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P oor tPrn 
THE
ASTRONOMY OF THE BIBLE.
i  BY
0'M.MIITCHEL, LL. D.,
FORMERLY DIRECTOR OF THE CINCIN'NATI AND DUDLEY OBSERVATORIES;
AUTHOR OF " PLANETARY AND STELLAR WORLDS,' AND " POPULAR
ASTRONOMY   LATE MAJOR-GENERAL OF U. S. VOLS.
WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCIH.
NEW YORK:
ALBERT MIASON, PIUBLISHER.
1874.
I J 
PROF. MITCHEL'S BOOKS.
PLANETARY AND STELLAR WORLDS.
POPULAR ASTRONOMY.
ASTRONOMY OF THE BIBLE.
is
Entered, according to Act of (Congres,s, in the year 1863, by
E.  W.  MITCICEL,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District of New York.
0
t
I?,I, 
CONTENTS.
LECTURE I.
ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF THE BEING OF A GOD.
PAss
The Distinct Character of this Investigation: the Grandeur of the Theme. Does the Physical Universe proclaim the Being of a God?-Is the God thus
revealed the same august and eternal Being portrayed in our Sacred
Books?-The Three Hypotheses concerning the Existence of the Universe:
first, the Eternity of the Structure; second, the Eternity of Matter, but its
Forms and Perpetuity dependent upon Chance; third, a Creative God. The first untenable; all Nature gives token o(f Origin and Growth. There
is no Eternity in Man, Animal, or Vegetable; nor can there be in the
existent Structure of the Universe.-The second proved impossible, by
the very act of Reasoning which is necessary to analyze Nature's Law.  The third Hypothesis clearly stated, and the Discussion begun.-The Argu.
ment from Analogy teaches us that a Supreme Intelligence must have made
and must now control this Universe.-The Sun, the System, the Mighty
Complication, the delicate and complete Adjustment of Parts, the Earth,
all indicate this.-Still more striking is the Proof when we pass to the
Consideration of the Stars and the other great Systems.................... 47
LECTURE II.
THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE IS JEHOVAH.
'he God of the Bible: His Power and Majesty as He declares them.-Scienoo
must accord with Scripture in manifesting Him.-Does the Universe de  dclare the Unity of God?-Every Day's Development of Astronomy gives
new Proofs of it, in the perfect Harmony which pervades this complex
System.-The Omnipotenc of God likewise taught by this InvestigaUon,
Tk 
CONTENTS.
PAGI
in the Creation of these Worlds, in their systematic Arrangement, in now
holding them in their Orbits, and compelling them to execute His WilL
-His Supreme Widom likewise displayed in all His Plans, and in the
perfect Adjustment of all the Parts of the Great System.-His Unchang&
ablen8ss deduced from this Examination.-His Omnipreseice established.
-His Glory manifested at every step.-Summary.-Whence did the Scripture Writers derive their Knowledge of God?-The Voice of Nature pro.
claims God............................................................. 85
LECTURE III.
THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY THE PBESNT
STATE OF ASTRONOMY.
rho wonderful Character of the Bible: its fearless Self-exposure to Attack;
-its "Ethereal Mold, incapable of Stain."-Compared with Classic Writ ings on Philosophy and Ethics.-Their decay; its perennial Freshness The Nebular Hypothesis of Herschel.-La Place's Theory.-The supposed
atheistical Tendencies.-Truth never shrinks from the Light.-Herschel's
Experiments  The  Nebulse separated; others discerned. The  Zodiacal
Light.-La Place's Application of the Nebular Hypothesis.-Motion  o
Rotation.-Great Rings condensing into Orbs.-Difficult Questions: Forces:
Principles of their Action-Will this Theory coincide with the Moeaic
Account of the Creation.................................................   23
LECTURE IV.
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF CREATION, COMPARED WITH THIlE
COSMOGONY OF THE UNIVERSE AS REVEALED IN THE
ACTUAL CONDITION OF ASTRONOMY.
Analysis of the Words of Moses which explain the Creation, "In the Begin ning;"  The Heavens and the Earth," etc.: the Language scanned.-Mil ton's Fiction concerning Lig':t.-What was this Light which God thus
called into Being?-The Days of Creation.-The Firmnamett.-The Second
iv 
CONTENTS.
PAGB
great Epoch finished -The Third Epoch: the Gathering of the Waters and
the Appearance of the Land.-The Existence of Vegetable Life without a
San. The Fourth Epoch: the Great Lights, "for Signs and for Seasons,
for Days and for Years."-The simple Record not intended as distinct
Astronomical Revelation.-The Creation of Man.-No complete Demonstration intended, only an approximate one.................................. 113
LECTURE V.
AN EXAMINATION OF THE ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS IN
THE BOOK OF JOB.
The Authorship of the Book: its Antiquity; its wonderful Statements God's Answers to Job considered.-Nicer Shades of Meaning in Transla tion.-The Bounds of the Ocean.-The Dayspring from on High.-Tide&-.
The Ocean's Limits fixed while Day and Night endure.-Hesiod's Fancy. Other striking Queries.-Further Consideration of Light.-The Littleness
of Human S,ence...................................................... 218
LECTURE VI.
THE ASTRONOMICAL MIRACLES OF THE BIBLE MIRACLES
OF POWER.
Such an Inquiry not within our Scope-Astronomy deals with the Phenomena
of Nature, not the Miracles of God.-The Subject, however, may be in some
degree illustrated.-The Universe governed by invariable Laws.-Thes
Miracles seem to suspend them.-The Stopping of the Sun and Moon at
Joshua's Command, and the Going backward of the Shadow on the Sun dial of Ahaz.-Difficulties of the Subject-Can God work Miracles?-What
is a Miracle?-The new Elijah.-The Case of Joshua considered.-How can
that Miracle be accounted for?-By stopping the Rotation of the Earth on
its Axis.-Can this be done without universal Derangement?-Are we to
suppose. that God would do it?-If asserted as done, can we credit it? Yes.-Refraction miraculously applied.-The Miracle of the Sun-dial of
Ahaz may thus be accounted for.-Fm ther Details of Joshua's Success.-A
v 
CONTENTS.
PAGr
probable Interpolation.-What astronomic Research can discover. —Suppose the Investigation made, it could only concern the Rotation of the
Earth.-The Effect of stopping the Rotation.-The New Testament Prophecies as to the End of the Earth.-Man's Ignorance a Reason for Reverence
and Faith.-We know that God lives and speaks, and this is all we need
to know-The Superiority of the Moral to the Material................... 249
LECTURE VII.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
The Language of the Bible a Proof of its Inspiratlon.-It differs from that
of other Oriental Nations, who saw the same Splendors of the Heavens. The first Sentence in the Bible.-" In the Beginning God created the
Heavens and the Earth."-A grand Assertion.-No Argument.-The Egyp tian Fancy of the Origin of the Creation.-The Persian.-The Views of
Thales; of Plato; of Aristotle; of Zeno; of Epicurus,-A further Con sideration of the Mosaic Account.-God's Providence displayed. —Modern
Science can only begin where Moses left off.-The Lawgiver and the Law& Undevout Astronomers few in comparison to the Devout;-Copernicus,
Kepler, Tycho, Galileo, Newton.-Quotations from the Old Testament
Writers-Their Language the only fitting Vehicle for the overwhelming
Thoughts.-Their Declarations examined.-The Orbit of Neptune.-The
Milky Way.-The Habit of using the Language of the Bible causes us to
forget its Grandeur and Appositeness.-Specific Declarations examined;
Day and Night; the Ocean's Bounds.-Beyond our System.-Bessel's Obser vations.-The Foundations of the Earth " Upon Nothing;" Hung in empty
Space; Established forever.-St. Paul on Mars' Hill.-Points in his Dis course unanswerable.-Striking Illustration of a rebellious Planet.-God's
Goodness.............................................................. 23
vi 
PREFACE.
THE volume here offered to the public contains the last
finished astronomical work of Professor Mitchel; and, with
those that he published before his death, constitutes a series
which, if not exhaustive of the accepted divisions of the
science, presents, in outline, its great physical features and
its ethical relations.  "The Planetary and Stellar Worlds,"
published in 1848, contained a popular exposition of the
important discoveries and splendid theories of modern
astronomy.   It traced the progress of the great science
from the primitive ages, showing how, little by little, the
true theory dawned upon the feeble mind of man, fearful
and long unwilling to receive it; it presented the great laws,
with copious and eloquent illustration; it offered clear solutions of the wondrous problems; discussed the discovery of
new planets and the characteristics of the cometary world;
displayed the grandeur of the scale upon which the universe
is built, and showed the benevolent provisions for its permanent stability.
The "Popular Astronomy," published in 1860, is a concise elementary treatise on our sun, planets, satellites, and
comets; bringing the lofty truths and mighty laws within
the scope of popular and youthful comprehension. It is at
0 
PREFACE.
once lucid and eloquent, and serves admirably as a manual
of instruction.
The present work is of an entirely different nature fiom
both these, but in some sort complementary to them.  As a
devout Christian man, Professor Mitchel was aware of the
difficulties which beset the honest seeker for truth, by reason of the neological arguments of the free-thinker, based upon
an apparent want of harmony between modern astronomy and
the Bible; and he determined to apply his great practical
knowledge to a popular exposition of this subject. The day
seemed to have passed when the careless crowd would allow
the truth of the assertion, "The undevout astronomer is mad;"
and he bent his energies to such a work as should extort the
confession once more from all who heard, or should read
him. He always intended doubtless, to put these lectures in
a book form, but they were originally delivered before large
audiences in many of our principal cities, with the happiest
effect; confirming the faith of many, and arousing the devotion of all.
But they were never more timely than now. The exploded gnosticism of Germany has made its way into England; has invaded the English Church and assumed our
English speech.  Essayists and reviewers first strike the
secret blow; and then an English bishop attacks the faith
once delivered to the saints, with weapons forged in her own
armories, and turned against her by her traitors and deserters. Professor Mitchel's work is no designed answer to
Bishop Colenso's cavils and sophistries-for it was prepared
before the bishop had started upon his meteoric course; but
viii 
PREFA-OE.
it certainly is strangely providential that, while an English
prelate, whose sworn duty it is to defend the Church, smites
it with parricidal hand, an American astronomer, who, in
the following of many of his scientific co-workers, might
have been expected to doubt, or, at the least, to be supremely
indifferent, rises from his grave, as it were, to confront him
with a chastened, instructed, and devout belief, and to answer
his shallow learning with words of " truth and soberness."
Those who look in this volume, however, for an arrogant
demonstration of positive harmony between astronomy and
the Bible, will be disappointed: its author does not pretend
to make out a case. The proof of perfect harmony can only
be found ill the full developmentt of science; it can only be
stated now as an increasing probability. The earlier stages
of science presented singular apparent errors in the Scripture
accounts: as science has progressed, many of the discrepancies have disappeared; every day throws new light into
dark places; and, as difficulty after difficulty is cleared
away, we reason, not illogically, to a time when this perfect
harmony shall be morally demonstrated.  When the nebular
hypothesis of Herschel, and the consequent investigations of
Laplace, were first brought to light, they were regarded as
an impious attempt upon the Mosaic account of the creation:
it was a prejudged case; no orthodox Christian, not an educated astronomer, dared to examine them, hardly, indeed, to
glance at them; and yet, Professor Mitchel, boldly accepting the scientific investigations and deductions of these
astronomers as worthy of careful examination, has given a
brilliant elucidation of the Bible narrative by their means;
1I'
.x 
PREFACE.
and in the light thus thrown upon the subject, we see new
elements of a harmony which time alone can perfect.
By means of a few pages he has left, in fragmentary form,
we know that it was his purpose to continue this subject by
considering the relations of astronomy to Christianity, or the
harmony of the science with the record of the New Testament. From this fragment a few lines may be quoted.
After giving, in rapid summary, the points discussed in these
lectures, he says:
"Admitting that we have been successful in exhibiting the
above facts under a light satisfactory to the thoughtful and
candid, there still remains the grand question, that that
Almighty Being who created all things by the word of His
power, who hath built the universe in wisdom, who inhabiteth eternity, who filleth immensity by His presence, who is
the same yesterday, to-day, and forever,-could have condescended to clothe Himself with the garments of humanity,
to suffer indignity and insult, and injury and death, at the
hands of His own creatures, upon this globe that we inhabit,
which itself is but an atom in the infinite empire of the everliving God.
"To the candid searcher after truth, who is willing to be
convinced; who is anxious to believe the great mystery of
God manifest in the flesh; who would gladly accept the
doctrine of an infinite Saviour dying upon the cross to atone
for the sins of mortals, here, undoubtedly, will be found a
difficulty far greater than all others hitherto considered, and
rising far above them all in power and resistance.
"It would not be fair, therefore, to close our investigation
x 
PREFACE.
and end the discussion without an attempt, feeble as it may
be, to elucidate this last great subject. I know the theme is
difficult; I comprehend fully the nature of the task I am
about to undertake; and while I can not hope to remove
doubt from the mind of any one, I may yet venture to suggest a train of thought which, if carried to its legitimate
results, may lead the struggling mind out of the dim regions
of doubt into the clear atmosphere of faith and hope."
We may regret that he was unable to complete this grand
investigation; for as Christianity is the prophetic purpose
and end of the Old Testament scriptures, so all science must
be made to harmonize not simply with the older record, but
with the perfected plan of man's redemption.
Deploring, as we do, the country's loss in the death of so
energetic and skillful a general, it is to be observed that, as
a man of science, his death was especially premature. As
he entered the army purely and solely from patriotic motives, he would doubtless have left it immediately upon the
announcement of an honorable peace, and gone back with
an ardor sharpened by his forced relinquishment of science,
to his astronomical studies. He had, to all human appearance, a brilliant future still before him. He was still, at the
time of his death, director of both the observatories, at Cincinnati and Albany, and found time, amid his military duties,
to send instructions to the assistants in charge, and to keep
himself acquainted with the condion of the institutions.
xi  
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
THE subject of this sketch, and the distinguished
author of the following pages, had achieved such brilliant
success in science and in arms, that the detailed story of
his life would be read with eager interest by his admiring
countrymen. It is to be hoped that such a biography
will not be withheld; not alone in eulogy of his virtues
and his achievements, but as a bright example to ourselves and to our children. It is not, however, the purpose of the writer, here and now, to present these details.
In offering to the world his lectures on the Astronomy
of the Bible, as a posthumous publication, it is only
intended to glance, in this preliminary sketch, at the
principal objective points in that eager, ardent, devout,
and energetic life, as a fitting exordium to those last and
fervently pious words which, he being " dead, yet speaketh": thus to present to the reader the lecturer with his
lectures; to show what manner of man he was who thus
rushes ardently, armed with scientific research, to the
support of the faith so variously attacked, and apparently
imperiled, in this day of more than Athenian novelties
and curiosity. 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
ORMSBY McKNIGHT  MITCHEL was born in Union
County, Kentucky, on the 28th of August, 1810. He
had the misfortune to lose his father when he was three
years old, and thus from his early infancy he was left
to battle with the world, and win such a place in its
esteem as the God-given genius and indomitable energy
he possessed might secure for him. Immediately after
his father's death his family removed to Ohio; and at
twelve years of age he became a clerk in a store in the
town of Miami, from whence, however, not long after, he
moved with his family to Lebanon. A bright and inquiring boy, he soon found the plodding and menial
duties of a country store tame, painful, and unsatisfactory.
Always eager in the pursuit of learning, and especially
of that practical knowledge which could clear the wilderness and build towns like magic in our then wild as well
as far West, he bent his energies toward procuring an
appointment to the Military Academy at West Point,
where, he had been told, such instruction was given at
the expense of the government, and an assured future
lay beyond to the honorable graduate.   He  was successful; he entered the Military Academy on the 23d
of June, 1825, when not yet fifteen years old-being
admitted, by special favor, a year earlier than the law
allowed. His standing while a cadet was always high;
and his pursuit of knowledge, in all its forms, eager and
14 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
persevering. Among his classmates were the most distinguished generals at present in our own or the rebel
service; among the latter were Lee and Joseph Johnston.
His letters to his mother and brother during this period
all represent him as an eager student and ambitious in
his aims.
In 1829 he graduated with honor, and was appointed
a second lieutenant in the second artillery. So favorable
was the impression produced by his novitiate, that he was
very soon detailed for duty at the academy, as Assistant
Professor of Mathematics.   He  was  afterward, for a
short time, stationed at St. Augustine, in Florida. But
the prospects of the army at that period could not satisfy
the energy and honorable ambition of such a man as
Mitchel. He resigned on the 30th of September, 1832,
with no fortune, and no prospect but in persevering labor
to achieve fame, usefulness, and honor.
It is worthy of record, as illustrative of his character,
that just after his graduation the French Revolution
broke out; -those "three days of July" which drove the
"legitimate" Bourbons once more from the throne they
were unworthy to occupy, and elevated the citizen-king,
Louis Philippe, to the seat of power. Many remember
the effect produced by this volcanic eruption all over the
civilized world. Our young soldier was not exempt from
the pervading influence. His letters to his brother ex preas an unsettled condition of mind, and a growing desire
15 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
to go to Europe and plunge, sword in hand, into the
great wars which he believed would grow out of this
change of dynasty. This is mentioned as betokening his
quickly-kindled enthusiasm, his desire to exercise his
newly-acquired powers, and his ardent but honorable
ambition for distinction. The spirit of revolution which
France evoked, and which stalked for a brief space
through Europe, was soon laid; and Mitchel settled, as
has been told, into the quiet but hard-working life of a
citizen.
While in the army he had married Mrs. Trask, the
widow of Lieutenant Trask, and formerly Miss Louisa
Clark, of Cornwall, on the Hudson. In his growing
family he found new incentives to labor; and so we see
him, in 1832, opening an office as counsellor-at-law in
Cincinnati.   In this position  he remained until the
establishment of the Cincinnati College in 1834, when
he was elected Professor of Mathematics, Philosophy,
and Astronomy. This post he held until the sad and
untimely destruction of the college buildings by fire, and
the consequent dissolution of the college.   But what
seemed his misfortune was in reality a great blessing.
In the routine of academic duties he might have remained
satisfied; but when once more thrown upon his own
remarkable energies, his " sleepless soul " undertook
grand and original adventures.
During the period of his professorship he could still
16 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
find time to devote to other public duties. From 1836
to 1837 he was chief engineer of the Little Miami Railroad. HIe had, while in the army, acquired some experience in railway engineering, which was to prove of
value on many occasions during his life of peace, and
to find brilliant illustrations during his brief but splendid
military career.  But his principal study was astronomy,
the objective science which kindled his ardor and claimed
all his devotion. Amid the drudgery of the lawyer's
office; while teaching the elements of mathematics and
mechanics; in the practical, busy life of a railway
engineer, the stars shone upon him with that potent
influence with which in earlier days they had been supposed to shine upon every man. For him, we may
almost believe, there was a horoscope, and that all the
planets were conjoined in its composition.
In 1842 he undertook to establish the Cincinnati
Observatory-now The Mitchel Observatory-a gigantic
labor, which would have been too much for talent, energy,
and industry less than his own. Of the difficulties which
he encountered we may best judge by his own narrative.
Writing, in 1848, he says: "My attention had been for
many years directed to this subject (the erection of a
great astronomical observatory in the city of Cincinnati),
by the duties of the professorship, which I then held in
the college. In attempting to communicate the great
truths of astronomy, there were no instruments at hand
17 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
to confirm and fix the wonderful facts recorded in the
books. Up to that period our country, and the West particularly, had given but little attention to practical
astronomy. A few individuals, with a zeal and ardor
deserving of all praise, had struggled on to eminence
almost without means or instruments. An isolated telescope was found here and there scattered through the
country; but no regularly organized observatory, with
powerful instruments, existed within the limits of the
United States, so far as I know. * * *
"To ascertain whether any interest could be excited
in the public mind in favor of astronomy, in the spring
of 1842 a series of lectures was delivered in the hall of
the Cincinnati College. To give an increased effect to
these discourses (which were unwritten, and in a style
of great simplicity), a mechanical contrivance was prepared, by the aid of which the beautiful telescopic views
in the heavens were presented to the audience, with a
brilliancy and power scarcely inferior to that displayed
by the most powerful telescopes. To this fortunate invention were these lectures (' The Planetary and Stellar
Worlds'), no doubt, principally indebted for the interest
which they produced, and which occasioned them to be
attended by a very large number of the intelligent persons in the city. Encouraged by the large audiences,
which continued through two months to fill the lectureroom, and still more by the request to repeat the last
18 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
lecture of the course in one of the great churches of the
city, I matured a plan for the building of an observatory,
which it was resolved should be presented to the audience
at the close of the lecture, in case circumstances should
favor. * * *
"In Europe, imperial treasure and princely munificence could build the temples of science; under a free
government no such means existed, and to accomplish
the erection of these great scientific institutions, the
intelligent liberality of the whole community was the
only resource. But it had been denied that this resource
could be relied on; and it had been roundly asserted that,
in the nature of things, the United States must ever
remain grossly defective in all the appliances for scientific research. To test the truth or falsehood of these
statements was not a difficult matter; and thus encouraged by  the interest already manifested in behalf of
astronomy, I had already resolved to devote five years
of faithful effort to accomplish the erection of a great
astronomical observatory in the city of Cincinnati.
"This announcement was received with every mark
of favor, and the following simple plan was at once presented. The entire amount required to erect the buildings and purchase the instruments, should be divided
into shares of twenty-five dollars; every shareholder to
be entitled to the privileges of the observatory, under the
management of a board of control, to be elected by the
19 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
shareholders. Before any subscription should become
binding, the names of three hundred subscribers should
be first obtained. This accomplished, these three hundred should meet, organize, and elect a board, who should
thenceforward manage the affairs of the association.
"Such is the history of the origin of the Cincinnati
Astronomical Society. * * *
"On the second day I started for New York, and on
the 16th of June, 1842, sailed for Liverpool. Having
visited many of the best appointed observatories both in
England and on the continent (in each and every one of
which I was received with a degree of kindness and
attention for which I acknowledge the deepest obligations), and having been unsuccessful in finding, either in
London or Paris, an object-glass of the size required, I
finally determined to visit the city of Munich. The
fame of the optical institute of the celebrated Frauenhofer had even reached the banks of the Ohio; and it
was hoped that, in that great manufactory, an instrument
such as the society desired might be obtained, if not completed, at least in such a state of forwardness as to permit it to be furnished at an early day. In this I was
not disappointed.   An  object-glass of nearly twelve
inches diameter, and of superior finish, was found in the
cabinet of M. Mertz, the successor of Frauenhofer. This
glass had been subjected to a severe trial in the tube
of the great refractor of the Munich observatory, by
20 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTIOE.
Dr. Lamont, and had been pronounced of the highest
quality.
"To mount this glass would require about two years, at
a cost of nearly ten thousand dollars; a sum considerably greater than that appropriated at the time for an
equatorial telescope. Having made a conditional arrangement for this and other instruments, I returned to Greenwich, England, where, at the invitation of Professor
Airy, the Astronomer Royal, I remained for some time
to study.  Having accomplished the objects of my journey, I returned home, and rendered a report to a very
large meeting of the members of the association and other
citizens of Cincinnati. * * *
"The principal instrument having been ordered, and the
first payment on its cost made, attention was now given
to the procuring of a suitable site for the building. Fortunately for the society, the place of all others most perfectly adapted to their wants, was then the property of
Nicholas Longworth, Esq. It is a lofty hill-top, rising
some four hundred feet above the level of the city, and
commanding a perfect horizon in all directions.   On
making known to Mr. Longworth the prospects and wants
of the Astronomical Society, the writer was directed by
him to select four acres on the hill-top, out of a tract
of some twenty-five acres, and to proceed at once to
enclose it, as it would give him great pleasure to present
it to the association. On compliance with the conditions
21 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
of the title-bond, a deed has since been received, placing
the society in full possession of this elegant position.
"Preparations were now made to commence the erection of the building for the observatory. The grounds
were enclosed, a road built, rendering access to the hilltop comparatively easy, the excavations for the foundations were made, and, on the 9th day of November, 1843,
the corner-stone of the pier which was to sustain the
great Refracting Telescope was laid by John Quincy
Adams, with appropriate ceremonies. On this occasion
Mr. Adams made his last great oration. The deep interest which he had taken in astronomical science warranted
the hope that he might be induced to visit the West on
the occasion of laying the, foundation-stone of the first
great popular observatory ever erected in the United
States. This hope was not disappointed. The unaffected
devotion of this truly great man to the interests of his
country, were, perhaps, never more perfectly exhibited
than in his ready acquiescence to comply with the wishes
of the Astronomical Society, that he should perform for
them the important services on which the future success
of this new enterprise in no small degree depended. His
high character, his advanced age, the length of the journey, the inclemency of the season, all combined to exhibit to his countrymen the depth of his interest in a
cause which could induce such sacrifices.
"After the laying of the corner-stone, the lateness of
22 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
the season, and other causes, induced a suspension of the
work on the building for the winter; and it was not
resumed until May, 1844. In the mean time, after
incredible difficulty, the entire amount called for in the
payment for the great telescope, was collected and remitted; and the society was left with scarcely a dollar of
available means, to commence the erection of a building
which, according to the plan, would cost some seven or
eight thousand dollars."
*     *      *      *      *      *      *     *
"At length, however, the building was reared, and
finally covered in, without incurring any debt. But the
conditions of the bond, by which the lot of ground was held,
required the completion of the observatory in two years
from its date; and these two years would expire in June,
1845. It was seen to be impossible to carry forward the
building fast enough to secure its completion by the
required time, without incurring some debt. My own
private resources were used, in the hope that a short
time after the finishing of the observatory would be sufficient to furnish the funds to meet all engagements. The
work was pushed rapidly forward. In February, 1845,
the great telescope safely reached the city of Cincinnati;
and in March the building was ready for its reception.
I had now exhausted all my private means, and, to
increase the difficulty  of the position in which I was
placed, the College edifice took fire and burned to the
23 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
ground.   My  ordinary means of support were  thus
destroyed at a single blow. I had engaged to conduct
the observatory, without compensation from the society,
for ten years, in the hope that my college salary would
be sufficient for my wants. It was impossible to abandon
the observatory. The college could not be rebuilt, at
least for several years, and in this emergency I found it
necessary to seek some means of support, least inconsistent with my duties in the observatory. My public lectures at home had been comparatively well received, and
after much hesitation it was resolved to make an experiment elsewhere. For five years I had been pleading the
cause of science among those little acquainted with its
technical language. I had become habituated to the use
of such terms as were easily understood; and probably
to this circumstance, more than to any other one thing,
am I indebted for any success which may have attended
my public lectures. To the citizens of Boston, Brooklyn, New York, and New Orleans, for the kindness with
which they were pleased to receive my imperfect efforts,
I am deeply indebted. My lectures were never written,
and no idea was entertained of publishing a course, until
the partiality of my friends induced me to attempt this
experiment."
Thus it was that in 1842 he began his remarkable
career as a lecturer on astronomy. More than any other
man in America has he thus accomplished for his favor
S4 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
ite science: besides the observatory he founded, and the
instruments he imported-and to which he has greatly
added by his improvements and inventions-he awakened
in thousands of minds an interest in the subject, instructed popular assemblies, not only by his clear outlines of the gigantic science, but by his masterly handling
of its difficult and abstruse theories and problems, and
by his fiery words, which, exhibiting his own knowledge
and enthusiasm, told of its divine beauties and relations,
and kept crowded audiences all over the country in
breathless and delighted attention.
He had surveyed the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad
in 1844; and when the enterprise was fairly undertaken
and the road placed under contract, he was sent to
Europe by the Company, as a confidential agent on the
business of the road, in 1853; and again, on the same
business, in 1854. For some time he was connected
with the Eastern division of that road, and was chiefly
instrumental in bringing it to a successful completion.
In the summer of 1860 he was appointed Director of
the Dudley Observatory; and without a reference to the
unhappy difficulties which beset that institution at the
beginning, it may be said that his acceptance of the post
restored quiet, and produced the greatest usefulness of
which the observatory was instrumentally and financially
capable. It was still under his direction at the time of
his death.
2
25 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
When the war broke out, Professor Mitchel, urged
singly and purely by patriotic motives, placed his services at the disposition of the government, and devoted
his life and military knowledge to his country. On the
9th of August, 1861, he was appointed a BrigadierGeneral of Volunteers, and was placed in command of the
Department of the Ohio, with his head-quarters at Cincinnati.   While there he carefully surveyed the approaches to the town, built redoubts and projected
lines at the prominent points, which doubtless served a
good purpose when, at a later day, Cincinnati was threatened by an overwhelming rebel force.
When the Departments of the Ohio and the Cumberland were afterward united, General Mitchel was ordered
to report to General Buell; and he was then placed in
command of a camp of rendezvous, where he was actively
receiving, organizing, and forwarding troops for three
weeks. At the expiration of this brief period he was
appointed to the command of the third division of the
Army of the Ohio, then stationed at Elizabetown,
Kentucky.   If  we particularize  in dates  and posi tions, it is that the reader may trace the rapid and
energetic movements of General Mitchel the more
intelligibly.
On the 9th of February, 1862, he was at Bacon
Creek; on the 13th he started for Bowling Green, until
then the strongest point on the strategic line of the rebel
26 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
army. Forced marches, in themselves a wonderful feat
with new troops, brought him to Bowling Green on the
15th. On the 22d he started, with General Buell, for
Nashville; and it is worth recording that that city was
surrendered to Colonel Kennett, of the Fourth Ohio
Cavalry, for General Mitchel, on Sunday evening, Feb ruary 23. The surrender is publicly believed to have
been made to General Nelson. But that officer did not
arrive with his division to occupy the place until three
days after it had capitulated to General Mitchel. He
had now entered upon those brilliant independent move ments which had excited the admiration of the whole
country, and which, could he have received timely and
adequate reenforcements, would have redeemed the entire
region in which they were made. Early in March he
was at Murfreesboro', where, putting his railroad experience into practice, he improvised twelve hundred feet of
bridges. Leaving Murfreesboro' on the 6th of April, he
marched to Shelbyville; on the 10th he was at Fayetteville; and on the 11th at Huntsville, in Alabama. Here,
again, the railway engineer supplied valuable general
ship. Seizing the rolling stock, he immediately sent out
two railway expeditions, east and west —-the one to Decatur, and the other to Stevenson, on the Memphis and
Charleston Railroad. The expedition to Stevenson he
conducted in person. Both places were captured, and
Northern Alabama was in Federal possession, one hun
27 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
dred and twenty miles of the railroad being in running
condition, and guarded by Mitchel's troops.
For this brilliant achievement he was made a MajorGeneral of Volunteers, to date from April 11, the day of
the capture of Huntsville.
On the 2d of July, General Mitchel was ordered to
report himself at Washington. He was there in person
on the 5th.   From that time he was waiting for orders
until September 12th, when he started for the important
command of the Tenth Army Corps, the head-quarters
of which were at Hilton Head, South Carolina. He
reached there on the 16th. His coming infused new life
into the department; and he was maturing his plans for
a grand movement when he was called away from earth.
HIe sent an expedition to the St. John's River, which
captured the fort, with many heavy guns; and also a
force to Pocotaligo, for the purpose of destroying the
Charleston and Savannah Railroad and telegraph, in
which it was successful. He also drew Beauregard out
of Savannah with twenty-five thousand men. What he
further intended can not be told; but every day, had he
lived, would have disclosed the character of his projects,
of which these movements were but the initiation.
While in the midst of his usefulness and rapidlymaturing plans, he was attacked by the yellow fever on
Sunday, the 26th of October, and died on October 80,
1862, in Beaufort, S. 0.
28 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
Such, briefly, is the record of his life: the meagre
recital is full of valuable lessons, and leads the scholar,
the patriot, the soldier, and the Christian to moralize
upon the great loss the country has sustained, while they
eulogize his genius, his talents, his virtues, his piety,
and his lofty achievements. Few men of our age have
exhibited a more extended genius; and we know of no
one who has displayed so much energy in every thing
he has undertaken.   His character will bear minute
analysis: in every department of labor he was eminently
successful; in many he was truly great.
As a ma?i of science Professor Mitchel was an ardent
investigator and an eminently practical inventor. Fully
imbued with the poetry of science, delighting in the
lofty picturesques of astronomic thought, abounding in
the rarest imagery in his public teachings, his truest
sphere was in the mechanism of the means for scientific
observation and labor. To prepare himself as director
of the observatory, he had studied and mastered the
higher astronomical mathematics, and was thoroughly
conversant with the history of the science. To qualify
himself as a public teacher, he had resolved the most difficult problems into such simple forms and such lucid
language as to make them clear to many who had
regarded it impossible to comprehend them. To give
himself facility in observing, he had studied under
Professor Airey, the Astronomer Royal of England, at
29 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTION.
Greenwich; and to understand the scientific relations of
astronomy as they appear in the cosmogony of the universe, he had investigated those sister sciences which,
while they are distinct elements of the great subject, come
forward, in harmonious concourse, to cast their tribute at
the feet of Him who dictated the record of Moses.
As a mechanical inventor he may be best-presented by
placing in this connection some account of the principal
instruments which he created, for facilitating observations.
The following description of the Declinometer is furnished through the kindness of Mr. G. W. Hlough, the
astronomer in charge of the Dudley Observatory:
"Method invented by Professor Mitchel for determining difference of Declination.
" The apparatus for observing difference of declination
consists of the following:
" To the axis of the transit telescope is attached a
metallic arm of sixty inches in length; in the lower end
of this arm is screwed a cylindrical pin one eighth of an
inch in diameter, at right angles to the arm and parallel
to the supporting axis of the telescope. This pin has a
notch or groove (of the form which would be generated
by placing the vertices of two isosceles triangles together
and revolving about the perpendicular) cut in the middle.
"At a distance of twenty-three inches from the pin,
and in the same horizontal plane, is mounted in Y's a
30 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
small telescope of six inches focal length. The supports
ing axis of this telescope is parallel to that of the transit.
Underneath the center of the small telescope, and con.
nected with it, is a short arm two inches in length; and,
by means of a joint, a rod is connected with the pin
before mentioned.
" Now when the transit telescope is moved in zenithdistance, angular motion is given to the small telescope
by means of the long arm and connecting rod.
"The amount of this motion is read from a scale,
placed at a distance of fifteen feet, and divided to single
seconds of arc. It will, of course, be understood that
we must have some object in the focus of the small telescope with which to compare the divisions of the scale.
We use either a cross formed by the intersection of two
spider's webs, or a single horizontal wire.
" In case we wish to observe a zone of greater width
than the extent of the scale (30'), we have a number of
pins, at distances of 30' apart, mounted in the arc of a
circle whose radius is equal to the length of the long
arm. We readily pass from one pin to another, by lifting one end of the connecting rod and attaching it to a
different one. The divisions on the scale can easily be
read, by estimation, to two tenths of a second of arc.
"The time required to read the scale is much less
than that employed in reading one microscope, since at
the same transit of an equatorial star we can make from
31 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTION.
ten to fifteen bisections and readings. As I have found
one reading of the scale nearly equal to four microscopes,
it follows that if we employ the same time in the observation of an object with the Declinometer that we do
when we use the Circle, our results in the former case
will be superior to the latter in a large ratio.
"The Zone observations with the Declinometer have
been made mostly for the investigation of the source and
amount of error due to this method. From a comparison
of the observations with those made in the ordinary way,
I find the probable error, on a single observation, falls
within the limits of accuracy usually assigned to observations made with the Meridian Circle. One great advantage lies in the fact that many bisections and readings
can be made at the same transit, and in this way eliminating the ordinary errors of observation.    You will
understand the rapidity with which work can be done by
this method, when I state that more than two hundred
stars have been accurately observed in one hour; and
were they equally distributed, twice that number could
easily have been taken.
"This instrument is one of the great inventions of our
late and lamented director, Professor Mitchel; and is
the only one in the world.
"From observations made during-the last two years,
and. a careful discussion of the results, I have arrived at
the conviction that there is no other known method
32 
BIOGEAPHICAL NOTICE.
equal to it, for rapidity and accuracy, in the cataloguing of stars."
Professor Mitchel's remarkable mechanical skill, his
quickness to perceive difficulties, and the readiness with
which he devised and applied the remedies, are further
admirably illustrated in his apparatus for recording time
by means of the electromagnetic telegraphs. These are
now in use in the Cincinnati and Dudley Observatories.
