The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1885-11-20
for the Monitor.
MISSION on THE COMETS.
BY REV. j. g.. CRATE, NJ. A., PASTOR NJ. +. cBUR
NAYS LANDING. NJ


the wise men Of science. That they have
a purpose and a mission, no one holding
adequate views of creation can doubt. IF
they have orbits which relate to our sun.
as astronomers tell us they have, they are,
of course, members of the solar system.
for, in that ease, their motions. though
%erratic, and, perhaps, irregular as to periods,
as compared with the motions Of the plan
cts, must, nevertheless. have an influence
exerted upon them by the sun.
Though they have orbits and are mem
bers of the solar system, yet their analogy
to the planets is not such as to admit Of
the belief that they Were made for the pur-
pose of being inhabited. Their going so
near to the sun and then p~lunging off into
space so distaut-to an unknown and
uncalculated distanee-must produce, in
turn, extremes of molten neat and an in
tensity Of cold that no form of being,
either rational or animal. of which we have
any conception connected with a material
residence, could Survive.
Nor have tie wise men of the telescope
given US a hint, so far as our reading has
gone, that they rotate q diurnal motion,
giving day and night, like the planets have,
one Of which-the one on which we reside
we know is inhabited, and infer there
from that the others may be, which infer
ence is made reasonable, il not, indeed,
necessitated, by all Of them having these
similar motions, and similarly shaped
orbits.
Nor is it certain by any means, if our
reading has been to purpose. that the plane
of their orbits lies always in the same di-
r%ection, like the planets. In this they are
very giraffe, one going in one direction and
another plunging off in another direction,
and SO OF the rest. Nor are we sure that
it is at all established that the same comet.
after visiting the sun, retraces the same
path into space which it Travelled at its pre-
vious visit.
And yet, doubtless, their purpose in the
solar system is as necessary and their
movements as much controlled by law, as
are the planets in either respect. That the
law of gravitation acts upon them in draw
ing them near the sun, in giving them an
orbit, is as evident as that said law acts
upon the planets i'll giving them III orbit.
But how is it that they fly so nearly in a
straight line from the sun when they go
away? And why in like manner when
they return to him? And why do they go
SO faraway into space before they return,
giving them an orbit so elongated
There is, We think, one hypothesis upon
which the facts stated and the questions
now raised in this paper may be brought
into harmony, namely: that their purpose is
turning to him the particles he s~catters
through space in giving light and heat to
his attendant worlds.
That he does give off particles in this way
well established by those whose studies
and experiments have been specially in that
line. That this action ofgiving off from his
own composition, if not i'll some way COM
ttIlSdiGu IUI, NUuiu llildilN 81 itNStH lilt
bulk, and with it the power of gravitation
in the sun, as to destroy the equilibrium
between him and his attendant planets as
to unbalance the centripetal and centrifu-
gal forces and bring the wheels Of the solar
system into confusion, or send the planets
off at a tangent into space, is manifest.
Does God reimburse the sun for this drain
upon him and preserve this balance by con-
tinuing perpetually to create matter for
the purpose? Does he do it by endowing
the sun with power to create matter in the
high sense of producing an entity out of a
non entity as he throws it out through
space? The latter supposition would in
vest the sun with an attribute of the Deity,
viz, creative power. To the former ques-
ton the proper answer, we think. is, hard
ly. God finished the work" of creating
the solar system at least in six days.
1t is far more likely, therefore, that during
that creative period He ordained provis-
ions for reimbursing this drain on h sun
by instituting some arrangement by which
the matter flung by the sun through space,
after accomplishing the object it was sent
ont to do, comes back to it and gets re-
endowed to go out again for a similar
work, and SO IN through the cycles.
And does not the action of the comets
harmonic W it'll this idea and indicate that
they are the Instruments created for and
employed in this work? They go sweep
ing through space with a trail millions of
miles in length and millions in breadth,
crossing the plane of the planets orbits at
all angles and in all directions. vertical and
horizontal. and lateral. like a servant with
a broom hunting for the dust in every part
of the house. They approach the sun as
if intending to plunge into him, but never
do. When they get near him they seem to
split or open as if discharging something
into his bosom, when they Immediately
plunge away again into space for another
journey, to return by and by as before.
1t is conceivable and in harmony with
the facts Of nature as We know them that
the comets may possess a composition upon
which the sun may act by repulsion when
they are empty, like two incompatible
magnetic poles, and yet be such as to at
tract to themselves these particles thrown
off by the sun when those PARTICLES are