The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-11-07

stick as ever; just Is Tyoho, the illustrious
Danish astronomer on the 11th Of Novem-
Dor 1872 saw the light Of sun 20 out
in tremendous conaagration that the
light of suns and stars is rariJle, and that,
as LaPlace says, "those stars that have
become invisible. after having surpassed
Jupiter in brillancy, have not changed
their place during the time they continu.
ed visible, but "the luminous process has
simply ceased and as Bessel asserts,
No reason crisis for considering iu,ninos-
ity an essential property Of these dodies;'
and ss Nicholl sums up the matter in
these emphatic words "No more is light
inherent in the sun than in Tycho's van
ished star and with it and other orbs, a
time may come, when, through the con.
sent Of all the powers of nature, he shall
cease to be required to shine. The womb
which contains the future is that which
bore the past ~
Such in brief, are the views of scienti-
fic men for we could fill this entire
paper with extracts on the teachings
OF science respecting this matter Of
light. But how does it conflict with the
Bible ? Moses" says DR.. McCaul, "to
whom am endebted for many suggestive
criticisms" does not call the sun 'Or light,
but Maor, q place or instrument Of light,
luminsry, or candle stick, just what
modern science has discovered it to be-"
"The word for Hg1t." says DR.. Patterson,
Sin the third verse, being Or, while the
words for the lights," in the fourth days
work are Mdor and at enaor words, as
distinct in shape and sense as our English
words, light and the lighthouses. "More.
over" says the latter author, "thc local.
ity Of the light of the third worse, is
wholly different from that Of the light
bearers of the fourteenth verse. That
was placed on earth, these id heaven, it
was Of the earth alone, the writer was
speaking in the second verse; the earth
alone is the subject Of the following yer.
ses." The "let there be light" then,
had reference to the the earth alone, and
not to its existence and diffusion through
out the universe. Hence the statements
Of the l4th. 18th. 10th, and l7th verses, =,
which are made tho occasion Of an i'll.
tempered fling at Moses ignorance, re-.
turns as convincing proof of the con-
summate ignorance Of these scientific in.
fidels,and Of the Bible which they UNDER
take to criticise, for, on those days the sun
and moon became, or was made to be
| light-holders in the armament of the
heaven, to give light upon the earth |;
while the stars referred to, are evidently
the earth's fellow planets, which, both
according to LaPlace and Moses, receiv-
ed their light from the sun contemporane.
ously with the earth.
Having thus shown how modern science
proves that the earth and light may exist,
and according to scientific theory ,probab.
/! ly did exist before the sun became q
luminary, it is no longer difficult to see,
when We take into account tho heat of
the earth. and the abundance of carbon
in the atmosphere, that all the conditions
arc supplied for the growth Of vegetation,
before the sun had been made a light.
holder. So that, the inddel assertion that
the vegetable world,st the earliest period,
would "havc been miraculously accom-.
plished." if there had been no such, sun
as We now have falls to the ground. I'm.
less these two assumptions can he proved
true namely that the SIN is the only
possible source of light to the earth and
that it is impossible for the sun to exist
without Illuminating tho earth, you can.
not prove the Bible account Of creation
to be false, nor even show it to be I'M.
possible. You may mock and scof at it,
but it will be at things you know not.
Not, however. to allow these modern
sLeptics, even the credit of inventing
these objections to Moses account of the
primeval light, would in passing re-
mark, that they were oil borrowed from
CELSIUS and the Msnicheans OF the early
centuries Of the Christian era. Ii is old
error in modern costume.
A. +. BAILSr.