His was the first thorough solution of this important
problem  in instrumental  astronomy.    The  following
account of this apparatus is in Professor Mitchel's own
words:
"The problem of causing a clock to record its beats
telegraphically, was nothing more than to contrive some
method whereby the clock might be made (by the use of
some portion of its own machinery) to take the placeof the
finger of the living, intelligent operator, and "make" or
"break" the electric circuit.  The grand difficulty did
not lie in causing the clock to play the part of an automaton in this precise particular, but it did lie in causing
the clock to act automatically, and at the same time perform perfectly its great function of a time-keeper. This
became a matter of great difficulty and delicacy; for to
tax any portion of the clock machinery with a duty
beyond the ordinary and contemplated demands of the
maker, seemed at once to involve the machine in imper.
fect and irregular action. After due reflection it was
2*
33 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
decided to apply to the pendulum for a minute amount
of power, whereby the making or breaking the electric
circuit might be accomplished with the greatest chance
of escaping any injurious effect on the going of the clock.
The principle which guided in this selection was, that we
ought to go to the prime mover (which in this case was
the clock weights, and which could not be employed), and,
failing to reach the prime mover, we should select the
nearest piece of mechanism to it, which in the clock is the
pendulum. A second point early determined by experiment and reflection was this: that the making or breaking of the circuit must be accomplished by the use of
mercury, and not by a solid metallic connection. Various- methods were tried, and soon abandoned as uncertain
and irregular in their results; and the following plan was
adopted:
"A small cross of delicate wire was mounted on a short
axis of the same material, passing through the point of
union of the four arms constituting the cross. This axis
was then placed horizontal on a metallic support, in Y's,
where it might vibrate, provided the top stem of the cross
could be in some way attached to the pendulum of the
clock, and the "cross" should thus rise and fall at its outer
stem as the pendulum swings backward and forward.
The metallic frame bearing the "cross" also bore a
small glass tube bent at right angles. This was filled
with mercury, and into one extremity one wire from
34 
BIOGRAP HIOAL NOTICE.
the pole of the battery was made to dip; the other
wire was made fast by a binding screw to the metallic
stand bearing the "cross," and thus every time the
" cross" dipped into the mercury in the bent tube, the
electricity passed through the metallic frame, up the vertical standards bearing the axis of the cross, along the
axis to the stem, and down the stem into the mercury,
and finally through the mercury to the other pole of
the battery. Thus at every swing of the pendulum
the circuit was made, and a suitable apparatus might,
by the electro-magnet, record each alternate second of
time.
"The amount of power required of the pendulum to
give motion to the delicate wire-cross was almost insensible,
as the stems nearly counterpoised each other in every
position. Here, however, there was great difficulty in
procuring a fibre sufficiently minute and elastic to constitute the physical union between the top stem of the
cross and the clock pendulum. Various materials were
tried, among others a delicate human hair, the very finest
that could be obtained, but this was too coarse and stiff.
Its want of pliancy and elasticity gave to the minute
"wire-cross" an irregular motion, and caused it to rebound from the globule of mercury into which it should
have plunged. After many fruitless efforts, an appeal
was made to an artisan of wonderful dexterity; the
assistance of the spider was invoked; his web, perfectly
35 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
elastic and perfectly pliable, was furnished, and this material connection between the wire-cross and the clock
pendulum proved to be exactly the thing required. In
proof of this remark I need only state the fact that one
single spider's web has fulfilled the delicate duty of
moving the wire-cross, lifting it, and again permitting it
to dip into the mercury every second of time for a period
of more than three years! How much longer it might
have faithfully performed the same service I know not,
as it then became necessary to break this admirable
bond, to make some changes in the clock. Here it will
be seen the same web was expanded and contracted
each second during this whole period, and yet never, so
far as could be observed, lost any portion of its elasticity.
The clock was thus made to close the electric circuit in
the most perfect manner; and inasmuch as the resistance
opposed to the pendulum  by the "wire-cross"  was a
constant quantity and very minute, thus acting precisely as does the resistance of the atmosphere, the
clock, once regulated with the "cross" as a portion of
its machinery, moved with its wonted steadiness and
uniformity. Thus one grand point was gained. The
clock was now ready to record its own beats automatically and with absolute certainty, without in any way
affecting the regularity of its movement. It was early
objected to the mercurial connection just described, that
in a short time the surface of the mercury would become
36 
BIOGRAPHIOAL NOTICE.
oxydized, and thus refuse to transmit the current of electricity; but experiment demonstrated that the explosion
produced by the electric discharge at every dip into the
mercury threw off the oxyd formed, and left the polished
surface of the globule of mercury in a perfect state to
receive the next passage of the electricity.
"So far as known, all other methods are now abandoned,
and the mercurial connection is the only one in use.
"THE T[ME-SCALE.-The clock being now prepared to
record its beats, accurately and uniformly, the next important step was to obtain, if possible, a uniformly
moving time-scale, which should be applicable to the
practical demands of the astronomer
"In case the fillet of paper used in the Morse telegraph
could have been made to flow at a uniform rate upon its
surface, the clock could now record, its beats appearing
as dots separated from each other by equal intervals.
But it was soon seen that the paper could not be made to
flow uniformly; and even had this been possible, a single
night's work would demand for its record such a vast
amount of paper that this method was inapplicable to
practice.   After  careful  deliberation,  the' revolving
disk' was selected as the best possible surface on which
the record of time and observation could be made. The
preference was given to the disk over the cylinder for
the following reasons: The uniform revolution of the
disk could be more readily reached. The record on the
37 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
disk was always under the eye in every part of it at the
same time, while, on the revolving cylinder, a portion of
the work was always invisible. One disk could be substituted for another with greater ease, and in a shorter
time; and the measure of the fractions of seconds could
be more rapidly and accurately performed on the disk
than on the cylinder.
"After much thought and experiment it was decided
to adopt'a make circuit' and'a dotted scale' rather
than a'break circuit' and a'linear scale;' and I
think it will be seen hereafter that in this selection the
choice has been fully justified in practice. These points
being settled, the mechanical problems now presented for
solution were the following: First, To invent some machinery which could give to a disk of, say, twenty inches
diameter, mounted on a vertical axis, a motion such that
it should revolve uniformly once in each minute of time;
and, second, To connect with this disk the machinery
which should enable the clock to record on the disk each
alternate second of time, in the shape of a delicate round
dot. Third, The apparatus which should enable the
observer to record on the same disk the exact moment of
the transit of a star across the meridian, or the occurrence of any other phenomenon.
"The first of these problems was by far the most difficult, and, indeed, its perfect solution remains yet to be
accomplished, though, for any practical astronomical
38 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
purpose, the problem has been solved in more than
one way.
"The plan adopted in the Cincinnati Observatory may
be described as follows: The clock-work machinery employed to give to the great equatorial telescope a uniform
motion equal to that of the earth's rotation, on its axis,
offered to me the first obvious approximate solution of
the problem under consideration. This machinery was
accordingly applied to the motion of the disk, or rather
to regulate the motion of revolution, this motion being
produced by a descending weight, after the fashion of
an ordinary clock.   It was  soon discovered that the
' FrauenlIofer clock,' as this machine is called, was not
competent to produce a motion of such uniformity as was
now required. Several modifications were made with a
positive gain; but after long study it was finally discovered that when the machinery was brought into perfect adjustment, the dynamical equilibrium obtained was
an equilibrium of instability; that is, if from a motion
such as produced a revolution in one exact minute, it
began to lose, this loss or decrement in velocity went on
increasing, or if it commenced to gain, the increment
went on increasing at each revolution of the disk.  Now
all these delicate changes could be watched with the most
perfect certainty; as, in case the disk revolved uniformly
once a minute, then the seconds' dots would fall in such
a manner (as we shall see directly) that the dots of the
39 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
same recorded seconds would radiate from the center of
the disk in a straight line. Any deviation from this line
would be marked with the utmost delicacy down to the
thousandth of a second. By long and careful study, it
was at length discovered; that to make any change in the
velocity of the disk, to increase or decrease quickly its
motion, in short, to restore the dynamical equilibrium,
the winding key of the'Frauenhofer clock' was the
point of the machinery where the extra helping force
should be applied; and it was found that a person of
ordinary intelligence, stationed at the disk, and with
his fingers on this key, could, whenever he noticed a
slight deviation from uniformity, at once, by slight assistance, restore the equilibrium, when the machine would
perhaps continue its performance perfectly for several
minutes, when again some slight acceleration or retardation might be required from the sentinel posted as an
auxiliary.
"The mechanical problem now demanding solution was
very clearly announced. It was this: Required to construct an automaton which should take the place of the
intelligent sentinel, w-tch the going of the disk, and instantly correct any acceleration or retardation. This, in
fact, is the great problem in all efforts to secure uniform
motion of rotation. This problem was resolved theoretically, in many. ways, several of which methods were executed mechanically without success, as it was found that
40 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
the machine stationed as a sentinel to regulate the going
of the disk was too weak, and was itself carried off by
its too  powerful  antagonist.   The  following  method
was, however, in the end, entirely successful. Upon the
axis of the winding key, already mentioned, a toothed
wheel was attached, the gearing being so adjusted that
one revolution of this wheel should produce a whole
number of revolutions of the disk. The circumference
of this wheel was cut into a certain number of notches,
so that, as it revolved, one of these notches would reach
the highest point once in two seconds of time. By
means of an electromagnet a small cylinder or roller,
at the extremity of a lever arm, was made to fall into the
highest notch of the toothed wheel at the end of every
two seconds. In case the disk was revolving exactly once
a minute, the roller, driven by the sidereal clock, by means
of an electro-magnet, fell to the bottom of the notch, and
performed no service whatever; but, in case the disk
began to slacken its velocity, then the roller fell on the
retreating inclined face of the notch, and thus urged forward by a minute amount the laggard disk, while, on the
contrary, should the variation from a uniform velocity
present itself in an acceleration, then the roller struck on
the advancing face of the notch, and thus tended slowly
to restore the equilibrium. Let it be remembered that
this delicate regulator has but a minute amount of service
to perform. It is ever on guard, and detecting, as it
41 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
does instantly, any disposition to change, at once applies
its restoring power, and thus preserves an exceedingly
near approach to exact uniformity of revolution. This
regulator operates through all the wheel-work, and thus
accomplishes a restoration by minute increments or decrements spread over many minutes of time.
II With a uniformly revolving disk, stationary in position, we should accomplish exactly, and very perfectly,
the record of one minute of time, presenting on the recording surface thirty dots at equal angular intervals on
the circumference of a circle. To receive the time dots
of the next minute on a circle of larger diameter, required either that the recording pen should change position, or that at the end of each revolution the disk itself
should move away from the pen by a small amount. We
chose to remove the disk. To accomplish accurately the
change of position of the disk, at the end of each revolution. the entire machine was mounted on wheels on a
small railway track, and by a very delicate mechanical
arrangement accomplished its own change of position
between the fifty-ninth and sixtieth second of every
minute."
The foregoing explanations are given as a mere illustration of Professor Mitchel's mechanical ingenuity. To
the great world he is better known by other and more
striking characteristics.
As a lecturer Professor Mitchel had a remarkable
42 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
gift: his fervid oratory was natural; it was the truest
exemplification of the trite but striking idea of the poet,
"Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn."
He could make a dry problem in mathematical astronomy
so pleasing, by its clear and eloquent presentation, as to
enchain a popular assembly and extort their applause
both for problem and lecturer. His language, purely
extemporaneous, was beautiful; his figures and illustrations strikingly well chosen; and his voice and manner
powerful  and  overmastering.   Sometimes  his fervor
seemed like a Delphian inspiration; and there are few
who will forget the magnificent effects produced by his
lectures on the Astronomy of the Bible, which are found
in this volume. Those who heard him deliver them will
easily recall the almost inspired speaker, and hear again
in memory, the lectures as they read them
As a true and whole-hearted patriot he had no superior. Influenced by this spirit, he tore himself from
home ties, alas! not capable of bearing the rude parting,his departure cost him his cherished wife; and thus he
gave himself up to his country. All his energies, all his
talents, his varied education, his fame, his brilliant
future; whatever there was of power or influence in him
or his name, was hers, devoted to her with a single eye
and a single purpose.  And he died for her, as truly, as
devotedly,-shall we not say as gloriously,-as though
43 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
he had fallen leading a forlorn hope to turn disaster into
victory?
But as a soldier his whole-hearted patriotism was of
great value. Bred at West Point, and having engrafted
upon that thorough elementary education the knowledge
of men, of life, of practical science and industrial arts,
he was  the very beau-ideal of a general.   Full  of
resources, he made bridges of cotton-bales and fence rails, and was the first man across to test their preca rious structure. Restlessly energetic, his mind passed
like lightning over every part of a plan or a field; his
quick glance caught the capabilities of a position; his
experience provided whatever was needed; his surplus
vitality, overflowing his own person, swept out among the
soldiers and put the whole mass in motion. His great
personal bravery was a constant example and incentive
to every man under his command. Wherever he appeared, there was work to do: expeditions, rapid movements, concerted combinations, forced marches. Without making too sweeping a remark, we may consider
General Mitchel as among the very best of our commanders; and, had he lived, he would have risen to a
position in public esteem and confidence second to none
in the land.
As a devout Christian,-not presented now to the
world in the mere statement of a charitable opinion,
which gives "a good conscience" to every public man who
$4 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
dies, —-but as a consistent, conscientious, devout Christian
man, General Mitchel is best known to his home and his
intimate friends. Admiring, as they do, his brilliant
qualities; his learning, his genius, his military fame,
they recur with far more comfort to the fact of his holy
and fervent life. his daily communing with his God, his
practical piety, his certain and holy hope of eternal life
through the blood of Christ.
No king stood by his dying bed beseeching him
If thou think'st on Heaven's bliss
Hold up thy hand, make signal of thy hope."
Prompted by the unutterable thoughts which crowded
upon him, he gave, unbidden, such a happy signal, literally holding up his hand, and pointing to that world
beyond the skies, which was then lifting "its everlasting
portals high" to greet him with an immortal radiance, such
as even his enthusiastic astronomy had never conceived.
His last words, brokenly uttered, were taken down by his
aid-de-camp, and they add another to the ever-increasing
and enduring testimonies, that, when the good man dies,
God alone is great, and Heaven alone is real existence.
General Mitchel was, as might be expected, the recipient of many honors, due to his own merits.   He had
filled many offices and posts. A graduate of West Point,
he was a lieutenant of artillery, a lawyer, a railway
engineer, an astronomer; the founder of one observatory,
45 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
the director of two; a Doctor of Laws from more than
one institution; a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical
Society, and of several other foreign societies; a MajorGeneral of Volunteers. In 1841, he was a member of
the Board of Visitors at the Military Academy. In
1847 and 1848 he was Adjutant-General of the State of
Ohio. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical-Society in 1853.
H. a
JNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA,
PHiLiELPHI, March, 1863.
46 
LECTURE I.
ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF THE BEING OF A GOD.  
LECTURE I.
ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF THE BEING OF GO0).
THE topics upon the discussion of which I am
about to venture, are far different from those
which have hitherto engaged our attention. We
are no longer to follow the career of the human
mind, in its efforts to trace the laws of the physical universe. We stand with the philosopher
and astronomer on the very apex of that stupendous pyramid, which human genius has reared
by the protracted labor of six thousand years.
We are lifted far above the clouds of earth. An
interminable vista, broad as the universe, illimitable as space, teeming with myriads of flaming
orbs, rises up to meet our vision. We have attained to a knowledge of the potent laws which
extend their dominion over these countless
millions.  We  are permitted to examine the
"Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers,"
which fill the heavens. Our view sweeps from
3 
50   ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF
the humble satellite which acknowledges and
obeys the superior power of the earth, through
systems, and schemes, and universes, whose vast
ness no stretch of thought can comprehend,
whose numbers no arithmetic of earth can count.
We no longer seek to weigh these ponderous orbs,
we seek not to trace their wanderings, we attempt_
not to compute their reciprocal influences or tc
predict their cycles of configuration or their
mighty periods of revolution. We shall attempt
to rise far beyond and above all these inquiries,
and venture on the far more difficult task of
reasoning our way through these wonderful dis
plays of wisdom and power, to the ultimate
source of all wisdom and power.
We shall venture to inquire whence has sprung
the Physical Universe? what hand has launched
these flaming orbs in space? Whose eye omniscient has traced out their untrodden paths? what
hand omnipotent upholds the stupendous fabric
of Nature?
These are themes of superlative grandeur.
No mind can approach their contemplation without an expansion of thought, an uplifting of 
THE BEING OF GOD.
the powers of the soul, a sensation resembling
that which swept across the soul of our great
ancestor, when it was whispered, "Ye shall be
as gods;" and there comes a withering sense
of our own weakness, a consciousness of our
utter inability to scale these lofty heights, or
penetrate the deep profound which stretches out
before us.   If called upon  to discuss  these
themes in the presence of superior beings, the
Hierarchs of Heaven, resplendent with exalted
wisdom, it would be utter folly to unseal the lip,
or move the tongue to the utterance of one solitary thought.
But I address not myself to angelic intelligences, but to man, humble, trusting, inquiring,
teachable man, conscious of his own weakness,
and ever ready to receive with feelings of charitable consideration, the humble efforts of those,
who, like himself, are struggling to discover truth.
I have ventured then to propound for examination the following train of investigation:-Does
the Physical Universe proclaim the Being of
a God? Should this inquiry be affirmatively
answered) we propose to inquire, If the God thu-s
51 
52   ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF
revealed, is the same august and eternal being
portrayed in our sacred books. I shall then
consider these sacred books in their relation to
the determinate truths of science, to compare
their revelations of the cosmogony of the universe with the revelations of modern science, to
examine critically the astronomical illustrations,
allusions, and miracles of the historians, poets,
and prophets of the sacred volume, and finally
to compare the Hebrew chronology with that of
the primitive nations of the earth. Such is the
train of investigation to which I would lead your
thoughts, humbly premising in the outse, that I
have most earnestly desired, that this task might
devolve on some one far abler than myself to
effect its almost impossible execution.
If we examine the globe we inhabit with any
degree of attention, we perceive its mighty surface, diversified with mountain and plain, with
ocean and forest, and teeming with animal and
vegetable life. Its exterior surrounded with an
atmospheric envelope of subtle character, in
which and by which all life is sustained, and 
THE BEING OF GOD.
without which universal death would reign upon
the entire surface of the earth.
We  find our globe accompanied in its ffight
through space by another of smaller dimensions,
and that each is related to the other by bonds
which are never severed. These associated worlds
are in their turn linked to a vast central orb, from
which they derive their light, and heat, and life.
Conjoined with these, and linked to the same
grand center, we behold a great multitude of
orbs, vast in their proportions, diverse in form,
differing in mass, all however obedient to one allpervading law, and all moving, with the most
astonishing harmony, within the regions of space
prescribed by this all-prevalent law. Lifting our
eyes above this mighty scheme of revolving
worlds, we behold the starry Heavens. Each
glittering point is doubtless but a repetition of
the system with which we are specifically allied.
These by aggregations again form grander
schemes, clusterings of suns and systems, peopling the boundless regions of space, ranging in
wonderful and overwhelming prospective, as far
as human vision aided by the most powerful
53. 
54    ASTRONOMIOAL EVIDENOES OF
optic aid can penetrate the deep domain of ether.
Throughout this boundless universe we perceive that the most perfect harmony prevailseach one of the countless myriads of worlds,
moving with swift velocity in its appointed circuit, swaying and being swayed, but ever keeping its appointed orbit, and performing with strict
precision its admirable revolution. There is no
confusion, no jarring of contending worlds, no
collisions of flying orbs to disturb the harmony
of Heaven.
Such is the celestial mechanism, admirable in
its perfection, boundless in its dimensions, overwhelming in its diversity, countless in its myriads
of parts, and yet one mighty unit, for whose
structure and being we are called upon to account.
The human mind has thus far framed but three
hypotheses, to resolve the enigma of this stupendous universe:  1. It has been conceived that the universe is
eternal, without beginning and without end;
passing through cycles of change, but returning
into itself, like the ceaseless revolutions of the
planetary orbs. 
THE BEING OF GOD.
2. A second hypothesis demands the eternity
of matter, and attributes the laws of the universe
and its existent organization to blind fate or
chance, resting its perpetuity on the same uncertain foundation.
3. A third hypothesis ascribes the existent
universe to the creation of an Eternal Mind,
omnipotent, omniscient, filling with his presence
the universe, and upholding all things at every
instant by his Almighty will.
These three hypotheses now demand our carefiil philosophic and unprejudiced examination.
Let no one be startled at the boldness of this
discussion. Truth is mighty and must prevail.
We commence then with the first hypothesis.
It is asserted by some that the universe is eternal, that the same sun which now vivifies the
earth has ever poured upon it its flood of light,
that the same moon which now sways the ocean
tide, has ever circled round the earth, that the
same heavens which now blaze upon the sight,
have ever shone with the same effulgence, and
shall ever shine throughout the ceaseless ages of
eternity. That the generations of earth perish,
55 
ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF
and are reproduced, and have been ever perishing
and being reproduced from all eternity. In the
examination of this hypothesis, there comes to
us but little light from the surrounding orbs of
the universe. It would be difficult to prove that
these silent and mysterious worlds, now sweeping through the trackless regions of space, ever
did commence their wonderful career. We are
rather restricted to an examination of that planet
which we inhabit, and our reasoning with reference to its physical being and constitution, may
by analogy be safely transferred to more distant
worlds. If the hypothesis in question be true,
it must account for every phenomenon of nature.
If it assert that the world is eternal, then it must
in like manner assert, that all upon its surface
is eternal in its series, perishing indeed, but being
reproduced in an endless series. Were it then
possible to penetrate the inmost recesses of the
earth, and to read the history of the ages which
are past, in case any traces remain of what
once was, we might anticipate finding the memorials of generations sweeping backward indefinitely into the womb of time. If the earth
56 
THE BEING OF GOD.
be eternal, then is its physical constitution eternal, its animal and vegetable life eternal in series,
and man in his generations, must in like manner
be  pronounced eternal.   In the  decision of
these fundamental questions, we are not left to
mere conjecture.  It may be asserted that the
planets are eternal, and reason may fail to disprove the bold assertion, but science has read,
with keen and penetrating glance, the past history of the revolutions of the surface of our
globe. Go to the naturalist and the geologist,
and they will unfold to you the rocky leaves of
the earth's primeval history. They will carry
you backward by-slow degrees, through a vast
series of vegetable and animal existence, until a
point is reached, in this grand investigation,
where science plants her foot on the primitive
rock and declares, that here is an existence anterior to every form of animal or vegetable life.
This planet indeed then existed, but on its surface surged a boundless, interminable ocean,
without shore, without life.   Here, then, we
reach a most wonderful era. After the deposition of these primitive rocks, came a series of
3*
57 
58   ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF
phenomena, more startling and stupendous than
even the generation of the orbs of Heaven. Life,
that mystery of mysteries, bursts upon the
universe. It, we know, does not sweep down
upon us from out the mists which shroud in
gloom the  eternity of the  past.   Life is the
offspring of time. In the fullness of time, the
tender plant, the drooping flower, a teeming
vegetation, burst upon the world. These are
not eternal; backward we trace their sources
from age to age remote, until we stand at a point
anterior to all such existence, and pronounce
unhesitatingly, here is the beginning. If this
be true of vegetable life, it is more emphatically
true of animal existence. This too in all its
classes, orders, species, and generations is the
offspring of time. Deeply bound in the solid
rocks of earth, we trace its existence from age
to age, until the series is exhausted and we again
pronounce, here is the beginning; at this point
sentient being first inhaled the breath of life; at
this point the eye first beheld the beauties of
primeval nature, and the appetite first sought to
satisfy its cravings from the luxuriant bosom of 
THE BEING OF GOD.
the mother of all life. Once more we pronounce
positively, that man is the offspring of time.
Individually ephemeral, even in his generations
he can not assert the smallest claim to an eternity past.
A few thousand years of his history and of
that of the race is on record. During this minute
portion of time, we are able to trace with positive
distinctness, the rapid and unequivocal advances
of the race in power, in knowledge, in wisdom.
During this brief period, man's empire over
nature and nature's exhaustless powers and resources, has been advancing with the most rapid
strides. If, then, we are to judge from these
facts, of the origin of our race, if the convergence of two lines determines with certainty
their point of intersection, we are forced to admit
either that the human race is of comparatively
recent origin, or that it is only within the last
few thousand years that we have attained to the
power of advancing in wisdom, and in power.
No, matter, however, where or in what point
we place the beginning of our race, this beginning falls in time, and posterior to every other
59 
60   ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF
form of life which marks the surface of our
globe.
But all life is linked indissolubly with the
physical constitution of the earth. The atmosphere is as much a portion of the planet, as the
solid parts. This atmosphere is the vital fluid
on which all animated nature depends. Sweep
this covering from the earth, and universal death
sways his empire over all things.
Again, life depends on organic condition, and
the productions of earth give life to the myriads
which inhabit her surface. Strike these laws of
vivified production from existence, and all animated nature dies. But life is linked, in like
manner, to the sun. Shut out his beams, the
source of all heat and motion, and life soon languishes; decay, darkness, and death are again
triumphant.
Thus it will be seen that even in the order of
nature, as exhibited in one single dependent
world, it is utterly impossible to assert an eternity of being, or an endless and interminable
succession of events. Man is not eternal, animal life is not eternal, vegetable existence is not 
THEB BEING OF GOD.
eternal. These all had a beginning, and we are
driven from our first hypothesis, and forced to
admit that it does not account for the existent
phenomena of the Physical Universe.
We now reach the consideration of the second
hypothesis. This asserts that the matter of the
Physical Universe is eternal, and that the existent organization, in all its interminable ramifications, of world, and sun, and system, in all its
varieties of life, and being, and organic existence,
is attributable to fate or chance. It is, perhaps,
impossible to demonstrate, or to disprove directly,
the eternity of matter. The mind does seemingly comprehend the idea of the eternity of
space, and were matter unorganized it might be
quite possible to conceive of the eternity of
matter. We shall, therefore, examine in the outset, the last assertion of this hypothesis; that
the existent order of universe being is the offspring of chance, or accident.
We have already asserted that the organization of the universe is exceedingly complex,
although subjected to the action of one universal
law. No one body in space is isolated or inde
61 
62   ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF
pendent. Each and every one is linked to all
others, and a reciprocal influence is exerted
through the boundless regions of space. Even
the subordinate organizations are complex. Take
for example the system of planets and satellites
dependent on our sun. Here is a celestial mechanism of astonishing complexity, yet of admirable
order and beauty. Examine for a moment the
multitude of concurring accidents, required to
produce one such system, and to hold it steady
in all the innumerable configurations of its revolving orbs. We call on accident or chance to
account for the selection of the law of universal
gravitation, of the laws of motion, of the figures
of the planets, of the direction of their motions,
of the courses of their orbits, of their relative
positions, of their relative masses, of their relative distances. We call on chance to adapt the
physical constitution of our globe, to the sustentation of animal and vegetable life. We are
obliged to demand of chance, the structure of
the human frame, and all its multiplied adaptations to the circumstances by which it is surrounded. But this is all demanded in one single 
THE BEING OF GOD.
system. But we rise still higher to the contemplation of double. and multiple suns, and yet
higher to the stable organization of mighty clusters of stars, all brought into being by chance,
and accidentally arranged for an ever-during perpetuity. If those who advocate the doctrine of
chance are governed by its laws, the improbability accumulates on their hands, as we rise
higher and higher, until it amounts almost if not
quite, to an infinite improbability, against this
hypothesis of accident.
In case we apply this doctrine of chance to
the investigation of one of the simplest problems which it is required to resolve, we shall become convinced of its utter incapacity to account
for the complicated phenomena of nature. Let
us admit, for the sake of the argument, that by
chance the orbs of heaven were formed, by
chance they assumed their present figure, by
chance they came to attract each other, according to the inverse square of their distances, by
chance the subordinate planets are hurled into
space, by chance these planets select their
present beautiful orbits, by chance these orbits
63 
64   ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF
are so located as to exclude the possibility of
interference, by chance, in short, all the subordinate organizations are completed around the
innumerable suns, which now, by chance, fill the
capacious domains of space. All this is admitted,
and now we demand of this same chance, to
account for the present distribution of these stars
of heaven. Are the aggregations and configurations now existent the result of accident, or does
mathematical demonstration show them to be
grouped by some power rising superior to accident, and swaying an influence even beyond the
empire of chance?
Even in this narrow, contracted domain of
accident, the profoundest investigations have
banished this imaginary monster being from his
empire, and the demonstration is clear and positive, that even in comparatively simple aggregations of stars, these groupings can not be the
effect of accident, but must be the result of
some superior overruling law or power. The
universe is not, then, an accidental arrangement
of matter. Reason forbids the adoption of such
an hypothesis in the face of millions of chances 
THE BEING OF GOD.
to one against the possibility of such an organization even in one of its humblest departments.
There seems, therefore, but one remaining hypothesis for examination. If the mind can not
reach to certainty, can not find a resting-place
in the belief of an eternal, an omniscient Creator, it is vain to hope that there ever can be
found a solid resting-place for the doubts which
toss the human mind to and fro on a stormy
sea of speculation.
To this last hypothesis, then, we gladly invite
your attention-the most sublime, the most comprehensive, the most dignified and far-reaching
of the three. By it we are lifted out of the
domain of darkness, from the dominion of fatality, and, in case it can be demonstrated; our feet
are set upon an eternal rock. What, then, does
this third hypothesis affirm? It affirms that the
existent universe, in. all its diversified and multitudinous parts, is an effect dependent upon,
and deriving its being from, a great first cause.
That this cause is eternal, preexistent, sentient,
and omnipotent, competent to call into being the
universe of matter, to endow this created matter
65 
66    ASTRONOMIOAL EVIDENCES OF
with certain qualities and properties, to select
with wisdom from among an infinity of laws
those alone adequate to the government of a
universe, with power to enforce eternally the
administration of these laws over the organisms
either derived from the operation of these laws,
or dependent for existence upon their pervading influence. In short, this hypothesis asserts
that this primeval cause is an infinite and eternal
order-loving, ever-active God.   Such, then, is
the amazing proposition we are called upon to
discuss; and may that Power, to the recognition
of whose existence our feeble reasonings have
led us, give to us the strength to lift your minds,
in like manner, upward through Nature to Nature's God!
Let us, then, if it be possible, permit our
imaginations to wander backward through the
silent ages of the past, until we reach an epoch
so remote that we stand in the midst of untenanted space. The wide universe is nothing but
unbounded, limitless vacuity.   There is room
for a universe, but as yet no particle of the
myriads which are to people space have any ex 
THE BEING OF GOD.
istence. And now conceive, if you can, of the
generation of the first particle of matter; there
it is in the midst of darkness unfathomable, sur rounded  by boundless  vacuity.   Left to itself
what is to become of this solitary particle?
Shall it remain forever fixed, immoveable in the
same absolute point of space?   Shall it move
when there is no motion?   Shall it sink when
there  is neither height. nor depth?   Whither
shall it go?  Or left to itself, what mind can
conceive the destiny of this primeval atom of
infinity? Here it would seem that in the very
outset, in the very birth of matter, mind is imperiously demanded to endue matter with the
attributes of existence. Look at this inert, lifeless, senseless, motionless particle of matter; surround it by myriads on myriads as dull and insensate as itself, and how utterly inconsistent is
it,. with all the attributes of reason, to conceive
that such a mass can of itself give to itself qualities and properties; select for itself laws of
organization and being; construct itself into complex schemes, and flying worlds, and wondrous
systems; fill these worlds with life, and light,
67 
68    ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF
and beauty; and above all, people them with
intelligences, capable of penetrating the profound
mysteries of the universe, and of scanning the
most complex organisms which fill the regions
of space. We are forced away from such an
absurdity: against it reason rebels. Matter, then,
has no power. In vain do we seek within it for
the secret of its existence.   To  the inquiry,
Whence come its attributes? it yields no response, because it has no response to yield.
But grant, if you please, its chaotic existencescatter it profusely, as far as thought can penetrate the deep profounds-leave it without the
sustaining hand of Omnific power,-and no
thought can fathom the future of a universe thus
filled. If there be powers of segregation and
aggregation among the existent particles (an
impossible supposition), then why may not these
particles, fitted for the organization of man, flying from the four quarters of the universe, seek
each other, build up the solid bones, knit the
tough muscle, inflate with life's purple current
the vein and artery, mould into symmetry the
wondrous form, and fashion man in the very 
THE BEING OF GOD.
womb of chaos wild, in the midst of darkness
profound, surrounded by forms wilder than
imagination has ever pictured?  The mind revolts from such a supposition, and exclaims,
Strike from existence this insensate matter,
these germs of Being, or place them under the
controlling power of wisdom supreme.
In vain, then, do we seek any organization,
however defective, without a God. We wander
in darkness infinite; not a beam of light illumines the gloom of eternal night. The mind
labors and struggles to rise, but plumes its wing
in vain, and beats vacuity as it struggles downward to a still darker deep. These, then, are
some of the negative evidences of the Being of
God.
Let us now examine more closely the existent
celestial mechanism, and from it learn its positive teachings on this most important subject.
If supreme intelligence have superintended the
organization of the universe, then will the evidences of this august power be stamped on every
part and portion of the celestial organisms. Even
here on earth, within the range of the dominion
69 
70   ASTRONOMIOAL EVIDENCES OF
governed by the intelligence of the human mind
how infallibly do we pass from the effect to thecause, from the thing fashioned to the framer
from the design to the higher intelligence which
planned and executed the design. Who hak
ever stood within the portals of the lofty St.
Peter's, that majestic temple of the living God;
and gazed upon its vast proportions, its mighty
columns, its interminable arches, its viewless
dome, rising grand, majestic, and overwhelming;
who I say has gazed upon those wonders of art,
without reverting to the god-like mind that conceived this stupendous fabric, and fashioned its
vast proportions in beauty and in strength?
Mind is there radiant in every form, pervading
every curve of beauty, beaming from every shape
of strength and perpetuity. If in this earthly
structure, this beautiful atom on the broad bosom
of our mother earth, we discern that which
bespeaks the immortality of mind, what doth the
solid earth itself declare,-radiant with power and
beauty, teeming with life, and not life's images, verdant with beauty, diversified with everyvariety of
grandeur, rolling ever on its firm axle) irradiated 
THE BEING OF GOD.
with a flood of splendor and alternately canopied
with jeweled glories, sweeping onward freighted
with its nine hundred millions of intelligent
beings, its myriads of sentient creatures, circling
for ever in its appointed path. Spring-time and
harvest, summer and winter do never fail. There
is bread for the eater, and seed for the sower.
Poise yourself in empty space and behold this
revolving world, with its rocks and mountains,
its forests and oceans, its life and energy sweeping by you, swiftly revolving, and swiftly flying,
growing, swelling, expanding, as it approaches,
till as it flashes by you, the imagination is overwhelmed with the amazing grandeur!
Is there here no evidence of mind? whose
hand fashioned this stupendous globe, and filled
its mighty cavities with the heaving deep? who
painted with glowing tints its limitless expanse;
warmed, and vivified, and fructified its teeming
bosom; filled its surface with life and energy,
with hope, and love, and happiness; launched it
flaming through the abyss of space, firm fixed in
its appointed course as though linked by chains
of adamant, never, never to be moved? The
71 
72   ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF
swelling mind answers, "It is God, it is God
alone!"
But this is mere external examination. Let
us penetrate still deeper into the arcana of this
wonderful exhibition, and mark the admirable
adaptation of all its parts. Living, sentient
intelligence, seems to be the grand aim of the
mighty architect;-the sustentation of man, the
monarch of creation. For him the earth teems
with fruit and flower, with the rich harvest and
the golden grain. For him the fresh fountains
leap from the solid rock, and the cattle feed on
a thousand hills. To lull him to repose the solid
earth turns away from the too brilliant sun, and
the gentle stars light the nocturnal sky. To wake
him to vigor, the morning dawnus and the light
of day, tempered by a provision of admirable
efficiency, swells gently into brighter and still
brighter effulgence, until the full-orbed sun bursts
in splendor upon the world.
How and by what. wonderful contrivance are
all these results accomplished? The life of man
is dependent on the purity of the wonderful envelope which surrounds the earth. Sweep away 
THE BEING OF GOD.
this gauzy atmosphere and he dies, and with him
all life becomes extinct. Even permit this atmosphere to stagnate, and pestilence fills the
earth. But how shall this gaseous ocean be
heaved from its mighty depths? who shall fan the
breeze, or stir the wind, or rouse the sweeping
tornado? Look at yonder distant fiery globe,
ninety-five millions of miles removed from our
earth, and who would suppose that from this
distant orb, comes the mysterious power by
which this mighty aerial ocean, the breath of
life to man, to animal, and to vegetable, is stirred
to its profoundest depths, and its purification
wrought out by laws and influences of the most
intricate character.
