this, as they themselves would readily allow, is all conjecturethey may, or they may not be; for the Scripture, which is the only book which could give us information on the subject, (because it was written by Him who made them,) is entirely silent concerning it. I am not aware that from Genesis to Revelation there is the slightest or most remote hint that such is the case. But it has been said that it so enlarges our thoughts of the majesty and greatness of God to imagine all this glory; systems on systems, and the glorious throne of the Lord the sun of all the source of light to all! But, my beloved children, we need not go abroad into the region of conjecture to get ideas about God's greatness; there is one subject connected with our earth, so full of glory, that if our souls were rightly directed, they would never be taken from it; and this object is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ-THE WISDOM OF GOD; for THERE mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other, (Ps. lxxxv. 10 ;) THERE Justice sheathes her glittering sword, and is the advocate of all who flee to the cross for refuge, (1 John ii. 1;) THERE Mercy rejoices; for from the cross go forth blessings that never fail while there is an empty vessel to fill, (Luke XV. ;) THERE righteousness gets its full answer, for that blessed Sufferer who by that cross expiated sin, did in his own person magnify the law and make it honourable, (Isa. xlii. 21.) Indeed, had there been one blemish, one personal blot on him, he could not have been a sacrifice; but God's Lamb, the only-begotten of the Father, was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens; THERE peace gets authority for its blessed message of good-will to man; for Jesus made peace by the blood of his cross, (Col. i. 20;) he was the One that was pre-eminently the Peacemaker, and had by nature and by right that BEATITUDE :—“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." (Matt. v. 9.) Oh, my beloved children, if a man's soul be once steadily fixed on the cross of that blessed One who was with the Father over all, God blessed for ever, (Rom. ix. 5,) all other glories will fade. Supposing to-day that there were

some astronomer, who had delighted in the thought that all the fixed stars were, like our sun, the centres of other systems, and that worlds on worlds were spread out illimitably on every side, but yet whose thoughts concerning his own future existence were all in vague uncertainty. If tidings came to him, for the first time, that the Son of the ever-blessed God had become a man, and had bled and died upon this very planet, this earth, this speck in creation, and moreover that he had died for him, to bring him to peace here and happiness hereafter; and if the Spirit of God blessed these tidings to him, so that he believed them, and realized the blessed truth, and knew in his own soul that he was forgiven, (Luke vii. 48;) that his sins were put away, (John v. 24;) that he was adopted into the family of Him who made him, (Gal. iv. 6, 7;) taken from the wretchedness of nature and set among princes, to inherit the throne of glory, (compare Eph. ii. 1-6, with 1 Sam. ii. 8;) beloved children, the eye of that astronomer would be fixed on that cross of Calvary; he would go to Jesus without the camp, bearing his reproach; and there he would offer ceaseless songs of praise, (Heb. xiii. 12-15,)-ONE OBJECT, one vast object, would fill his soul, and the language of his heart would be, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world,” (Gal. vi. 14;) and this cross of Christ would supply him with infinitely more enlarged views of the glories of God than all his former speculations.

The word astronomy is taken from two Greek words, meaning "the law of the stars." Astronomy was the earliest of the sciences, and this seems most natural; indeed, God says that his invisible glory is manifested by that which is seen, so that the idolater is left without excuse. (Rom. i. 20.)

When we consider the great disadvantages the ancients laboured under, in the want of telescopes,* etc., the extent of

* The great telescope of Dr. Herschel was an iron tube, thirty-nine feet four inches long. The concave reflecting mirror was three inches and a half thick, and its polished surface was four feet in diameter. It weighed upwards

knowledge they acquired concerning the heavenly bodies is wonderful.

of two thousand pounds, and magnified six thousand times; and its power was such, that Dr. H. says, that when the star Sirius was about to enter the field of the telescope, the light was equal to that on the approach of sun-rise, and upon entering the telescope, the star appeared in all the splendour of the rising sun.

