that 
 some power must have wound it up and 
 started it; and that unless the same power 
 intervenes again, the weight must reach the 
 bottom in a certain number of days, and the 
 clock must then stop.' " ^ 
 
 The falling of the weight corresponds in 
 nature to the transformation of gravity into 
 heat and the radiation of that heat into space. 
 The force thus dissipated is not supposed to 
 be annihilated ; for that would be contrary to 
 the scientific philosophy of the day, which 
 teaches the indestructibility of force no less 
 than that of matter. But, until very recently 
 at least, science has not been able to discover 
 any method by which this diffused heat can 
 be gathered up and returned to the bodies 
 whence it was emitted. If the vast mechan- 
 ism of the universe is destined finally to run 
 down, if its Maker has wound it up and left 
 
 *Newc(>inb's *• Popular Astronomy," p. 499. 
 
Out Celestial Home, 93 
 
 it to go by itself and to stop wlien the original 
 •supply of energy has been spent, it is evident 
 that the eternal home of the soul can not be 
 found within its bounds. But such is not the 
 Christian view ; neither, I may say, is it the 
 most scientific view. Nearly all schools of 
 thought admit the necessity of assuming a 
 great first cause ; and if we assume one cause 
 for the origin of the universe, why conceive 
 another for its sustenance? If it was God 
 who created, why not acknowledge that it is 
 God who upholds ? To throw aside the first 
 cause and introduce secondary causes, is an 
 unnecessary and, therefore, unscientific pro- 
 ceeding. To the Christian all force is but the 
 power of God, and natural laws are only the 
 methods by which He chooses to work. 
 
 In this view of nature our clock may be 
 continually running down, but its Maker is 
 present to wind it up. That He will do this 
 appears probable both in the light of reason 
 and revelation. We have seen that, so far as 
 astronomy has been able to interpret the 
 system of the heavenly bodies, their motions 
 
94 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 contain no seeds of decay, they are fitted to 
 be perpetual. That the Creator should build 
 this mighty complex structure, and so deli- 
 cately adjust and balance its forces that it will 
 continue to move in unbroken harmony for- 
 ever, but allow the light and life with which 
 He has endowed it to wane and go out, is 
 utterly repugnant to all reason. Such has not 
 been the history of God's methods in the past. 
 Evolution, and not degeneration, is the lesson 
 we are taught by nature. The lower has 
 always preceded the higher. The inorganic 
 kingdom came first in the chronicles of our 
 globe; then the kingdom of life was intro- 
 duced, beginning with its lowest forms and 
 gradually ascending the scale of being ; and 
 last of all, and rising far above all that had 
 gone before, came the spiritual kingdom. 
 Have we now reached the end of the upward 
 progression, and are we to expect deteriora- 
 tion and decay? Is it not more reasonable 
 to look for higher and grander developments, 
 not the abolition of the old and the bringing 
 in of a new creation, but the regeneration of 
 
Our Celestial Home. 95 
 
 the old through the introduction of more 
 potent principles ? 
 
 But we are not left to the light of reason 
 on this subject. Revelation positively de- 
 clares that there is to be a renewal of this 
 globe, that " the heavens being on fire shall 
 be dissolved, the elements shall melt with fer- 
 vent heat, the earth and the works that are 
 therein shall be burnt up "; but that out of 
 the ruins we are to " look for new heavens 
 and a new earth." According to the common 
 interpretation the word "heavens" in this 
 connection refers to the atmospheric heavens 
 belonging to our globe. This world, then, is 
 *^kept in store, reserved unto fire." The 
 declaration is too plain to be doubted or ex- 
 plained away. But the doctrine of the dissi- 
 pation of energy points to a fate far different. 
 The globe is all the time cooling. It has even 
 now reached a stage when the internal heat 
 has so far subsided as to render any general 
 conflagration extremely improbable, and the 
 likelihood of such a catastrophe steadily de- 
 creases with the lapse of time. "All things 
 
96 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 continue as ttey were from the beginning of 
 the creation." Is it any wonder that scoffers 
 say, " Where is the promise of His coming? " 
 
 But God reigneth: this is His universe: 
 the powers of nature are in His hands, ^nd He 
 can and will fulfill His word. Mystery sur- 
 rounds us on every hand. What we know 
 about the universe is only as a drop in the 
 ocean to what we do not know. How foolish 
 and simple, then, to dream that nothing can 
 happen besides what our weak science can 
 foresee and predict ! 
 