And yet the sun is "the prince of the power
of the air." By his heat operating through the
laws of expansion and contraction, mobility
becomes the attribute of every atmospheric particle -change,  circulation, ceaseless  motion,
sometimes revealing itself in the gentle zephyr
that plays with the drooping floweret, and anon
mightily, in the fierce tempest which wrestles
with the gnarled oak.
4
73
0 
74    ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF
Not only is the remote but powerful sun th,
" prince of the power of the air," but from hi
bosom emanates that yet more mysterious influ
ence which heaves up from the broad ocean thos
vast vaporous masses, which, swiftly borne on th
chariot of the bird, sweep over the surface of
the earth, distilling in gentle dews, or bursting
forth in the fierce deluge.
Here, then, are most astonishing adaptation.
-the sun, the earth, the ocean, the atmosphere
the laws of heat, of motion, of expansion, o
evaporation, of condensation-all combining ti
work out the most beneficent influences for man
the sole recipient of the blessings which flofrom the harmonious on-going of this complex
but never-failing mechanism. Wonderful con
trivance! by whose power and influence th.
earth teems with the rich harvest and th:
ripened corn invites the sickle of the reaper
To perfect all this astonishing development, a!
adequate supply of moisture is demanded, a,
adequate supply of light is demanded, an adc
quate supply  of heat is demanded;  certai,
qualities of soil are demanded, and above all, th; 
THE BEING OF GOD.
fecundity of nature is demanded. Whence do
all these come?  Whence these admirable means
to an end? The power of human genius may
collect together the material from the four quarters of the earth, and compound a fruitful soil,
the same genius may supply the required irriga,
tion, but what stretch of human power, can
supply the needed heat, or bid the dead seed
burst into life?
A further examination shows the nicest and
most  astonishing adjustments.   In  case  the
annual supply of heat were increased or diminished by even a single degree, the most disastrous consequences would follow. An increase
or decrease of thrice this quantity would destroy
every form of life, which now fills the earth.
That this annual supply may be constant, look at
the wonderful complexity of contrivance. The
great center, the mighty reservoir of light and
heat, is made exhaustless; pouring for ever
from its bosom a flood of light and heat, borne
in the most inscrutable manner athwart the
regions of space, with a velocity overwhelming.
Thousands of years has the light blazed, and
7,-5 
76   ASTRONOMIOAL EVIDENCES OF
splendor undimmed; and the heat flasher
with power undiminished.  The  source,  then
is constant, though ever exhausting.   But thiis not the only requisite.   The earth, the recipi
ent of these beams of heat and light, must turr
its various faces to the source of life-and her(
another wonder breaks upon us. This solic
globe, with a diameter of 8000 miles, with unr.
changed continuity of motion, is ever turning o0its well-poised axle. The conditions of perfec
tion require an absolute uniformity in the motion
of rotation. Any thing short of this woul(
derange the economy of nature, and mar  th,
perfection of the plan. Amid the conflictin'
causes tending to destroy or derange the uni
formity of rotation, an admirable equilibrium i;
evolved, and so long as time shall endure, da)
and night shall not fail in their season.  In thi.
particular the earth is freed from the effects ot
all external power, subjected alone to the actioof that primitive impulse which set it spinninon its never changing axle.
While uniformity of rotation is an essentielement; the equal and perfect distribution ot 
THE BEING OF GOD.
light and heat, it is not the only one: a still
more complex and difficult guarantee is required.
The earth, in its orbitual movement around the
sun, must cling to the primitive figure of its
annual orbit. Slight changes are indeed admissible, but the limits are narrow, and the wonder
is how may change exist at all without derangement fatal to the complex scheme. Here we
find a multitude of disturbing forces. The moon,
powerful by her proximity, sways the solid earth:
the interior planets, Mercury and Venus, in like
manner exert their influence: the larger planets,
Jupiter and Saturn, claim their share in this
perpetual struggle; the smaller planets, the remote satellites, even the shadowy comets assert
their power, and the earth is dragged by contending forces in every possible direction. Yet
are all these contending powers so admirably
equipoised, the one against the other, that this
mighty globe flies through space, acknowledging
in her every movement the effects of all these
differing causes, yet ever linked to her orbit,
slowly changing, but never changed.
Thus do we see how wonderfully the various
77 
78    ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENOES OF
parts of this diversified scheme are knit togethel
Not a blade of grass, or a delicate flower shoot.
into life, that is not dependent on the entir
organization of the vast scheme of planetar
worlds, which sweep  in concord around thei
common center.   Does not all this perfection o
plan, infinitely ramified and diversified, beautifi
perfect, admirable, ever perpetuated, not a lin
(however small) wanting in the infinite net-work
spreading through every kingdom of naturrising to embrace the sun itself and its attendani
planets,-does not all this mighty display of con
trivance demonstrate with irresistible power th
being of a God?
If we lift our thoughts above our earth an,
survey the various worlds which revolve abort
our sun, the same evidence of design meets n
at every point. Our earth is one of the humr.
blest of all the planets. If we visit the might
system of Jupiter, such is the vastness of it:
celestial architecture that all we have left behin,
appears trivial and insignificant. If we go ye
farther, and survey the still more amazing sy.
tern of Saturn, with its retinue of attendin 
THIE BEING OF GOD.
aoons, and its girdle of enigmatical rings of
light, we find displays of power and wisdom so
resistless, that if all other worlds were stricken
from existence, enough would here remain to
demonstrate the being of a God. But these are
not separate existences. They are not quiescent
orbs fixed on some unimaginable foundation in
space. They are all indissolubly united, and all
flying through space. Whence, then, come the
wonderful laws of their reciprocal influence, and
whence the laws which curb their high career?
These laws of reciprocal action and of motion
are the only ones, under whose dominion the
planetary scheme could exist. Relax for a single
moment the continuity of their power, and chaos
instantly engulfs the fair fabric of creation.
Relax only the power of gravitation and every
planet shoots madly from its orbit; augment
ever so slightly its power, the equilibrium is
destroyed, and world after world sinks into the
sun. If in the revolution of countless ages, all
possible laws have by chance held their sway,
and the present laws have been upturned in the
long range of possibilities. then we demand how
79 
80   ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF
comes it that they endure? Why do they not
give place to other schemes in their turn? This
we know is not the fact. For more than three
thousand years in the past history of our system, there has been no shadow of change in these
mighty laws of nature, -unyielding in themselves, steadily have they wrought out their
legitimate results. Now what are these laws?
Are they attributes of inert matter? This is
impossible. Go to the chemist, bid him apply
the most powerful tests, the most subtle analysis, and exhaust his powers of research, and
then let him answer if he have found the essence
of gravitation. In vain do we seek for these
alternates: we are forced again to take refuge in
our great hypothesis, and to declare that these
so called laws of nature are but the uniform expression of the will of an ever-living God.
The uniformity and perpetuity of these laws
alone furnish the opportunity for human intelligence to rise through their examination, in their
multitudinous effects, upward to the great source
of all law. Were their action capricious or uncertain, no power of genius could have reached 
THE BEING OF GOD.
to a knowledge of their existence, and darkness
would have ever shrouded the human mind.
If we extend our researches beyond the limits
of the solar system, and, passing across the
mighty gulf which separates us from the starry
heavens, inspect minutely the organizations
which are there displayed, we find the dominion
of these same laws extending to these remote
regions, and holding an imperious sway over revolving suns. Thus we perceive, that in one most
important particular, the objects which compose
the mighty universe are obviously. alike, and
seem to have sprung, from a common origin. We
are, moreover, compelled to admit a sun in every
visible star; and if a sun, then attendant planets; and if revolving planets, then, likewise,
some scheme of sentient existence, possibly remotely analogous to that which is displayed with
such wonderful minuteness in our globe. Thus
if the being of a God can be argued from the
admirable adaptations which surround man in
this nether world, every star that glitters in the
vast concave of heaven proclaims, with equal
power, this mighty truth. If we rise still higher,
4*
81 
82   ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF
and from the contemplation of individual stars,
examine their distribution, their clusterings, their
aggregations into immense systems, the fact of
their mutual influences, their restless and eternal
activity, their amazing periods of revolution,
their countless millions, and their ever-during
organizations, the mind, whelmed with the display of grandeur, exclaims involuntarily, "This
is the empire of a God!"
And now, how is the knowledge of this vast
surrounding universe revealed to the mind of
man?  Here is, perhaps, the crowning wonder.
Through the agency of light, a subtle, intangible,
imponderable something, originating, apparently,
in the stars and suns, darting with incredible
velocity from one quarter of the universe to the
other, whether in absolute particles of matter
shot off from luminous bodies, or by traces of an
ethereal fluid, who shall tell? This incomprehensible fluid falls upon an instrument of most
insignificant dimensions, yet of most wonderful
construction, the human eye, and, lo! to the
mind what wonders start into being. Pictures
of the most extravagant beauty cover the earth; 
THE BEING OF GOD.
clouds dipped in the hues of heaven fill the atmosphere; the sun, the moon, the planets, come
up from out of the deeps of space, and far more
amazing still, the distant orbs of heaven, in their
relative magnitudes, distances and motions, are
revealed to the bewildered mind. We have only
to proceed one step further, and bringing to the
aid of the human eye, the auxiliary power of the
optic glass, the mind is brought into physical
association with objects which inhabit the confines of penetrable space. We take cognizance
of objects so remote, that even the flashing element of light itself, by which they are revealed,
flies on its errand ten times ten thousand years
to accomplish its stupendous journey.
Strike the human eye from existence, and at
a single blow, the sun is blotted out, the planets
fade, the heavens are covered with the blackness
of darkness, the vast universe shrinks to a narrow compass bounded by the sense of touch
alone.
Such, then, is the organization of the universe,
and such the means by which we are permitted
to take cognizance of its existence and pheno
83 
84    ASTRONOMIOAL EVIDENCES.
mena.   If the feeble mind of man has achieved
victories in the natural world-if his puny structures, which have survived the attacks of a few
thousand years, proclaim the superiority of the
intelligence of his mind to insensate matter-if
the contemplation of the works of art and the
triumphs of human genius, swells us into admiration at the power of this invisible spirit that
dwells in mortal form, —what shall be the emotions excited, the ideas inspired, by the contemplation of the boundless universe of God? 
LECTURE II.
THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE IS JEHOVAIL  
LECTURE II.
THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE IS JEHOVAH.
THE sacred Scriptures teach us, in the most
unequivocal language, the unity of God, the majesty and grandeur of his kingdom.   Jehovah
inhabiteth eternity, and filleth immensity by his
presence. By his word the worlds were made,
and by his power he upholdeth all things.
Omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, he is "God
over all, blessed for ever."
Such is the language of revelation,-such the
truths taught by our sacred volume. If these
are the declarations of God himself-and the
same Almighty Being has built the physical
universe-the revelations of science must accord
with those of Scripture, and we shall find the
attributes of God stamped in characters indelible
on the workmanship of his hands.
Does the material universe declare the unity
of God?   Is the domain of nature divided or 
88     THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
divisible? Is there evidence, in the building of
the mighty fabric of the universe, that it has
been planned and executed by one mind and by
one hand?
The development of our knowledge of the
material heavens, has been progressive from century to century. The deeper the human mind
has penetrated into the arcana of nature, the
more positive does the evidence become, with
reference to its origin and government. In the
primitive ages of the world, while yet the light
of science had scarcely dawned upon the human
intellect, when the heavens were a maze of wonder, and their golden hieroglyphs a mystery and
a marvel, human genius could not have risen
through this unknown empire, up to the knowledge of the attributes of God.   Whatever - deductions we may now reach in our researches,
no one will venture for one moment to assert
that the sacred writers, by the same means,
reached to their notions of the being and attributes of God.
If we examine the system which surrounds
the sun, we find a multitude of worlds, possess 
IS JEHOVAH.
ing general characteristics. They are generally
globular, they are in motion, they describe orbits
of specific forms allied to each other, they are
all powerfully influenced by the sun, and they
materially affect each other. The matter, then,
which constitutes these worlds and the sun
itself, seems to be identical in one of its great
characteristics. When the capacious intellect of
Newton reached the grand conclusion, that one
law swayed its dominion over planet, and satellite, and comet,-when he demonstrated that the
most solid and the most evanescent bodies were
obedient to the great principle of attraction,-by
a generalization as sublime as it was daring, he
rose to the declaration, that every particle of
matter in the universe attracted every other particle, by a power which diminished as the square
of the distances between the particles increased.
Here, then, is a statement which, if it be true,
demonstrates, in the most positive manner, that
the matter of which the worlds are built is identical in character. But again, the laws which
govern moving bodies on earth are extended to
those which inhabit space; and when the watch
89 
90    THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
ings of a thousand years had revealed the uni versality of the application of these laws to the
worlds which constitute the cortege of the sun,
the same bold generalization carried these same
laws to the fixed stars, and attempted to fasten
their dominion on every particle of matter. It
will be seen at once that these mighty propositions are far from being self-evident.   Their
demonstration is the reward of long centuries of
ardent, and earnest, and patient investigation.
These laws were first fastened on the moon; next
the planets, slowly, and one by one, in their
near proximity to the sun, and, also, in their
vast orbits deep buried in space, yielded to the
empire of these potent laws; and, finally, the
mysterious comet, aerial, chaotic, capricious in
its eccentric career, was demonstrated to yield to
the same potent sway.
This was, doubtless, a grand achievement thus
to prove, that in one great scheme of associated
worlds there was unity of design, unity in mat.
ter, and unity in law. But this system, vast as
it is, embracing within its domain a sweep of no
less than ten thousand millions of miles, is but 
IS JEHOVAH.
an infinitesimal portion of the universe of God.
Is it possible to reach to the starry heavens,
passing the gulf of space which separates us
from these far-distant worlds, and fasten the
same laws which rule in our system, upon the
myriads of orbs which crowd the domain of space?
It is only within a few years that this great
achievement has been accomplished.   Among
the stars some have been found in such near
proximity, that their true character is only revealed by the most powerful telescopes. While
to the unaided eye, and, indeed, in inferior instruments, they appear as single stars, a higher
power discovers them to consist of two individual
objects, in such close proximity of position, that
their mingled rays are only to be divided by the
most potent optical aid.
These objects, within the last half century,
have attracted the attention of eminent philosophers, and the most astonishing phenomena
have been revealed. These double suns have
been seen to move-they are known to revolve;
and the laws of their motion and revolution are
identical with those which govern the planetary
91 
92    THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
orbs which sweep round the sun. There is no
deception here. Their orbits have been computed, their periods and places predicted on the
hypothesis that the laws of motion and gravitation extended their empire over these starry
worlds, and in every particular have these bold
predictions been verified. How deeply, then, has
science penetrated the dominion of these laws of
nature!  The distance is not to be measured by
the unit employed in the survey of the sun's
domain. In one instance, in which science has
figured the orbits, prophesied the periods, weighed
the masses, measured the distance of two associated suns, their distance from earth is such
that their light, flying at the rate of twelve
millions of miles in each minute, reaches us only
after a journey of ten years. This is not a solitary instance. Many of a like character have
been thoroughly investigated, and with like
results.
We may affirm, then, with safety and certainty, that the countless millions of orbs which
constitute the universe, are all fashioned from
the same material, and are all in subjection to the 
IS JEHOVAH..
dominion of the laws of motion and gravitation. As the scheme is one, as the matter is
one, as the laws are the same, so one mind hath
conceived the infinite plan, and one hand hath
wrought out the magnificence of creation.
But the- Scriptures disclose the Omnipotence,
of God; he hath created all things by his wisdom, and by the might of his power. To the
mind which fully comprehends the structure of
the heavens, the power of the Almighty architect is most signally displayed: a superficial
examination may not thus impress us. We wit.
ness from month to month the revolution of the
moon about the earth, and from year to year
their conjoined revolution about the sun; we
trace the planets in their harmonious career; all
is so simple, so beautiful, that the idea of the
display of vast power does not at first come
down upon the mind.
But let us for one moment contemplate, at
nearer distance, these ponderous orbs.  Examine,
if you please our own earth, one of the smallest
of them, and you find a solid globe of 8000
miles in diameter, possessing a weight so enor
93 
94     THE GOD OF THE IUNIVERSE
mous, that any and all the structures of men
upon its surface, sink to utter insignificance in
the comparison, and weigh as the small dust of
the balance. And yet, go to the Pyramids of
Egypt, and contemplate those heavy relics of
antiquity: how do their vast proportions, the
solid rocks which constitute their mass, elevate our ideas of the power which reared these
huge fabrics. But these are stationary. Could
they be hurled with swift velocity, from their
solid bases, by some mighty catapult, into space,
never again to revisit the earth, our ideas of the
power requisite to such a phenomenon would be
greatly enlarged. Man, by superior wisdom, and
by the exercise of that intellect which God has
given, has gained a certain mastery over the
potent forces of nature; hence, we witness with
amazement, the fiery trains, which, with incredible velocity, fly upon the iron ways built for
their appointed tracks. What stupendous power
is developed in this fiery car of earth! We involuntarily shrink from its approach, and tremble
as it dashes by us, flying with a speed of sixty
miles in a single hour of time. But what are 
I8 JEHOvAH 
these atoms compared with the solid earth itself,
and what the display of power here, when compared with that which launched this mighty
globe, with its continents and oceans, into space,
and hath dashed it with a velocity such that its
hourly journey is sixty-eight thousand miles?
Or look yet higher to God's fiery car, the sun,
linked to a thousand revolving worlds! onward
its mighty mass, a million of miles in diameter,
sweeps through space, bearing with it its retinue
of flaming worlds.
God's mighty arm bath projected these stupendous orbs, and his omnipotent power alone
hath impressed upon them their amazing velocity.
It is not possible to escape from this conclusion,
by arguing the laws of motion and attraction.
These are but the modes in which God exercises
his power, they are not the power itself. Let
some gigantic arm reach out and attempt to arrest
the moon; were the trial possible, were the power
of every human arm concentrated into one, even
the power of the thousands of generations which
have peopled the earth, even this combined and
concentrated power could not check this puny
95 
THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
orb of heaven for one single moment in its swift
career.
Again, what mighty force restrains the planets
in their orbits? There is no one who is not
familiar with the force developed in all revolving
bodies. If a globe be attached to one extremity
of a cord, while the other is retained in the hand,
the moment the globe is set revolving it commences a struggle to break the cord, and free
itself from the restraining hand. As the velocity
of revolution increases, so does this developed
tendency to fly from the center increase. If,
then, a planet were located in space, at its appropriate distance from the sun, and receive an impulse capable of impressing on it the velocity
due to its orbit, unrestrained by any central
power, it would fly from its orbit and dart onward for ever through space in a direct line,
never turning to the right hand or the left.
What tremendous power, then, is necessary to bind
these mighty worlds into their circling orbits!
It is again useless to say that this is accomplished by the power of the sun. Matter is inert,
it can have no power save what God shall give.
96 
IS JEHOVAH.
As well might we declare that it is the power of
the bone and muscle of the brawny arm of the
smith, that wields the ponderous sledge. Sever
that same powerful arm from the body, the form
is retained, the muscle and bone are there, but
mind, the animating principle, is gone, and at the
instant of its departure all power is dead. So
sever the sun from the will of God, and in that
vast aggregation of matter all power dies, its
light fades, and the planets, loosed from God's
controlling power, fly madly through the abyss
of space.
Nothing short of Omnipotence can hold these
flying worlds. These are, however, but the
merest atoms of creation; all their combined
masses flung into the sun would scarcely augment
his bulk by an appreciable quantity; and yet this
mighty mass, the sun itself, is no more quiescent
than its attending satellites. It, too, is flying
through space, impelled and guided by the same
Omnipotent hand. Stretching yet farther into
creation, we behold an amazing scene. Not a
solitary star that fills the concave is at rest; all,
all, from the blazing Sirius to the faintest particle
5
97 
98    THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
of star-dust revealed by telescopic art, are
careering onward through immensity. System
rising above sytem; cluster above cluster; universe above universe; moving with majestic
grandeur; all held by the right hand of God
omnipotent. " He ruleth in the armies of heaven,
and among the inhabitants of the earth."
It is, perhaps, less difficult to affirm the
almighty power of the Architect of the Universe,
than to demonstrate that in wisdom supreme has
he reared this stupendous fabric. The mind is
far more easily and obviously impressed with the
evidences of power than of wisdom. Just as
the resistless power of the steam-car forces it,elf
upon our minds through the senses, while the
evidence of the wisdom displayed in its complex
structure, can only be derived from the steady
application of the higher faculties of the mind;
so a superficial examination of God's universe,
demonstrates, through the senses, his eternal
power, while nothing short of a comprehension
of the celestial mechanism, can reveal the wisdom supreme displayed in its organization and
arrangement. 
IS JEHOVAHI.
Nothing short of a knowledge of the true sys tein of the universe, can demonstrate the wisdom
of God. There was a time when the human
mind, vain of its penetration, conceived it had
reached the true rendering of heaven's high
record. Cycle and epi-cycle, equant and deferent,
marked with terrible and cumbrous complexity,
the movements of the celestial orbs, until even
mortal genius rebelled, and boldly (if not blasphemously) asserted, that if this were an evidence of the wisdom of God, his mind could have
better counseled this imagined omniscience.
Since, however, we have reached to a true
knowledge of the celestial architecture, the mind,
the deeper it penetrates, is the more powerfully
impressed with the wisdom, vast, comprehensive,
infinite, eternal, in which and through which the
worlds were made.
Let us again call to mind the organization of our
solar system. In the center is located the controlling orb. At varying distances from this cornm
mon center, a multitude of worlds are revolving
in reentering curves until the most remote includes in its capacious orbit, an area whose
e. *..
99 
100    THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
diameter is 60,000 millions of miles.  These
globes are to be so arranged, that while each
one is subjected to the influence of every other,
yet their pathways shall neyer suffer a change
beyond narrow and prescribed limits. Their
orbits shall ever expand and contract, their
velocities shall ever increase and diminish, the
planes of their motion shall ever rock to and fro;
but at no period in the ages which are to come,
shall any change so accumulate as to affect the
equilibrium of this complicated system. If about
the sun it were required to launch a single planet,
it might not be difficult to determine the direc       tion and power of the primitive impulse, required
to produce a determinate result. Indeed, release
the planets and their satellites from the disturb       ing influences of each other, and it would not
then be impossible to achieve the resolution of the
problem of a perfect and everlasting equilibrium.
But this is not the condition of the problem in
nature. There is but one God, so there is but
one kind of matter. If the will of God energize
the material of the sun, so does it equally ener       gize the material of every planet. While to
...., 
IS JEHOVAH.
finite minds complexity reigns, to the infinite
intelligence, the oneness of matter, the unity of
law, form the essence and perfection of simplicity.
Let us proceed, then, in the examination of
this sublime problem. Let a power be delegated
to a finite spirit, equal to the projection of the
most ponderous planet in its orbit, and from
God's exhaustless magazine, let this spirit select
his grand central orb. Let him with puissant
arm locate it in space, and obedient to his mandate, there let it remain for ever fixed. He
proceeds to select his planetary globes which he
is now required to marshal, in their appropriate
order of distance from the sun. Heed well this
distribution, for should a single globe be misplaced, the divine harmony is destroyed for ever.
Let us admit that finite intelligence may at
length determine the order of combination; the
mighty host is arrayed in order. Nearest the
center is located the brilliant Mercury, and then
the orb of Venus. Next stands this terrene
globe, and beyond, the fiery Mars, and then a
wondrous group of minute worlds, far within the
circling orb of Jupiter is placed. Beyond Jupi.
9
101 
102   THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
ter stands Saturn with his rings; still more rc
mote is seen Uranus, and farthest of all Neptun.
stands sentinel on the outposts of this gran(
array. In one vast line of continuity, these
worlds like fiery coursers, stand waiting th(
command to fly.  But, mighty spirit, heed wel
the next grand step; ponder well the directior
in which thou wilt launch each waiting world
weigh well the mighty impulse soon to be given
for out of the myriads of directions, and the
myriads of varying impulsive forces, there comes
but a single combination that will secure thc
perpetuity of your complex scheme. In vain
does the bewildered finite spirit attempt to
fathom this mighty depth. In vain does it seek
to resolve the stupendous problem. It turns
away, and while endued with omnipotent power,
exclaims, "Give to me infinite wisdom, or relieve
me from the impossible task!"
Here we have presented the simplest possible
problem. Add to the earth its moon, to Jupiter
his four satelites; to Saturn its wondrous rings,
and eight revolving worlds; complicate the problem with ten thousand fiery comets; God has 
IS JEHOVAH.
computed the perturbations of this complex systeLl, through all its infinite configurations; through
infinite ages which are past, and through endless
ages which are to come. It is useless to rise
to schemes of yet greater difficulty, for we must
be satisfied, that nothing short of omniscience
could have constructed a system so involved, so
complex, and yet so perfect, in all its multitudinous parts.
And yet how utterly insignificant does this
appear, when compared with the marshaling of
the mighty host of heaven. Look up to that
wondrous zone, begirt with blazing stars, scattered by millions throughout its populous domain.
Here is a combination so vast, so profound, so
multitudinous, that imagination fails to grasp its
mighty boundaries, and yet all is in motion.
Each one of these myriads has its appointed
track; the wisdom of God hath looked through
the wondrous maze from the beginning, and lo!
even to the final period of all things, perfection
reigns.
We rise to a third attribute of Jehovah, declared in the sacred writings. God is unchanye
103 
104    THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
able, "the same yesterday, to day, and for ever."
If this be the teaching of revelation, it is no less
the teaching of science. But for this, man could
never have risen beyond the sphere of mute
wonder. It is the fact that God is unchangeable, the same yesterday, to day, and for ever,
that gives to the human mind the power to rise
upward, through the works of nature, to the
source of all power and, truth. It would not
have been more difficult for the infinite Creator,
to have governed the universe, to have upheld
its worlds, to have sustained the mechanism of
matter, and the existence of life, without regard
to any order, or without the dominion of any
specific laws.
We do not sufficiently consider this important
truth. I have elsewhere attempted to demonstrate, that the present construction of the universe, is specifically adapted to the education and
elevation of the human intellect. To accomplish
this the phenomena of nature must be governed
by fixed laws, otherwise the possibility of predicting them could never exist. The will of the
Almighty is then manifested according to modes 
IS JEHOVAH.
which change not. Look for example, at the
admirable uniformity of the rotation of our earth
on its axis; look at the beautiful precision which
marks the revolution of the planetary orbs:
while there is variation infinite, there is never
for one moment a relaxation of any of the supreme
laws,. according to which God has chosen to
manifest his being and presence. In every atom
hc reigns supreme. Let man attempt to imitate
this attribute of the Deity; let him apply his
power to give uniformity to the rotation of the
simplest machine, how soon does he discover,
that his  own will, though never so carefully
guarded, is ever varying, his efforts are ever relaxing or augmenting, and he soon yields in utter
despair, at attaining uniform results even for a
single hour.   But  the will of the  Supreme,
moves the universe, while no stretch of scientific.
research has ever yet detected the slightest
variation or shadow of turning,-ever perfect,
ever divine.
In tracing the relative positions of the sun,
moon, and earth, we have been able to penetrate
the past, backward three thousand years. Their
5*
105 
106    THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
relative movements hive been scanned, the
earth's rotation on its axis, the moon's revolution in its orbit, the earth's annual circuit about
the sun. These are so linked together, that any
change ever so minute, is within the grasp of
the powers of science.
In one instance, indeed, it seemed that the
law by which the power of God is ordinarily displayed, must be modified in those remote ages
of the world. The moon seemed to be slowly
breaking away from its orbit.   There was an
evident augmentation of her mean velocity, from
century to century, and her present position
appeared to be at least three times her own
diameter in advance of her computed place. The
cause of this startling phenomenon was long and
earnestly sought. Was it indeed true, that one
of the elements of equilibrium was slowly wasting away? Should this be demonstrated, what
terrible consequences did it involve? Nothing
short of the final decay and death of the entire
system; slowly, indeed, but surely, one by one,
the planets must sink into the blazing sun, and
the space which once flashed with their living 
IS JEHOVAH.
light must become once again, the domain of
darkness and of death.
But faith sustained the research. As God
can not change, so the laws of his manifestation
are, in like manner, immutable: this apparent
deviation was finally traced to its origin, and
revealed one of the most astonishing phenomena
in the universe of God.
The moon's acceleration was found to be due
to a gradual change in the figure of the earth's
orbit, accomplished in a vast period of thousands
and thousands of years, by the combined influence of all the planets. It is now, and has been,
expanding for thousands of years, and will so
continue to expand, until its figure shall become
circular, when the same power will reverse its
action, and the circular is again slowly reduced
to the elliptical orbit. So long as the circuit of
the earth's orbit is on the increase, so long will
the moon's mean motion be accelerated; but
when this shall have reached its limit, and contraction begins, then will the moon's motion lose,
by slow degrees, the velocity it had gained, and
107 
108   THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
once more, at the close of some millions of years,
return to its primitive condition.
This is not a solitary example of these wondrous exhibitions of the invariability of the
manifestations of God's power. Not an element,
in all the planetary orbits, is absolutely fixed,all is changing, yet ever in accordance with
God's great law. The source of power is eternal,
the law of its manifestation everlasting, and the
decree has gone forth throughout the universe:
Thus far shall your mighty fluctuations go, but
no farther; the limits of vibration are fixed and
immutable as the pillars of heaven.
We now proceed to the consideration of the
ubiquity of God. "He filleth immensity by his
presence," is the declaration of the sacred volume.
How grand the idea, how sublime the conception!  Could unaided, uninspired mind have
risen to so wonderful a thought?
If we have been successful in presenting conclusive evidence of the being of a God; if this
supreme intelligence is indeed the living spirit
of the universe; if at his bidding the sun pours
forth its ceaseless floods of light and heat; if by 
IS JEHOVAH.
his almighty arm the worlds are projected and
guided in their orbits;-then indeed, so far as
creation extends, to the very outermost confines
of inhabitable space, God dwelleth by his Spirit,
exercising a positive, direct, immediate control
over the works of his hands. As the spirit of
man pervades every particle of his corporeal
frame, enduing it with life, and energy, and
power, so must the Spirit of God pervade every
atom of created matter. Should he for one moment withdraw his sustaining power, not only
would chaos come, but even matter itself would
cease to be.
But let us examine, for one moment, how far
we are warranted in the use of the sublime expression, —His presence filleth immensity. Once
our knowledge of the universe was limited to a
region of space so minute, that when compared
with what has since been revealed, it seems but
an inferior corner in the empire of God. Had
this been all, had the stars visible to the naked
eye constituted the entire universe, it would
have been possible to have pierced far beyond
these limits, and to have demonstrated that cre
109 
110    THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
ation was finite. It is true that even the bound
aries of such a kingdom are immense. It is
computed, from data not to be questioned, that
the eye has the power of discerning single stars
at so great a distance, that their light can not
pass it in less than a hundred years, though flying in every minute of time, twelve millions of
miles; and yet, compared with the now visible
boundaries of creation, this incredible and incomprehensible distance shrinks to an almost insensible point.
I will not here undertake to explain how it is
that the telescope enables the eye to penetrate
space. That this power belongs to this magic
instrument, no one can doubt who has ever seen
a small, feeble star, converted by optical power
into a magnificent orb, forty times more extensive than the moon's surface, as viewed by unaided vision.    Who  could have  divined  the
nature of the revelations which would be made
by an instrument giving to the eye a depth of
penetration a thousand-fold greater than it possessed by nature? If, indeed, the Creator is
infinite, if his august presence filleth immensity, 
IS JEHOVAH.
then we had a right to anticipate that, no matter
how deep the eye of man might pierce the
domain of space, a point never could be reached
wherein the evidences of God's presence would
not appear. Such has been the result of the
application of the telescope to sounding the
mighty depths of the universe.   Every  augmentation of power has served to reveal new
wonders; every increased depth to which the
eye has penetrated, has evoked from the viewless depths of space, millions on millions of shining orbs, until the imagination is overwhelmed
as well by the teeming numbers as by the mighty
distances to which these island universes are
removed.   Conceive, if it be possible, of an
object so remote that its light, flashing with a
speed which no mind can comprehend, should
still occupy a million of years in passing the
mighty interval by which it is removed! and yet
there is evidence that we now behold with the
most powerful tubes, objects even ten, twenty, or
thirty times more remote. We yield the point,
and, in humble adoration, repeat the language of
the sacred book, He inhabiteth eternity, his
III 
112    THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
presence filleth immensity, and of his kingdom
there is no end!
Such, indeed, is the effect produced by the
telescopic explorations of the universe, that man
has ceased to doubt the infinitude of God's enmpire, and now limits his ambition to a deeper
penetration into its grandeur, without ever in
dulging the thought that he shall by any power
pierce beyond its mighty limits. Lo! these are
a part of his ways, but the thunder of his power
who can understand? No one can rise to a full
comprehension of the majesty of the kingdom of
God, who has not had some opportunity of
employing in his researches high optical power.
Language is inadequate to convey any just idea
of the splendors which burst on the sight, as the
silent stars by millions go trooping across the
field of vision.   Space is not by any means
equally populous in all directions. There are
regions occasionally presenting themselves in
which not a ray of light illumines the gloom of
what would seem eternal night, while on the
very confines of these starless patches, bright
and dazzling regions burst upon the vision. 
IS JEHOVAH.
After penetrating beyond the zone of the
Milky Way (a universe of itself), other objects
are descried, which, to any but the highest
optical power, are but faint clouds of light, but
under the focus of the great telescopes, reveal
their composition, exhibiting aggregations of
innumerable stars, so remote that only their
combined light can penetrate the enormous distance.  These can not be otherwise interpreted.
Their magnitude must be beyond measurement,
while the number of their objects is beyond computation.
These islands of light are already counted by
thousands,-each, doubtless, a universe vast and
populous as that with which our own central orb
is specifically allied. Every accession of optical
power transforms their hazy masses into figures
of the most astonishing complexity. Some are
seen under the form of enormous spiral shells,
with convolution on convolution, with dense
central masses glowing with splendor, each
convolution streaked with brilliant patches,
gradually developing a train of astonishing grandeur.   Several of these scroll-shaped universes,
113 
114   THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
have been revealed, and it has been surmised
with much appearance of truth, that even ou.
own Milky Way, if it could be seen in a direc
tion perpendicular to its broadest extent, woulc
exhibit a figure of like character. What these
stupendous spiral forms may indicate, is yet bc
yond the grasp of human intelligence.
Other clusters are found which present thr
globular figure, with evident condensation at thc
center; others, again, assume the figure of rings
of hazy light, while in others there is no appear
ance of definite organization. This, in many
instances, is no doubt due to the fact, that
no optical power, however great, has thus fat:
been sufficient to reveal the true forms of objects
sunk in space, to such immeasurable depths. If
we are amazed with the magnificence of these
objects, if by them we are taught the vastness of
God's empire, we are no less overwhelmed when
we consider the number of individual objects
which claim the spccial guardianship of Jehovah.
It is reckoned that not less than one hundred
millions of.stars are now visible, within the limits
of the Milky Way. In case we admit that each 
IS JE HOVAH.
of these stars is a sun, and that each is the center of surrounding planets, we are forced to
admit the existence of a thousand millions of
worlds, within the limits of one single aggregation,
one great and populous cluster. Shall we say
that but one of these thousand millions of worlds
is filled with life and intelligence, and that one
among the most insignificant? This would surely
be utter madness. People, then, these millions
of worlds with inhabitants, proportioned to
their extent of surface, and how amazing is
the number of the population of the empire of
God!
We have, however, here only considered a
single province. Multiply again by a thousand
all we have said or seen, and we shall even then
fail to reach the limit of actual telescopic revelation.  Well may  we  exclaim,  "The  heavens
declare the glory of God," while "the firmament
showeth forth his handy-work."
Thus do we find abundant evidence, that the
presence of the Most High filleth immensity.
It is likewise declared, by the sacred writers, in
many places, that Jehovah inhabiteth eternity;
115 
116  THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
his kingdom is from everlasting to everlasting,
and of his dominion there is no end. No attribute of the Supreme is more inscrutable than his
eternity. Without beginning, without end, selfexistent, everlasting.   God manifesteth himself
in time, but he inhabiteth eternity. We can not
undertake to demonstrate the eternal being of
God from his works, which are not eternal. They
had a beginning and may therefore have an end,
but we are permitted to reason analogically, and
while it is impossible to compass the idea of
eternity, either past or future, we may at least
expand our conceptions, by an examination of
the mighty periods of time embraced within the
range of the physical creation.
