Smyrna times., 1859-10-27
Astronomical.
Evidences of the Being of a God.


Evidences of the Being of a God.
LECTURE BY PRoF o. F. MIrcHELL.-In
the first of a course of four lectures by Prof
y. f. Mitchell, was delivered on Tuesday even
ing, before the Gillette Young Mems Associa.
tion, in Calvary Baptist church, New York
The attendance was all that could have been
desired, either by the association or by the dis
tIngalshed lecturer himself His subject was,
Evidence of the Being of God, drawn from
the Physical Universe. After a suitable intro
duction, in which be said he did not believe
that IN any soul there was doubt OF the being
OF God, he commenced the consideration Of
his theme. Beginning with light, Prof, NJ. said
that be would call to his aid that wondrous in
strument, the telescope. He would not carry
mis- audience too fast-ony as fast as light it.
self, which travelled at the rate of twelve mil
| lions OF miles minute. With the aid of the
telescope they would examine the planets
The fret, Mercury, was thirty.six millions of
miles from the Sun, Venus, sixty.eight mil
lions; the Earth, ninety-fve millions. Snki q
deeper into space, we come upon Mars and the
Asteroids; then Jupiter, with his four moons,
with his rings and eight attendant satelites.-
| Then, at the distance of one billion eight hum
dred million OF miles was Uranus aud three
billions of miles distant was Neptune-that
by that wondrous instrument, the telescope
Looking back from even that distance, the orbs
behind seemed Insignificant. But they would
jog onward 10 the fixed stars, the light from
Which occupied ten years in reaching our eyes
And again they would take the telescope and
pass onward to the milky way, where they
would discover five hundred objects or more, as
distant from each other as is our earth from the
sun. Onward let them pass, and what were
the objects to be seen-sweeplng on still fur.
| ther, there were stars as grand as he had left
| behind.
! Having swept over the distance, it was no
| longer that they had TO do with stars, but nu-
merous universes; and still beyond, with ours
as centre and infnitude beyo d. there still
was universe 10 be added 10 universe. Now
came the problem. Whence are these objects!
Had they ever been there! There were three
hypothesis on which an attempt had been made
to answer the question. The first, that the world
was eternal, having neither beginning nor end.
The second, that matter was eternal and cannot
be destroyed. The third was, that they were
the work of an omnipotenI, divine Being
| The first, was the Universe eternal Had the
stars existed, the planets rolled, the sun shone,
and had our earth itself been circulating round
the sun from eternity! But when we examine
our earth, the only one we can examine inter-
nally, we must, if the first hypothesis be cor
rect, find animal and vegetable lite eternal.-
This was demonstrably not the case. The
second hypothesis, that the matter is eternal,
out of which the world was formed, aud that
from its creative condition il had been brought
by certain lmmutabe laws. Let them but con
slider particle of matter; would it either rise
or fall without power TO move it I! No Chaos
existed, but out of it no order could arise until
a controlling power wiIled it; then insensate
matter was organized and world was formed.
That brought them 10 the third hypothesis
that the whole universe had been called into
existence by an Omnipotent God. 10 proof of
the correctness of the third hypothesis, the
speaker told of the revolutions of the various
planets and of the wonderful delcacy and COM
plexity ofthe arrangement by which they were
made dependent upon each other, and showed
how the slightest deviation from the great laws
that govern them, would destroy the whole
We were living upon a globe, he said, which
was allied to all other globes--destroy the
equilibrium and oil was destroyed. There
was not planet that had not its size, weight
and velocity assigned to it. Change either,
and destruction must inevitably follow. Could
they think of that he asked-all that, so beau
, tlful, so delicate, so sublime, and believe that il
came TO be so by chance! There were, in all
LldL was huOWu vi uedNeuiy UOuleSi eNcIy
evidence that each and every one Of them was
one matter, governed by the same great laws
, and by the same great controlling power. In
. conclusion, Prof. NJ. said he could, if he had
the power, have built universe so that there
would have been none of the changes which
, ours is subject to. He would have made the
! planets of one matter, and placed them so that
they should not have affected each other, not
\ should they have been affected by the sun. He
. could have launched them out, and they would
= have gone on perfectly in their spheres. Now
4 why was not the world SO built, if there were
;. difference of matter! 1t had not been because
there was but one matter, and matter could no
;. be wiled TO attract and not attract. Hence
# the wondrous scheme by which the earth wa
dragged by the moon. then by the planets, ant
|, by the sun, here and there, so that dissolution
\ seemed inevitable; but still the most perfsc
= harmony prevailed, and the earth rolled on L
;. eternity. Let the mind contemplate these orb
. and their government, and the conclusion wa
"a unavoidable--ths is the Empire of Almight
- God.