The Bossier banner., 1893-01-12

BOOK OF JOD, IL was written: Men see
not the bright light which is in the
clouds. Fair weather cometh out of
the north" While all the nations sup
posed that the earth was built on a
foundation of some sort, and many
supposed that it stood on huge turtle,
or some great marine creature, Job
knew enough of astronomy to say it
had no foundation, blt was suspended
on the invisible arm of the Almighty,
declaring that He hangeth the earth
upon nothing" While all nations
thought the earth was level, the
sky spread over it like tent over a
fiat surface, Isaiah declared the world
to be globular, circular, saying of God:
''He sitteth upon the circle of the
earth" See them glitter in the scrip
tural sky-Arcturus, Orion, the Plei-
AIDES and the Bear with her young"
While running your fingers among the
leaves of your Bible with the astronom-
ical thought in your mind, you see
two worlds stop-the sun and the
moon. But what does that Christian
| know about that miracle who does not
understand something of these two lu-
minaries? Unless you watch modern
astronomy put those two worlds in it's
steelyards and weigh them, you are as
| ignorant as Hottentot about the stu
| pendousness of that scene in
| the life of Joshua. The sun
over three hundred thousand times
as heavy as our earth and go
ing thousands of miles the hour. Think
of stopping that and starting it again
without the shipwreck of the universe!
ButI can easily believe it. What con-
founds me is not that He could stop and
start again those two worlds in
Joshua's time, but He could have made
the wheel of worlds of which the sun
and moon are only cogs, and keep that
wheel rolling for thousands of years
the fy-wheel of all eternity. If an en-
gineer can start long train, it is not
surprising that he can stop it. If God
could make and move the universe,
which is an express train drawn by an
Omnipotent engine, l am not surprised
that for part of a day He could put
down the brakes on two pieces of the
rotating machinery. Infidelity il hard
up for ground of complaint against the
Scriptures when it finds fault with that
cessation of stellar and lunar travel.
Here is my watch. / could make a
watch if | tried, but | can stop it
and start it again. My difficulty
is not that God could stop two
worlds and start them again, but that
He could make them at all as He did
make them. What pleases me and
astounds me more is that each one of
the millions of worlds has God-given
name. Only comparatively small
number of them have names given
them by scientists. If astronomers can
give name to whole constellation OF
galaxy, they think they do well, but
God has name for each star in all i'm
mensity. Inspired David declared OF
God: ''He telleth the number of the
stars, He calleth them all by theil
names" They are not orphans that
have never been christened. They are
not waits of the night. They are not
unknown ships on the high seas of i'm.
which God is the father, and as you call
your children Benjamin, or Mary. OF
Berthas or Addison or Josephine, so He
calls all the infant worlds and all the
adult worlds by their first name, ant
they know it as well as though there
were only one child of light in all the
Divine family. ''Hc calleth them all
by their Names" and when He calls
warrant they come.
Oh the stars! Those vestal fires KEEP
burning on infinite affairs. Those light
houses on the coast of eternity. Tht
hands and weights, and pendulum o
, the great clock of the universe. Ac
; cording to Herschel, the so-calle
, fixed stars are not fixed at all, bu
) each one sun with mighty system
: of worlds rolling round it, and thi
: whole system with all the other sys
TENS rolling on around some othe
! great center. Millions and millions
billions and billions, trillions and tril
t lions, quadrillions and quadrillions!
, But what gladdens me, and at tn
: same time overwhelms me, is that thos
worlds are inhabited. The Bible say
so, and what small idea you mus
| hdsC VI NOI duti LIS IL w
/ think it only extends across this chi
t of which you and l now inhabit
r Have you taken this idea of all tn
} other worlds being inhabited as humal
guesswork? Read Isaiah xiv, IS
t Thus saith the Lord that created tn
heavens, God himself that formed tn
: earth and made it; He hath establishe
it, He created it not in vain, lie for me
1 it to be inhabited" Now,
l He inhabited the earth so tina
1 it would not be created in vain, woul
He make worlds hundreds and thor
n sands of times larger and no
r have them inha bited? Speak
: ing of the szinhabitants of th
f world He says: The nations az
e as the drop of bucket" If all the il
: habitants of this world are as drop {
e a bucket, where are the other drops {
. the bucket? Again and again tn
+ Bible speaks of the hosts of Heave
: and the word "hosts" means livin
: creatures, not inert masses, and the c!
: preston ''hosts of Heaven" must mea
n inha bitants of other worlds. FL