THE SUN, MOON, AND STARS. 105 LETTER VII. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the Heavens: praise Him in the heights. Praise ye Him, sun and moon: praise him all ye stars of light.Psalm cxlviii. 1, 3. DEAR CHILDREN, THREE days the earth had revolved on its axis, and now the fourth morning opens with exceeding glory. The trees and herbs and flowers had indeed covered the earth with beauty, but yet without the gracious CREATION of the sun they could not continue for just as the second day provided them beforehand air to breathe, so did the fourth send forth the bright and fervent rays of the sun, to open every flower, and to give the state of absolute perfectness to the trees, bearing fruit and seed after their kind. The ordering of the fourth day is thus described in Gen. i.: "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days 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. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day." (Ver. 14-19.) Instantly the sun glowed in the firmament of the heavens, and the moon and the stars also, each in its own appointed orbit; and the creation (I should gather from the verses I have quoted) not only embraced what is called the solar system, i. e. the sun, moon, and planets, but the whole of the celestial luminaries "the starry host"-whether fixed or planetary. The light of the first day was indeed glorious; but it had no glory, by reason of this glory that excelled; for the sun, the future source of light, was ALL GLORIOUS, and came forth on this, the first day of its creation, as a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoiced as a strong man to run his race. (Ps. xix.) And when, by the daily rotation of the earth, the sun had sunk in the western sky (the first sun-set in the new world) to light up in its course the other parts of the globe; then as the light faded away, that vast concave above us, which had been from the second day as the deep and heavy azure, now became illumined with innumerable bright and beautiful stars, some of one magnitude, some of another;-some comparatively so near to the earth, that the agitated atmosphere did not ruffle the rays of light passing from them; others so remote, that though of amazing magnitude, they twinkled as their rays reached us. And then the moon, nearly at its full, rising in the opposite sky, where the sun had set, seemed to come forth the queen of the night, to rule over it as the sun had over the day; and so the evening and the morning were the fourth day. I remember, when very young, being struck with those sublime lines, I think of Dr. Young : "Behold this midnight glory! worlds on worlds! Ten thousand add; add twice ten thousand more; The glory and the mercy of this fourth day's creation are so vast, that, like as it was on the third day, I hardly know where to begin, in describing them to you; for the sun is not only the source of light and heat to us, and the principal cause, under God, of all vegetation, but it also gives light to the moon and planets, which, in its absence, shine upon us. But in a lesser point of view, all our astronomical calculations depend entirely on the known distance, position and motion THE BLESSING OF SUNSHINE. 107 of the heavenly bodies, which to all countries, and especially commercial countries, like our own, is of immense importance; and, excepting to those who have witnessed it, the accuracy with which the pathway of a ship is marked through the great ocean seems most incredible; so that it not unfrequently happens that a vessel will sail around the world, and on her return to port not be ten miles out of her reckoning; and if I remember right, your uncle T. made the Scilly lights within four or five miles; that is, he found himself, after traversing some thousands of leagues, just where he expected to be, within four or five miles; and though his chronometer (which, as you know, is a watch, or larger time-piece, constructed with extreme accuracy, whose balance-wheel is so formed as to be uninfluenced by changes of temperature) was of the first importance to him, it would have been of little use without the sun. A summer without sunshine, and we should have a famine ;a winter without the sun's occasionally cheering the earth, and most of the seeds would perish: but the Lord has given the ordinances of heaven for man's blessing; and summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, day and night, all come round according to their Creator's will and promise. (Gen. viii. 22.) I have been oftentimes struck with that graphic narration of Paul's voyage, in Acts xxvii.; but the climax of the storm seems wrought up to the highest pitch in that description of ver. 20: "And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away." But there was One with Paul, who had him in his care, and he could either rebuke the storm or protect him in it: the latter was his will, and thus it was that, "some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship; and so it came to pass, they all came safe to land." (Ver. 44.) Relative to the heavenly bodies, it is the opinion of some of the best and most learned of men, that they are inhabited; but "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Matt. xxviii. 20. |