The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-01-07
The Predicted Fate of the Earth.

The Predicted Fate of the Earth.
The Apostle Peter, in his second epis-
tie, announced the approach of the time
when I" the heavens shall pass away with
a great noise, and the elements shall melt
with fervent heat the earth, also, and
the works that are therein shall be burnt
up" What has modern science to say to
the possibility of catastrophe such as
that Swallowed forth in comparatively
unscientiic age, eighteen centuries ago?
Mr.. R. A Proctor, writing in his latest
volume, The Flowers of the Sky" re-
marks:
" 1t is no longer a mere fancy that
each star is a sun-science has made this
an assured fact, which no astronomer
thinks of doubling. We know that in
certain general respects each star resem-
bles our sun. Each is glowing like our
sun with an intense heat. We know that
in each star processes resembling in vlo-
lence those taking place in our own sun
must be continually in progress, and that
such processes must be accompanied by
a noise and tumult, compared with which
all the forms of uproar known upon our
earth are as absolute silence The crash
of the thunderbolt, the believing of the
volcano, the awful groaning of the earth
quake, the roar of the hurricane, the re-
verberating peals Of loudest thunder, any
of these, or all combined, are as nothing
compared with the tumult raging over
every square mile, every square yard, of
the surface of each one among the stars
He proceeds to describe, with consid-
cradle circumstantiality, two appearances
witnessed in the heavens within the last
few years-in 1866, when the tenth mag
nitude star (that is four magniLudes
below the lowest limit of the naked-eye
vision) in the constellation of the North
ern Crown, suddenly shone as a second
magnitude star, afterward rapidly di-
minishing in lustre; and in 1876, when a
new star became visible in the constel-
lation Cygnus, subsequently fading again
so as to be only perceptible by means of
a telescope. After noting the conclu-
sions deduced from the application of the
most improved instruments to these obser-
vations, Mr.. Proctor, whose authority is
second to none among astronomers, re-
marks:
" A change in our own sun, such as af-
fected the star in Cygnus, or that other
star in the Northern Crown, would un-
questionably destroy every living crea-
ture on the face of this earth nor could
any even escape which may exist on the
other planets of the solar system The
star in the Northern Grown shone out
with more than eight hundred times its
former lustre, according as we take the
highest possible estimate of its brightness
before the catastrophe, or consider that it
may have been very much brighter.
Now, if our sun were to increase tenfold
in brightness, all the higher forms of ami
NAL life, and nearly all vegetable life,
would inevitably be destroyed on this
earth. A few stubborn animalcules
might survive, and, possibly, few Of the
lowest forms of vegetation, but naught
else. If the sun increased a hundred
fold in lustre, its heat would doubtless
sterilize the whole earth. The same
would happen in other planets. Science
knows nothing of spontaneous generation,
and believers in rev elation reject the
doctrine. Science knows nothing of the
creation of living forms, but believers in
revelation accept the doctrine. Certain
it is that if our sun ever undergoes the
baptism of fire which has affected some
few among his brother suns, one or other
of these processes (if creation can be
called process) must come into opera
ton, or else our earth and her compan-
ion worlds would forever after remain
devoid Of life. "-Sunday Magozia1e