All is accordant in this mighty temple built
"without hands, eternal in the heavens." If the
universe, by the number and splendor of its orbs,
by their masses and magnitudes, by the stupendous scale on which it is built, by the simplicity
of the laws by which it is governed, declares in
letters of living light, the being and attributes
of the ever-living God, so do the periods of revolution worked out in the heavens demonstrate 
IS JEHOVAH.
that with him a thousand years are as one day,
and one day as a thousand years.
We are told that "in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," but who shall
measure by mortal years, when that beginning
was? We have evidence full and conclusive, in
the rocky records of the earth itself, of the vast
periods of time which have rolled away, since
the dawn of creation began. If we interrogate
the heavens, the same response is made.  If it
be true, that in case at this very moment, the
entire universe of God were blotted from existence, all save the earth itself, that even now
with our present telescopic power, the last object
would not fade from our view for millions of
years; then, indeed, we are forced to admit that
millions of years have elapsed, since these re.
mote objects were called into being, and their
light darted on its infinite journey to the earth.
There is no escape from this conclusion. Let
it not be thought that these teachings are in contradiction to the Word of God. In its appropriate place this subject will be fully treated,
and if we are not mistaken, all seeming discrep
117 
118    THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
ancy will be removed. From these two sources,
then, the earth and the heavens, we deduce a
pre-existence of the universe, only to be reckoned by millions of years. If now we examine
more clearly the periods assigned to the revolutions of the celestial orbs, we are amazed at the
grandeur and sublimity displayed in the going-on
of this divine machinery. Leaving the periods
of the planets of our own system, we rise to an
examination of the binary stars, and while some
are performing their revolutions in periods of
comparatively short duration, in others there is
evidence, that a single revolution of one body
around another is not completed in less than a
million of years! This is but the revolution of
an object about another. In case we proceed
upward to more complex systems, these mighty
periods of time expand and swell, till finally it
seems that eternity alone can furnish the requisite ages, wherein a single revolution of the
multiplied orbs of God's universe, may be completely effected, and all return to the points
from which they were projected, to commence
anew their mighty cycle of never-ending motion. 
IS JEHOVAH.
Thus, does time almost swell into eternity;
and, if such be the creature, what must be the
Creator?
We have thus, from an examination of the
physical organization of the universe of matter,
demonstrated the unity of God, his almighty
power, his infinite wisdom. We have shown
that he inhabiteth eternity, and that his presence
filleth immensity. By his direct power the
world was not only formed, but this same power
is momentarily employed to sustain the vast
superstructure, which has been reared in wisdom. Whence, then, we demand, did the writers
of the Hebrew Scriptures derive their perfect
ideas of the Creator of the universe? They
never penetrated the arcana of nature.   They
never pierced with optic tube  the realms of
space. They never tracked the swift planet, or
the fiery comet. They knew nothing of the
mighty laws of matter, the modes of God's wonderful display. They had learned nothing of
the vastness of the universe from positive inspection, and yet in the most wonderful manner, and in language which no tongue can equal,
119 
120   THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
have they portrayed the attributes of God. Can
any one answer this inquiry, without resorting
to the hypothesis that this wonderful knowledge
is the direct revelation of God? This, then, is
our solution, this the only explanation which
our feeble powers find it possible to present.
Examine the writings of the sages of antiquity, even the philosophy of the profound
Roman and the subtle Greek. These had equal
opportunity to reach to a knowledge of the at
tributes of their Jupiter Creator, but even the
imagination heated by poetic fire, failed to picture
forth more than the feeble shadowings of that
grand, awful, and sublime Jehovah, portrayed in
the sacred volume.
Shall we attempt to proceed further in our
deductions from the structure of nature? There
are certain attributes of the Deity, which perhaps the material universe can not reveal. The
material kingdom of God is governed only by
physical laws, and can not be affected by the
attributes of divine love, divine goodness, divine
mercy. It is only towards God's rational creatures that these affections of the divine mind 
IS JEHOVAH.
can be exercised. We can not, however, affirm
that the benevolence of the Supreme mind is
not distinctly revealed in the physical constitution of our earth, and its allied bodies. When
we examine the endless, admirable contrivances
by which human happiness is extended; when
we perceive the forms of grace and beauty which
fill the earth; the wonderful pictures in clouds
and in the landscape; the glowing tints of heaven,
and the rich effulgence which sparkles on the
earth, we are led to exclaim, that God is good!
When we comprehend how intimately our being
is interwoven with the fabric of material nature,
the air we breathe, the sparkling fount that slakes
our thirst, the rich and'luscious fruits, and gentle
breezes of earth, that give healthy vigor to our
frames,-what must be the attributes of that
Eternal intelligence which has called into being
the matter of innumerable worlds, which has,
with geometry profound, fashioned these countless systems; with compass and measuring line
meted out their habitation, and appointed to each
its abode in space?
Nature not only declares with voices innum                     6
121 
122    THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE.
erable, deep as the pealing of ten thousand thunders, the being of a God, but in all the pillars
of her empire, in all the magnificence of her
architecture, in her architraves and archways, in
her star-lit domes of superlative grandeur, in the
resistless motions of her multitudinous worlds,
in the interminable extent of her empire, she
proclaims the attributes of her omnipotent Creator and God.
These are the themes to which we shall next
invite your attention. 
LECTURE III.
THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY THE PRESFA'
STATE OF ASTRONOMY.  
LECTURE III.
THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY THE PRESENT STATE
OF ASTRONOMY.
THE most wonderful volume in existence is,
beyond a doubt, the Bible. It is wonderful for
its high pretensions, for its almost incredible
claims to divine origin, for its exceeding antiquity. It is wonderful in its revelation of the
being of God, and in its declarations concerning
the attributes of this Almighty Spirit. It is
wonderful for its professed revelation of the
creation of the universe, the formation of man,
the origin of evil, man's fall from innocence, and
his restoration to happiness. It is wonderful for
its daring chronology, its positive history, its
prophetic declarations. It is wonderful on account of its sublime philosophy, its exquisite
poetry, its magnificent figures, its overwhelming
language of description. It is wonderful for the
diversity of its writers, diverse in their attain 
126 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
ments, countries, languages, and education. It is
wonderful for its boldness, in the use of illustrations, metaphors, figures, drawn from every department of human knowledge, from natural history,
from meteorology, from optics, from astronomy. It is wonderful for the superior conceptions
of its writers, of the grandeur and magnificence
of the physical universe. It is wonderful that
it has exposed itself to attack and destruction,
at every point of time, by every discovery of
man, by the revelations of geology, chronology,
history, ancient remains disemboweled from the
earth, by astronomy, by the discoveries of natural history, and, above all, by the non-fulfillment
of its historical predictions. And it is most of
all wonderful, that up to the present time, in the
opinion of hundreds of thousands of the judicious,
reflecting, and reasoning, among earth's inhabitants, during three thousand years since its
first book was written, it has maintained its high
authority, and has retained in all this vast lapse
of time a powerful sway over the human mind.
On all these accounts (exclusive of its moral
teachings, its grand primary object), no one will 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 127
deny that it is a volume demanding the most
attentive and patient investigation. It has not
escaped overthrow for lack of enemies. It has been
assailed at every point,-its history, its theology,
its chronology, its cosmogony, its astronomy, its
geology, all these in their turn have been attacked by the cultivators of science, and by the
onward movement and development of each succeeding age. The philosophy of Greece has departed. The hoary astronomy of three thousand
years, has perished in the grave. The gods of
antiquity, the Olympic Jupiter, the dazzling
Apollo, the trident-bearing Neptune, and the
forger of Heaven's thunderbolts, are all swept
away by the onward heaving of the human
mind, if not by the superior power of the revelations of this wonderful volume. And yet, the
most venerable system of all remains, and to
this system we are compelled by reason, by
sound sense, by pure philosophy, to turn and inquire how this is, and whence the mystery of
perpetuity and powerful tenacity of life. All
else dies while the Bible survives. Even the
nation from whence it sprang, the languages in 
128 THIE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
which it was composed, the countries of its birth
scarcely exist, but in its marvelous pages. If,
indeed, it be the Word of the ever-living God,
then, indeed, the mystery is revealed; but if this
high claim can not be maintained, he who disbelieves must frame a theory by which the present
facts may be reasonably explained.
It must be borne in mind that the books of
this volume were composed at periods of time
widely separated; a lapse of nearly 2000 years
intervenes between the date of the compositions
of Moses and the Revelation of St. John, the
divine; and now nearly a like period has rolled
away, since the sacred canon was closed, and
the book was sealed up for ever, nothing more
to be added, and from its finished contents nothing ever to be taken. It was closed up amid
the spendors of the Roman empire, when literature, and art, and philosophy, held their golden
reign over the civilized world. It was fully
finished while yet science was in its infancy;
during the reign of error, and ignorance, and
prejudice, and long before the truths of science,
in any of its departments, had yet shed their 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 129
light upon the world. During these eighteen
hundred years of the Christian era, for this
volume has even given an era to the most cultivated nations of earth, the human mind has not
been idle. In history it has searched the buried
ruins of past centuries, it has disentombed
mighty cities, colossal columns, endless hieroglyphs.   It has read on coins, on medals, Qn
inscriptions of the rocks, in monumental piles, in
sculptured enigmas, the history of the past. The
fragments of the primitive writers of all nations
have been collected, the Egyptian Manetho, the
Babylonian Berosus, the Phoenician Sanchoniathon,-all have been searched to fling their light
far back into the dark clouds lvhich engloom the
past. Chronology has brought to her aid the
discoveries of modern science, and the celestial
revolutions have been marshaled in her service.
Geology has upheaved the crust of the solid
earth, and deep delving, she has dug up the
remains of former generations.  Plants and ani
mals, insects and reptiles, the inhabitants of a primeval, preadamnite earth, in their classes, orders,
genera, and species, have all been brought under
6' 
130 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
the bright.focus of scientificinvestigation. Above
the earth, science has soared into the clouds of
heaven, and from her lofty height she has revealed the facts and phenomena which crowd
earth, ocean, and atmosphere. The lightning's
blaze and the thunder's peal, the soft dew, the
gentle zephyr, and the blasting tornado, have all
been studied. Far beyond in the blue ether she
has winged her flight. She has pierced the
bright canopy of heaven, and opened up the
amazing universe which towers on every hand,
lost, interminable in the unfathomable depths of
space.  In short, since the closing of the sacred
canon, a new world has been revealed, and science
on her uplifted throne, quadruple-crowned, sways
a scepter over a boundless empire, which then
had no existence. If, then, this so-called sacred
volume be a tissue of falsehood, if its philosophy
be false, its theology false, its morals false, its
cosmogony false, its astronomy false, its history
false, its productions false, its natural science
false, its geology false, its chronology false, then
indeed let it beware, for science is marshaling
its forces with strength irresistible, pouring in 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 131
from the east, west, north, and south; ascending
from heights insurmountable, rising from depths
unfathomable; all, all, conspiring the overthrow
and final destruction of every system which is
not founded on the solid rock of truth itself.
No one with a soul, which has ever risen above
the clouds of prejudice, can for one moment
regret the downfall of error. Who regrets the
destruction of the philosophy of Aristotle, of
the astronomy of Ptolemy? But it may be
demanded is the Bible open to attack? Does it
pretend to teach any system of science? Yes,
it pretends to teach theology, morals, and religion,
directly and positively, while it adverts indirectly
to every branch of science, and in these occasional allusions, lays itself open to attack at a
thousand points. It is again demanded, whether
its writers did not studiously avoid any commitment, with reference to matters of pure science?
In case this be true, then is it one of the most
inexplicable of marvels, that each one of this
multitude of writers, scattered along the shores
of the descending current of time for two thousand years, each one as his occasion required, 
132 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
boldly reaching out his hand into the dark, and
dragging to his use whatever of science his subject demanded, and yet with such wise caution,
that the full blaze of truth and knowledge may
never detect the ignorance of him, who thus
plunges at random into the gloom of scientific
night. It may be asserted that positive statements have been avoided in the simplest of
ways,-that there were none known, to be made.
But this is not the fact. Positive statements are
made, and that too in the most unequivocal language. I need only cite the order of creation,
the facts of history, the predictions of the future,
the universal deluge; while to each of the other
departments of knowledge there is constant
reference.
The Bible, then, is open to attack-indeed, it
is in no possible point guarded from attack.
There is no shield but truth for its sacred character; there is no bulwark but truth to defend it
from the assaults of its enemies; and if there be
those who, after mature study of its pages, have
reached the conclusion that this is the great
volume of God's truth, surely it is just that the 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 133
grounds of their belief should be set forth, that
others may read, reflect, and decide. I proceed,
then, without further delay, to consider the cosmogony of the universe as developed in the
Mosaic history of the creation.   Before it be
possible to approach the discussion of this subject, we must make as clear a development as
possible of the present state of our scientific
knowledge, with reference to this deeply profound and mysterious subject.
The topics to which we now invite your attention, are among the most sublime that ever
engaged the powers of an intelligent mind.
Whence sprang this mighty universe of blazing
suns? Whence these multitudinous worlds which
circle round their central orbs, far flying through
the deep of space, freighted with their numberless inhabitants? Were they brought into being
by the fiat of Omnipotence? Did the command
go forth, Let the universe be! and at the bidding
of God, did sun and system, satellite and planet,
and all the blazing host of heaven, and the
mighty schemes which fill the deep profound,
burst into sudden being, and flash their splen 
134 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
dors throughout the startled empire of vacuity?
Or is there a plan, wise, deep, and eternal,
mighty as God, extensive as space, comprehensive as immensity, working backward through
innumerable millions of ages deep into primeval
time, and working forward, through countless
revolutions of heaven's host, to ages in the future
to which no mortal power of thought can penetrate? Which is the more consistent with what
we are able to learn of the workmanship of God
in this goodly world which we inhabit? Are
there here manifested any sudden bursts of
being, or is all progressive? Whence came the
forests which clothe the earth? Whence the
monarch oak which rears heavenward its thunder-scarred form? Does it spring into being,
as leaps the electric spark from the dark bosom
of the cloud? We know its origin; and though
generations roll away as this gigantic tree slowly
rears its crest, we are well assured of its beginning, and can affirm positively of its gradual
development.
This is the universal analogy of all that claim
existence upon the earth. Indeed, we may go 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 135
still farther, and affirm that the crust of the
earth itself is but the record of successive revolutions, marking the great epochs in the past
history of the world.   So far, then, as we  are
able to trace the direct manifestations of God
in the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms,
He works by means, and according to a plan.
If we ascend to the organization of the solar
system we  shall perceive even here that it is
built on a plan, and in accordance with certain
great and governing laws.   The same appears to
be true of the various aggregations of stars, and
of the mighty astral systems of space.  This,
however, is an examination made in the condition of maturity. It is like the exhibition of
design in the structure of the full grown oak,
already alluded to. We can not so surely trace
the development of a system of worlds. We
can not so certainly behold them forming under
our eye; although possibly this process may at
this moment be advancing. In case we could
trace absolutely the formation of our single system from its primitive amorphous state, to a condition of full development, then we might with 
136 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
certainty extend these processes to all the sys
tems already in existence; as this is impossible
at least in the present state of science, we arj
left somewhat to conjecture and speculation
though of course all speculation must be ir
accordance with the phenomena of Nature. W'
may frame theories and test themni by facts, unti
their truth or falsehood shall have been demon
strated.  I shall not stop to present the variou.
theories which have been successively framed, t(
account for the existent condition of the planetary
system.   I shall confine my remarks solely t(
that one, which has of late years become somc
what noted, in consequence of its abandonment
by certain prominent individuals, who had previ
ously been its ardent advocates. It is the mor,
notorious from the fact, that it has been emr.
ployed as the foundation on which an extraor
dinary system of materialism has been con
structed, invw)tving the idea that creation is but -
series of accidental and progressive developments
I allude, of course, to the celebrated nebula.
hypothesis of Sir William Herschel, bette.
known as Laplace's theory, in consequence of 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY 137
the extension and application it had received
from this learned French geometrician.
There are those, doubtless, who have conceived
an aversion to this theory, in consequence of its
supposed atheistic tendency. It would be highly
unphilosophical to reject any theory on such a
ground. If it be a mere speculation, unsusceptible
of being brought to the test of actual discussion,
then indeed its tendency to evil would be a valid
reason for its rejection. After the repeated
mistakes and blunders of the unlearned multititude, in these same matters, let us beware how
we, in this age of progression, and freedom of
opinion, plunge into like errors.
It was once thought that the doctrines of
Galileo were at variance with truth and revelation. I presume there is no one at the present
day who will undertake to assert that this same
Copernican system is not firmly fixed on the
foundation of truth, while revelation remains as
undisturbed as though Copernicus had never
lived.
Let us, then, abandon our prejudices, and, with
philosophic and honest candor, examine the 
138 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
foundation on which this theory rests its claims
to credence.
It is well known to all, that Sir William Herschel was the first who succeeded in the construction of powerful reflecting telescopes.  He
constructed one of these instruments of so enormous a magnitude, that in case its dimensions
had not been surpassed in our own day, it would
seem almost incredible that such an instrument
could have been upreared, and directed to the
examination of the celestial sphere.
The diameter of its speculum was no less than
four feet, while the ponderous iron tube, was
forty feet in length. With this gigantic instrument, possessing a power transcendently greater
than that of human vision, concentrating as it
did, the light from the most remote objects,
on the pupil of its enormous eye, Sir William
undertook a thorough review of the entire celestial region, visible in the latitude in which he
was located. Objects of wonderful form and of
most mysterious character not unfrequently presented themselves to his view, as they floated
cloud-like across the field of his mighty tele 
THIE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY 139
scope. They were not stars, they did not present the appearance of clusters of stars, they
shone with a dim mysterious light, without
definite outline, shadowy in their character, and
only rendered more enigmatical, the more advantageous the circumstances under which they
were viewed. These objects of which he discovered many hundreds, nay even thousands, he
named nebulx, and these he subdivided and
classified, according to their distinctive characteristics. Among these we find resolvable nebulo, those which are manifestly composed of stars,
yet so distant that no optical power then in use,
could disentangle the rays which were mingled
in their vast journey to the earth. Others were
termed planetary nebulae, from their resemblance to a planetary disc. A very large class,
in which no evidence of possible resolvability
was found, were denominated amorphous nebulae.
Among these last, a great variety of objects
existed: some were discovered so faint and delicate as scarcely to stain the deep blue of ether,
and indeed were invisible to any but the most
experienced eye, and even this eye must first 
140 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
have been subjected to powerful action of long
continued and deep darkness, to develope its
acutest sensibilities; others again were enormous in their magnitude, filling field after field
of the instrument, with  their shadowy forms
pierced here and there by enormous cavities, jet
black, and lighted up in spots with concentrations of greater splendor.
Many were the speculations which passed
through the mind of the great discoverer as to
the true character of these anomalous objects.
He was familiar with the forms and appearance
of the clusters of stars.  Hundreds of these
objects, which had resisted the power of all
preceding telescopes, had been resolved into
stars by his own  great instruments.   In the
outset he naturally adopted the hypothesis, that
all these hazy clouds of light, so profusely scattered through the regions of space, were nothing
more than vast aggregations of stars, so deeply
sunk in space as to defy the space-penetrating
power of his largest-sighted telescopes. But a
more extended examination finally led him to
doubt, and at last a discovery broke in upon him, 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 141
which drove him from this hypothesis, and led
him to the formation of another, which is, perhaps, the boldest which human thought has ever
conceived. The phenomenon which so riveted
his gaze was the halo of this hazy, nebulous
light, in whose center shone a well-formed and
perfect star!   How  could  this phenomenon
receive an explanation on his old hypothesis?
In case the shadowing envelope of this central
star was itself but the aggregation of millions of
stars, how vastly superior in magnitude and
brilliancy over all the others must that central
orb be, which so far outshone the millions of
millions by which it was surrounded. On the
other hand, in case we attribute to the central
body a magnitude conformable with that of the
other stars of heaven of equal luminosity, how
utterly insignificant must be those countless
stars, whose combined light appeared but as a
faint, luminous atmosphere around the central
orb?
This object, then, combined with a multitude
like it, sustained by the various other phenomena of nebulous bodies, finally induced Her 
142 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
schel to adopt the notion, that matter manifested
itself in the heavens in two distinct forms: first,
as perfectly formed and solid stars, or suns and
planets; second, in nebulous masses of chaotic
and vaporous matter, enormous in extent, of
exceeding tenuity, and in every way analogous
to the trains of luminous particles which not
unfrequently attend the more solid portions of
the great comets which occasionally visit our
system from the remoter regions of space.
As these vast masses of nebulous mist are
known to concentrate and settle down upon the
nucleus of the comet, it was not difficult to
extend this idea to the possible condensation of
the vaporous envelopes of the fixed stars upon
these luminaries, and finally to rise to the
thought that possibly this chaotic, nebulous,
amorphous fire-mist might be the primordial
condition of matter, and that the nebulous stars
were specimens of the imperfectly condensed
matter. This bold thought appeared to be abundantly sustained by succeeding investigations.
The most marvelous forms were revealed, such
as double nebulae with condensing centers; dou 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 143
ble stars, with trains of interjacent nebulous
matter, apparently under the positive, condensing power of each of the bright centers; nebulous
masses, with partial condensation, about welldefined nuclei, having dark vacuities, through
which shone the deep and distant heavens as
through a window. Such, indeed, was the accumulation of evidence in favor of this astonishing
theory, that Herschel at length promulgated his
views to the world, and presented the evidences
on which his opinions were based. He conceived
that the all-prevalent power of universal gravitation was now actually exerting itself over
these nebulous masses of matter, and that even
now worlds were forming in the womb of space;
while the myriads of bright orbs which fill the
heavens had their origin in the same chaotic
matter, wrought into form and beauty by the
action of these same laws of universal gravitation. Here, then, was a cosmogony of the
stellar heavens, far different from any thing
previously propounded.  It exhibited a mighty
scheme of development. God's creative power
had called matter into being. In its primitive, 
144 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
nebulous condition, it had filled the boundless
expanse of space. The omnipotent Spirit had
breathed upon this unfinished ocean, life had
burst upon it, and the will of God, operative
and manifested in the great law of gravitation,
had commenced and carried forward, through the
countless millions of ages of the past, the grand
work of perpetual development.
The idea was at least sublime. There was
nothing in it, as thus presented, to shock the
feelings of the most devoted friend of the sacred
volume. It was but another round mounted by
the human mind, in its effort to ascend through
Nature closer to the throne of Nature's God. It
was in accordance with all the developments of
the workmanship of God's fingers on earth. All
else was progressive development, from the
tender flower to the sturdy oak, from the most
delicate insect to the gigantic Behemoth. Man,
made in the image of God, received his strength
and power, and wisdom, by slow degrees, and
why should not the all-pervading principle
extend itself, even to the glorious orbs that God
has fixed in the heavens, to manifest his glory, 
TEHE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 145
and to make known the unsearchable riches of
his wisdom and his power?
This most wondrous speculation seemed to
be further confirmed by a multitude of facts.
Among the nebulous stars, some were found, in
which there was but a feeble concentration of
light in the center of a luminous circle.   In
others the light was more developed; and thus
onward a series would be formed, by individuals
properly selected, until finally a brilliant star
shone in the center of its gauzy envelope. As
our own sun is one of the fixed stars, it was
natural to inquire what was its condition,whether it exhibited any trace of this strange
phenomenon which the telescope had revealed in
the heavens. About the sun it had been long
known that an extensive atmosphere existed;
but this was only analogous to the gaseous
envelope of our earth and the other planets.
A closer scrutiny of the sun detected a remarkable
relation between this body and a faintly luminous
appearance, long distinguished under the name
of the Zodiacal light. This luminous beam, ever
based upon the sun, and attendant upon its
7 
146 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
annual apparent movement, is visible with peculiar distinctness at certain seasons of the year,
extending in an elongated, elliptic form to a vast
distance from the sun, reaching even beyond
the limits of the orbit of the planet Yenus, and
possibly to that of the Earth. Here, then, it
seemed, was found, in actual existence, the remains of that primeval, nebulous globe from
whence our sun had sprung, in the form of a
vast gaseous atmosphere of exceeding tenuity,
revolving with the sun on its axis, and extended
to its lenticular form by the centrifugal force
due to rotation. Such, then, was the condition
of this great problem, as left by Sir William
Herschel; and it was at this point that Laplace
received it, and, by the force of his wonderful
genius, extended the range of the speculation
far beyond the limits imagined by its illustrious
author.
Any theory which would account for the fixed
stars and for the formation of the sun, would be
greatly strengthened if, at the same time, it
could be made to explain the planets, satellites,
and comets, and embrace within its scope the 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 147
peculiar phenomenon presented in the organiza ion of the solar system.   Whence came  the
orlds which circle round the sun? and whence
. moons which subordinate themselves to the
action of their central bodies? and, above all,
whence spring those anomalous bodies which
occasionally visit our system, and, after a brief
sojourn, again disappear in the invisible regions
of the universe?   These questions  had long
been propounded in vain, and conjecture had
been exhausted in its efforts to account for
their origin.
It was to explain these phenomena that Laplace had recourse to the nebular theory of Sir
William Herschel; and it is to the specific consid(leration of this subject I would now invite
your attention.
In the outset of this discussion we must
clearly distinguish between those phenomena,
for which the law of universal gravitation is
responsible, and those other phenomena of the
constitution of the solar system, in the explanation of which this law has never been employed.
Gravitation explains why the planets, comets, 
148 THIE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
and satellites revolve in elliptical orbits, or in
those curves known as conic sections, consisting
of the circle, ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola.
Gravitation explains the unequal velocities of
these bodies in their orbitual movements. It,
in like manner, explains the multitudinous perturbations suffered by all the members of the
solar system, in consequence of their reciprocal
action. In short, the system once organized as
it now is, all its existent and daily occurring
phenomena are susceptible of explanation and
computation from the theory of universal gravitation. Here, however, the domain of this law
is bounded,- or, at least, has hitherto been
bounded. There remain a multitude of inquiries
demanding answers, for which, however, gravitation has not been deemed accountable. For
example, why do all the planets and satellites
revolve in orbits so nearly circular? So far as
gravitation is concerned, they might as well
have revolved in parabolas or hyperbolas. Why
do all the planets circulate about the sun in the
same direction? Gravitation would have held
them, all the same, in case they had moved in 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 149
the opposite direction. How comes it that the
planes of the planetary orbits are nearly coincident?   Gravitation renders  no reply to this
question, and is not responsible for the answer.
Again, the planets all rotate on axes in the same
direction in which they revolve in their orbits.
The satellites follow these same analogies, and
even the sun himself is, in like manner, found to
rotate on his axis, in the general direction of the
motion of his attendant satellites. While this
astonishing harmony and uniformity prevail with
reference to the planets and their satellites, a
far different order of things exists among the
comets.   These bodies visit our system from
every possible region of space, under all angles
of inclination, and revolve in any one of the
curves already mentioned, except the circle.
They do not pass round the sun in the same
direction as the other revolving bodies, technically known as the direct motion; but they
exhibit as frequently the retrograde direction.
Now, if this great scheme were formed by
chance, and the planets and satellites had been
projected in their orbits with forces of impulse 
150 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
and directions of motion solely determined by
accident, there is not one chance in one hundred
millions that the present organization would
have been the result of such an origin.
The question then arises, may all these complicated phenomena presented in the solar system, be reduced under the dominion of a single
law? and if so, what is the hypothesis which
yields a satisfactory explanation of these multitudinous and diversified phenomena?
Laplace has furnished us the approximate
answer to this grand inquiry. I present a rapid
exposition of the great outlines of this vast
speculation. It is believed that at one time the
sun was a vast nebulous globe, of a diameter so
great as to comprehend within its limits the
orbits of all the planets. At this period there
were no planets in existence, and the matter of
which these bodies and their satellites are composed was, at this period, a portion of the mass of
matter constituting that body which we now call
the sun. In the lapse of ages, the mighty diameter of this primitive, globular body, exceeding six
thousand millions of miles, is supposed to have 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 151
slowly contracted, by the radiation of heat, into
the regions of space.   In case we admit the
beginning of a rotation of the globular mass on
an axis, the contraction of its dimensions must,
by necessity, increase the velocity of rotation.
If, then, the loss of caloric be ever continued, the
contraction of the mass must be perpetuated, and
the velocity of rotation will be ever increased,
until a time will come when the centrifugal force,
generated at the equator of the revolving mass,
will preponderate over the force of gravity, and
the particles of matter, thus acted upon in an
equatorial zone, will be lifted up in a vast ring,
and finally severed from the central mass. This
cloudy, nebulous ring is then left in space,
revolving on an axis coincident with that of the
parent mass, and with a velocity exactly equal
to that due to the central body at the moment
it was disengaged.
The ring of matter, thus detached and left to
the action of gravitation on its various particles,
would not retain its primitive form; but its
particles, concentrating about some center of
superior density, would eventually assume the 
152 -THIE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
spherical form, and a planet would thus be
formed.
This globular body, in its primitive condition
a vaporous mass, by a more rapid radiation of
its heat would ultimately solidify, and present
all the phenomena of the solid globe we inhabit.
In case we examine the peculiarities of condition of the imaginary planet thus formed, we
shall find an —astonishing similitude between it
and those in actual existence.   It must revolve
in its orbit in the same direction in which the
parent mass rotates.  It must revolve in a plane
nearly coincident with the equator of the central
body. It must revolve in an orbit nearly circular. It must rotate on its axis in the same
direction in which it revolves in its orbit. In
each of these particulars, then, it fulfills the
existing conditions of nature.
If now we follow the changes of the central
rotating body, we shall find that the same causes
which caused the evolution of the first ring of
matter, must, in process of time, produce the
same results again, and again, until a degree of
condensation is reached bringing the powers of 
TIE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 153
cohesive attraction to bear on the particles, and
here all further disengagement of matter is for
ever arrested. Condensation may continue, and
an increase of rotatory velocity, but no more
matter can be disengaged, because the attraction
of gravitation is reeinforced by the attraction of
cohesion.
The generation of a scheme of worlds, under
the operation of such laws and from such material, would produce a system, imitating in all its
grand features those existent in the present
solar system. Especially is this true, in case
we extend the hypothesis to the formation of
satellites around the primary planets, by the
same process, which in the outset gave birth to
the primary from the sun itself. All the moving
bodies thus formed will revolve and rotate in
the same direction, and in this they must har monize with the rotation of the sun. They must
revolve in planes nearly coincident with the
sun's equator, and in orbits nearly circular, while
the moons or satellites must follow the same
general law.
Such, then, is the exhibition of this magnifi
7* 
154 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
cent hypothesis. It can not be denied that it
accounts for a multitude of phenomena hitherto
inexplicable, and wonderfully expands our ideas
of the majesty and grandeur of the wisdom of
God. But it may justly be inquired, Is there
any solid basis for this amazing superstructure?
Is it mere speculation? or can any arguments or
facts be adduced to give to it even the color of
a reality?
We proceed to answer these inquiries. Are
there now existent in the heavens any of these
mighty nebulous globes, such as the sun is once
supposed  to have been?   The  telescope has
revealed a class of bodies, called planetary
nebulae.  They are in the region of the fixed
stars, they have no sensible parallax, they have
measurable diameters, are evenly shaded with
light, and located at such stupendous distances,
they swell to a magnitude almost incredible, in
case we suppose them to be masses of vaporous
or nebulous matter. Their diameters must even
surpass the diameter of the orbit of Neptune,
the most remote of all the solar planets, and the
one first disengaged from the sun, in case no 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 155
exterior planet exists. We do not affirm posit
tively that these planetary nebulae are globular
masses of nebulous  matter.   They, however,
exhibit many of the characteristics of such
globes, and admit of this explanation more readily than of any other of which I am aware.
Again, in the heavens we find vast aggregations of luminous haze, resembling in every particular, chaotic, amorphous masses of nebulous
matter. It can not, indeed, be positively asserted
that any one of these masses shall never be converted, by telescopic reach, into stars, though it
will be found, I think, at this time, that there
are few distinguished astronomers who will deny
that nebulous clouds do exist in the heavens.
If, however, the actual existence of matter in
this nebulous condition be essential to give a
real basis to this theory, may we not find it
abundantly exhibited in the trains of light which
sometimes accompany comets, and which occasionally extend a hundred millions of miles.
The rarity of these masses is of the most surprising character.   I have, on some occasions,
examined the most minute telescopic stars, and 
156 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED) BY
have received their light undimmed, though it
had penetrated thousands and tens of thousands
of miles of this cometary matter.
We have, then, actually existing and under
our eye, the condition of matter required by the
hypothesis,-and this is truly matter, and subject to the laws of motion and gravitation, as has
been abundantly shown from the computed
movements and revolutions of these nebulous
masses.   Furthermore,  the directions of the
motion of comets, the planes of their orbits, their
physical condition, and the curves in which they
revolve, appear in a remarkable manner to lend
plausibility to this theory. In case we admit
the formation of our sun from a nebulous mass,
we must extend the same theory to the stars,
which are also suns; and hence it will arise that
in the concentration of matter into mighty globes,
about certain centers of attraction, there will be
fragments of matter occupying regions of space,
in the interstices of these primordial globes,
which will be long held in equilibrio by the
united attraction of the masses by which they
are surrounded. A time finally comes when a 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 157
preponderance determines in favor of the attraction of one sun above all others, and towards
this one the nebulous mass slowly begins to
move. An acceleration of motion follows every
decrease of distance, till, finally, a strange body
of portentous appearance invades the heavens,
and we behold a comet descending perpendicularly, or with any obliquity to the ecliptic, and
plunging apparently with incredible velocity into
the sun.  In case its direction of motion be not
exactly to the sun's center, it will sweep round
this body, and receding from the center, finally
revisit the region of space from which it emanated. Thus we perceive that, in case this be the
true origin of comets, they ought to visit us
from every quarter of the heavens, their motions
should be direct and retrograde, and their orbits
ought to be elongated ellipses, or possibly hyperbolas or parabolas.
It may still be demanded, in case these primeval rings are the origin of the planets and
satellites, why may not some single specimen
yet remain as proof positive of this incredible
hypothesis? Here, again we are able to declare, 
158 THlE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
by the aid of the telescope, that these rings
appear to exist. If it were possible to direct
your vision to the planet Saturn, through a tube
of superior power, you would behold an exhibition of exquisite beauty. You would perceive
a luminous globe of vast dimensions, belted with
stripes, and exquisitely shaded from center to
circumference; but, more wonderful, you would
behold, engirdling this planet, a broad and lustrous ring of light, of oval figure, and exhibiting
the most beautiful curvilinear outline. Here are
two, possibly three, of the primitive rings, now
existing in space, and separated from their pri
mary central planet.  These rings are of greadimensions. The exterior diameter of the outel
ring is nearly two hundred thousand, while thr
inner edge of the nearest ring is separate(
some twenty thousand miles from the body of
Saturn.  These rings are revolving with swiL
velocity, about an axis coincident with that of
the planet, and in every particular corresponding
to the hypothesis, that they were at some perio(
far back in the history of time, disengaged b,
centrifugal force from the body of the planet 
THIE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 159
and left revolving in space. It is about Saturn
especially that we might expect to find rings, if
anywhere in the solar system.   It is of vast
dimensions; its specific gravity is scarcely
greater than that of cork; it has a multitude
of satellites (no less than eight) revolving exterior to the rings, the nearest one approaching
very closely to the surface of Saturn, and performing its revolution around that body in a few
hours. The matter composing the rings must
then have been greatly condensed (comparatively) when severed from the planet, and
would, if ever, retain its primitive form. The
conditions of the equilibrium of these rings are
of great complexity, and speaking as finite
beings, it would seem utterly impossible that
the rings could have been built and adjusted to
the planet after its projection in space. It is
true that, at the bidding of God, these stupendous circles of light could have started into
being, and at the same command have taken up
their present astonishing relations to the world
they encircle.  But this is contrary to the analogy of God's creative providence. The more we 
160 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
study this astonishing organism, the more a
we convinced that these appendages must habeen evolved from the central orb by the acti(
of some great law, effecting in their severan(
all the conditions of permanent equilibrium.
never behold this resplendent system witho
feelings of awe and admiration.  When I refic
how delicately these stupendous arches a
poised in the heavens, how slight a cause won
destroy their stability, it seems possible tb
even under one's eye the balance may be lo
and the whole fabric rush into utter and hot
less ruin!  Indeed, so difficult is it to rendei
satisfactory account of the stability of the
rings when regarded as solid (as they ha
been considered), that a distinguished Americ
geometer has reached the conclusion by mat',
matical reasoning, that these rings are not so
but fluid, and that their particles are free
move among each other, that in this way t
figures of the rings are for ever changing, sw
ing to and fro, like the ocean tides, to the acti
of the disturbing forces, which, if the rings w,
solid, might drag them from their orbits, a 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 16.1
hurl them on the body of the planct, never again
to be separated from it. We are not yet quite
prepared to adopt this startling view of the system, while the facts announced show, beyond a
doubt, the exceeding perplexity which hangs
over this beautiful but enigmatical system.