The telescope of the Earl of Rosse, which has been prepared in Parsonstown, near Birr, his lordship's estate in Ireland, is far beyond that of Dr. Herschel, both in the diameter and polish of the reflector, and the diameter and length of the tube. The speculum, or reflector, is six feet in diameter, and so bright that it reflects clearly a little dial the size of a watch, fifty-two feet above it. The diameter of the tube is seven feet; its length, fifty-two feet; it is made of wood, hooped together; and, though so large, is capable, by machinery, of being moved by one man. It is not saying too much of this wonderful effort of man, that it is in the strictest sense unique-unparalleled. Workmen of every kind are employed by Lord Rosse in his workshop, immediately under his own inspection.

WHAT WE OWE TO ASTRONOMY.

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The heads of the two great schools of ancient astronomy were Pythagoras and Ptolemy. The former was a native of Greece, and flourished five centuries before the Christian era, and the latter two hundred and twenty years after. Ptolemy held that the EARTH was the great centre round which the sun and all the heavenly bodies revolved. Pythagoras held the SUN to be the centre, round which the earth and planets all revolved; and thus he accounted for the APPARENT movement of the heavenly bodies. The system of Ptolemy, though now nearly exploded, prevailed for ages; but in the fifteenth century, COPERNICUS, a native of Thorne, in Polish Prussia, revived the principles of Pythagoras, and from him the Solar system is called the Copernican system. GALILEO,* a native of Florence, in the next century, followed in the same line; and to him we are indebted for the knowledge of the telescope; he also determined from observation that the sun revolved on its axis. Then came Kepler, born at Wirtemberg, a man of great genins; and, finally, the system was established by the means of the illustrious Sir Isaac Newton; so that now a follower of Ptolemy is rarely met with. It was by the swinging of a lamp that Galileo was led to investigate the laws of the oscillation of the pendulum, which he was the first to apply as a measure of time, but he left the subject incomplete. His son, Vincenzo, improved upon his father's labours, and Huygens perfected it, who thus may be considered the true inventor of the pendulum clock. The telescope was not, strictly speaking, invented by Galileo, but he so improved it, that the heavens became opened to him by its powers to an astonishing degree.†

"Mere curiosity, without reference to practical utility, would prompt mankind to study the movements of the vast machine which rolls over our heads; but the application of astronomy to the affairs of life are so numerous and important, that an accurate knowledge of its principles is almost indispensable to

* So strenuous was the opposition to the views of Galileo, that he was obliged, at the command of the church of Rome, to retract his opinions. Popular Encyclopædia, vol. iii. p. 346.

society. First-It is by means of the celestial bodies that we are enabled to determine the relative positions of points on the surface of the earth, to fix geographical latitudes and longitudes, and ascertain the dimensions and form of our planet. Second-It is to astronomy that we are indebted for all the advantages resulting from navigation. With this knowledge the mariner can direct his course to any given coast; and the ocean, which, without this science, would present an insuperable barrier to the intercourse of distant countries, is rendered the 'highway of nations.' Third-Astronomy also presents us with the means of establishing the divisions of time necessary for the regulation of civil affairs, and of fixing chronological epochs. The diurnal revolution of the sphere gives the smaller divisions of time; the revolution of the moon gives the month; that of the sun, the year; and the various configurations of the planets mark out periods of all magnitudes, from a few months or years to millions of ages."-Brande.

Having thus introduced the subject of astronomy, by this brief reference to its history, I will now call your attention, first, to the Solar system, and then to the heaven of the fixed stars.

THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

The SUN is the centre of the Solar system, and never moves from its place. It revolves on its axis in twenty-five days ten hours. The sun is the source of the earth's light, heat, and vegetation. The diameter of the sun is eight hundred and ninety thousand miles, so that its magnitude is more than a million times greater than the bulk of our earth; and if you could imagine our globe to swell out and reach the moon, it would still have to go two hundred thousand miles beyond it, ere it occupied a space equal to the sun's enormous bulk.

The following engraving shows the position of the sun, and the planets. The sun is seen in the centre. Nearest it is Mercury; next is Venus; next the Earth, accompanied by her satellite, the moon; next Mars. Then come the four aste