 Even as we write there come the results of 
 recent investigations by J. Norman Lockyer,* 
 one of England^s foremost spectroscopists, 
 which throw new light on the constitution of 
 the universe ; and it would seem that science 
 herself has at last gained a mountain height 
 whence she can catch a distant gleam of that 
 world-burning so long ago foretold in sacred 
 writ. The researches of Mr. Lockyer show 
 that the nebulae are closely allied to comets ; 
 but that comets are formed of meteoric ma- 
 
 * i( 
 
 *'The Observatory," Jan. 1888, p. 79. 
 
Out Celestial Home, 97 
 
 terials is already a well-established fact. Our 
 ideas of tlie constitution of the nebulae must, 
 therefore, be modified. Instead of consisting 
 of masses of glowing gas, their fundamental 
 components are meteorites. Stars whose 
 spectra consist of bright lines, are also sup- 
 posed by Mr. Lockyer to possess a similar 
 constitution. Certain it is that these stars 
 form in some sense a connecting link between 
 the nebulae and stars of the solar type. On 
 this theory the new stars which occasionally 
 flash out in the sky, are caused by the collision 
 of two oppositely moving meteor swarms, or 
 perhaps, in some cases, by the sudden over- 
 whelming of a star already partially or wholly 
 cooled by one of these " rushing cosmical 
 clouds.'^ "The mystery attending the ap- 
 pearance of new stars is at any rate largely 
 dissipated. Their outbreaks merely exagger- 
 ate enormously the phenomenon of the earth's 
 encounter with meteoric streams." 
 
 The general conclusions arrived at by Mr. 
 Lockyer may be thus summarized : " All self- 
 luminous bodies in space are composed of 
 7 
 
98 Out Celestial Home. 
 
 meteorites variously aggregated, and at vari- 
 ous stages of temperature depending upon the 
 frequency and violence of their mutual col- 
 lisions. Comets, nebulae and bright-line stars, 
 including most long-period variables, are to 
 be regarded as veritable meteor swarms ; they 
 are made up, that is to say, of an indefinite 
 multitude of separate and, in a sense, inde- 
 pendent solid bodies, bathed in evolved gases, 
 and glowing with the heat due to their 
 arrested motions. Stars, on the other hand, 
 of the Sirian and solar types (constituting the 
 only true suns) are vaporized meteor swarms : 
 their high temperatures represent the sur- 
 rendered velocities of myriads of jostling 
 particles, drawn together by the victorious 
 power of gravity." "^ 
 
 These small solid particles, which we term 
 meteorites, thus form the fundamental atoms 
 from which the universe is built up. They 
 are undoubtedly scattered more or less densely 
 throughout all space, but are much more 
 numerous in some regions than in others. 
 
 *^'The Observatory," Jan. 1888, p. 84. 
 
Ov/p Celestial Home. 99 
 
 That the milky way is a region of condensa- 
 tion for meteoric swarms as well as for stars, 
 is proved beyond rational doubt from the 
 almost universal association of gaseous and 
 temporary stars with the galactic stream. 
 It appears certain that our system is now 
 winging its flight through a part of space 
 which is comparatively barren; but if we 
 look onward along the pathway of the sun, 
 we find that it tends towards one of the rich- 
 est regions in the heavens. When we shall 
 reach those sidereal tracts, or what will come 
 to pass as we enter the glorious star depths of 
 the galaxy, science can not tell us ; but it is 
 reasonable to assume that as we approach 
 them the probability of encountering clouds 
 of meteoric matter will increase. Should 
 such an event take place, and our system 
 meet and pass through an immense meteor 
 swarm, imagination would fail to picture the 
 terror and sublimity of the scene which the 
 inhabitants of the earth must then witness. 
 The showers of shooting stars that have from 
 time to time visited the world, filling the be- 
 
100 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 holders with consternation, would be as the 
 gentle dew to th€ terrific thunder-storm, com- 
 pared with the fiery deluge that would in- 
 volve the earth and moon and possibly the 
 other planets in a general conflagration. " The 
 heavens being on fire would be dissolved, 
 and the elements would melt with fervent 
 heat." 
 