If now we return to the examination of the
actual condition of the great center of our system, we do not find any fact which (an weaken
the testimony already adduced. On the contrary, we are struck with the concurrent testimony presented by this central orb.  Its stupendous magnitude is the first thing which
strikes us; its intense heat, so infinitely superior
to that of any planet; the lowness of its specific
gravity, only one quarter as great as water; the
vast extent of the atmosphere by which it is
surrounded,-all conspire in testimony to the
possible truth of the nebular hypothesis. But,
above all, we are struck with the wonderful fact
of the slow and majestic rotation of the sun on
his axis!  How  astonishing is this!  Why
should this mighty orb rotate?   We  can see
why the planets should revolve on their axes; 
162 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
we can understand why the earth we inhabit
should successively present each of its faces tc
the sun. In this motion of rotation we perceivc
the ultimate cause of the vicissitudes of day and
night, so necessary and so grateful to earth's
inhabitants, and by analogy we may extend this
same reasoning to the planets; but nothing of a
like character can carry our reasoning to the sun.
Its gravitating power would be just as great
without rotation; its floods of light would be just
as inexhaustible without rotation; its vivifying
heat would fructify the earth, and give life to
the animal and vegetable world just as well
without rotation. Every function of this mighty
center would be just as perfectly performed in
case it were absolutely fixed and immovable.
We again ask in wonder, Why does the sun in
twenty-eight days perform a complete revolution
on its axis? No answer can be given, unless
we revert for explanation to the seemingly bold
speculation we  are  discussing.   Admit  this
strange theory, and all difficulty disappears;
and in the rotation of the sun we find the ultimate cause of the admirable scheme of revolving 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 163
worlds by which it is surrounded. The rotation
on an axis, now, is but the necessary concomitant of this higher function of the sun. If this
theory be false, in how many different ways
might its falsehood have been made manifest.
Suppose we had found the period of rotation of
the sun on his axis to be longer than that of any
one of the surrounding planets in his orbit: this
would have falsified the theory.   Suppose we
had discovered that it required more time for
Saturn or Jupiter to rotate on their axes, than
for their nearest moon to revolve round them in
its orbit: this would have falsified the theory.
Suppose we had found any planet or satellite
revolving slower than the one exterior to its
orbit: this would have destroyed the theory.
No one of these phenomena has been observed.
On the contrary, there is an admirable harmony
everywhere existent, and all concurring to give
the appearance of probability to this. seemingly
wild hypothesis. The sun, then, in all its phenomena,  accords with the theory.   We  have
already mentioned the phenomenon attendant on
the sun, and called the Zodiacal light. This, as 
164 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
has been said, was conjectured to be an immense
atmosphere surrounding the sun of uncondense(
nebulous matter.  A deeper penetration into th,
phenomena of the showers of meteors denomina
ted the shooting stars, seems to connect, in -
definite manner, these exhibitions with the revc
lution of a vast nebulous ring, revolving in space
and at certain seasons approaching sufficiently
near the earth's atmosphere, to detach fragmentc
of its body, and to fire them by their swift velo
city through this comparatively dense resisting
medium. Should this theory be adopted, we
have among the primary planets a specimen of a
primitive ring, still retaining its nebulous char
acter, and of such exceeding tenuity as scarcely
to be visible except under the most favorable
circumstances.
Can it be possible, then, that the firm and
solid globe we inhabit could ever have resembled
so ethereal a body? Was there ever a period
in the past when the material of this earth constituted.t vast nebulous ring? Could this ring
ever have been converted into a globular mass a
half a million of miles in diameter? May the 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 165
moon that now floats in space, two hundred and
forty thousand miles from the earth, ever have
been a portion of its mass? These are the marvelous questions demanding an affirmative answer, in case we adopt the nebular hypothesis.
When we examine the rocky crust of the
earth, and perceive its density and solidity, we
are almost disposed. to doubt the possibility of
its ever having been different. But we must
not be governed too much by appearances.
There is not a rock nor a metal, however solid,
that heat will not dissipate into vapor. Even
the diamond itself may, by heat, be made to
float in the atmosphere.  Indeed, the solids are
only peculiar combinations of gases.  Analyze
the materials of the three great kingdoms of
nature, and we reduce them all to gases. The
waters of the ocean are composed of two gases;
the rocks, mostly composed of gases; the vegetables principally composed of gases;-in short,
we know that one single gas, oxygen, constitutes
nearly, if not quite one half, of the solid material
of the earth now known to man.
The rapid transitions of bodies from the gas 
166 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
eous form to the liquid, and from the liquid form
to the solid, is too familiar to all to require more
than a passing notice. Heat, then, is the allpowerful solvent of all organic matter, and by
heat the solid earth itself may be again dissolved; and if so, why may we not believe that,
by the same agent, its now solid materials once
were held in solution, constituting the vaporous
mass demanded by the nebular hypothesis.
Here, then, we might rest the discussion of
this subject, with the conclusion that enough has
been said to demonstrate the possible, if not the
probable truth of this (at first sight) impossible
theory.   But we must yet advance one step
further, and present an argument which, when
combined with all we have said, so cements the
whole into one mass of concurrent evidence,
that, until a better theory be advanced, it seems
impossible longer to reject the nebular hypothesis.
Within a short time a remarkable relation has
been discovered to exist between the periods of
rotation of the planets on their axes, and their
masses, or quantities of matter and distances 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 167
from each other combined. This relation is too
technical to be stated here in mathematical language. We present the following popular exposition of the principle: If the quantity of matter
contained in each of the three planets, Jupiter,
Saturn, and Uranus, was accurately known, and
their mean distances from the sun perfectly
determined, then the principle of the new discovery would enable us, from these data, to
compute or predict the exact time in which
Saturn (the middle planet of the three) would
revolve on its axis.
The earth's period of rotation on its axis is
then dependent on the quantity of matter in the
planets Venus and Mars, and upon the distances
of the orbits of these planets from the orbit of
the earth.   This is perhaps one of the most
astonishing facts ever revealed. That Mars and
Venus should sway the earth in its orbitual
motion, results necessarily from the law of universal gravitation. But how, or in what way,
these far-distant planets could ever have exerted
the slightest influence in determining the period
of the earth's rotation, is a mystery of mysteries, 
168 THE OSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
and but for the solution rendered by the nebular
hypothesis, would seemingly remain an enigma
for ever.
At this moment we are absolutely certain that
neither one nor the other of these planets exerts
the smallest influence on the earth's period of
rotation. It is uniform, and has been invariable
for two thousand years, while these planets have
taken up every possible position relative to the
earth. If, then, the velocity of rotation of the
earth ever was dependent on their action, as this
discovery demonstrates, we must go very far
back in the history of creation to learn how
that primordial influence might have been exerted. The subject is difficult. Permit me to
illustrate. Suppose we should find a piece of
machinery, in which there were three horizontal wheels revolving on vertical axes, near
each other but not in contact. We examine the
motions of these three wheels, we measure their
diameters, and we find that their periods of rotation are precisely such as they ought to have
been, provided that they once were in contact,
and that a motion given to one had by it been 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 169
communicated to the others. This exact relation existing, we should be strongly tempted to
believe that the primordial state of these wheels
was the contact of their circumferences, and
hence arose the beautiful relation between their
diameters and periods of rotation.
This merely illustrates the idea of working
backward from present relations to those which
possibly existed at some distant period in the
past history of the bodies related. Let us now
come nearer to the case of nature.
There is no one who may not have noticed
the beautiful ring of steam which is occasionally
ejected from the escape-pipe. It rises in the
form of an annulus or ring, and floats sometimes
for several seconds in the atmosphere. The particles of this annulus and the matter of the
entire ring itself, are all revolving in the plane
of the ring. Now suppose two other such rings,
the one interior, the other exterior to the one
first imagined; the three are now revolving,
mutually affecting each other by actual contact
of their particles upon their circumferences.
Suppose these rings to contract by loss of heat,
8 
170 THE COSMOGONY AS REVEALED BY
till finally they are severed from each other, and
at last each breaks, its form condenses into a
small globe, and three little planets are formed.
Now the effect of their original condition of
actual contact, can never be lost. Its impress is
left, and possibly the rotations of these imaginary planets will have been so modified by such
primitive contact as to remain, the perpetual
evidences of this original, primordial condition.
Such, then, seems to be the case with the
planets of our system. In their primitive condition, as immense annuli of gaseous matter,
their circumferences once were in physical contact. The quantity of matter in each, and their
relative diameters, would determine the influence that each would exert on the particles of
the other. This influence has determined the
periods of rotation, and these periods are now
so related to the masses and distances of the
interior and exterior planets, as to perpetuate
for ever the astonishing evidence of their primitive condition.
Doubtless much remailns yet to be done to
develop fully this and other matters of like 
THE PRESENT STATE OF ASTRONOMY. 171
import bearing on this subject. But this much
must be allowed, that the farther we advance,
the deeper we penetrate the arcana of Nature,
the more emphatically does it declare the probability of the truth of the nebular cosmogony of
the universe.
If it should now be found that this theory
coincides, as far as we can understand, with the
Mosaic account of creation, we can safely pros
nounce that in this particular, in the present
state of astronomical science, the revelations of
Nature and of that book which professes to
come from God, are not at variance. It is to
the consideration of this subject we next invite
your attention. 
I 
LECTURE IV.
TiHE MOSMAIC ACCOUNT OF CREATION COMPARED WITH
THE COSMOGONY OF THE UNIVERSE AS REVEALED
IN THE ACTUAL CONDITION OF ASTRONOMY.  
LECTURE IV.
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF CREATIONS COMPARED WITH
THE COSMOGONY OF THE UNIVERSE AS REVEALED IN
THE ACTUAL CONDITION OF ASTRONCM[Y.
"IN the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth." This is the sublime declaration
of an historian whose writings are nearly a
thousand years anterior to those of all others
now in existence. It is the opening declaration
of that wonderful volume which professes to have
come from the ever-living God. It was recorded
more than three thousand five hundred years
ago. It was written at a time when darkness,
deep, impenetrable, covered the nations af the
earth, and at a time when from one extremity
of the peopled globe to the other, no true knowledge of the universe prevailed. Read the language.  Mark well the words.   Observe their
order of arrangement.   "In  the beginning."
Not six or sixty thousand years ago; not six
natural days prior to the creation of Adam; not 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT
on the first day of the earliest age, some millions
of years backward, as the Hindoos assert;-but
simply,-in the beginning. Mind, on the swiftest
and strongest pinions of thought, may strive in
vain to comprehend the meaning of that term.
Who shall set limits and bounds to the creative
energy of God?  Who shall say that, from all
eternity up to within that point of time, six
thousand years, no act of creation had been put
forth by divine omnipotence? Moses did not
thus dare to circumscribe the powers of the
Almighty. HIe declares that in the beginning,
when in the wisdom of God creation was to
begin, the fiat went forth, and God created the
heavens and the earth. Jehovah is the agent in
this grand drama of Nature. Whether a spiritual universe then existed, we know not; whether
thrones, dominions, princedoms, virtues, powers,
the spiritual hierarchs of heaven, were then
present to celebrate this new development of
divine power, we know not: we are only told
the work was God's exclusive, almighty effort.
It was a creation, —a calling into being that
which had not previously existed. It was not
176 
OF CREATION.
an organization of existent chaos. There was
no chaos, so far as matter is concerned; boundless, interminable vacuity reigned throughout the
empire of space. But a new era was to dawn.
Material creation was now to commence. The
beginning of time was attained. The on-going
of eternity was interrupted, and an unknown
display, grand, magnificent, unutterable, was
now to be made to the angelic spirits, if such
then existed.
"God created the heavens and the earth."
Mark well the order. The more exalted and
dignified takes rank. Not the earth and the
heavens, but the heavens and the earth. And
now what was this creation thus briefly but
sublimely announced? Was it indeed an instantaneous peopling of space with the mighty
globes that now move and shine? Did space,
on the instant, flame and blaze with myriads of
glorious suns and revolving planets?   Were
these wondrous orbs instantly projected into
space, and taught to describe their amazing
paths? Was the solid earth, moulded in the
Creator's hand, launched upon its never ending
8*
177 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT
career?   All  this  is impossible.   No  such
announcement is made; and the very reverse
of all this is true. The first grand act was the
calling into being the matter, out of which and
from which the heavens and the earth were
to be fashioned and formed. It was the first,
glorious, stupendous act of physical creation.
It was bringing into being that which had not
previously existed, the provision of inexhaustible material from which a universe was to be
formed.
This is abundantly demonstrated in the succeeding declaration, in which we are told that
the earth was without form, and void. How
could this earth have been without form, if it
had been already fashioned as a globe? How
could it be void, if its solid rocks already rubbed
its sides, and its huge mountain ranges lifted
their barriers to the clouds.   The earth was
without form, and void.   The matter for its
future formation existed, but as yet no fashioning had been accomplished,-all was without
form.   Primordial atoms filled the deep profound.  Go  was the mighty center; Infinitude
178 
OF OREATION.
alone could tell the boundary.  "And darkness
rested on the face of the great deep." What
deep? Not surely the ocean, for as yet there
was none. It was the great deep of unfathomable space; a deep so profound that no line can
fathom its profoundities, no eye but God's can
penetrate its dark domain.
Here, then, it would seem, is pictured forth,
in language not to be misunderstood, a primitive
form or condition of matter, a primordial existence, anterior to sun, or planet, or blazing star.
Darkness rested on the face of the great deep,
and yet in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. How, again I ask, can this
be construed to mean the visible heavens, and
existent earth, if darkness yet rested over the
great deep?   Every expression is positive and
absolute; and whether there is revealed in the
physical heavens or not, any evidence of the
fact that matter once filled the capacious womb
of space, in some existent condition, unclothed
with any of its present attributes, this is assuredly asserted, if we can read aright, by the
sacred historian.
179 
THE  MOSAIC ACCOUNT
Let it be further remarked, that the word
here translated "created," is nowhere else employed throughout this narrative.   There was
but one creation, and that was of matter, and in
the beginning. From all which we draw the
conclusion, that Moses asserts that the matter
of which the existent physical universe is built,
was once without form, and void, filling with its
ultimate particles the boundless domain of space,
while darkness covered the face of the great deep!
Such, then, is the first grand act in the drama
of creation. Matter is now existent, but form
less, motionless, void, filling immensity, waiting
the next high command from Him who called
it into being.  "And the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters." Then it was that
matter first felt the vivifying power of God.
We can not for one moment conceive that the
waters of the ocean are here alluded to. It was
the vast ocean of matter which filled the boundaries of space.   This fathomless, interminable
ocean, without limit, without bounds, this it
was on which the Spirit of God moved, and
gave to each particle of matter its now eternal
180 
OF CREATION.
function. Then first each particle of this vast
unformed universe of matter felt and acknowledged the attractive power of every other; universal gravitation asserted its empire, and God's
Spirit taught the ponderable particle the laws of
motion.
"And God said, Let there be light; and
there was light." How simple, how sublime,
this stupendous declaration!   Well may the
Greek have marked its power and recognized
its grandeur. God uttered the command, and
quicker than thought the light-giving principle,
the law of production and propagation of this
great mystery, fills the universe of space. Struck
by the moving atoms, its billows heaved in gentle undulations, and borne on its crested billow,
light yet struggling in gloom spread feebly
through the abyss of space.
The mighty reservoirs of light, which now
flame on high, did not exist. There was as yet
no sun to flood with light the boundless regions
of his domain; the stars were not; and yet
without these, "God said, Let there be light,
and there was light."
181 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT
Now, if this book be an imposture, a cunningly-devised fable, how marvelously has it
been devised. How utterly irreconcilable with
all the apparent phenomena of nature, to proclaim the creation of light prior to the formation
of sun or star.  Why was this?  How can it be
accounted for, if we suppose the description to
have originated with mere man.   Moses was
learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.
He was a poet, a legislator, a philosopher.
How, then, was he induced to put forth a system of creation so utterly at war with the outwards palpable appearances of nature.
This same subject has perplexed the wisest
commentators.   Some, like Milton, have had
recourse to an extraordinary fiction.
* * * And forthwith light
Sprung from the deep, and from her native east,
To journey through the airy gloom began,
Sphered in a radiant cloud. * * *
By this wonderful device, of which Moses says
nothing, light is made to journey from east to
west, and thus produce the change of day and
182 
OF CREATION.
night. I can not but feel such an hypothesis to
be not only unnecessary, but degrading. For
what purpose should light now be throned in
"a radiant cloud?" to take up a journey about
a nonexistent earth? to produce an evening
and morning, when the evening and morning
now marked by men could have had no being.
Are we not led to higher thoughts by this
sublime announcement?   We  know not what
light is.   Thus far God  has chosen to conceal the character of this grand effect.   One
thing, however, seems  to be certain.   There
exists throughout all space a medium or elastic
fluid, imponderable, intangible, whose undulations, excited by certain bodies, produce the
phenomenon of light. At the command of God,'
"Let there be light," this ethereal fluid filled
the universe, and between it and the particles
of matter a law of rotation was instantly established, by which the faint dawn of the morning of time broke upon the universe. It was
the beginning of a great day, one of the mighty
days  of eternity, -a day which  has  grown
brighter through all past revolving ages,-a day
183 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT
that can only end when God shall bid the physi
cal universe depart, and all shall be spirit again!
In this dim portraiture of Moses, we perceive
a strange accordance with the order of creation,
as derived from our preceding investigation.
After the creation of matter, and the enactment
of the great laws of motion and gravitation, the
production of light should follow next, in the
grand progressive movement.   But let us not
here mingle cause and effect. It was because
God commanded, that light was. Light would
not have followed as a consequence of the condensation of matter, for there would then have
been no vehicle for its transmission; and therefore there could have been no light.  For its
production, two things are required,-the elastic
medium, and bodies to set this medium in
motion with the required velocity of undulation.
All matter does not possess the power of causing the elastic medium to undulate with such
velocity as to produce light to the human eye.
For its use a very restricted limit of vibration is
required.   For some eyes  this limit may  be
extended, for others it may be contracted. But
184 
OF CREATION.
the grand principle God called into being, when
he said, "Let there be light."
The severance between light and darkness is
far more absolute than is apparent from a casual
examination.    The  laws  of  vibration of the
elastic medium, by whose undulations light is
either formed or propagated, must fall within
very restricted limits; hence, by the enactment
of these laws of action, God separated most
emphatically between light and darkness. We
are moreover informed that "God saw the light
that it was good;" the laws established were
perfect; this medium by which the existence of
the physical universe was to be revealed to intelligent beings, had already commenccd its flight
through space. The result was in accordance
with the will of the Divine Architect, the end
was accomplished, perfection reigned.
And now we are told, "God called the light
Day, and darkness he called Night." The introduction of this passage, in so grand and sublime
a description, occasions some degree of perplexity. At the time this naming of day and night
took place there was neither the one nor the
185 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT
other. There was no sun, and no earth; and it
any naming actually took place, it could only
have been in anticipation. If we might be per
mitted slighty to paraphrase the passage, it
accordance with the statements with which;!
stands connected, would be complete, while ar
appropriateness is at once evident for such ar
additional explanation. Had the passage beer
written, And God called the light what we cat
Day, and the darkness what we call Night, ther
it becomes a simple explanation of the meaning
of the terms, light and darkness, and all perplex
ity is removed.
This closes the account of the first grand
epoch in creation. Matter was called into being;
the laws of gravitation and motion were estab
lished, and functions of all the varying particles
of matter had been assigned.   The vast and
incomprehensible machinery for the production
and propagation of light was finished; light
itself had sped at the bidding of God from the
center to the circumference; all was perfect;and here closes the first great period.   The
evening and the morning, the beginning and the
186 
OF CREATION.
ending, the night of ancient vacuity was closed,
and the morning of a new creation had dawned;
the first day, the primary period of time was
now complete.
Such, at least, is the interpretation which is
possible. Great perplexity has arisen from the
use of the word day in this connection. If we
understand by the term day a period of twentyfour hours, such as now exist, the statement of
Moses  is perfectly inexplicable.   The  writer
knew as well as we do, that a day,-a natural
day,-is produced by the apparent revolution of
the sun about the earth. This is a matter of
vulgar observation; and he could never have
so far lost sight of the possibility of his account
of this wonderful event, the creation of a universe, as to speak of the natural evening and
morning constituting a literal day, to terminate
the work of God, when there was no possible
means by which a day could be produced. The
word translated Day, can not, then, as here
employed, mean a period of twenty-four hours.
Indeed, we are informed, in the Second Chapter
of Genesis, that "these are the generation of the
187 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT
heavens and of the earth, when they were cre ated, in the day that the Lord God made the
earth and the heavens."  Here it seems to be
announced that the work was finished in one
day, as the same word is used in the singular.
-We  are compelled, then, to believe that the
word translated day, is a mere expression of a
period of time of indefinite duration, and may
extend to millions of years. This usage accords
well with the customs of all ancient nations in
the varied application of terms designating periods of time. We find a like latitude among the
Hindoos, the Babylonians, the Egyptians, adopted by the Greeks, and copied by the Romans.
The Egyptian Zaros seems to have had several
distinct applications to periods of time, of different values.   So, also, the use of the word,
"year," in Latin "annus," a ring, a circle, or
revolution, has been extended among the ancient
nations to all possible periods of time. It is not
then at all surprising, that an indefinite period
of time should have been designated by Moses
under the word translated, day. There is an
objection urged against this interpretation and
188 
OF CREATION.
use, growing out of the enactment of the Sab.
bath, which we will consider more at length
before closing this examination. We now proceed to consider the Mosaic account of the second grand period in the creation.
"And God said, Let there be a firmament in
the midst of the waters, and let it divide the
waters from the waters. And God made the
firmament, and divided the waters which were
under the firmament from the waters which
were above the firmament; and it was so." In
this passage we find the effect of imperfect
knowledge of nature upon the minds of the truly
great and learned men to whom we are indebted
for our received translation. The old idea of a
firmamentum, a something solid, like the crystal,
transparent spheres of the ancients, clung to the
human mind long after the absurdity was exploded in the minds of a few philosophers. The
word translated " firmament," means, as is well
known, an extension, an expanse, a sort of severance or vacuity, rather than any thing solid
or firm; and in this sense, of course, we must
consider it. Again, the word translated- "waters"
189 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT
can not in any way refer to seas, oceans, and
rivers on the earth, and to clouds and mist which
float in the atmosphere above the earth. There
were no waters such as now exist, and no earth
such as we now inhabit. How, then, are we to
understand this announcement of the work
accomplished by the Almighty Architect during
this second period of creation? Suppose it had
been written, "And God said, Let concentration
of matter now proceed,-let the boundless ocean
of material vapor divide and separate,-let vacuity intervene between the mighty masses which
shall aggregate and segregate about their appointed centers,-and let this expanse be divided
between the masses which shall lie above the
expanse and those which lie beneath it,"-this
would have been in so many words a description
of the mighty processes which must have distinguished the period which immediately followed
that one during which matter was created and
the laws of matter established. At the bidding
of God, under the controlling power of those
laws by which He is pleased to manifest His
divine will, and around centers of His own selec
190 
OF CREATION.
tion, the germs of future worlds were now beginning to form. Previously matter had been diffused like a boundless atmosphere, a material
mist filling all space. Now aggregation begins
and proceeds, severing this infinite nebulous
mass into definite portions, an expanse divides
these aggregations, concentration proceeds, and
we perceive that an entire day, a vast period
comparable with that which elapsed during the
enactment of the first great act, rolls away
while the work of separation and segregation
proceeds.
Here was truly a grand and magnificent work.
The selection of the great centers of aggregation
was the work of Omniscience.  These must be
so located that the forming worlds shall in no
degree interfere with each other. They must
be so selected that in the development of the
mighty systems to be brought into being, there
should be space commensurate with the grand
movements which were to be evolved. Matter
was not left to itself. God was in all and over
all; His wisdom sketched the mighty plan of
creation on a scale commensurate with the glory
191 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT
and majesty and grandeur of His divine perfections.
Let us now examine the condition of the universe at the close of the second great epoch. If
the division was perfected, in multitudes of
instances at least we may conceive that the condensation had proceeded not only sufficiently far
to produce vast globular bodies, but that these
globes had condensed, and in the act of contraction and condensation, the planetary bodies may
have been disengaged from their equatorial
regions. There were then huge central masses
of nebulous matter, slowly rotating on their
axes, about these revolved hazy rings of matter,
or possibly the crude forms of imperfectly condensed  planets.   Light was  more  condensed,
and the grand centers of illumination were gradually increasing in power.
We are thus prepared, by the now nearly
perfected operations, having this division and
concentration of matter for their object, for the
ushering in of a new and wonderful era in creation.  The evening and the morning closed the
second day.
192 
OF CREATION.
With the opening of the third epoch we are
introduced to the definite organization of the
planetary worlds, and especially of our own
earth.   Its globular form  had  already been
moulded.  "And God said, Let the waters under
the heaven be gathered together into one place,
and let the dry land appear; and it was so."
The boundless ocean, without limit and without
shore, which had hitherto enveloped the earth,
and the dense and misty vaporous atmosphere,
retreated within narrower bounds; upheavals
reared the mighty continent; and the chains of
lofty mountains and the ocean's bed were formed;
and the decree went forth, " Hitherto shalt thou
come, but no farther; and here shall thy proud
waves be stayed."
How far like processes may have advanced
in other planets of our own or other systems,
it is useless to conjecture. Doubtless infinite
variety marks the universe of God; and the
phenomena with which we are familiar may or
may not characterize the numberless worlds
which  people  space.    The  great work  was
advancing; each step in this advance distinctly
9
193 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT
leading to the accomplishment of the final grand
object,-the preparation of a fit abode for sentient beings.   Thus far God had exerted His
power in the operation of mighty laws over
insensate matter. All was completed, and "God
said, Let the earth bring forth;" and, lo! life,
mysterious, incomprehensible principle, in its
earliest, primitive manifestation, burst upon the
universe.   Earth's teeming womb  heaved, and
up sprang the waving grass, the tender flower,
the shoot, the shrub, the tree. Earth, enrobed
in her glorious livery, shook her ten thousand
leaves, flashed back the golden hue of fruit and
flower, breathed the incense of her spicy groves,
in grateful offerings to the living God.
Such is the record. So Moses hath written,
that on the third day, before the sun was, God
commanded the earth to bring forth, and grass,
and herb, and tree, each yielding seed in its
kind, covered the earth's surface. Here three
inquiries present themselves.   First, does the
order of geological strata concur with the nebular theory?  Do the fossil remains of vegetables
occupy a location consistent with their an
194 
OF CREATION.
nounced primitive creation? and, finally, how
are we to account for the existence of vegetable
life while there is no sun.
It is not my intention, as it is not my province, to enter into a detailed discussion of each
of these questions. If we assign to our globe
a nebulous origin, its solidification would be the
consequence of radiation of heat.   A  cooling
down of the exterio& would allow the gradual
approach of the particles, until, finally, chemical
laws begin their action, crystallization follows,
and certain forms of the granitic rocks are produced.   It is enough  that eminent geologists
have advocated that the great phenomena of
the primitive formations not only possibly, but
probably, agree with the hypothesis of igneous
origin.
What, then, is the testimony with regard to
the first forms of organic life on earth? The
most than can be derived from the explorations
of geology, is the conclusion that the introduction
of animal and vegetable life was contemporaneous. This is but negative testimony, and only
demonstrates the fact, that no vegetable remains
* 195 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT
have been preserved which grew prior to the
introduction of animal life on earth. The record,
then, is left unbroken, and it yet remains to be
seen whether the more profound researches in
progress may not, at some future period, upturn
the rocky remains of the primeval vegetation,
revealed in the Mosaic record.
The third inquiry is kindred to some already
entertained.   How  could. vegetable  life exist
upon the earth, when as yet there was no sun to
fructify and animate the world? I again urge
that the objection against the truth of this
record, grounded on these facts, proves too much.
It was quite as well known to Moses three thousand five hundred years ago, as to ourselves; that
without the light and heat of the sun no vegetation can exist, and in case the writer had been
composing a theory of creation, merely from his
own human investigation and research, he never
would have committed so gross a blunder as to
people earth with fruit and flower, before he had
first formed and fashioned  the  great  central
source of all life, and light, and heat.
There is a deeper meaning in this narrative,
196 
OF CREATION.
and in case we admit the nebulous origin of our
planet, and the order of development incident to
this hypothesis, we perceive at once that all
difficulty vanishes with reference to the sustentation of animal and vegetable life, previous to
the fourth grand era, when the sun, and moon,
and stars, were to burst forth in all their magnificence and beauty.
There was light in abundance though the
great source of light was as yet vailed in a
misty shroud which no eye could have pierced
had eye then existed.
The uncondensed and unlimited atmospheric
envelope, which in the third grand epoch,
enshrouded sun and moon, and hid the forming
stars, did not forbid the penetration of light and
heat. Besides, the central heat of our globe in
itself, formed in the primitive ages a source of
vegetable activity when God had once called
vegetation into existence, which must have
stimulated the primeval forests to the most
vigorous  and luxurious  development.   Such,
indeed, is the fact, and hence we find species of
gigantic dimensions among the ruins of those
197 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT
early ages, whose existing types are so diminutive as scarcely to be recognized of the same
family.
Thus it would seem that in this third grand
era, the order of creation is in strict accordance with the determinate truths of science, and
are only to be explained and rendered intelligible, by resort to the theory of the nebulous
origin of our planet.
It should ever be borne carefully in mind, that
all we have said is but an attempted interpretation. This may be entirely wrong and utterly
false, while the Mosaic record shall remain eter,
nal as truth itself. We interpret by the light
of existent science. What new beams may be
hereafter kindled no one will venture to predict,
and what wonderful modifications of interpretation may be presented in the light of these new
fires, it is equally impossible to divine.
We have now reached the fourth grand epoch
in the formation of the universe. "And God
said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the
heavens to divide the day from the night, and let
them be for signs and for seasons, and for days
198 
OF CREATION.
and for years; and let them be for lights in the
firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the
earth, and it was so. And God made two great
lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the
lesser light to rule the night; He made the stars
also; and God set them in the firmament of the
heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule
over the day and over the night, and to divide
the light from the darkness, and God saw that it
was good."
We have already adverted to our explanation
of the prominent fact proclaimed in this passage.
The formation of the sun, moon, and planets,
on the fourth day of creation.   In case we
admit the origin proposed in our foregoing
examinations, we will readily understand that
many ages would roll away, even after the commenced formation of the solar system, before the
sun, or moon, or stars, would either hold their
present form or exhibit their present appearance.
Moses was not commissioned to reveal the details
of scientific truth, but simply to present the
grand outlines and order of progressive creation
or development. He declares then simply that
199 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT
before the sun, and moon, and stars, as they no-.
exist were formed, certain antecedent event
had  occurred.   These were  the  creation of
matter;  the enactment of physical laws; thc
generation of light; the formation of an expanse,
by the aggregation of matter, around appointed
centers; the final consolidation of our earth;
the emergence of its lands and continents from
the primeval seas; the clothing of earth with
vegetable life. Such are the facts announced as
existent prior to the formation of the sun, moon,
and stars, as we now see them. We interpret,
moreover, Moses to say, that three vast periods
of time, denominated "days," had already passed
away, and now the question arises, may all these
events have preceded the present physical constitution of sun, moon, and stars. We are disposed to answer this question in the affirmative
and without hesitation, and even to assert that
this is the precise order of nature, in case the
nebular theory be the true cosmogony of the
universe.
It is useless to go into extensive details after
what we have already said; I will remark, how
200 
OF CREATION.
ever, that our earth is one of the smallest of all
the planets. It was thrown from the sun's
equator a long time after the outer planets, and
at a time when a comparative condensation of
the  sun's matter  had been reached.   Being
small, it would lose its caloric with great rapidity,
and would cool down far more rapidly than the
larger planets, and almost infinitely faster than
the sun.   It would,  therefore, become  a fit
theater for vegetable existence, long before the
sun would lose its nebulosity, a part of which
even yet remains, and long before its own atmosphere had become sufficiently translucent to
permit the sun, or moon, or stars, to be seen,
even had they existed in their present welldefined and brilliant forms.
We perceive, therefore, that it was not until
all the events above narrated had  occurred,
that it could be said that God placed two great
lights in the firmament to rule the day, and to
divide between the day and the night, and to be
for signs and for seasons and for days and for
y)ears. Previous to this period, they could have
served none of these ends; they were not great
9*
201 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT
lights any more than they now are when our
atmosphere, dense with vapor, renders them
invisible; they did not divide distinctly between
the day and the night; no one could have distinguished, at the first opening of human eye on
the then existent world, whether it was day or
night; a dim, nebulous haze pervaded the earth,
-a sort of luminous fog, such as now visits us,
and renders it impossible to distinguish the
light of a concealed moon from the coming of
day. There was no sunrise visibly distinct, even
if mortal eye had existed to see it. There was,
in like manner, no sunset. Day and night,
though  severed, were  not separable.   They
were intermingled; it was, or would have been,
impossible for us to have pronounced where the
one ended and the other commenced. But this
condition of things had now reached its termination. The atmosphere had been gradually becoming transparent; the sun had been condensing; the moon had, in like manner, gradually
assumed her definite outlines; and, finally, a
purity of the ethereal regions and of the earth's
atmosphere was gained,-such that two great
202 
OF CREATION.
lights shone forth in the heavens, to divide the
day from the night, and the stars also glittered
in the blue vault.
Previous to this condition of nature, neither
the sun, moon, nor stars could be said to give
their light upon the earth as they now give it.
More especially was it impossible for these
celestial orbs to fill for man one great end of
their being and organization. Mark well the
language:-They were given for signs and for
seasons, and for days and for years. They were
to give their light upon the earth. Previous to
this epoch they could neither be for signs nor
seasons, nor for days, nor months, nor years;
they could not give their light on the earth in
the individual, specific sense in which it is now
given.
There are those who find in this narrative of
the formation of sun, moon, and stars, and the
appointment of their functions with reference to
our earth, an extravagant prominence of so
small a planet as our earth, and a sort of degradation of these great celestial orbs, in making
them in any sense tributary to the earth. But
203 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT
if any one will attempt to modify the record of
Moses, so as to avoid any appearance of subordination of the sun, moon, and stars to the earth,
and yet to retain a distinct statement of the
uses of these celestial orbs, the task will be
found far more difficult than it appears at first
view. Let it be remembered that no distinct
revelation of astronomical facts was intended.
Moses was not to declare the relative magnitude
of the sun and moor., and earth and stars; he
was not to reveal the functions of these bodies
with reference to other planets; it was only in
relation to the earth that their characteristics
were to be presented. These bodies do sustain
the very relations to the earth announced by
Moses. The sun and moon are two great lights,
which rule over the day and the night, and the
stars shed their light upon the earth. Let us
go back in imagination to the condition of things
during the preceding eras in the earth's history.
Let us people the earth with intelligent beings,
organized like ourselves, at the time when
neither sun, nor moon, nor stars were visible,when there was no distinct separation between
204 
OF CREATION.
day and night,-when the impenetrable atmospheric veil, like the present clouds of earth, shut
out forever the sun, moon, and stars. What
would have been man's condition on such an
earth? The climate might have been never so
pure and genial; perpetual spring might have
spread its beauties over the virgin earth; fruit,
and flower, and the ripened corn and the clustering grape might have wooed the hand of man;
the earth might have spread upon her surface
every thing to enchant the eye, or gratify the
taste, or satiate the appetite, and yet man would
have lived in a dimly-illumined prison. The
earth alone would have been his universe. How
could he have risen to any knowledge of the
glories of God? Could he ever have surmised
even the actual condition of the planet he inhabited? All would have been a twilight far more
deep and sombre to his intellect than that natural gloom which surrounded his physical frame.
