Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-06-24
Celestial Mansions.
BY G. z. DIsoswAY, ESQ.

BY C. p. DIsoswAY, ESQ.
'eAiiilions of souls that once resided here,
Now Shine resplendent, as the burning sun
Arrayed in glory in those regions bright
Where joy forever dwells, and day doth know no
What magnifcence do we not exclaim,
when on some fair night, we lift our eyes
to the heavens and behold the countless
shining orbs, rolling in silent grandeur.
They are more numerous than the blossoms
of MAY. and while contemplating them,
our conceptions greatly increase of the
power and wisdom of God The planets,
which are neighboring worlds, exhibit the
greatest diversity. How mysterious the
rings of Saturn. the rapid motion of Mer-
curry, and how beautiful Jupiter's four
moons, What display of divine me-
chanism in the system of the planetoids !.
There are now eighty-nine of them inter-
secting each others orbits, and yet rolling
onward without the least accident. Had
DR.. Paley lived in our day, he would un-
| doubtedly have selected these bodies as a
| striking proof of the ever-watchful eye of
the omnipotent power of the great Archi-
tect of the Universe In his time, only
| tour of them had been discovered and were
temporarles.
Saturn's rings and seven moons greatly
! increase the wonders and the beauty of the
solar system. but now the motions Of these
planetoids, almost within hail of each 9TH
er, and then rolling away to the most
distant bounds of their orbits, have added
greater variety to our system of worlds,
than ever. How beautiful too are the
| double stars! In the constellation of
| Taurus, we discover one pair, one pearly
white, and its companion yellow With
another pair, one is bright red, and the
other cerulean blue-a third exhibits
white and pale purple-fourth, white and
lilac-a fifth, very beautiful pair, yell
low and white-and another is muddy and
green. In the constellation of Andromeda
we find pair of blue and violet; in
Eridani. bright yellow flushed brilliantly
with blue, and so beautiful Is this pair
that a foreign astronomer calls them may
nifci ct super6i. There is a splendid OBJ
ject in Orion-pale yellow and sapphire
blue. We might refer to the triple stars,
if the great nebulae of Orion, which only
appearing to the naked eye as star in the
Sword of Orion, is in reality a universe
of light, that would swallow up, not only
our solar system, but the entire system of
which our sun is Il member
But this is only beginning of the won-
ders which the far-distant heavens dis
close, for the revelation of the telescope
convinces us that there exist in the depths
or recesses of the Universe vast hearens
of Hghti Nebule have been found which
| I+l,. f,,l rIa
! into stars. We speak of the starry
heavens, but the heavens seem not to be
all stars We find in them another sub
stance What is it What is the nature
of the Unreasonable Nebxlce &? Some astron-
omers call them luminous gas, glowing
ether, phantom worlds, or regions of light,
but they cannot tell US what their constitu-
ton is. La Place before the construction
of Lord ROSES gigantic telescope presu-
med that the Nebule were matter in pro-
cess of solidihcation and would ultimately
become solid material worlds and even
Herschel as late as 1911, embraced the
same theory. But subsequent discoveries
have proved the fallacy Of it, and existing
things show us that it is one of the most
unwarrantable conclusions ever conceived
All the revelations of science, and just now
proceeding with such wonderful rapidity
demonstrate that we do not comprehend
the elements of half the objects existing in
infinite space.
We can scarcely 60 into the open air on
a clear Winter night, without exclaiming,
What beautiful night" How .glori-
vu,iy stars snlne, Ii there is one
time more than another when we are more
deeply impressed with the vastness of the
universe, it is on such a night. We feel
like travellers in railway car. who think
more of the scenes through which they pass
than the small space occupied by them.
Looking upon these bright upper worlds,
we forget this on which we tarry awhile,
with its tolls, cares, sutferings, and even
death itself We feel lifted above them
all, and thinking of eternity, almost IN
voluntarily exclaim with David, "O, that
1 had wings like dove for then would [
fly away and be at rest" How often
too, at such an impressive moment does
this world seem but the Threshold of life,
and that the disembodied spirits of our be-
loved ones have gone to range the bright
plains of those upper worlds, and far away
from the tolls of life, and all human sut-
ferings, with death itself, they have reach
ed happy regions-pure, deathless, and
uncursed.
Where heaven is, it must be unwise fol
us to speak, for we never find the hea-
ven of heavens promised to the faithful
until angels conduct us there. Still We
; know it is real beautiful, unimper
ishable world, as its glories never fade
, awav. 1t is eternal. DR.. K. Watson
imagines that it is the vast temple of God
illimitable universe There is most hol.
place, where the Deity resides, and man
! ifests his presence to the angelic hosts, ant
J the redeemed who surround Him. Thi
: view is scrIptural, as heaven is repre-
sented as the place where the Saviour min
:. listers, the atoning Priest, to whom eve
e non-believers come in spirit, and wher