 Not only does this meteoric theory bring 
 to Kght a possible, not to say probable, cause, 
 which may at any future time destroy the 
 world by fire ; it also suggests regeneration. 
 Here, as so often before, we find that after 
 seeming collision and conflict, the highest de- 
 velopments of science bring us back to the 
 sacred word. Revelation declares that this 
 earth is to be renewed by fire. The doctrine 
 of the dissipation of energy denies, perhaps 
 not the possibility, but at all events the prob- 
 ability of any such occurrence. But at length 
 new light dawns : other agencies are seen to 
 be at work in the universe. In a class of 
 bodies hitherto considered extremely insig- 
 nificant, is found the efficient cause of some 
 
Our Celestial Home, 101 
 
 of the mightiest changes that are going on in 
 the celestial realms. Every meteorite which 
 impinges upon the earth's atmosphere, re- 
 stores a certain amount of the heat that has 
 been lost. The very agents of destruction 
 would, therefore, be agents also of regener- 
 ation. The fiery storm which devastates the 
 globe will return its dissipated energy and 
 revivify the whole system, so that the new 
 heavens and the new earth shall once more 
 become fit abodes for life. . . 
 
 We thus find in this new theory of Lock- 
 yer, a distant hint, at least, of the method by 
 which its Creator may wind up the celestial 
 mechanism and restore its slowly wasting 
 force. It appears not unhkely that these 
 drifting clouds of cosmical particles are the 
 agents for gathering up the heat radiated 
 from the larger bodies, either to return it to 
 suns and planets already growing old, or else 
 to utilize it in the formation of new systems. 
 Thus the insignificant meteorite, itself a pro- 
 duct of destruction, may also be an instru- 
 ment of restoration, and serve as the material 
 
102 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 link between the decay and creation of suc- 
 cessive generations of celestial worlds. 
 
 It is, of course, to be remembered that thi.« 
 new theory, here briefly sketched, may have 
 to be modified. Deeper research will un- 
 doubtedly throw clearer light on points now 
 involved in obscurity. But opinion can not 
 stand where it stood before : current ideas 
 respecting the constitution of the universe 
 must undergo marked alteration. Perhaps 
 the most important lesson to be gathered 
 from this whole investigation, is the limita- 
 tion of our knowledge, and the fact that God 
 can work in a thousand ways unknown and 
 unsuspected by our prof oundest science. 
 
VI. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
VI. 
 
 CONCLUSIOK 
 
 We have now completed the discussion of 
 our subject in its scientific aspects, and have 
 shown that there is no insuperable argument 
 against heaven being within the bounds of 
 the astral universe. Assuming that the Bible 
 teaches the materiality of heaven, we first ex- 
 amined the extent of the celestial realms, dis- 
 covering that we are encompassed on all sides 
 by an expanse which to our finite conceptions 
 is absolutely boundless. Nor have we any 
 cause for thinking that it ceases at the limit 
 to which the telescope has penetrated. Rea- 
 son tells us that were we placed at that limit, 
 we should be as far from the boundary as 
 before ^ Within these far-stretching realms 
 we have seen that there is an almost infini- 
 tude of glorious worlds, and that beyond all 
 
 (105) 
 
106 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 reasonable doubt many of tliem are now hab- 
 itable and many more will become so in the 
 future. This very evolution of the heavenly 
 bodies, however, by virtue of which they pass 
 through one stage after another, reaching at 
 length a condition suitable for the support of 
 life, suggests the possibility that they may 
 experience yet other changes, and finally sink 
 into darkness and death. A most careful 
 examination of this whole subject has shown 
 that the only element of decay in the uni- 
 verse that science can point out is the secular 
 cooling of the individual bodies. But even 
 here light begins to break, affording glimpses 
 of higher laws that doubtless hold in check and 
 control the lower forces of disintegration. As 
 in the human body the vital powers dominate 
 the inorganic forces, which if left to them- 
 selves would speedily destroy the organism ; 
 so in the universe we are led to recognize a 
 more potent principle which is able to reverse 
 the action of the physical forces, causing 
 them to build up instead of tearing down. 
 The vitality of the body, because of the weak- 
 
Our Celestial Home. 107 
 
 ening eJBfects of sin, will finally decay and 
 yield the victory to its opponents ; but the 
 life-force of the universe is immutable and 
 undying, for it is none other than the omnip- 
 otent power of eternal Jehovah. 
 