How wonderful would have been the change to
such inhabitants of earth, when the sun burst
forth for the first time and flooded the earth
with light! when the moon. throned among her
205 
THE MOSAIC AOOOUNT
shining stars, assumed her reign over the dewy
night! when days and months, and seasons and
years began to mark the on-going of time!
How wonderful a change would this have been,
and yet God appointed these specific functions
to these mighty orbs, and neither more nor less
is asserted by Moses.
It is not asserted that the sun and moon and
stars were formed for no other purpose than to
give light to the earth. God set them in the
firmament, in the expanse, in space, in such
positions as to yield their light in quantities
adapted to the wants of earth. Their distances
were accurately adjusted, they were firmly set
in the heavens, so that no derangement could
ever occur to deprive the earth of its supply of
light, or to flood it with an insufferable blaze.
It is not my province to follow further in
detail the order of creation. I have now closed
an examination of so much of the Mosaic account
as belongs specifically to the science of Astron.
omy. On the fifth day we are informed that
the waters were commanded "to bring forth
abundantly every moving creature that hath life,
206 
OF CREATION.
and the fowl that may fly above the earth."
On the sixth day the earth was commanded to
bring forth "the living creature after his kind,
cattle and creeping thing, and every beast of the
earth after his kind, and it was so;" and, finally,
after the earth had been clothed with vegetation,
after the ocean teemed with its inhabitants, after
bird and beast peopled the earth, "God said,
Let us make man in our own image, after our
own likeness."
Man, then, according to the account of Moses,
was only placed upon the earth after all inferior
races had been formed. On the third day, or
during the third great period, vegetation was
brought into being; on the fourth, the sun,
moon, and stars broke through the misty shroud
that had previously enveloped them; on the
fifth day the ocean and air were peopled with
their tribes; on the sixth, earth teemed with
its flocks and herds; and, finally, man was
formed, and God breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, and he became a living soul.
Such is the order of creation in the heavens
and on the earth, announced by Moses,-such
207 
OF CREATION.
Nations scattered over the surface of the earth,
widely separated and without intercourse, have
adopted the same, conventionally demonstrating
that it must have descended to each from some
common origin.
I do not perceive, then, that a valid objection
can be urged against the long periods by which
the word "day" is interpreted, in consequence
of the institution of the sabbath.
I place myself in the attitude of one disposed
to cavil at the claims of the Bible, and when I
see so curious, so unexpected, so astonishing a
parallelism between the facts of the Mosaic
record and those which are evolved on the
present most probable scientific hypotheses;
when I reflect that the division of time now in
use is to be traced back to a period far beyond
the reach of history, I do not feel that an interpretation, which has about it so much the air of
truth and probability, can be shaken by an
objection based upon the institution of the sabbath of rest.
Let us look for some higher, some more positive proof of the human origin of this strange
209 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT
book. Surely, if it be the composition of mere
man, and of many men, we shall find it deficient
in some department of science. For the present, then, let us abandon this objection, in case
more powerful ones can be urged, and should we
find this to be the only one, we may abandon it
with the greater safety.
Such is the exposition and interpretation
which we are disposed to put upon this Scriptural account, of the great operation of creation.
It may be defective, it may be even radically
wrong. The nebular hypothesis itself may be
superseded by some other theory entirely different, when more light shall be shed upon this
account, and its truth or falsehood may be.forever irrevocably fixed. What may come we
know not, until science shall reveal a true cosmogony; until science shall have fixed on a basis
of truth strong and immovable her assertions
with reference to this great event, a final positive  investigation  will  be  impossible.   This
entire account must be viewed in the light of a
prophetic declaration, which, unfulfilled, no one
can with certainty interpret, but the moment the
210 
OF OiEATION.
accomplishment has taken place, then a blaze of
light is thrown upon every line of the prophetic
announcement, and it is all instinct with light
and truth. Such, doubtless, will be the case
with reference to the Mosaic account of creation.
If it be the dictation of the ever-living God, then
in His own time He will permit the human mind
to rise higher and still higher in its researches
in the universe, until, God aiding, it shall reach,
bv its own struggles, to the knowledge of the
plan by which this world we inhabit, these
planets that roll and shine, and yonder sun,
luminiferous and resplendent with all the host
of Heaven, were brought to people the unlimited
regions of vacuity.
In the mean time, let us bring to the test of
exact scientific examination those passages
which may be scattered through this volume,
and learn the result of this critical scrutiny.
211 
4p 
LECTURE V.
AN EXAMINATION OF THE ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
IN THE BOOK OF JOB 
LECTURE V.
AN EXALNATION OF THE ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
IN THE BOOK OF JOB 
I . 
LECTURE V.
AN XAMINATON OF THE ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS IN
THE BOOK OF JOB.
TrE authorship of this remarkable book seems
not to be clearly settled.   All are, however,
agreed in assigning to it the highest antiquity.
Although the incidents recorded are of the most
astonishing character, its claims to its place in
the sacred canon remains undisputed. With a
short introduction in prose, and a still shorter
close, this book is a poem of the highest order.
We are not, however, concerned with its poetry,
or with the style or nature of the composition;
we are not called upon to discuss its beautiful
imagery or its exquisite language;-it is only in
its incidental and wonderful use of certain grand
phenomena of nature that we claim a special
interest. A controversy between Job and his
three friends occupies a large proportion of the
poem; the arguments are finally summed up by 
ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
a fifth individual, Elihu, when Jehovah's voice
is heard out of the whirlwind pronouncing judgment.
It is within the limits of this part of the poem
that we find a series of questions propounded,
having for their specific object the utter overthrow and humiliation of the feeble judgment of
man. When we consider the age in which this
book must have been composed, and the utter
impossibility that any knowledge of the true
system of the universe then obtained, we shall
be compelled to acknowledge the exceeding difficulty of propounding, at that early day, any
series of astronomical inquiries which could be
put, at the present day, with equal certainty of
accomplishing the object designed by these interrogatories.
This may not be so readily granted by some:
first, because they may contend for a very high
state of intelligence among the primitive nations
in astronomical science; and, second, because it
may be by some asserted that it is by no
means difficult for the ignorant to propound
queries which the wise can not answer.
216 
IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
I have examined with some care the attainments of the early nations in astronomy. Almost nothing has come down to us directly from
the primitive nations; but as the Greek philosophers traveled extensively among the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and Hindoos, we may
confidently assert that little important knowledge could have been concealed from these
earnest and devoted seekers after knowledge.
Should we even admit the claims to authenticity of the most remote observations even upon
the heliacal rising of the stars upon eclipses, an(
upon the conjunctions which are contended for
by the most ardent devotees to the antique in
science, we shall scarcely go back, in any one
of these simple astronomical observations, to the
age in which this poem was composed. It bears
within it evidence (as we shall presently see)
of high antiquity.  If, then, the Greek philosophers could draw almost nothing from the,e
imagined treasures of early knowledge,-if the
crude notions and reasonings of Pythagoras are
fair specimens of the ideas entertained by the
primitive nations among whom he studied, we
10
217 
ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
certainly can not claim any real knowledge of
the true system of the universe for so high an
antiquity. We do not think it possible that any
such knowledge could have been lost, if evei
reached by any of the ancient nations.   The
Hindoos claim, in common with the Egyptiane
and Babylonians, a very high antiquity. Thesc
claims we propose to consider hereafter.   Whilc
they urge these claims to be of high antiquity, onc
thing is certain, they urge no claims to superior
knowledge of the system of nature. The very
crudest notions were entertained with referencc
to the most striking phenomena, and a manifes"
ignorance prevailed with reference to their true
cause and interpretation.
It is, I think, impossible, then, to affirm that;
in the age to which we must assign the composi
tion of this poem, any such knowledge of thc
order, and laws, and phenomena of nature, and
of our system, prevailed as would have served
to guide him who attempted to propound a series
of deep and difficult questions. With regard to
the second objection, that an ignorant person
may ask questions which great wisdom can not
218 
IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
answer,-while we admit the force of the truism,
we do not think it applicable to the present case.
We affirm that a positive evidence of the amount
of knowledge which any one possesses of any
subject, will be perfectly evinced by the following test: give to the person under examination
an extended series of questions relating to the
science professed, and bid him select the most
difficult from the printed catalogue; accident
may aid him for one or two questions, but
admitting him to be ignorant of the answers
to all the questions, they are all equally difficult
to him, anid, of course, on this hypothesis any
selection would inevitably betray his ignorance,
and should he succeed in making a selection
truly involving the most difficult inquiries (he
being ignorant), it could only be accounted for
by the intervention of divine aid.
If we admit, then, that the Book of Job was
composed in an age of the world when all were
ignorant of the true system of the universe, and
if within its compass we should find a series of
astronomical inquiries, professedly selected and
put to overwhelm the human mind, in case these
219 
220    ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
same inquiries, at this day and in the full blaze
of science, and with all our knowledge of the
system of nature, should be equally overwhelming, we should in reason acknowledge that they
could not have been propounded by human
ignorance, and must have proceeded, as is professed, from the mouth of Him who built the
universe, and to whom all secrets were open as
the face of day.
With these preliminary remarks, we proceed
to examine the subject with all humility and
candor.   "Then the Lord answered Job out
of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that
darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?"
One of the most sublime sentences that ever
was penned!  Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Who is this
who pretends to call in question the justice of
the government of Jehovah?   Is God to be
arraigned by worms  of the dust? by beings
whose profoundest wisdom is but darkness,whose
efforts to elucidate but spread a deeper darkness?
"Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will
demand of thee, and answer thou me."  If, in. 
IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
deed, ye are competent to sit in judgment on
the acts of God, then surely your wisdom must
have taught you the grand secrets of nature.
"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations
of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if
thou knowest; or who hath stretched the line
upon  it?   Whereupon  are  the  foundations
thereof fastened; or who hath laid the cornerstone thereof? When the morning stars sang
together, and all the sons of God shouted for
joy?"
Could the astonished Job, or his still more
astonished opponents, make any response to
these humiliating questions?  IHas there ever
been a time, following down the thousands of
years which have elapsed even to the present
moment, when all the accumulated wisdom of
man could make any reply?
Some may object to this passage, and urge
that it actually intimates an ignorance of the
true condition of the earth by the interrogation,
otherwise the word "foundations" would not
have been used. To this objection let me an
221 
ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSION&
swer that the Hebrew word translated "founda.
tions" means really sockets, something whereon
a pivot turns; and the word translated "fastened" is better rendered, "made  to sink," as
though the question had been put, in case this
earth is fixed, and the heavens revolve about it
whereon are the sockets made to sink, of the
axis of this revolution? or if the earth itself
rotates, tell me how are the sockets fastened by
which it is sustained?
If this should appear to any one an overstrained paraphrase or translation,  if it still
be asserted that there is not in the passage sufficient ground for such an interpretation, I must
beg the common privilege of all interpreters to
explain the difficult and doubtful passages of this
book by others from the same book throwing
light upon the same  subject.   If it still be
asserted that the word "foundations" is to be
considered as referring to the vulgar notion that
the earth was fixed on some unknown support,
by which it was buoyed up, I must quote a
single sentence, as beautiful as it is wonderful,
which will place forever this matter at rest. In
222 
IN THE BOOK  OF JOB.
another part of this poem, when acknowledging
the majesty and power of God, Job declares that
' Hle" (God) "stretcheth out the north over the
empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." How astonishing is this declaration! God
stretcheth out the north over vacuity, over
immensity. Deep sunk in space, away in the
remote north, in the region of vacuity, was seen
that point about which either the heavens or the
earth revolved. But the earth itself hanyeth on
nothing. It is suspended in space; there are no
foundations; and who can tell whereon are fastened the sockets of its rotation?
Let us come, then, to the answer to this
question.   Propound it to the modern astronomer, to the geometer of the present age.
Whereupon is the earth hung in empty space,
and where is fastened the socket on which its
firm axle is fixed? Shall it be answered that
the earth is linked to the great center by the
power of universal gravitation? What, I demand,
is this potent energy which has been named
gravitation. Wherein is this power lodged?
Who hath ever grasped it in his hand, or seen,
223 
ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
or heard, or felt it? Not one. Let us not mis take-gravitation is but a name; it is the repre sentation of a vast multitude of phenomena, wit nessed in the heavens and upon the earth,
attributable to a cause always acting according
to an invariable law,-and we call this gravitation. No one has ever conceived what it is,
-no one, probably, ever will conceive what it
may be; and all we can say is this, that the
great First Cause is pleased to manifest His
power in the guidance of the orbs of heaven
according to one uniform law established by Himself, and to a knowledge of that law of operation
man has been permitted to reach;-and here he
stops. Not an inch beyond can he advance;
and with all his present knowledge, -and I
admit it to be great,-he can not answer the
question, Whereon are the sockets of the earth
fastened, and by whom were they fixed, when
God stretched out the north over the empty
space, and hung the solid globe, with all its
millions, its forests, and oceans, and mountains,
upon nothing? When the morning stars sang
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
224 
IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
It may still be urged that no inquiry, with
reference to the earth, could be made which
could be answered; that they are all equally
difficult and equally unanswerable, if taken in
the broad sense we have claimed for the foregoing inquiry. I answer that this is not the
case. Suppose it had been asked,-Knowest
thou the form of the earth on which thou dwellest?  Canst thou comprehend its mighty outlines by thy tiny measures? Hast thou weighed
it in a balance and computed its dimensions?
Each of these questions, in my opinion, would
have been just as unanswerable by Job or his
friends as those actually put; while to the
modern astronomer their approximate answer at
least would present no difficulty, and we should
at this day have regarded such questions as
proof positive that the interrogator was only
proposing questions which he could not himself
answer.
This first question which we have considered
regarded the solid earth. We now come to the
examination of the second interrogation:" Or
who shut up the sea with doors when it broke
Io*
225 
A226 STRONOMIAL ALLUSIONS
forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? when
I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick
darkness a swaddling-band for it, and broke up
for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?"
I must be permitted here to remark, once for
all, that it is in these and kindred passages that
the greatest difficulty has been found by translators. This will be readily appreciated when
we reflect how difficult it is for us to comprehend a work written even in our own language
that refers to matters of science of which we are
ignorant.   The  difficulty is increased,  in an
enormous ratio, if we be attempting to translate
a foreign tongue, and the matters treated of are
such as we could not comprehend, even if written in our own language.   Such was the difficulty encountered by the translators of the Bible
in all those cases involving a reference to scientific matters, of which not only themselves but
the age in which they lived were ignorant. It
was even worse than this. False notions were
entertained, to accord with which, in many
226 
IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
instances, there was a disposition to bend the
sense of the original, to make it, as was supposed, the more intelligible.
In this interrogation the passage translated,
"and brake up for it my decreed place," is prop
erly rendered, "established my decree upon it;"
that is, upon the ocean; a decree by which it
should be forever governed. No one, who has
considered the problem of the stability of the
ocean, can fail to recognize the depth and difficulty of the inquiry here propounded. Look
at this mighty mass of waters, covering more
than two thirds of the entire surface of the
globe, subject to the influence of the fierce and
resistless tornado, wrought up into tumultuous
confusion, its waves rolling and dashing against
the clouds, and lashing with fury the resounding
shore. Where, I ask, is the guarantee that whole
continents shall not be submerged, and every
vestige of life swept from the surface of the
earth?
Hiow wonderful are the adjustments by which
the ocean is fixed within the limits assigned by
the decree of Omnipotence! Let us point out
227 
A STRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
some of those conditions without which no
stability could exist. If it were possible to
empty the waters of earth's oceans into the cavities which probably diversify the surface of the
planet Saturn, and thus spread over its surface
the heavy ocean of earth, so long as all was
tranquil the waves would sleep, and a placid
ocean would spread its unbroken sheet from
shore to shore.   But now  let loose upon its
surface the mighty force of those winds which
stir its profoundest depths on earth, and no
precipitous shore, no mountain barrier, could
restrain the swelling billow; it would heave, and
dash, and rise, till, finally, breaking every barrier, it would engulf island and continent, and
chaos would assert its ancient empire.
HIow is it, then, that the ocean on earth is
shut up with bars and doors, while, if removed
to Saturn, no decree of earth can bind it? It
is due to the fact that there exists a nice
adjustment of the relative specific gravity of the
solid earth and the fluid wave, and of the gaseous atmosphere. The earth greatly preponderates over the gravity of the ocean, and the ocean
228 
IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
vastly preponderates over the gravity of the
air. If our ocean were removed to Saturn, this
fluid, unstable covering would possess a greater
specific gravity than the solid body of the
planet, and it would be like a globe of cork
swimming in an envelop of water. The least
cause of derangement would cause the waters
to rush to one side of the planet, and the globe
would, in some sense, float on this concentrated abyss of waters, to be tossed and rolled
over and over, and every portion submerged
at any and  every moment.   Such would be
the condition of the earth were the relative
specific gravities of the earth, air, and water
changed.
But the power of the atmosphere is not the
only force which disturbs the tranquillity of the
ocean wave. All are familiar with the phenomenon of the tides; those wonderful heavings of
the mass of waters which are periodical, and are
due to the powerful influence of the moon and
sun. We know that astonishing variations in
the heights of the tidal waves occur at different
epochs, and why may it not happen that by some
229 
ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
dire conjunction of conspiring influences, this
mighty wave shall not overleap the appointed
barriers, and submerge the earth? Here, again,
the conditions of equilibrium are as wonderful
as they are complicated. What will be thought
when I tell you that this stability of the ocean
involves nothing less than the organization of
the entire solar system!   Each  one  of  the
worlds constituting this stupendous system has
its part to play in maintaining the decree which
God has established upon the ocean. At one
period in the history of astronomy it seemed
that the decree of God must one day be violated.
The moon has been slowly approaching the earth
from the earliest ages of the world. From this
approach the tides due to her influence are now
heaved up to a greater height than they were
four thousand years ago. Should this decrease
in the moon's distance continue, the time must
come when the tide, rising superior to every
barrier, would whelm the earth, and God's
decree, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed,"
become null, and  the  declaration of this  so
230 
IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
called sacred volume would be falsified. But
science, after a long and arduous struggle, at
length discovered the fact that this decrease of
the moon's distance, due to the planetary disturbance of the figure of the earth's orbit, had
its limits fixed quite as positively as those by
which God has declared lie would restrain the
ocean. The time will come when the decrease
of distance is changed into an increase, and the
moon slowly leaves the earth by the same
degrees by which it had, for hundreds of thousands of years, made its approach, and with it
sinks the crest of the heaving tide; and thus do
ocean wave and rolling moon rise and roll, and
heave and shine in precise accordance, each
subject to the will of God, who hath in wisdom
fixed the boundary of their movements.
It is certainly sufficiently wonderful that the
height of the ocean wave should be dependent
on the relative magnitudes, distances, and specific gravities of the sun, earth, moon, and planets.
No one of these could be altered or interchanged
and yet leave the ocean's stability unaffected.
But there is a still more astonishing condition
231 
ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
of stability dependent on the figure of the earth
and its velocity of rotation on its axis. As this
is referred to in the next interrogatory, we will
discuss it in that connection.
God further demands of Job:  " Hast thouL
commanded the morning since thy days, and
caused the day-spring from on high to know his
place? * * * That it might take hold of
the ends of the earth.  *  *  *  It is turned
as clay to the seal, and they stand as a gar
ment."   Portions of this passage are exceed
ingly obscure, as now  translated.   It seem
manifest that reference is made to the admirable
order of recurrence of day and night, and the
beautiful adjustments by which the dawn break
quietly upon a slumbering world.   Hast tho,
commanded the coming of morning since thy
days, or hast thou taught the day-spring fron
on high to know his place? Is it at thy bid
ding, or in accordance with thy will, that th,:
solid earth spins swiftly on its axle, and witfsuch an unchanging motion that the mornin.
never fails, that the sun knoweth his goin?
down, and the day-spring his appointed place?
232 
IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
To the casual reader little may seem to be
implied in these profound and overwhelming
interrogatories; but to him who reads aright,
and in the full meridian light of modern science,
there is such a power and dignity and majesty in
these questions, that the human mind, proud as
it is by' nature, sinks in low abasement, and
acknowledges its utter weakness, its absolute
littleness.
God demands who launched this globe in
space, who set bars and doors to the heaving
deep, and who maintains its swift rotation, by
which all nature is hastened, and without which
life would become extinct and animation die.
Can man accomplish these grand designs by
which his very being is maintained? God can
live though nature die; while man sinks and
perishes with any and every change, and yet he
is impotent to maintain a single phenomenon by
which he lives.
With how much precision has the day-spring
from on high been taught to know his place!
For more than three thousand years science has
gone backward, and, with profound research,
233 
ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
reveals the fact that in that vast period the
length of the day has not changed by the hun
dredth part of a single second of time.   No
matter how numerous the causes of change, how
diversified in their action, how multiplied in
their effects, out of them comes an admirable
equilibrium, and the earth, with undying velocity, spins on its sleeping axle.
Go to him who, night after night, watches the
revolving heavens; mark with what implicit
confidence he relies on the mighty truth that
God has taught the day-spring from on high to
know his place. Hie takes his position to signalize the meridian passage of his star,-on the
preceding night it had passed at such a moment
of time marked on the face of his clock, and
again to night at the same hour, minute, and
second, and even to the very thousandth of a
second, true to the bidding of an unchanging
Will, his telescope, borne by the revolving earth,
glances the visual ray to the very center of the
same identical star! Nothing can exceed the
absolute uniformity of the earth's rotation. This
is not the attribute of celestial motion generally.
234 
IN THE BOOK OF JOB
The earth, in its annual orbitual motion, is perpetually changing its velocity. The moon, in
like manner, moves at an irregular pace; and
every planet-and more especially the cometsexhibit extraordinary changes of velocity. Why
is it that the rotation of the earth on its axis
should be maintained? Should we not expect
that, in the lapse of thousands of years, this rotation would slowly die away and disappear? How
can it be maintained with such absolute perfection? Again we are lost; again we are driven
for explanation to Divine energy. God hath
commanded the morning, and taught the dayspring to know  his place.   But, it may  be
demanded, wherein lies the necessity of this
uniformity of motion?   Could  not the earth
quite as well have fulfilled its functions without this nice and beautiful adjustment? The
answer is in the negative. From the rotation
of the earth we derive our unit of time. By
means of its uniformity we are permitted the
more conveniently to investigate the movements of the celestial orbs, and to reach to a
knowledge of the great mysteries of creation.
235 
ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
Let this velocity decay by never so small an
amount, and soon the temperature of the earth's
various regions becomes deranged, disorder
enters every kingdom of nature, and, finally,
destruction ensues. Let the velocity be increased
by never so small a constant increment, and a like
result necessarily ensues. But, more astonishing
still, any change of the velocity of rotation would
disturb the equilibrium of the ocean, and cause
it to pass the barriers which God has assigned
to limit its heaving waves.
This fact is distinctly alluded to, and in the
most emphatic language, in this same most remarkable poem.
But, it may be asked, what has the rotation
of the earth on its axis to do with the retention
of the sea within its bounds? Let me briefly
explain. Were the earth at rest, its figure, if
even globular, might have maintained its exact
spherical form.   The  moment,  however,  that
rotation on an axis commences, the equilibrium
is disturbed, a new force (the centrifugal) is
introduced, and a modification of the earth's
form necessarily follows.   Hence we find the
236 
IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
earth protuberant at the equator and flattened
at the poles, simply because at the equatorial
regions  the velocity of the particles being a
maximum, the resulting centrifugal force is the
greatest, and the earth is therefore evolved at
its equator far above the level which would exist
were it at rest.  There is an immense equatorial
belt surrounding the equator, like an immense
continuous mountain, upon whose sloping sides
the equatorial oceans are maintained, not by
gravity alone, but by the action of that force
which is dependent on the velocity of the earth's
rotation on its axis.  Could we grasp the solid
earth, and even by slow degrees arrest its rotatory motion, a universal deluge would be the
consequence.   The  water would overleap all
opposing barriers and flow with rushing speed
to the poles, while an enormous continent of dry
land would emerge from the deep and surround
the equator of the earth. With a full knowledge
of these facts, understanding clearly that the
day and the night result, in their continuity and
perfection, from the uniformity of the earth's
rotation, and that from the same cause the ocean
237 
ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
itself is restrained within the limits assigned
by God, how powerful does the declaration
sound, powerful only because of its exact truth,
"He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until
the day and the night shall come to an end." How
strange it is, that in case the day and the night
should come to an end, should the earth cease to
roll on its well-poised axis, then God hath no
longer compassed the waters with bounds; the
boundaries are overleaped; and old ocean, released from its fetters, invades the dry land, and
desolation follows its terrible march through the
earth.
It is ili vain to urge that the expression, "until
the day and the night shall come to an end,"
simply means that God has compassed the
waters with bounds until the end of time. This
double sense of these wonderful expressions is
found too often recurring to be the result of accident. The language appears to be selected to
be at all times appropriate, and to grow brighter
and more luminous as science shall shed upon
it a brighter glow.
How many questions might have been pro
238 
IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
pounded, with reference to the earth and ocean,
which would have only betrayed the ignorance
of the interrogator?   Had it been demanded
whether Job had ever sounded the depths of the
mighty deep,-had he ever traversed its boundless extent?   Could he  declare  the secrets
which were hidden on its unknown shores?
These queries might have served to overwhelm
the mind of God's ancient patriarch, but at
present they would have lost their force. How
absurd does the following declaration of Hesiod, descriptive of the earth's position between
heaven and Tartarus:
"From the high heaven a brazen anvil cast,
Nine days and nights in rapid whirls would last,
And reach the earth the tenth; whence strongly hurled
The same the passage to th' infernal world."
I say how absurd does this declaration appear
now, when we know that for a body to fall
even from the sun (whose distance is almost an
insensible quantity compared with that of the
stars of heaven), it would require no less than
sixty-four days and a half; and from the fixed
2a9 
ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
stars, instead of nine days, as asserted by the
Greek poet, it would require more than fortytwo millions of days! In case we should find
such crude statements within the limits of the
sacred volume put forth as substantial truth,
our faith in its origin would end, and its sacred
character would be destroyed forever.
We return to the passage under consideration.
We have seen how much power and meaning
there is in the question, " Hast thou commanded
the morning since thy days?" But how are we
to interpret the words of the context: "And
caused the day-spring from on high to know
his place; that it might take hold of the ends of
the earth. It is turned as clay to the seal, and
they stand as a garment." This, I take it, refers
to the beautiful provision for lighting up the
world by slow and progressive degrees. Why
is it that we do not pass instantly from the deep
gloom of midnight darkness to the full blaze of
noonday? Not because it requires the earth
twelve hours to rotate from midnight to noon.
There is a far different reason. Who has never
watched with delight the first faint evidence of
240 
IX THE BOOK OF JOB.
the coming day? A feeble uncertain glow lights
up the eastern heavens, this slowly brightening,
the upper air flings down the rays of the coming
sun. The ruddy glow deepens, a crimson hue
suffuses the east, until at length the first ray of
the sun darts with gentle splendor upon the
earth. Slowly this orb heaves up his stupendous
disc, yet shorn of half his beams by the thirsty
atmosphere drenched with his glorious hues.
Here, again, we find evidence of the goodness
and wisdom of God. Such is the constitution
of light, and such the property of the atmosphere, that by means of the latter the direction
of the former is bent from its track, curved round
the earth and moulded to its form as the clay to
the seal, and standing about the earth as a
resplendent garment of light. Such at least is
the interpretation which these difficult passages
seem to admit. It may be proper to remark,
that the word translated "ends" of the earth is
more literally rendered "wings," as though allusion were made to the atmosphere as a sort of
wings outstretched around the body of the
earth.
11
.241
.'.. "..... 
ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
God yet further interrogates Job: "Hast tho'
perceived the breadth of the earth; declare it
thou knowest it all?"  Here it would seem w
have at length found one interrogatory which
although Job could not answer it, is now readily
answered. Do we not know the extent of th:
earth? Has not man circumnavigated its sui
face? Has he not perceived it all? It is tru
we have sailed round the earth, but it is equall
true, that in its breadth, its latitude (for this i
the meaning, as would appear from the ancien
usage, of length and breadth as applied to th
earth), no one has yet perceived or actually supected the breadth of the earth. To do this w
must go from pole to pole, to compass the earth'
breadth or latitude. We must penetrate thes
hyperborean regions, the empire of eternal frosin which the secrets of the north as well as o
the south appears to be forever locked. It i
then equally impossible now and will be a tho'
sand years hence, as it was three thousand yealago, for man to declare that he has actually pe.
ceived with his own eyes the entire breadth c
latitude of the earth.
242
:.I.....:. 
IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
Here, again, some may say that this is special
interpretation. The only reply to be made is,
that it fairly admits this explanation, and to this
advantage the advocate of the inspired volume is
justly entitled.
Again the Almighty demands of Job, "Where
is the way where light dwelleth, and as for darkness, where is the place thereof, that thou
shouldst take it to the bounds thereof, and that
thou shouldst know the paths to the house
thereof? Knowest thou it because thou wert
then born, or because the number of thy days is
great?" Here we are presented with a series of
inquiries of the most astonishing character. The
dwelling-place of light and of darkness. The
bounds of each. The paths to the house of light.
Did Job comprehend these mysteries, and if so
was it because he was then born and because the
number of his days was great? How strange
and unintelligible these queries, and why does
the knowledge of them imply an age the number of whose days is great?
Who shall answer these profound inquiries?
Who shall declare to us the character of light?
243
a 
ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
What is this wondrous phenomenon known to us
under the name of light? Is it a modification
of matter, shot forever with incredible velocity
from heaven's blazing orbs: anon pure and white,
and then flashing with every imaginable color?
If it be particles of matter, infinitesimal globules,
how comes it that the most delicate organ of the
human frame, the eye, is not torn, and wounded,
and lacerated, by the millions of particles which
fall upon its surface? Is light the effect of
vibrations of our ethereal medium, pervading all
space, almost infinitely elastic, and darting its
waves from the center to the circumference like
thought? Then how wonderful the reflection
that only certain bodies possess the property of
giving to this medium the velocity of undulation
demanded for the propagation and production of
light. Where is the way where light dwelleth?
Is its home in the sun and stars? Does it inhabit
the ether which filleth immensity, or is it by
some inscrutable provision of nature made to
dwell in that wonderful optical instrument the
eye? One thing we know, without it and without the eye all nature were a blank; the heav
244 
IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
ens vanish; earth's flowers fade, and darkness
wraps the globe.
But knowest thou the paths to the house
thereof? iHast thou traced the flashing fluid
to the bounds thereof?   Canst thou say that
here is the limit beyond which light has never
passed, and, gazing into the dark abyss beyond,
declare there darkness reigns? How deep and
stupendous these questions to him who hath
attempted, with "optic tube," to fathom  the
deep profound of God's glorious universe.
Go with me to yonder "light-house of the
skies." Poised on its rocky base, behold that
wondrous tube which lifts the broad pupil of its
eye high up as if gazing instinctively into the
mighty deep of space.   Look out upon the
heavens, and gather into your eye its glittering
constellations. Pause and reflect that over the
narrow zone of the retina of your eye a universe
is pictured, painted by light in all its exquisite
and beautiful proportioQns. Look upon that lu.
minous zone which girdles the sky,-observe its
faint and cloudy light. How long, think you,
that light has been streaming, day and night,
245 
246    ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS
with a swiftness which flashes it on its way
twelve millions of miles in each and every minute?-how long has it fled and flashed through
space to reach your eye and tell its wondrous
tale? Not less than a century has rolled away
since it left its home! Hast thou taken it at
the bound thereof? Is this the bound,-here
the limit from beyond which light can never
come?   Look  to yonder point in space, and
declare that thou beholdest nothing, absolutely
nothing; all is blank and deep and dark. You
exclaim, Surely no ray illumines that deep profound. Place your eye for one moment to the
tube that now pierces that seeming domain of
night, and, lo! ten thousand orbs, blazing with
light unutterable, burst on the astonished sight.
Whence  start these  hidden suns?   Whence
comes this light from out deep darkness?
Knowest thou, 0 man! the paths to the house
thereof? Ten thousand years have rolled away
since these wondrous beams set out on their
mighty journey! Then you exclaim, We have
found thle boundary of light; surely none can
lie beyond this stupendous limit: far in the 
IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
deep beyond darkness unfathomable reigns.
Look once more. The vision changes; a hazy
cloud of light now fills the field of the telescope.
Whence comes the light of this mysterious
object? Its home is in the mighty deep, as
far beyond the limit you had vainly fixed,-ten
thousand times as far,-as that limit is beyond
the reach of human vision. And thus we
mount, and rise, and soar, from height to height,
upward, and even upward still, till the mighty
series ends, because vision fails, and sinks, and
dies.
Hast thou then pierced the boundary of light?
Hast thou penetrated the domain of darkness?
Hast thou, weak mortal, soared to the fountain
whence come these wondrous streams, and taken
the light at the hand thereof? Knowest thou
the paths to the house thereof? Hast thou stood
at yonder infinite origin, and bid that flash
depart and journey onward, days, and months,
and years; century on century, through count
less ages,-millions of years, and never weary
in its swift career? Knowest thou when it
started? Knowest thou it because thou wast
247 
248    ASTRONOMIOAL ALLUSIONS.
then born, and because the number of thy days
is great? Such, then, is the language addressed
by Jehovah to weak, erring, mortal man. How
has the light of science flooded with meaning
this astonishing passage.? Surely, surely we do
not mis-read —the interpretation is just. 
LECTURE VI.
THE ASTRONOMICAL MIRACLES OF THE BIBLE
MIRACLES OF POWER.
i —;,......
it'- I,   *':. 
0 
LECTURE VI.
THE ASTRONOMICAL MIRACLES OF THE BIBLE MIRACLES
OF POWER.
THE topics which we are about to treat briefly
lo not fall within the legitimate scope of our
investigation. Astronomy has for its object the
study and exposition of the phenomena of nature,-not the miracles of God; and hence the
uses of astronomy, in illustration, made by the
writers of the Hebrew scriptures, may be perfectly in accordance with the exact revelations
of modern science, and yet the miraculous
accounts stand precisely as we now find them.
It would, therefore, be entirely proper to
omit entirely, in our examination of the astronomy of the Bible, any notice of those events
which are expressly announced as interpositions
of divine power to check and suspend, or even
turn back the on-goings of the celestial orbs.
The events to which I allude are the miracu. 
ASTRONOMICAL MIRACLES
lous stopping of the sun and moon for the space
of a whole day, at the command of Joshua, and
the going backward of the shadow ten degrees
on the sun-dial of Ahaz.
I will not undertake to discuss what we are
to understand by a miracle, but shall admit, in
the outset, that a miraculous event is positively
at variance with the established laws of nature,
and can only be produced by a power equal
to that which enacts and enforces these laws.
With this understanding, the first question which
presents itself is this:-with our present knowledge of the absolute uniformity of the operation
of the laws of nature,-such as the laws of motion
and of gravitation,-is it possible to give credence
to any statement, no matter how well sustained
by human testimony, that in one or more instances
these laws have been suspended, and phenomena
have occurred directly in opposition to these
laws?
It can not be denied that a Power competent
to select, enact, and enforce a system of laws,
can at His pleasure suspend, alter, or wholly
abrogate any or all of them, subject only to this
252 
MIRACLES OF POWER.
restriction,-that the changes and modifications
must be consistent with  each other and with
what remains. There is no power can accomplish an impossibility —no power can make two
and two equal to five; and thus even Omnipotence is compelled to work within limits of definite comprehension.
The physical universe, so far as we understand, is governed by invariable laws. These
laws, to a certain extent, have been discovered
by human reason and research; and among them
none seems to be better established than the
laws of motion and gravitation. By these laws
the movements of the celestial orbs are controlled; and, so far as human observation extends, there never has been any deviation from
these laws.
Is it, then, reasonable or philosophic to accept
a statement made in a volume written in an age
of the world when these laws governing the
physical universe were unknown, which, if credited, compels us to believe that the Creator and
sovereign Lawgiver, on two special occasions,
suspended, or for a time abrogated these laws as
253 
ASTRONOMICAL MIRACLES
evidence of His good-will to certain of His creatures?
