The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-05-02

of intellect; mysterious movements
have been unraveled; mighty laws
have been revealed; ponderous orbs
have been weighed, their reciprocal
influences computed, their complex
wanderings made clear, until the
mind, majestic in its strength, has
mounted, step by step, up the rocky
height of its self-built pyramid, from
whose star-crownel summit it looks
out upon the grandeur of the uni
verse, self clothed with the prescience
of God. With resistless energy it
rolls back the tide of time, and lives
in the configuration of rolling worlds
thousand years ago, or, more Won
derful, it sweeps away the dark cur
tain from the future and beholds
those celestial scenes which shall
greet the vision of generations when
a thousand years shall have rolled
away, breaking their noiseless waves
on the dim shores of eternity = i i
eff the difficulties of this problem
should overwhelm the mind, let it be
remembered that the astronomer has
ever lived and never dies. The senti-
mel upon the watchtower is relieved
from duty, but another takes his
place and the vigil is unbroken. No.
The astronomer never dies. He COM
mences his Investigations on the hill
tops of Eden-he studies the stars
through the centuries of antediIuvian
of life. The deluge sweeps from the
earth its inhabitants, their cities and
their monuments, but when the storm
is hushed and the heavens shine forth
in beauty, from the summit of Mt.
Ararat the astronomer resumes his
endless vigils. In Babylon he keeps
his watch and among the Egyptian
priests he inspires a thirst for the
sacred mysteries of the stars. The
plains of Shinar-the temples of In
dia-the pyramids of Egypt. are
equally his watching places. When
science fled to Greece, his home was
in the schools of her philosophers;
and when darkness covered the earth
for thousand years, he pursues his
never-ending task from amidst the
burning deserts of Arabia. When
science dawned on Europe, the as
tronomer was there, toiling with
Copernicus, watching with Tycho,
suffering with Calico, triumphing
with Kepler. Six thousand years
have rolled away since the grand in
vestigation commenced. We stand
at the terminus of this vast period
and looking back through the long
vista of departed years, mark with
honest pride the successive triumphs
of our race. Midway between the
past and future, we sweep backward
and witness the frst-made efforts to
explain the celestial phenomena
we may equally stretch forward thou
sands of years, and although we can
not comprehend what shall be the
condition of astronomical science at
that remote period, of one thing we
are certain,-the past, the present, and
the future constitute but one I'M
broken chain of observation, condens-
ing all time to the astronomer into one
mighty Now And thus to the as
tronomer as to all others 'the heavens
declare the glory of God"
The Christian astronomer helps
others to perceive this glory, and
therefore it was an hour for gladness
of heart when Ormsby Mcknight
Mitchell was born, in Union county,
Kentucky, Aug. %, 1910. The cir
cumstances of his childhood were
such that he received his early educa-
ton at Lebanon. Warren Co., Ohio,
and while yet mere boy, only twelve
years of age, he began life for him
self as clerk in a store at Miami,
Ohio. He had received as good a
common school education as one
could obtain in so few years of study,
but he was not satisfied. God had
called him to declare the glory of the
heavens, just as he called Hugh Mil
Ter to be a geologist, and John G..
Whittier to be poet. He remained
in the store about three years, and
then having received a cadets war
rant, he started for the Military
Academy on the beautiful Hudson
where so many of our heroes were
educated, and, we are told, he reached
West Point in June, 1925, with his
kDapsack on his back, and the meagre
sum of twenty-five cents in his pocket.
From that celebrated school he was
graduated with distinction in 1929,
and was then employed as Assistant
Professor Mathematics for two years.
He was appointed brevet Second
Lieutenant of Artillery, but at that
time the army did not need his SER
vices, and he engaged in railway sur
veys until in September 1881. he was