 Were we left, therefore, entirely to the 
 light of reason, we should be justified in as- 
 serting that the weight of probability lies in 
 favor of heaven constituting part of the ma- 
 terial universe. The law of continuity for- 
 bids the supposition that we are to be trans- 
 ferred at death to a sphere of existence so 
 utterly disconnected with the present as the 
 popular ideas make heaven to be. Except 
 for the eradication of sin, our natures are not 
 to be changed, and why, then, should our 
 surroundings be so totally altered? It is 
 only sin and the consequent curse that make 
 this globe other than paradise. Before evil 
 entered, it was a portion of heaven ; and 
 when it shall have been purified by fire, 
 Revelation tells us that it shall again take its 
 place as the abode of righteousness and be- 
 come one of the many mansions which Christ 
 
108 Our Celestial Rome. 
 
 is preparing for His people. The other 
 mansions of the Father's house lie all about 
 us. Nightly we can look out and see their 
 flashing lights beckoning us upward. Some 
 of those mansions are now ready ; some are 
 in process of preparation. That these heav- 
 enly habitations may wax old and need reno- 
 vation, is not improbable. Such seems to be 
 a general law of nature. Summer is followed 
 by winter, but only that spring may again 
 renew the face of the earth. So each planet 
 and system may experience a cosmic winter 
 and sink into coldness and death, to be reviv- 
 ified and restored in God's own time and 
 way. But like birds of passage, the immor- 
 tal inhabitants will soar to sunnier climes, 
 and thus dwell amid eternal spring. 
 
 The belief that the whole universe consti- 
 tutes heaven is by no means new. It has 
 been held by many of the deepest thinkers 
 not only of modern times, but of past ages. 
 Indeed, as we have already shown, it is diffi- 
 cult to conceive how careful students of 
 Scripture can gather from it any other doc- 
 
Our Celestial Home, 109 
 
 trine. In the very first verse of the Bible 
 the heavens and the earth are linked together 
 in one creative act ; and all the way through 
 the word which is applied to the starry uni- 
 verse is also used, and predominantly in the 
 plural number, to designate the abode of the 
 blest. It is, of course, a well-known fact that 
 the Jews recognized three heavens, the region 
 of the atmosphere, the starry firmament, and 
 the third heaven or '^leaven of heavens," 
 where God has placed His throne and mani- 
 fests His glory ; but it does not appear that 
 this distinction was clearly based on Bible 
 teaching, though it may, nevertheless, con- 
 tain a suggestion of the truth. The figure of 
 a city is employed so often to set forth the 
 glories of heaven, that it would seem there 
 must be foundation for the simile in fact. 
 This idea can scarcely be reconciled with the 
 doctrine that heaven is simply the universe 
 as a whole. But as Jerusalem of old, whither 
 the tribes went up, was the capital of the 
 earthly Canaan, why may not its antitype, 
 Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the 
 
110 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 heavenly Jerusalem, be the heaven of heavens, 
 the mighty capital of creation, where Jehovah 
 holds His court, where there is no need of 
 sun or moon because the Shekinah, the visi- 
 ble glory of God, enshrouds it, and in the 
 light of which the nations of the saved shall 
 walk ? Here will be the general assembly of 
 the saints ; here the spirits of just men made 
 perfect will hold communion with the in- 
 numerable company of angels, and unite with 
 them in worshiping Ood, the Judge of all 
 
 But the soul needs solitude as well as 
 society, and so "from the scenes of surpass- 
 ing glory and from the public services of 
 unutterable joy that crowd heaven," the 
 redeemed will doubtless often retire to the 
 outlying mansions to engage in silent prayer 
 and meditation. And why should we con- 
 sider that prayer and praise will constitute the 
 only employment of the citizens of heaven ? 
 Are not the devout study of God's works and 
 the contemplation of the wisdom and good- 
 ness therein displayed, as truly honoring to 
 the Creator as more formal worship? Not 
 
Out Celestial Home. Ill 
 
 the least potent argument for the doctrine of 
 a material heaven among the stars, is the thirst 
 for greater knowledge and the longing for a 
 deeper insight into the mysteries of nature 
 that every thoughtful person experiences. 
 The further we penetrate in our researches, 
 the vaster appears the great unexplored be- 
 yond. The student in every department of 
 science recognizes the illimitable sweep of 
 knowledge that stretches away beyond the 
 utmost bounds of his intellectual vision. Here 
 is occupation worthy of an immortal life, em- 
 ployment which shall lead the soul ever up- 
 ward to higher planes of being, ever nearer 
 to the great heart of goodness that throbs 
 through every pulse of nature, ever onward 
 along the path that terminates only in the in- 
 most sanctuary of Omniscience. And shall 
 we be called to leave forever this temple in- 
 stinct with the wisdom of Divinity, while yet 
 we stand at its very portal? Shall we be 
 transferred to another and utterly separate 
 state of existence, before we have begun to 
 learn the lessons or solve the mysteries or 
 
112 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 drink in the beauty and grandeur and glory 
 of the universe which is now our home ? 
 