We frankly confess that this subject is surrounded with its difficulties, not so much arising
from the abstract question as to whether God
can suspend His laws of action, as from the utter
ignorance of causes which may operate on the
mind of the Supreme to decide that such a suspension should be made. To arrest the sun and
moon in mid-heaven to enable one set of combatants to achieve a victory over another, or to
turn the sun backward in his career that the
shadow on the dial may reverse its movement
as a token that God had rebuked the disease
under which a Jewish king was suffering, and
that fifteen years should be added to his life,
are facts which, when presented in their simplest form, are  sufficiently incredible.   But,
unfortunately, human judgment can not by any
possibility comprehend the problem. How can
a finite being penetrate into the councils of the
Infinite? To form a correct judgment in the
premises, the mind of man must stretch away
down the interminable sweep of time, and trace
254 
MIRACLES OF POWER.
out to infinitude all the resulting effects and
influences in the government of God. In case,
then, we admit that circumstances may arise
which would render credible a statement that
God had interposed, and for a longer or shorter
time suspended the laws of nature, we can not
fail to perceive that such admission renders it
possible to believe, on human testimony, that
such an interposition has actually taken place.
For we can never know the causes and consequences leading to and resulting from such a
miraculous interposition of divine power.
But we may go yet farther and propound the
question, Is it reasonable or philosophic, to
believe that the Supreme Creator, endowed with
omniscience, would originate a scheme of creation and government, wherein invariable laws
linked together the entire universe of matter,
and then, for any reason, would suspend the
operation of these laws for a special purpose,
and only with reference to individual objects?
This after all is the great question. It is not
whether we are disposed to give credence to
one particular alleged miraculous event; but
255 
ASTRONOMICAL MIRACLES
whether it is reasonable to believe that any such
event ever did, or ever will take place. I know
there are many who deny that a philosopher can
believe in a miracle, and yet so far as my limited
powers of reasoning can carry me, I am compelled to express the opinion that it is unphilosophic to deny the possibility of miraculous interposition of Divine power.
What are these so-called laws of matter?
What are these laws of motion and of gravitation? They are certainly not inherent qualities
and properties of matter: if so, this dead insensate matter rises above and superior to the power
of God the Creator, and so far as any change in
these qualities and properties are concerned, may
defy the Omnipotent.
Matter can have no properties, or qualities, or
power, except so far as these are derived from
the direct and ever-acting will of the Creator.
To say, then, that the sun attracts the planets
according to the law of gravitation; to say that
the planets revolve around the sun in obedience
to the laws of motion and gravitation, is nothing
more than to say that these material bodies are
256 
MIRACLES OF POWER.
impelled by the Divine power exerting itself in
strict and unalterable harmony with laws which
God has chosen, and from which He simply does
not choose to deviate.
It may be difficult to conceive and acknowledge that matter possesses of itself no quality,
that iron is not hard, lead heavy, water fluid, air
gaseous, in and of themselves, and quite independent of even the very being and existence
of a Supreme Creator. But how can the particles of iron, or of lead, or of water, or air,
exert any force upon each other, which forces,
beyond a doubt, operating between the particles
of these materials, give to them their outward
qualities of hardness, or heaviness, or fluidity.
Rising to still grander organisms, we behold the
wonderful and overpowering equilibrium which
distinguishes the allied orbs which constitute the
cort}#e of the sun. Here, again, I demand, has
the sun, in and of itself, independent of God the
Creator, the power to attract his dependent
worlds? Have these orbs, as they roll and shine,
the power, independent of God, to reciprocate
this attractive power? Can the earth we inhabit
257 
ASTRONOMIICAL MIRACLES
put forth an energy independent of God, and bid
the moon sway to its commanding and controlling
power? This living force, this potent influence,
is even denied to man, who thinks, and reasons,
who lives, and hopes, and yet shall we attribute
it to inert matter, dead, insensate, without one
germ of living force?
True philosophy, I think, compels us to acknowledge that all the operations of nature,
from the sweep of the planet down to the gentle
sway of the bending floweret, are of and from
the will of the Supreme momentarily exerted
and put forth forever according to invariable
laws.
We may propound, then, with propriety, how
it comes to pass that the will of God momentarily
exerted to sustain and carry forward the infinitely diversified and multitudinous operations of
nature, should be exerted according to invariable
laws? Hlere we stand on the threshold of a
mighty inquiry, one that I can not here attempt
to penetrate. But we can stand on the very
threshold and affirm, that in case God did not
govern himself in the exertion of Hlis will in the
258 
MIRACLES OF POWER.
physical universe by invariable laws, man could
never rise to any correct knowledge of any thing
external to himself. All human inquiry into
nature is based on the grand assumption that
nature's laws are absolutely invariable, and building on this corner-stone our solid substratum of
inquiry, we ascend slowly but surely, from step
to step, onward and upward, until the grand
mysteries of nature stand revealed, and the glory
and wisdom of God as displayed in the physical
universe stand revealed.
If, then, the physical heavens and earth,-if
the diverse organisms which fill the universe,
were intended to educate the intellect, the soul,
and the heart of man, unalterable laws, fixed as
thQ being of God, lie at the foundation of the
success of this grand design.  No deviation or
deviations from these laws can be admitted,
unless in our weak judgment man's education
may thereby be more rapidly and successfully
accomplished.
The revelation of the Creator to the creature
by any means short of those we denominate
miraculous, except in so far as God declares
259 
ASTRONOMICAL MIRAOLES
Himself in the laws of nature, is a matter suffi ciently difficult, and perhaps even incompre hensible to man.
Let us for a moment admit that God  has
established the laws of nature, and that it is
impossible for Him to suspends modify, or abro gate any one of these laws, in what way can He
possibly demonstrate to rational creatures the
truth of any message lie may desire to communicate? I remember once to have received a visit
from a person of grave demeanor, wearing a
long beard, long hair, a leathern girdle, a strange
costume, and bearing a staff which he called
Beauty, and proclaiming himself the prophet
Elijah, sent direct from God to demand possession of the grounds I then occupied, to build
thereon the city of the new  Jerusalem.   I at
once demanded the credentials of this strange
being. Let us admit him truly to have been
sent from God, how upon the instant could he
have demonstrated the truth of his claim in case
the working of a miracle be impossible? If,
however, on my demand he had lifted his hand
to the sun, and at his command this mighty orb
260 
MIRACLES OF POWER.
could have stood still in midst of heaven, or
the lengthening shadow on the dial could have
been turned back at his bidding, then I would
have been compelled to acknowledge the command as coming from the Supreme, as the evidence would have been absolute and irresistible.
I contend, therefore, that miracles can not be
excluded from the government of the Creator;
that they form a medium of intercommunication
with His creatures; that they must be employed
whenever the education and moral elevation of
humanity can be more perfectly or more rapidly
accomplished by their use than by the uniform
action of natural laws; and that it would be
unphilosophical to reject altogether the evidence
offered to prove the occurrence of a miraculous
event.
With these general views we proceed to an
examination of the miracles already alluded to
as supposed to have been wrought, and the
record of which is thought to be found in the
Hebrew scriptures.
Let us admit the facts as generally received,
that at the command of Joshua the sun and
261 
ASTRONOMICAL MIRACLES
moon did stand still, and hastened not to go
down for a whole day; and that there was no
day like that before it or after it that the Lord
hearkened to the voice of a man.
What special interference with the laws of
motion and gravitation would be required to
accomplish the results here demanded?   To
arrest the apparent motion of the sun and moon,
it is only necessary to suspend the rotation of
the earth on its axis. Its revolution in its orbit
might continue uninterrupted; the moon's revolution around the earth, in like manner, might
remain unaffected; and, indeed, the whole planetary system could not in the smallest degree be
affected by any change in the period of rotation
of the earth on its axis. But any sudden check
in the velocity of rotation of the earth on its
axis, would have a tendency to throw from its
surface, especially near the equator.   No sudden check, however, is required; and, indeed,
a gradual diminution of the velocity of rotation
might be made, such that in forty seconds the
motion might cease entirely, and the change
would not be sensible to tlge inhabitants of the
262 
MIRACLES OF POWER.
earth except from the appearance of the heavens. It may then be asked, Did the miracle
only require the gradual destruction of the rota.
tion of the earth on its axis, and the restoration
of the same? I answer that much more was
demanded. The figure of the earth is such that
the ocean, so far as it covers the equatorial
regions, is sustained to a much higher level by
the centrifugal force due to the velocity of rotation than would be compatible with its equilibrium in case this element of stability were
destroyed.   So that the direct interposition of
the power of God would be required to not only
suspend the earth's rotation, but also to prevent
the equatorial oceans from rushing to the poles,
and in their passage submerging the whole
earth.
Such, then, are the physical demands in case
the phenomenon of the standing still of the sun
and moon were effected by arresting the rotation
of the earth on its axis. While it does not
involve a general suspension of the laws of gravitation and motion in the planetary system, it
does demand the intervention of omnipotent
263 
ASTRONOMIOAL MIRACLES
power and the positive suspension of the laws
of motion and gravitation in respect to the ocean
which lies upon the earth's surface.
Is it then credible that the Supreme would
thus interpose and exert His power to bring
about the phenomenon described under the circumstances recorded? Here, as already urged,
we can not reach any just conclusion. We can
not know, except by revelation, why God may
have found it necessary thus to interpose.  His
eye alone can pierce the dark curtain of the
future,. and His omniscience is alone capable of
tracing such an event in its remote consequences, through the endless ages which are
ever rolling on in the development of the great
drama of creation.
If, then, the question be propounded, Can
you credit a miracle involving the cessation of
the rotation of the earth,-the equilibrium of
the ocean during this cessation, and the restoration of  the velocity of rotation,-I answer
unequivocally Yes. If, however, the question
be put, Do you give credence to evidence presented in the tenth chapter of the Book. of
264 
MIRACLES OF POWER.
Joshua, regarded by some as proof of the mir.
acle in question, I shall be compelled to answer,
No.
To explain my meaning let me say again that
He who built the heavens and established the
laws of universal matter, who reveals Himself
to His intelligent, moral, responsible creatures
in the grandeur of the physical universe, can
undoubtedly suspend, modify, or abrogate any
one or all of His established laws; that He
would never cut Himself off from the use of
miraculous events in His moral government; and,
lastly, that no law of nature would ever be suspended while the same result could be reached
by the miraculous use of the established laws of
nature. Admitting, still, that at Joshua's bid.
ding the sun and moon stayed their course, and
hastened not to go down even for the space of a
whole day, there is another way in which this
miraculous event could have been produced
without in any degree interrupting the earth's
rotation or suspending the laws of equilibrium
which govern the heaving waters of the great
deep. 
265
12 
ASTRONOMICAL MIRACLES
It is well known that the atmosphere, in common with many transparent substances, possesses
the power of refracting light so as to bend the
rays from their rectilineal path, causing them tc
reach the eye even after the object whence they
are emitted or reflected is already below the
horizon. Thus we know that the sun, moon,
and stars from this cause always remain visible
for a short time after their setting below thr
horizon; and in fixing the place of a celestia
body, astronomers are compelled to determinthe laws of atmospheric refraction, and to apply
to the apparent place a correction due to refrac
tion to obtain the true place.
Here, then, we find among the laws of naturthe means whereby the sun and moon, by m
raculous power, might be made to remain per
manently for hours in the same apparent place
By  interposing  a refracting medium  of suc.variable density that the refractive power woul,
precisely counteract the effect of the earth'
rotation, the sun and moon might be made t.
stand still even for the space of a whole day
This would, indeed, be quite as miraculous as to(
266 
MIRACLES OF POWER.
arrest the earth's rotation, and would demand
nothing less than the interposition of the divine
omnipotence. No natural laws, operating within
their usual limits, could produce any such effect;
and while in this case we would be compelled to
admit the miraculous character of the phenomenon, it is wrought by the aid of natural laws,
and not in opposition to them.
Indeed, the miraculous retroversion of the
shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz, may readily be
accounted for by supposing a miraculous interposition of a refracting medium sufficient to turn
the sun apparently backward ten degrees in his
diurnal circuit. Still the event is miraculous,
and not according to the order of nature, but
wrought out, as has been said, by the aid of
natural laws.
While, then, we are willing to admit on
credible testimony, even the suspension of the
laws of motion and gravitation, that God may
thereby the better administer the affairs of His
moral government; and while we more readily
admit the miraculous use of natural laws, we
now come to consider whether it is unequivocally
267 
ASTRONOMICAL MIRACLES
recorded in the Hebrew scriptures that the sun
and moon stayed in their course at the command
of Joshua, and "hasted not to go down for about
the space of a whole day." And if such record
is found to exist beyond reasonable doubt, does
astronomical science now possess a sufficient
knowledge of the movements of the sun and
moon as to pronounce with certainty as to what
were their relative positions on the date of the
occurrence of the recorded event?
I do not profess any knowledge of the
fiebrew, neither do I pretend to have made
a profound examination of the passage in
the tenth chapter of Joshua, in which this
event is presumed to be recorded. It is sufficient for my purpose to state that able critics
among the students of sacred literature have
reached the conclusion that the declaration in
question is a poetical quotation from the Book
of Jasher, and hence the statement, "is not this
written in the book of Jasher," or "the upright."
This same book is quoted nearly in the same
language in one of the other books of the Old
Testament. So long, then, as there is any rea
268 
MIRACLES OF POWER.
sonable doubt as to the verity of the record, it
would seem quite unnecessary to hold those who
receive the Bible as a book of divine authority
responsible for a miracle which seems to involve
nothing less than the suspension of the laws of
nature in that vast realm wherein uniformity
seems to be most positively demanded.
Again, if we examine the record we find, that
in case certain portions are omitted, in which this
poetical quotation is involved, that the historical
account is made more consistent with itself. We
are told that Joshua came up to the aid of
Gibeon, from Gilgal, by a forced march which
continued all night. The battle with the five
kings occurred the next day, in which they were
discomfited, and fled before the army of Joshua,
being pursued and destroyed by tempest and by
hail-stones, "and there were more which died
with the hail-stones, than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword." If now
we omit verses 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16, the narrative continues: "And it was told Joshua, saying, The five kings are found in a cave at Makkedah." But if these verses be retained, we are
269 
ASTRONOMICAL MIRACLES
told, in the fifteenth verse, that Joshua returned
to Gilgal and all Israel with him, and no mention
whatever is made of his coming again to Makkedah, to complete the conquest of this and the
other four cities which were destroyed, after the
conquest of which it is again said that Joshua
and all Israel with him returned to the camp at
Gilgal, precisely as in the fifteenth verse.
There seems, therefore, a reasonable doubt as
to the correctness of the record, and as to
whether this seeming record of miraculous interposition, by the arrest of the apparent motion of
the sun and moon, may not be a mere quotation
from some ancient Hebrew poem now lost.
Indeed the defeat and destruction of the
Amorites seems to have been complete. They
fled before Israel and were destroyed by the
hail-storm from Beth-horon to Azekah, and after
this signal destruction and already miraculous
victory, we are told that Joshua spake unto the
Lord, and he said in the sight of all Israel," Sun
stand thou still on Gibeon, and thou moon in thc
valley of Ajalon." This prolonging of the day
does not seem to be necessary under the circum
270 
MIRACLES OF POWER.
stances, and so soon as our suspicion is aroused
as to the genuineness of the passage, we see
many reasons to confirm this suspicion. But we
will leave this, where it properly belongs, to
biblical critics, and return to the consideration
of the question, Does our present knowledge of
the relative motions of the sun and moon enable
us to decide whether any such miracle has been
absolutely performed?
To bring this question within the legitimate
scope of astronomical investigation, we must
admit that the miracle was performed, not by the
interposition of a refracting medium, which made
the sun and moon appear to stand still, but by a
positive cessation of the motion of rotation of
the earth on its axis, whereby a day was increased in length by a certain number of hours,
amounting to, say, from eight to twelve.
The event under consideration took place about
one thousand four hundred years B. C., and consequently more than three thousand two hundred
years ago. Can the science of Astronomy go
back to so remote a period, and pronounce with
certainty as to the relative positions of the sun
271 
ASTRONOMIOAL MIRACLES
and moon? In case it be possible to determine
the relative positions of Gibeon and Ajalon, such
is our present knowledge of the apparent motions
of the sun and moon, that we could compute
backward and pronounce with certainty, that on
a given day, in a given year, the sun and moon
either did or did not hold the places assigned
them.
The most complex, profound, and involved
problem ever presented for human investigation
is this very one to predict, or compute, the rela,
five places of the sun and moon, as seen by a
spectator on the earth's surface. It involves
every delicacy of instrumental observation, the
entire depth and power of mathematical analysis,
every artifice of computation, and a full knowledge of the numerous orbs which constitute the
mighty system which owes allegiance to the
sun. And yet, we have reason to believe that
after a struggle of six thousand years, involving
the best talent, the most powerful genius, the
most elaborate effort, the problem is finally solved,
and almost at the very time we write. It is
possible to unwind the tangled and confused
272 
MIRACLES OF POWER.
pathway of the moon among the stars, and 0o
unroll the golden thread spun by the solar orb,
in the long centuries of its past revolutions, and
to pronounce with- certainty, that on a given day,
at a given hour, the sun did or did not stand over
Gibeon, while the moon did or did not stand over
the valley of Ajalon.
This is now demonstrated by the computation
and ancient eclipses of the sun and moon, eclipses
observed and recorded more than two thousand
years ago. Whenever, then, the exact geographical position of Joshua's camp shall have been
determined, - when we shall learn where is
Gibeon and the valley of Ajalon,-when we
shall come to know at what season of the year
this great battle was fought, in what month and
on what day of the month the Hebrew warrior
won his great victory,-then we can pronounce
with positive certainty that the place assigned
to the sun over Gibeon and that given to the
moon over Ajalon were or were not those occu pied by these celestial orbs on the date of this
miraculous event. If, indeed, the earth's rota tion were then suspended,-if, at the bidding of
12*
273 
ASTRONOMICAL MIRACLES
God, its swift revolution on its "noiseless axle"
slowly died away,-if by miraculous power the
equilibrium of the ocean were maintained, and
its stupendous wave was upheld by the hand of
Divine Omuipotence,-these extraordinary events
must stand out full, positive, absolute. For here
there will be a break, a gap, a hiatus created by
this cessation of the earth's rotation for the space
of a whole day, in uniform recurrence of day and
night; and the astronomical phenomena prior to
this wonderful day and those subsequent to it
can only be reconciled on the supposition that
the day was prolonged to double its usual length.
But let us admit that astronomical science and
computation have the power to trace back the
sun and moon, and pronounce their relative positions five thousand years ago; let us admit that
eclipses recorded before the time of Joshua,
when compared with those recorded since his
time, demonstrate the uniform and uninterrupted
rotation of the earth on its axis; let us admit
that the most satisfactory and indubitable evidence of the geographical positions of Gibeon
and Ajalon are reached, and the date of Joshua's
274 
MIRACLES OF POWER
victory is fixed beyond doubt or cavil; and that
astronomical computation shows that while the
sun rested over Gibeon, the moon did hang over
the valley of Ajalon,-what will all this show?
Simply and solely that the miraculous arrest of
the sun and moon was not accomplished by the
stoppage of the earth's rotation. But in case
astronomy, pointed to the above facts, demonstrates that while the sun actually rested over
Gibeon the moon could not have hung over
Ajalon, then we shall be compelled to conclude
that the event has been interpolated from some
ancient Hebrew poem now forever lost.
The second miracle of power,-the retreat of
the shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz,-has been
already sufficiently considered, and may be so
obviously produced by the interposition of a
refracting medium, that any further notice seems
quite superfluous.
From the preceding discussion the question
may arise, Hiow can we be assured that God
ever does positively interrupt any of the laws
of nature? In the miracle just considered, how
could we become assured that the sun and moon
275 
ASTRONOMICAL MIRACLES
were positively arrested by the cessation of the
earth's rotation? In short, should a professed
messenger from God at this day stand upon the
earth and command the sun and moon to stay
their course in mid-heaven, how can we pronounce this to be the effect of a refracting
medium, or the result of the actual stoppage of
the earth's axial revolution?
Our present knowledge of the physical structure of the universe is such that we could not
mistake for one moment the real nature of the
miracle. Should the rotation of the earth on its
axis be increased by five seconds of time in
twenty-four hours, all the time-keepers in all the
watch-towers of the world would proclaim the
fact,-all the stars would fail to keep their
appointed meridian transits, and would, in sympathy with the great orbs of light, linger in their
nocturnal  march.   The  bursting  out in the
heavens of a thousand fiery comets in a single
night could produce no such mortal terror to
the astronomer as this falling backward of the
mighty sphere of the starryuniverse for one single
second in twenty-four hours, for it would speak
276 
MIRACLES OF POWER.
the doom of the universe in announcing that God's
right arm was growing heavy, and His omnipotent will was commencing to stagger under
the weight of ten millions of rolling worlds.
Should such an event ever occur,-should the
time ever come when indeed those shining sentinels in the high heavens should fail to keep
their appointed vigils,-when the astronomer
shall look wistfully through "optic tube" for the
coming of the faithful star which, prompt to the
thousandth of a single second, has traversed his
meridian line, and, lo! the star lingers in its
journey, seconds ebb slowly away and merge
into minutes, and at last the star appears, no
matter if with its wonted beauty, the astronomer
stands aghast, and well may he tremble, for the
powers of the heavens are smitten, and God is
deserting the universe which sprang into being
at His divine command. Human confidence and
faith would be gone forever, and no remedy
could avail to rectify the wrong.
We have no fears that our confidence will
ever be thus rudely shaken, not because we
believe nature and her laws to be eternal, not
277 
ASTRONOMICAL MIRACLES
because we believe that this stupendous mechanism has endured from all eternity,-for even
then after countless revolutions, a fault, an
anomaly, a failure in the series of sequences
might occur, and, with its terrific utterance,
announce the possible running down or destruction of the mechanism, but because I believe that
God the Eternal, All-wise, Incomprehensible,
created and now sustains all things by the word
of His power: it is because of God's eternity
that we dwell in simple trust upon an unshaken
order, and a purpose to be achieved.
Before closing this subject, it may be expected
that something shall be said of those remarkable
passages in the New Testament, in which are set
forth in prophetic language, at once sublime and
terrific, the final doom of the earth we inhabit.
Is it credible that this earth is to be consumed
by fire,-that the sun and moon are to be darkened,-that the stars of heaven are to fall,-that
the skies are to be wrapped in flame, and to be
rolled up as a scroll,-are these oriental figures
or dread realities, which at no distant day are
to strike terror to the inhabitants of earth?
278 
MIRACLES OF POWER.
I frankly confess I do not know how to
answer these questions, and I do not believe
that all the science and philosophy which now
exists on earth, can fit an individual one particle
for their comprehension or solution. There are
those who find in the internal structure of the
earth,-its volcanoes with their rivers of molten
lava,-evidences that these sublime predictions
are one day to be accomplished. I dare not thus
point out to the All-wise the means to accomplish
his purposes. I can only bow and reverently
accept. And do you really believe that the day
will ever come, when this great globe, with its
rock-ribbed mountains, shall melt with fervent
heat,-its ocean billows flash into unmeasured
volumes of fiery steam, - when flaming fire
shall wrap the doomed planet and devour its very
being, and blot it from its kindred family of
worlds? I can only answer that I know of no
special reason why this earth should be eternal.
Its destruction does not involve the well-being
of the universe, and were it even blotted from
existence it would but momentarily disturb the
equilibrium of the great scheme of worlds, of
279 
ASTRONOMICAL MIRACLES
which it forms an insignificant unit. But should
God destroy its present form; should it indeed
be baptized with fire; should it be purged and
purified, God can bring it out of this terrific
ordeal, not one atom of His matter lost, but all
remodeled, restored, recreated, a new world filled
with beauty, and joy, and perpetual happiness;
where death-the wages of sin-shall never
appear, and where neither tears, nor sobs, nor
sorrows shall dim the beauty of its enchanting
abodes.
Of all these things I am profoundly ignorant;
but the moment the mind grasps the great idea
of an ever-living, ever-active, ever-present God,
the Creator and Supporter of all things, our
Father and our Friend, then all subordinate difficulties vanish. There we cast the anchor of
our faith, sure and steadfast, and no doubt can
ever arise, to fling its darkness and gloom over
the unruffled sea on which we calmly float.
To this point have my investigations, and
studies, and thoughts, and observations in the
heavens and in the earth, in physical nature and
in human thought, in matter and in mind, brought
'280 
MIRACLES OF POWER.
me with irresistible power. As a physical philosopher, I am compelled to believe in God; as
a believer in God, I am compelled to accept the
great truth, that He can reveal himself by miraculous power. As a student of the economy,
and order, and perpetuity of God's government,
I am compelled to believe that no miracle will be
wrought by the suspension or temporary abrogation of the laws of nature, which  are  God's
uniform expressions of His Divine will, when
the same may be accomplished by the miraculous
use of natural laws. As a thinking, sentient,
loving, suffering, willing, being, I am compelled to
lift myself, and all my race, immeasurably above
the myriad worlds that roll and shine in space,
and declare that a single tear ebbing from the
heart of humble sorrow, is of more value, in the
sight of God, than a legion of suns. The moral,
then, towers infinitely above the material, and it
is only to give to the moral greater strength,
and beauty, and grandeur, that God has organized
the material, and whenever in the rolling ages
Divine wisdom shall decide that one atom can
be added to the moral by the total subversion of
281 
ASTRONOMICAL MIRACLES.
the material, then the sun and moon shall bc
darkened, the stars shall fall, the elements shall
melt with fervent heat, the heavens shall bc
rolled up as a scroll, and, out of this seeming
destruction, a new heaven and a new earth shall
appear radiant with beauty, and eternally
crowned with the blessings of God, and with
never-ending light and glory.
282 
LECTURE VII.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.  
LECTURE VII.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
IT is our purpose now to consider the current
language employed by the writers of the sacred
volume in speaking of the physical universe.
There never has been a time, when those ignorant of any science, could employ that science
and its facts intelligently in any composition,
for the very language used would inevitably
reveal the fact, that the writer could have no just
idea of the science to which he ventured to
make reference. This remark must remain true,
when applied to the writers of the various books
of the Bible. It is in vain to say that the
grandeur of the nocturnal heavens, the glittering splendors of the starry sphere, the dazzling
glory of the sun, and the milder effulgence of
the moon and planets, must have inspired exalted
ideas in all ages. This is quite as true of all 
286   THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE
the ancient historical nations, as of the Hebrews.
The Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Persians,
Greeks, and Romans, beheld the same heavens
and were illuminated by the same splendors
which shone on the Hebrew prophets and the
Hebrew poets, and yet none of these ancient
nations reached any such exalted conceptions, or
recorded in language so just and so sublime, the
direct dependence of the created universe on
God the omnipotent Creator.
Thus we find in the oldest book of the Hebrew
scriptures, in the very first sentence of that most
mysterious of volumes, the simple sublime declaration, In the beginyning God created the heavens
and the earth. There is no argument,-no train
of complex reasoning on the relations of the
material and immaterial,-no profound research
into the origin of matter, its qualities and properties, its creation and primordial condition or its
eternal existence,-there is no talk of a former
chaos, and old night, and the omnipotent energy
put forth to quell the chaotic confusion and to
educe harmony and beauty;- not one word
of all this, but simply and sublimely,  "In 
THE LAN(}GUAGE OF THE BIBLE.   287
the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth."
When we compare this language and declaration with the origin of all things as given by the
most ancient nations, we can not fail to be struck
with its vast superiority. The Egyptian priests,
according to Herodotus, ascribe all things to a
great winged egg; the Persians, if we are to
credit Eusebius, made the principle of the universe a gloomy and tempestuous atmosphere.
From this gloomy and tempestuous atmosphere
first sprang a wind; this wind, becoming enamored of its own principle, produced desire or
love, and from this love, with the wind as father,
first came mind, and hence all the generations of
the universe.
If it be asserted that these are but the wild
dreams of barbarians, let us examine for a moment the theories of the refined and philosophic
Greeks. Thales, the Ionian, and the founder of
a philosophic sect, made water the universal
principle; Plato, the prince of Greek philosophers, maintained that the universe was simply
arranged by the power of God, but that the 
288  THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
Deity was incapable of such a creation; Ariastotle adopted the philosophy of Plato; Zeno
maintained that the universe, as it now exists,
was brought into order by its own energy;
while Epicurus asserted that all things had
sprung from a fortuitous concourse of atoms.
He who now scans the magnificence and grandeur of the celestial mechanism,-who surveys
the sublime equilibrium of the rolling worlds
which circle round the sun, swaying and swayed,
disturbing and disturbed, ever changing and
never changed, rolling on from eternity to eternity,-will be compelled to adopt the language
of the Hebrew leader and lawgiver, "In the
beginning God created the heavens and the
earth." If we extend our researches beyond
the limit of the sun's domain, sweeping beyond
the orbit of the farthest planet, and ever leaving
behind us the utmost verge of the comets' sweep,
penetrating the region of the blazing stars, and
traveling in the might of human thought and
human vision, from universe to universe, here
surrounded by systems of mysterious organization, with an equilibrium of motion as sublime 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.  289
and solid as eternity,-we instinctively adopt
the language of Moses the servant of God, and
exclaim, In the beyinning God created the heavens
and the earth.
The same sublime simplicity pervades the
entire account given by Moses, of the order of
creation. The Spirit of God moved on the
face of the waters; and God said, Let there be
light, and there was light. And God said, Let
the earth bring forth. And God made man in
Hiis own image, and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, and he became a living creature.
And these are the generations of the heavens
and the earth, in the day that the Lord God
created the heavens and the earth.
The problem presented for solution is simply
this: Does an intimate knowledge of the universe as developed by the grand discoveries of
modern science, cause these declarations to sink
into insignificance, or to rise to grander and more
stupendous proportions-? It can not be denied
that such a knowledge as we now possess of the
structure of the heavens, does cause the doctrine
of the Egyptians, Persians, and Greeks, as
13 
290  THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
already sketched, to appear simply ridiculous
I use the only words which can express my
meaning.  Even the philosophy of Plato whieh
elevates matter above God, and asserts the powel
of the Omnipotent to extend only to the organi
zation and not to creation, can not satisfy the
demands of the mind imbued with a full know!
edge of the revelations of modern science. Wc
are compelled to go backward to the beginning;
and propound the mighty interrogatory, Whencc
sprang the matter of which these multitudinous
worlds were formed? Whence the mysterious
and incomprehensible principle of light? Whence
the still more mysterious and incomprehensible
principle of vegetable life? And whence the
breath of life, whereby man became a living
soul, with thought and reason, joy, sorrow, and
love? These questions must be answered, and
we find the only satisfactory response in the
language of the Bible: God hath created all
things and sustaineth all things, by the word of
His power.
Leaving this great topic of creation, which we
shall treat hereafter more at large, and which we 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.  291
now only mention for the purpose of noting the
language employed by the Hebrew writer, let us
pass to an examination of the doctrine of God's
providence, as displayed in the maintenance of
absolute rule in the physical universe.
There are, doubtless, philosophers and astron.
omers, who in their mathematical and astronomi
cal investigations, leave out of the great problem
of nature the very being of God. This, indeed,
in the very nature of things they are compelled
to do. No power of analytical grasp, no refinement of infinitesimal arithmetic can reach the
being and attributes of God. The philosopher
and mathematician is compelled to begin exactly
where Moses left off. In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth, says Moses,
and admitting this declaration, the philosopher
undertakes to discover the plan according to
which this creation was effected, and by means
of which it is now maintained. The sun, the
moon, the planets, the comets, the stars, exist;
they roll and shine, measuring time by their
mighty revolutions, and filling space by their
sublime orbits. There they are as God created 
292  THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE,
them, and the philosopher simply inquires, According to what laws do they move? What reciprocal influences do they exert? What are the
forms and limits of their mighty orbits? What
the sublime periods of their march through
space? What the nature of the dynamic equilibrium which links them into groupings of surpassing grandeur?
It is true that in all these investigations the
very being of God may be forgotten. For the
lawgiver we may substitute the laws. Gravitation may supersede, in mathematical research,
the omnipotence of God. The laws of motion,
simple, invariable, eternal, may stand for that
attribute of Jehovah's will which changeth not,
the same, yesterday, to-day and forever. The
sun himself may be shorn of his effulgence: his
light, and heat, and life, may shrink and fade
beneath the withering breath of philosophy, and
this mighty and glorious orb become a material
heavy point, and all the revolving planets and
their moons, other material heavy points, at
definite distances, and with determinate weights,
and thus the will of God, as manifested in His 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.  293
laws, and the very creations of God as exhibited
in his suns, and systems, and moving worlds,
become the mere hypotheses and material points
in the diagram of the mathematician's slate,-and
what  then?  Does this destroy  God and his
attributes? Does this blot out of the heavens
the blazing sun? Does this strike from being,
planet, and moon, and earth teeming with life,
and hope, and joy, and love, and immortality?Never! They all remain: while the geometer
grapples these wondrous orbs in their weight,
dimensions, distances, and motions, with his sublime analytic  machinery,  and  with  gigantic
intellectual power follows their grand career,
the problem solved, the orbit figured, the period
predicted,-all, all proclaim the being of God,
the unchangeableness of the laws of His physical government, and the grasp of thought with
which He has endowed His own image, into
whose nostrils He breathed the breath of life.
It has been truly sung:
"The undevout astronomer is mad    "
and yet, alas! we are compelled in a few in 
294 THE LANGUAGE OF THIE BIBLE.
stances to confess, that this madness has fille.
the hearts of some  whose names  have  bee.
written in letters of living light, on the very
circle of the heavens.  I say a few instances
for by far the greater number of the heroes of
science are to be  counted among the devout
Copernicus, and Kepler, and Tycho, and Galileo
and the prince of philosophers, Newton the im
mortal-all looked through nature to nature'>
God's.  Kepler, in all his grand investigations
commenced his daily toil by invoking the aid of
Divine wisdom, and Newton's reverence was sc
great, that he never uttered the name of God
without reverently lifting his hand to his head,
feeling the immediate presence of the divinity
in His material works. And, yet, these are the
greatest names which the annals of astronomy
and science can boast,-their investigations were
more profound, their mathematics deeper than
most of those could boast, who are now compelled to acknowledge themselves humble followers  of these great luminaries.   We  say,
then, that while in minds especially framed
for pure physical research, there is a tendency 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE
to and undue  preponderance  of mathematical
reasoning, the abstractions of science, and the
mathematics of astronomy, do not of necessity
lead to skepticism.
In the writers of the Hebrew Scriptures,
there is no exhibition of a knowledge of physical science, no mathematical investigations.
Simple declarations are made, and these declarations are either in coincidence with or opposed
to what science now teaches, and it is the language employed in the declaration which we
propose to re-examine.
In proclaiming the majesty of God, the Hebrew prophet exclaims: "Lift up your eyes on
high, and behold! IIe hath created all these things
that bringeth out their hosts by number, He
calleth them all by names by the greatness of
His might." Again, the same prophet proclaims,
that "God hath measured the waters in the
hollow of His hand, and meted out the heavens
with a span, and comprehended the dust of the
earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains
in scales, and  the hills in a balance."   The
Hebrew poet, addressing the Almighty, uses this
295 
296  THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
sublime language:  0 Lord my God, thou art
very great; thou art clothed with honor and
with majesty: who coverest thyself with light
as with a garment: who stretlchest out the
heavens like a curtain: who maketh the clouds
his chariot: who walketh on the wings of the
wind: who laid the foundations of the earth,
that it should not be removed forever. Thou
coverest it with the deep as with a garment."
So Job declares that God by His spirit hath
garnished the heavens, His hand hath formed
the crooked serpent: lo! these are a part of His
ways, but the thunders of His power who can
understand! Again, the same old author in that
sublime chapter in which the Lord answers out
of the whirlwind, asks: "Knowest thou the
ordinances of heaven, and canst thou set the
dominion thereof on the earth?"
It is needless to multiply quotations. Throughout the entire volumes of the Old and New Testament, there is is but one opinion expressed by
every writer in every age, and that opinion not
only ascribes to God the creation of all things,
by the word of His power, but God is repre 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.  297
sented as momentarily sustaining the universe,
upholding all things by His Divine command.
