The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-06-30
The Magnitude of the Creation

This little planet on which we live,
how marvellous in its conformation and
adaptability to the wants of those who
inhabit it, and how awe-inspiring the
mystery of its swift and steady sweep
through the vast circle of its orbit! But
the earth Is small item even in the sys-
tenn to which it Immediately belongs. AS
we pass from planet to Granddaughter,
$4,000 miles in diameter, and 100000
600 miles from the sun, Saturn, 10000
miles in diameter, and 900O0O,OOO miles
from the sun, on to remote Neptune.
whose distance from the central orb is
computed at 2,85OO0O,O00 miles, and
whose year is 168 of our years-we
find at every step new and larger cause
to admire with David the work of His
fingers" And yet there remains the
great sun, by whose attractive power
these vast and distant worlds are kept
from flying into space From us it is
distant, according to the latest computa-
ton, 81, $3.50 miles; and its diameter
IS 05O,lO miles, or more than 10Y times
the mean diameter of the earth.
But this vast system is only the begin
ming OF that universe which the voice of
God spake into being The nearest of
the g fixed stars from US is computed at
20 billions of miles, distance which it.
would require 81 years for ray of light
to traverse. Sirius, the brightest of the
stellar suns, Is estimated to be six times
the distance of the nearest star, and it's
light 1874 times that of our great light"
From star of the first magnitude a raw
of light would travel Is! years before
penetrating the human eye, and the small
est visible star could not send notice of
its existence in less than 100 years But
the vast majority Of stars are invisible to
the naked eye, and their distances from
us are, for the most part, unreasonable
and inconceivable. Nor is it possible to
compute their number Herschel di-
recting his telescope at the densest part
of the Milky Way observed ll6 900 stars
OF the 18th and 18th magnitude in a.
quarter of an hour. And these formed
only little fraction of the stellar host.
From some of these telescope stars, the
orbit of the world would seem but point.
and from the more distant ones, even
Neptune's gigantic orbit would be re-
duced to point. A. recent writer
has said:
1t has been calculated that some of the
stars seen with Lord Roses telescope
shine from such an enormous distance
that light takes upwards of $4,000 years
in travelling to us from them. Now
consider for a moment the flight of a.
hght-ray from star at this distance on
one side of our system to another as far
off on the opposite side. For 100000
years the light speeds onward-eaoh
second sweeping over nearly 100000
miles; past stars and systems it rushes on.
but far away on every hand are other
stars and other systems to which it comes
not near. During 5000 generations of
mortal men the pulsations of the ether
are transmitted along the tremendous
line which separates the two stars"
But our star system, again, is but an
item In the stellar universe. The ap-
pearances known as nebule are believed
to be, for the most part at least, agglom-
erations of suns, the centres of plan
etary systems. But they are separated
from our system and from one another by
unfathomable starless intervals. How
unreasonable the impressiveness of these
short words In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth, and
all the host Of them.