 This search after knowledge by the ran- 
 somed spirit will not be merely to gratify an 
 intellectual thirst. It will be prompted by 
 the longing of the soul to know more of the 
 infinite perfections of its Maker. If here 
 on earth the reverent mind "looks through 
 nature up to nature's God," how much more 
 in that world where the clouds of sin are dis- 
 pelled and we no longer " see through a glass 
 darkly " ! The heavens declare the glory, not 
 only of God the Father, but of God the Son ; 
 for Christ, we are told, was the active agent in 
 creation as well as in redemption. " Bj Him 
 were all things created that are in heaven and 
 that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether 
 they be thrones or dominions or principalities 
 or powers, all things were created by Him 
 and for Him." Our Lord prayed, " Father, 
 I will that they also whom Thou hast given 
 me be with me where I am, that they may 
 behold my glory." To behold this glory of 
 Christ will be to contemplate the wisdom and 
 
Out Celestial Home, 113 
 
 goodness whicli He has manifested in tlie exe- 
 cution of the divine decrees both of creation 
 and providence, to study the geography and 
 the history of the universe. 
 
 Doubtless the heavenly life will be many- 
 sided. It will not all be public worship, nor 
 all retirement and meditation, nor all intel- 
 lectual investigation, nor all social intercourse ; 
 but these occupations will be combined in due 
 proportion to build up a life complete and full. 
 The soul, no longer hampered by weakness or 
 limited by want of time, will sweep onward 
 along a course of symmetrical development 
 and growth in knowledge and holiness and 
 love, a course which will shine ever brighter 
 and brighter as it draws nearer to the ineflEa- 
 ble glory of the InjQnite. But this pathway 
 of eternal progress we may enter upon in the 
 present life. Death will not break the con- 
 tinuity of existence, but only widen the soul's 
 capacity and its sphere of activity. The same 
 lines of thought and study, the same far- 
 reaching problems in astronomy and phi- 
 losophy, in physics and metaphysics, which 
 8 
 
114 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 engage our minds here may still claim our 
 attention over yonder. The same blissful 
 friendships and hallowed loves that cheer and 
 brighten our earthly lives, will blossom fairer 
 still in that immortal clime. The same God 
 and Savior, " whom having not seen we love, 
 and in whom, though now we see Him not, 
 yet believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable 
 and full of glory," we there shall worship 
 face to face, and beholding His glory shall be 
 " changed into the same image from glory to 
 glory." 
 
 How blessed to feel that heaven is not some 
 far-off dim and shadowy state, an unseen and 
 invisible universe, where nothing is real and 
 substantial, and where the soul must flit about 
 in an ethereal void without locality, distance 
 or time ; but that it is rather the great and 
 glorious universe of God about us, embracing 
 millions of magnificent worlds, ^' where there 
 will be solid foot-hold to walk on, heavenly 
 air to feed our inspirations, light to break in 
 beauty upon our eyelids, sounds as soft as 
 symphonies to warble upon our hearing^ odors 
 
Our Celestial Home. 115 
 
 sweeter than the scent of roses, fruits more 
 fragrant than the growth of earthly paradise, 
 and tangible objects in profusion of the fairest 
 forms and qualities to gratify and delight us. 
 Grass will grow, flowers will bloom, fruits 
 will ripen, forests will wave, rivers will flow 
 and rivulets dance, high hills will tower, val- 
 leys will wind and plains expand, and beyond 
 them all, far as the eye can reach, vast blue 
 oceans will forever roll and sparkle in the 
 sunlight of eternity."* Such we believe 
 will be the ravishing scenery of the heavenly 
 Canaan amid which we shall rove in the com- 
 panionship of our loved ones, of the saints of 
 all ages and of the holy angels ; such the pas- 
 tures green and the waters still of the sunrise 
 land, beside which the Good Shepherd will 
 lead the lambs of the upper fold. 
 
 Oh ! how glorious the thought that yonder 
 stars which nightly blaze in the depths of the 
 empyrean, are the lights of heaven ever shin- 
 ing down upon us, the glittering lamps of the 
 many mansions streaming across the darkness 
 
 *«< 
 
 The World to Come," p. 316. 
 
116 Our Celestial Home. 
 
 of our pilgrim way ; and that ever and anon 
 our eyes may even catch a distant gleam of 
 the radiance of the celestial city itself, where 
 dwelleth in light unapproachable the blessed 
 and only Potentate, the King of kings and 
 Lord of lords ; and where Christ, the visible 
 representative of this Majesty divine, stand- 
 eth waiting to welcome His followers to the 
 fullness of His presence and the glory of His 
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