Are these views and expressions in accordance with the present knowledge of the physical universe? When we have gone from the
sun, with its stupendous dimensions, through the
planetary orbs; when we have examined their
admirable organization, and their exquisite equilibrium; when we behold the paths they describe,
and the ceaseless cycles they fulfil; when amidst
never-ending changes we find the earth linked to
its orbit with fetters of adamant; when we
behold the admirable adjustment of sun, and
planet, and satellite, so that in all the revolving
ages, seed-time and harvest, summer and winter,
and day and night, shall never fail; when with
telescopic  power we fathom the profundity of
space, and visit the island universes that stretch
away in a vast illimitable perspective; when suns
and systems tower in grandeur on the right hand
and on the left, and the womb of space teems
with glittering worlds like sands on the sea shore;-with thoughts thus expanded and touch ing the infinite; with the soul aglow with sub                      13-1 
298    HE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
limity; with aspirations exalted, let us turn to the
language of the Bible, and learn whether it exalts
the sensations and sentiments we feel or crushes
them by its weakness and impotency. Let the
answer come from the Hebrew Psalmist, from the
prophets, from the language of those grand
apocalyptic visions of St. John. I care not
where it be selected, it furnishes the only fitting
vehicle to express the thoughts that overwhelm
us; and we break out involuntarily in the lan guage of God's own inspiration: "The heavens
declare the glory of God, the firmament showeth
his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech,
and night unto night showeth forth knowledge."
"When I consider thy heavens the work of thy
fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast
ordained; Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest
him."  "If I take the wings of the morning and
fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, lo! thou
art there; if I ascend to the heaven of heavens,
lo! thy presence filleth immensity. Thou, and
thou alone art God over all, and blessed forever!" 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.  299
Let us examine some of these wonderful
declarations with more critical attention, and
learn whether they will bear the test of severe
analysis.  "The heavens declare the glory of
God, and the firmament showeth forth His handywork." The glory of an earthly monarch is
derived from the extent and variety of his
empire; from the perfection of his laws and perfect manner in which they are administered; and
from the consequent happiness and prosperity of
his subjects. God's empire as displayed in the
material universe, is thus far immeasurable: no
sounding line or telescopic ray has ever flung its
plummet so deep, as to measure its vast profundity. The dimensions of the sun's domain
are such as to defy the power of human conception adequately to grasp. Who can conceive the
magnitude of the orbit of Neptune, revolving at
a distance from the sun of no less than three
thousand millions of miles? But this is only a
minute atom, when we come to consider the distance of the fixed stars, whose average distance
from the sun must exceed the distance of Neptune
in the enormous ratio of twenty thousand to one; 
300  THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
so that while the light of Neptune may reach
the sun in five hours, that from the fixed stars
of greatest magnitude, will occupy not less than
ten years.
This brings us to the nearest portion of that
vast congeries of stars which we denominate the
Milky Way, composed of not less than one hundred millions of suns, and of such vast propor.
tions, that light flashing at the rate of twelve
millions of miles in a single minute could not
cross its deepest range in less than ten thousand
years. Leaving the Milky Way and plunging
yet deeper into space, we find other milky ways
grander and more populous in stars even than
our own, until at last our telescopic ray extends
so deeply, that its length, furnishing a journey
for the swift wing of light of more than three
millions of years, fails to plunge across any other
mighty depth, and we stand wondering and awestruck on the very threshold of infinitude.
These statements are not vague conjectures;
they are founded in the clearest reasoning, and
if there be any error it is rather in contracting
than expanding the just limits of the visible 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.  301
universe. The heavens, then, in their vast, incomprehensible dimensions, and in the uncounted
millions of their clustering orbs, proclaim the
glory of God's empire.
If now we direct our attention to the laws by
which this vast empire is governed, we find them
absolutely perfect. Every atom that floats in
the sunbeam; every planet that wheels through
space; every sun with its family of worlds;
every island universe; all obey the grand laws
by which absolute perfection reigns wherever
matter fills the womb of space. These laws are
not only perfect, but they are perfectly administered. They change not. In all the ages past
there comes up no evidence that gravitation and
motion have ever for a single moment relaxed
their power. But these laws in and of themselves are incapable of producing a system.
They could not create the sun, or select the
planets, or project their orbits. This demanded
the wisdom and power of God. When we behold the delicate equilibrium which characterizes
the sun's system, in which world is balanced
against world, and satellite against satellite, in 
802  THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
which not one of these multitudinous orbs could
be displaced, without destroying the harmony
and perfection of the whole,-in which each
planet and satellite affects the movement of
every other, to their disturbing powers a limit
being fixed beyond which they can never pass,
so that for countless millions of ages, the earth
shall roll on in its orbit, giving to its inhabitants
seed-time and harvest, and summer and winter,
and, forever silently revolving on its well-poised
axle, shall teach the dayspring from on high to
keep its place, and day and night to preserve
perpetual covenant with God,-we are again led
to exclaim:-" Surely the heavens declare the
glory of God, and the firmament showeth forth
his handywork!"
These results are not the offspring of accident,
they are not the evolutions of blind fatality,
they are the arrangements of an  ever-livingI
omnipotent, omniscient power, who can be none
other than God the Creator. Wisdom infinite,
is written all over the universe. Wisdom was
with God from all eternity, from everlasting, from
the beginning, or ever the earth was. When 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.  303
there were no depths, wisdom was brought
forth,-so hath the finger of inspiration written-" while as yet He had not made the earth
nor the fields. When He prepared the heavens I
was there: when He set a compass on the face
of the depth: when He established the clouds
above: when He strengthened the fountains of
the deep: when He gave to the sea His decree,
that the waters should not pass His commandment: when He appointed the foundations of
the earth." The wisdom of God reigns supreme
throughout the manifold works of His creation.
Thus is it written in the word of God, and thus
is it recorded in the celestial machinery which is
recorded on high.
We are now so much accustomed to the employment of the language of the Bible, in the
expression of our thoughts concerning nature,
that we scarcely recognize the astonishing character of the fact that this harmony exists. We
are almost led to the conclusion that it could not
be otherwise, the language is so exact and so
apposite; the expressions so powerful, that it
would seem that he who coined these phrases 
304  THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
must have possessed an intimate knowledge of
the objects to which they are applied.
We must constantly bear in mind the fact,
that all the books of the Bible were closed before
the dawn of modern science. No knowledge of
the true mechanism of the universe then existed,
and for ages after the last book of the Hebrew
scriptures was written and the revelation sealed,
a false system prevailed and exerted an unbroken
sway over the human mind. Had this old doctrine of Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer, been
demonstrated to be absolutely true, then the
superlative language of the Bible could not have
been applied, and the heavens would not have
declared the glory of God, neither would the
firmament have shown forth his handywork.
The complexity and cumbrousness of the Ptolemaic system grew to such vast dimensions, that
human genius revolted, and reached the conclusion:-either that such a universe had not
sprung from the hand of an omniscient God, or
that the true system of nature remained to be
discovered.
Indeed at the time when Galileo attacked with 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE. 305
so much power the hoary doctrines of the Greek
astronomers, and when the Church ignorantly
fearing lest faith in the inspiration of the Bible
might be shaken by the subversion of the Ptolemaic system, with what vehemence might Galileo have retorted, that these same sacred books
assert that the heavens declare the glory of God,
that the firmament showeth His handywork; that
God had created all things in wisdom and by the
word of His power; that it was only by abandoning these false systems that it became possible to verify the declarations of the sacred
text; that as there was but one God, so there
could be only one single plan thr(ughout the
created universe.
Let us now pass from these general expressions of scripture, to those which are more
specific. It may be contended that the language
we have cited would naturally flow from a contemplation of the splendid spectacle presented in
the nocturnal heavens, and that the power of
an eastern imagination has been wonderfully
successful in picturing the true glories of tho
universe.   — a 
306   THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
We find in the Hebrew prophets an occasional
use of astronomical facts, to affirm and intensify
a declaration. Thus, when God would illustrate
the perpetuity of His covenant with Israel, the
prophet is made to employ no less than five
astronomical illustrations to affirm this truth with
greater power and cogency.  "Thus  saith the
Lord, who giveth the sun for a light by day,
and the ordinances of the moon, and the stars,
for a light by night, if these ordinances depart
from before me then may my promise fail." "If
heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out from beneath,
then and not till then will I cast off my people."
"If ye can break my covenant of the day, and
my covenant of the night, and that there should
not be day and night in their season; then may
my covenant be broken with my servant David."
"As the host of heaven can not be numbered,
so will I multiply the seed of David." "If my
covenant be not with day and night, and if I
have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and
earth, then will I cast away the seed of Jacob."
Here, then, are five distinct declarations: 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.  307
That God had appointed the ordinances of
heaven and earth; the laws by which all the
material worlds are governed and that these laws
could never change.
That He had made a covenant with day and
night, absolutely irreversible, so that so long as
time should last there should be day and night
in their season.
That the host of heaven could not be numbered.
That the foundations of the earth could not
be searched out from beneath; and, that the
heavens above could never be measured or their
mighty depths sounded, by any power of man's
device.
Let us proceed to examine these topics in
order.  The ordinances of Heaven and earth,
the laws of the physical universe, are never severed,-so in Job: " Knowest thou the ordinances
of heaven, and canst thou set the dominion
thereof on the earth." Thus, these laws whatever they may be, exert their dominion over the
objects that shine in the heavens as well as upon
the earth we inhabit. It is, surely, a remarkable 
308  THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
fact that the heavens and the earth are thus
inseparably united, in the language of the Hebrew
scriptures, when they are invariably treated with
positive severance by all the writers of all the
primitive nations of which we have any record.
And yet this grand truth has but just been
revealed by modern science. The law of universal gravitation and the laws of motion, sweep
under their dominion the sun, and moon, and
planets, and comets, even the distant stars, and
to this grand list we now add the earth itself, in
its mass, and in every particle which constitutes
its mass. Every drop of its ocean; every atom
of its cloudy vapors; every particle of its rugged
mountains, and broad-spread continents; even
the very invariable atmosphere, which like a garment of beauty wraps the earth, is subject to
these same laws. This absolute unity, this oneness of matter, is one of the most overwhelming
facts of modern science, and yet the ordinances
of the gleaming heavens and the solid earth are
one and indivisible. But do the conditions of
these laws of matter and their perpetuity present
a fit emblem to illustrate the inviolable nature 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE. 309
of a promise made by Him who changeth not,
who is the Father of light, in whom there is no
variableness (parallax), nor shadow of change?
I answer, that there is no way by which we can
fitly illustrate the perpetuity of God's covenant,
but by this very invariableness of the ordinances of heaven and earth. From age to age
throughout the countless millions of years which
have poured into the ocean of the past, and
throughout the innumerable millions which constitute an eternity to come, we have reason to
believe these laws will never change. He who
framed them enacted them in wisdom. He sent
forth His decree, and it stood fast. He commanded, and they were created: He hath established them for ever and ever!
We have already examined the nature of the
covenant with day and night, and have marked
the admirable exactitude of the earth's rotation
on its axis. Could any more forcible illustration be given of the unchangeable nature of a
promise made by Him who taught the dayspring
from on high to know its place.
"The host of heaven can not be numbered." 
310  THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE
In case the stars visible to the unaided vision of
man had constituted the entire universe, this
would have been a very feeble illustration of the
multitudes which should be found among the
posterity of Israel.  The stars visible  to the
naked eye have all been numbered and their
places fixed, so that not one can disappear without its loss shall become at once manifest.  The
actual number of stars visible to the eye of man
does not exceed six or seven thousand, though in
looking upon a clear sky, on a starlight night,
the number seems to be vastly greater. At the
time this passage was written, the host of heaven
could not have been numbered, and the very instrument which rendered the numbering of the
then visible host possible brought under the
gaze of man hundreds of thousands of stars
which  had  never before been  seen.   Every
accession of telescopic power; every advance
of human skill and human genius, but the more
clearly demonstrates the utter impossibility of
numbering the hosts of heaven.   The innumerable stars that powder the zone of the Milky
Way to the naked eye, find even in the most 
THE LANGUAGF OF THE BIBLE.   311
powerful telescopes theii exact counterpart in
other universes so deeply sunk in space, that
the individual suns which compose their vast
dimensions are seen but as a faint gleam of
luminous haze even when we approach, transported by telescopic power, to within the thousandth part of their actual distance.
If the hosts of heaven can not be numbered,
so, also, it is impossible to measure the heavens.
We have, indeed, reached to a tolerable knowledge of the planetary distances,-and even the
flight of the comet has been approximately
measured; but thus far the stars have nearly
defied the utmost stretch of human skill and
science. A few years since, Bessel, the great
German astronomer, announced that he had
measured the distance of a double star in the
Constellation of the Swan. It was a work to
crown its author with immortality. Subsequent
investigations have confirmed measurably the
results of Bessel; but to show the exceeding
difficulty of the problem, I need only remark
that the Russian astronomer, Otto Struve, has
recently published an elaborate discussion of this 
312  THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
great subject, and has reached conclusions which
differ from those of Bessel by a third part of the
values reachcd by the latter; so that a parallactic
angle fixed by Bessel at thirty-six hundreds of
one second of arc is determined by Struve to be
fifty hundredths of the same unit.   The discrepancy between these results can only be
made manifest by considering the actual difference in the distance of two stars whose parallaxes are represented by thirty-six and by fifty
hundredths of one second of arc.  Light would
reach us from a star whose parallax is thirtysix hundredths of one second of arc in about ten
years; while the light from a star with a parallax of fifty hundreds of a second would reach
us in about six years. Thus the discrepancy
amounts to a distance such that light flying
at the rate of twelve millions of miles in every
minute, would not pass it in less than four
years! And yet this star is the one whose distance has been most perfectly measured. What
shall we say, then, of the possibility of measuring the depth of those vast promontories of
stars which distinguish the Milky Way, where 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.  313
star is ranged behind star until the stratum is
five hundred deep! or who can conceive of the
power of those instruments which shall define
the distances of the clusters and nebula that
stretch out to infinitude, and proclaim that the
heavens can never be measured?
I have already considered the meaning of the
expression, "the foundations of the earth," and
have shown from the passage in Job that the
writers seemed to comprehend that these foundations could never be discovered, for God, who
stretched out the north over the empty place,
"founded the earth upon nothing." And yet
the earth is "established forever;" that is, the
condition in which it now exists, the figure of
its orbit, the mean annual temperature, the
seasons, the recurrence of day and night, all
that goes to render the earth habitable, shall
continue forever. This seems to be the declaration of the sacred volume; and if science has
read aright the structure of the planetary worlds,
these facts are in an equal manner taught by the
discoveries of modern science.
Thus we find an aptness and propriety in all
14 
314  THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
these astronomical illustrations employed by the
Hebrew prophet, which are not weakened in
their power, but amazingly strengthened when
viewed in the full light of our present knowledge of the natural universe.
If there be those who still insist that this is
all accidental, and that it would have been quite
impossible to have blundered in drawing illustrations from the unchanging revolutions of Nature,
I answer that nothing would have been easier
than to have erred in this very direction. Suppose the prophet had pointed the Hebrews to
the polar star, the object that had for centuries
guided their ancestors in their wanderings and
journeys, and had uttered the exclamation,
"Behold yonder star, fixed immovable while
all else is in motion; when that star shall swing
away from its fixed position, then may the purpose of God fail toward the people of His
choice." Now, nothing could have been more
appropriate or seemingly more natural than the
use of such a similitude, and yet at this day it
would have been false, for the North Star has
been slowly departing from its fixed position; 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.  815
and, should the earth continue, the time will
come when it will be compelled to yield its
place, which another star will assume in its turn,
to be displaced as the revolving ages roll on.
Thus we find a remarkable appropriateness in
the selections which have been made of the
phenomena of the heavens, to illustrate the
teachings of prophetic declaration. They were
appropriate to the age in which they were written, they have been appropriate in all succeeding
ages down to the present time, and science
assures us they can now never fail. Can all
this have resulted from accident? Can so great
a multitude of thoughts, expressions, doctrines,
illustrations, and similitudes, have all risen by
accident into appropriate use among so many
writers, so widely separated in time? If it be
argued that after all there is nothing in all this
language, in all these expressions, in all these
illustrations, and that it is but the perversions
of an ingenions fancy which gives to them an
appearance of appropriateness, it must still be
admitted that it is certainly very wonderful
that such a multitude of independent expres 
816   THE LANGUAGE  OF THiE BIBLE.
sions should be capable of being woven into a
texture of astonishing harmony and beauty.
I will not further multiply examples. Search
the old prophets, the Psalms, the book of Job,
even the New Testament, and in all these books,
wherever any allusion is made to the physical
heavens, it seems to have been written by one
possessing the highest intelligence, the most profound knowledge.
There is but one solitary instance in which an
author of any one book in the Bible, was brought
face to face with the philosophy of antiquity.
This was the celebrated meeting between the
great Apostle of the Gentiles with the Stoics
and Epicureans, on Mars' Hill, in Athens. As
already stated, the Stoics did not admit the
power of God to create the material of the universe. He could only arrange and organize
what had existed from all eternity. He could
banish old Night and subdue the empire of Chaos,
but had no creative power. The Epicureans on
the other hand were atheists, or at least their
theism severed the divinity from all concern in
either the physical or moral universe. As the 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.   317
existent condition of matter, its organization
into suns and systems, and vegetable and animal
life, were all the result of accident, of course the
philosophers of this school did not admit the
providence of God.
Paul, who was learned in the Hebrew scriptures, and who had been educated in the law at
the feet of Gamaliel, even as a Jew, and much
more as a Christian, had imbibed the doctrine
so universally taught in the Bible, that all
nature is but the offspring of the creative energy
of the Divine will.
Here we find, then, the representatives of the
doctrines of the Old and New Testament, both
in philosophy and religion-the two great concerns of humanity-brought face to face with the
philosophers and priests of Paganism, and under
circumstances of most extraordinary grandeur.
The scene was the Areopagus, on Mars Hill,
the most venerated and revered court of all
antiquity. Here, in seats hewn from the solid
rocks, sat the judges, whose decree fixed not
only the fate of individuals, but of empires. On
every hand the temples of the Pagan divinities 
318  THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
reared their beautiful or majestic forms. Statues
of men, heroes, and gods, in uncounted numbers,
filled every niche and crowned every rock on
this lofty eminence. The sublime form of the
colossal statue of Minerva, the tutelary divinity
of Athens, reared its majestic proportions, "towering from the rock of the Acropolis." There
were the shrines of all the divinities, the temples
of all the gods, the sanctuary of the vengeful
furies, and, in full sight, the very gardens where
Socrates had poured forth his lessons of wisdom,
where Zeno had organized his stern stoical
school of philosophy, and where Epicurus had
captivated weak humanity with his doctrines of
graceful ease or refined sensuality.
Such were the circumstances surrounding the
representative of the philosophy and the religion
of the Bible.  Rising, doubtless, under a full
sense of the greatness of his responsibility, Pan —
uttered that marvelous discourse, in which hc
exclaims, "0  Athenians! I perceive that ir
all things ye are too superstitious; for as I
passed by and beheld your devotions, I found
an altar with this inscription,' To the unknown 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.  319
God.' Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship,
Him declare I unto you. God that made the
world and all things therein, seeing that He
is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in
temples made with hands; neither is worshiped
with men's hands, as though He needed any
thing: seeing that He giveth to all life, and
breath, and all things. Forasmuch, then, as we
are the offspring of God, we ought not to think
that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or
stone, graven by art and man's device." Your
philosophy, O stoics! is false. God's creative
energy built this magnificent universe, and God's
almighty power guides universal nature. Your
divinity, O Epicureans! wrapt in somber abstract
tion, beholding, from afar, with indifference the
affairs of men, is not the divinity of truth; for
we also are the offspring of the "unknown God,"
and in Him we live and move and have our
being. Your religion, 0 priests! is false, and
your shrines and splendid temples, and statues
of marble and bronze and gold, glittering with
precious stones, graven by art and man's device,
are but a mockery; for this unknown God, who 
320  THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
built the heavens and the earth and who sus.
taineth all things by the might of His power,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Turn
then, 0 priests and philosophers! from your
idolatry and philosophy, to this unknown God
whom ye ignorantly worship; repent, for He
hath appointed a day in the which He will judge
the world in righteousness.
What  response could Pagan philosophy or
Pagan idolatry make to this appeal of the Christian hero; and what response can modern philosophy make this day to the same appeal? God
has breathed into our nostrils the breath of life,
and man has become a living soul. Say what
we may, we are the offspring of God, and as His
children we are the heirs of immortality; we may
defy the Omnipotent and incur His frown, which
withers our very being; or we may bring our
hearts and souls in unison with God's holiness,
and under his beneficent smile be filled with joy
and happiness inexpressible and full of glory!
God bath given us the power to scan the universe, to detect its laws, to learn its stupendous
organization, to lift the soul of man nearer to 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.  321
Hils Divine presence. Where shall the guilty
find a refuge? Surely not in the iron-the adamantine laws of physical nature. Suppose, it were
possible to endow one of these flying worldsthe earth we inhabit-with a will and a rational
soul; and the earth, now an independent, think.
ing, willing being, should rise in rebellion against
the laws of God's control, and refuse longer to
obey. The rebellious planet exclaims, Let the
sun attract me never so much, I care not for his
heat, his light, his life, I refuse to reciprocate the
attraction: I have a power of will supreme, my
destiny is my own! And thus the fatal decision
is made. Slowly the rebel world wheels at each
revolution, farther and yet farther from the great
center of life and light. In spiral circuit it separates farther and still farther from its wonted
path, till finally, cold and darkness and a coming
death begin to assert their empire over the misguided world. With a start of horror and a
shudder which shakes it to the very center, it
now wakes from its dream of independence and
exclaims, I will return!  I will return!  Alas!
the return is impossible. The laws of nature
14* 
322  THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.
are irrevocable. The sun may yet attract with
living power the lost wanderer, but the bond is
broken, the equilibrium is forever destroyed, and
this rebel planet must become a wandering star
for which is reserved the blackness of darkness
forever!
No, my friends; the analogies of nature,
applied to the moral government of God, would
crush all hope in the sinful soul. There, for
millions of ages, these stern laws have reigned
supreme. There is no deviation no modification, no yielding to the refractory or disobedient.
All is harmony, because all is obedience. Close
forever, if you will, this strange book claiming
to be God's revelation,-blot out forever its
lessons of God's creative power, God's superabounding providence, God's fatherhood and
loving guardianship to man his erring offspring,
and then unseal the leaves of that mighty vol.
ume which the finger of God has written in the
stars of heaven, and in these flashing letters of
living light we read only the dread sentence,
"The soul that sinneth it shall surely die!"
I 
THE DANCE
ODE N 0 OC I E T Y
BY W. C. WILKINSON.
One Foltnme, 16mo, paper, 65 cents.
One Folzume, 1tmo, cloth, 50 cents.
O0
PINIONS OF THE T)RESS.
"We do not know who Mr. W. C. WILKINSON is, but we do n.
hesitate to say that this little essay entitles him to a front ran
among American essayists He is quite as sparkling and more se
tentious than Parton. He is immeasurably stronger and mo
vigorous than Timothy Titcomb. His earnestness is not surpasse
by that of Mrs. Stowe. We know no writer who equals him i
the courage with which he handles the most delicate and diffici'
of subjects. If his essay is not exceptional-if it be not the burst
a manly indignation that can no longer withhold its protest again
a wrong on which it has long looked with accumulating hate —
the author is able to throw himself with any analogous power ini
the discussion of other topics-there is no reason why he shoul
not become an acknowledged leader in a kind of writing which tpublic increasingly demand. Macaulay's critique on the Purita.has never been more happily responded to than it is incidentally i
a single paragraph of this essay.  A keener and more caustic e
posure of the current plans for the conversion of the drama, tI
dance, and the billiard-room we have never read, than in his fias'.
ing and trenchant pages."-Independent.
"Mr. WILKINSON handles his subject boldly, without coarsenes:
wittily, without flippancy' piously, without cant. * * * Whetli
his readers agree with him or not, they will admire the evide,
sincerity and vigor of his ideas, and the terse, trenchant style
which he Gets them forth."-N. Y. Daily Tites.
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OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
"Merely a headlong hammer-and-tongs schedule of abuse. Leaves
one with'the impression that the author failed in his attempt at a
waltz, or polka, or galop."-Cleveland Leader.
"One of the most forcible appeals against dancing we have ever
read. * * * Those who deprecate dancing, and yet hardly know
how to frame arguments against it, will here find a whole magazine full, ready to their hands. It can hardly have been written by
a novice in the Terpsichorean art, and the author must even have
had some practice in'round dances.' "-Lowell Courier.
"'  THE DANCE OF MODERN SOCIETY,' by W. C. WILKINSON, New
York (Albert Mason, pp. 77), is the best tractate we have seen
against this iniquity, which, more than any popular amusement, sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell.
hIow Christians and Methodists even can indulge in this devil's
sport, is only to be solved after Wesley's' Sin in Believers.' The
modern dance is the most complete and successful form of diabolical
seduction in vogue in respectable places. With the social glass, its
steps take hold on hell Rare, most rare is it, that they that go in
thereat, at either of these gates, return again. This work is admirably written, with great cogency and elegance. We give an
extract elsewhere. Read it, and circulate it. Let every father and
mother beset by this popular sin buy it, and give it to their tempted
child. It costs but a trifle, and will be found of great price."Zion's Herald.
"Clever and sensible."-Press (Philadelphia).
"The writer has great command of forcible and terse English.
* * * He leaves little to be said from his stand-point, and he who
would overthrow him must be equally devoted to principle and
science, and a most cogent and candid reasoner."-Albany Evening
Journal.
"'It is only within the past week that one of our most experienced
and sagacious physicians uttered, in our hearing, sentiments pre
cisely in accordance with those here affirmed."-Christian Secretary
(Hartford).
"Whoever beains this book will be likely to read it through.  It
is the very reverse of mealy-mouthed." —Free Press (Burlington).
"Pastors, parents! here is a magazine of argument for you. Get
this book."-M-ethodzst Ihome Joutiiiactal. 
OPINIONS OF TIlE PRESS.
"The views of the author are extreme, but they are worthy of
serious consideration."-Chicago Daily Republican.
"If there is in our language any better discussion of the subject,
we would be glad to have it pointed out."-Baptist Quarterly.
"The bray and the ass are inseparable. We leave our readers to
discover what connection all this has with' THE DANCE OF Moo
ERN SOCIETY. "-Liberal Christian.
Rev. Dr. Cuyler, in The Evangelist: "That most pungent and
powerful little book,' THE DANCE OF MODERN  SOCIETY.' * * *
Those who wish to see the' Dance' well dissected, should read Mr.
WILKINSON'S little work."
"Although embraced within brief compass, the discussion is
thorough, and well nigh exhaustive.  * * * We wish that this
essay might be read in every Christian household, and we would
commend it also to those who are just entering upon the Christian
ministry, as well as to religious teachers of all kinds."-Nationat
Baptist.
"Deserving of extensive circulation and perusal."- Standard
(Chicago).
"Written with unusual vigor of speech and thought."-Congregationalist (Boston).
"If any one wishes to see how modern fashionable dancing
appears from a Christian point of view, they need only to peruse
this little volume, earnestly and forcibly written."-Evangelist (New
York).
"Mr. WILKINSON writes with vivacity."-Commonwealth (Boston).
"' THE DANCE OF MODERN SOCIETY,' when it fi st appeared,
attracted a good deal of attention by the thoroughness, the vigor,
the combination of effective satire and solemn earnestness with
which the author assailed a popular amusement. * * * * The
additions strengthen the argument at its strongest point."-Erarminer and Chronicle.
"Certainly worthy of a careful reading."-Pittsburg Gazette.
"It is the best arraignment of the dance that we have ever seen."
- Utica Observer.
"He writes earnestly but temperately, without any show  of
fanaticism, and in a fair and candid spirit."-Salem Register.
"Well worth reading."-Patriot (Harrisburg). 
OPl'INIONS OF THE PRESS.
I His views are strongly expressed, and carry much weight with
them."-Transcript (Portland).
'" Members of any church who send their children to dancingschools, would do well to read it; to ponder its startling facts; to
heed its solemn warnings."-Christian Advocate (Pittsburg).
"Argues the case with irresistible logic."-Christian  World (Gin
cinnati).
"We like his style.  He strikes to hit.  He'goes for' his oppo.
nent."-Tr-oy Pres8s.
"Hard to answer."-Central Baptist (Chicago).
"Hard to escape the points of his logic. * * * Full of ideas.
* * * Will do good and not harm."-Republican (Binghutmton).
".. Can be read at a sitting.  Those who read it will find material
for profitable meditation."-Spy (Worcester).
"Much superior in style as well as argument, to the bulk of the
attacks on popular amusement. * * * Makes out a stronger case
than most readers will anticipate."-Newark Daily Journal.
"Asks one pertinent question which is the key to his entire book:
' Why do dancers take no pleasure in dancing, unless when dancing
with others of the opposite sex?' "-N. Y. World.
"A philippic."-N. Y. Trzbune.
"The philippic is well written."-North Am. and U.S. Gazett6
(Phila.).
'-Everywhere acknowledged to be able and incisive."-Adcance.
"The most pungent attack on the modern dance we have ever
read. We have looked with some interest, but in vain, for a
The DANcE OF MODERN  SOCIETY is for sale by Booksellers genelrally, or will be sent by mail, prepaid, on
receipt of price.
Address,    ALBERT MASON, PUBLISHER,
129 GRAND STREET, NEW YORK
-A
. I 
THE WORKS
.J O S E P H U S.
.4  New and  Eleffant Library  Edition in four
Volzeumes, derny Octavo, inclzeding  Explanatory
Notes a-,,  Observations, and a Cormplete Index,
P.inted, on tinted paper from  larfe clear Type,
wvth a Portrait of the.zAthor.
Bound in Cloth,            -
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Half Calf, gilt or antique,
/1 Popular Edition of the above work in two
volu,rnes.
Bound in cloth, -.             $4 50so
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For Sale by Booksellers everywhere.
ALBERT MASON,  Publisher,.
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$9 oo.
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Astronomical.  Worl ks.
PLANETARY AND STELLAR WORLDS.
One vol. 12mo. Price $1.75.
POPULAR ASTRONOMY.
One vol. 12mo. Price, $1.75.
ASTRONOMY OF THE BIBLE.
One vol. 12mo. Price $1.75.
These volumes should be in all the homes of our land, as there is
no study which takes man so near his Creator as that of Astronomy. No study so enlarges, expands and invigorates the mind. —
JAMES A. BRIGGS.
He throws into living words what others can explain only by
mnathematical problems, orreries and diagrams; and while his style
kindles with the glow of his subject it is as clear and brilliant as
the brightest starlight.-N.. Independent.
Professor Mitchel is the poet of science. He invests it with all thu
interest of romance.- Utiea Herald.
ALBERT MASON, Publishei,
NEW YORK
PROF. MITCHEL'S
..5. 
EOTHJEN:
OR,
TRACES OF TRAVET
trogt  omee from tct   t.
BY
ALEX. WM. KINGLAKE,
One Volume. 12mo. 23' pages, $1.25.
" I nose who have read the' History of the Invasion of the Crimea,' and ha
wondered whence came the vivid personal interest with which the author invest
Eastern affairs, will find in this little book the secret source of his magical pow
er.  A little more than thirty years ago, when the present grave and earnest hi
torian was an equally earnest, but by no means so grave a man, he journeys
through the countries of the Orient, seeking in a quaint, and absolutely peculi
way, to temper himself in body and mind for the work that awaited him. Keep
,tg with a vigor and tenacity which are prominent elements in his subseque,
w rks, the tranquil poise of a sincere and decided personality, unshacen by to
gusty currents of the proprieties, unmoved by the absurdities of respectability
and disregarding with persistent nonchalance the most solemn injunctions,
generally acknowledged duty, it is not strange that this hale and hearty seek.
should have been able to give us a delightful book by simply telling the truth
nor that, dealing with them in such freedom, he should have received and tranmitted with refreshing fidelity the weird influences of the East.  We  rememb.
but three instances-think of it, O ye dilettanti Howadji I-on which he mention
books; once when he gives.the name of Tennyson as the author of an expressi,,
familiar as household words, once when he quotes the diary of Lady Stanhopin describing an interview with that lady, and once when he refers to Ellio;
Warburton's' Sketches of Eastern Travels.' Of course we do not reckon his tal'
about the Iliad, which is not a book, but a song, the music of whose perpetun
echoes is caught up by successive generations, and lives in our memory as dc.the sound of the surf.
' We owe a debt of gratitude to Messrs. Oakley & Mason for having given to t'
American public of this d(lay, this rich and racy book of travel. Few men have t.'
simplicity and good sense to speak so frankly and exclusively of their own im
pressions, and few men have minds capable of receiving impressions of such
pungent and singular character.  The reader cannot fail to enjoy the book for i(
hearty sincerity, its gleam of poetic feeling and description, its singularly p-u.
and vigort u. English, and above all for its searching fidelity."-Brooklyn Uniton
ALBERT MASON, Publisher-,
NEW YORK. 
THE
TRAPPER'S GUIDE;
BY S. NEWHOUSE,
AND OTHER TRAPPERS AND SPORTSMEN
FIFTH EDITION
WITH NEW NARRATIVES AND ILL USTRATIONS.
A BOOK FOR THE
THE HUNTER,
AND THE
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It tells —
How to trap all kinds of Fvurearing animals,
How to cure their skins,
How to Live in the Woods,
How to build Boats, and catch Fish in the unnmti;
low to destroy the pests of the Farm and Poultry yard,
How to IHunt Deer, Buffalo and other game.
It gives —
arratives of the Exploits and Expere of Trappers aind
,Sportmen, old and young.
It tells —
Where the Best Traps are made.
It is a book for lovers of Wood-craft, for Excursionists, and for
Boys.
An octavo rolume of 216 pages, containing thirty-two full
page illustrations of Animals, Forest Life, &c., and numerous
woodcuts of Traps and trappers' appliances.
Price, bound in Cloth, $1.560
ALBERT MASON, Publisher,
NEW YORK.
TRAPPER, 
MACDUFF'S AVWORKS
lhJth oIrds o           f JesU-,,
1 Volume. 18mo,   -     50 cents.
IA word spoken in season," says the wise man, " how
good it is." If this be true regarding the utterances of un
inspired lips, with what devout and paramount interest mus:
we invest the sayings of Incarnate Truth-" th, Words of
Jesus."
Th1 Volume. ind8mo,           -            50 centu.
I'Volume. 18mo,...... 50 cent,.
The Mind of Jesus I What a study is this! To attain a
dim reflection of it, is the ambition of angels-higher they
cannot soar.  "To be conformed to the image of His Son!"
It is the end of God in the predestination of His Church
from all eternity.  "W' hall b likb Him I" It is the B;N 
picture of heaven I
Thei  at ]Ftful Prenlser
1 Volume. 18mo,......  40 cele
It has often been felt a delightful exercise by the child a
God, to take, night-by night, an individual promise, and
plead it at the mercy-seat. Often are our prayers pointless
irom not following, in this respect, the example of the sweet
Psalmist of Israel, the Royal Promise pleader, who delighted
to direct his finger to some particular "Word" of the Faith
ful Promiser, saying, "Remember Thy word unto Thy
servant, on which Thou hast caused me to hope."
The [ ords and Nind of Jesus
AND FAITHFUL PROMISER. 1 VoL 32mo, 50c.
ALBERT MfASON, Publisher,
NEW YORK.' 
THE STORY
OF A
WORKING MAN'S LIFE,
With Sketches of Travel in Europe, Asia, Africa
and America.
AS EDITED RY HIMSELF.
By FRANCIS MASON, D.D.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY W. R. WILLIAMS, D.D.
One volume, 12mo, illustrated, price $2.
.0
OPINIONIS OF' THE] PRESS.
This is the Autobiography of'iRANCIS MASON, D.D., the famous
Baptist Missionary in Burmah, and reflects the frank, plain, hearty
nature, and sturdy, practical piety of its author, as an autobiography
shlould.  It tells, in a simple and straightforward, but graphic style,
the varied experience of Dr MAsoN; his career as a struggling and
thlinking workinig-raan' his eventful wanderings through the West
and South in the days of Andrew Jackson; his conversion, his life
and work among the heathen, an(1 his journey in Europe-the
whole mnaling a history crowded faith interesting incidents, and
rich in valuable observation.  The reader finds himself enchained
with an absorbing interest in the rapidly moving story, told with
so much wit, force, and wisdom. The book is destined to have a
wide popularity with the masses, and will ever exercise a strong
and healthful and cheering influence on the class to whom it is
more especially addressed-the working-men."-Newark Daily A.1
vert.ser.
'" This a very readable volume. Dr. MASON has seen much of the
world, and relates his observations in a plain, familiar pleasant
style."-P, eligious Herald (Richmovrd)
"' The Story of a Workinginan's Life,' will be found to have a
quality of interest scarcely sut,i2fst(-. by its title.' —t(1ngregatioi
allst.
ALBERT MASON, Publisher,
NEW YORK.