The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1899-04-06
BILL ARP ON ASTRONOMY.
Says the Moon and the Sun Are
clsagreeing.
RESULT A LOT OF lUNATiCS
ina: the Moon HISS Affected Rev. ca6m.a,
Who Recea.iy Dealed Truth Of the Bible
What Dr.. Baker SAYS.


cycle Of years, and is just turning
back to go the other way, sorter. Ike
the sun when terosses the line "anl
makes the equinoctial gales IND
that's the reason" says he, why
everything is out Of joint both
in the heavens above and the
earth beneath, for the moon is
pulling one way and the sun is
pulling another. And that accounts
for the extraordinary weather aad the
storms aud floods and cyclones; and
this left handed moon seems to affect
the people. too, aud SO We are having .
hulisbaloo about the jug aud whisky
business. and they have got it down SO
fine now that If o rattiesnake was to
bite man he would die before they
could get q drink Of whisky to save
him. And hero is all this deYilment
going on about mobs killing up the
niggers, and to my opinion it's all ow-
ing to this left-handed moon, for you
know that when q man goes crazy they
call him lunatic, aud that word came
from Luna, the moon, and SO reckon
that about this time We are all crazy
more or less, and don't know 1t; am,
l know, or else 1 would have sold my
cotton when it was at the high-water
mark, and / dident.'
DR.. Baker is an old fashioned phi
lossopher and has his opinions and
some superstition about the moon, and
also about screech owls AID graveyard
rabbits, and the like; but he is wrong
about the cycle of forty years. It takes
the moon only eighteen years to com.
plete it's cycle, aud remember that
eighteen years ago We had very late
spring, and never got chance to break
up the land at all. but had to list it in
April and plant anyhow. We made
good crop, though. and so We will trust
the Lord, who said that seed time and
harvest should not fail.
This moon business has perplexed
mo all nv life. I can't keep up with
i'll can't fcretell whether the next
new moon will set fat aad hold water
or ses up and sdown and spill it, nor
whether it will ride high in the zenith
or course low down in the southern
sky. It is the most mysterious orb III
the heavens, aud its movements the
most complicated, but to the astrono-
mer it is is the regularity Of irregulari-
ties. It revoIves around the earth in
twenty seven days. but as the earth is
speeding around tho sun it takes the
moon twenty-nine days to keep up
with i. and make the circuit. Its orbit
is an eclipse and sometimes it is near
US and sometimes mere remote. II
wabbles and has new path around the
earth every time fer nine years. aud
then gets back again in nine years
more It has its iltr.tions on latitude
and longitude and it's nodes aud as
pides, and. with all these complica-
tons, no wonder the people hare their
signs and supasstitions, and believe in
a wet moon and q dry moon and left
handed moon, and see bad luck in
looking at the new moon over their
left shoulder or through bushy tree
top, and almost everybody has the
DRY about planting in the light or the
dark of the moon.
But if the moon ever does make lun-
atics it is making them nowadays, aud
we are deeply concerned about those
| Northern Methodist preachers-we see
| from the New York papers that 400 Of
! them recently held a convention, with
| Bishop Andrews ut their head, and
listened with approval to the utterances
| OF Rev. Mr.. Cadman, of the Metropoli.
| tan church, who declared that the time
| had come when the ouly test of religi-
Gus faith should be Christ and his
teachings, aud that all the miracles of
the Old Testament should be discarded
as fables and as contrary to human
reason. 1--WE must cease to believe, n
said he. ''that Moses opened a way
| through the sea for the children of Is
| rael to pass over, or that he made Wa.
ter to gush from the rock, or that Lots
wife turned into a pillar of salt. or the
tower of Babel story. or that Daniel
| went into the lions den, or tina tShad
rack, Meschack and Abednago walked
through the fiery furnace. or that the
sun stood still at the command Of
Joshua, or that the whale swallowed
Jonah, and SO forth. The papers say
that there was almost unanimous ap
plause when he closed, and no one re-
piled to or controverted the argument
of the reverend gentleman.
What does all this mean? The press
SAYS it looks like perfect upheavina
and overturning of the very founda
tons of Methodism and orthodo,
Christianity, and that this was the
most representative body of clergymer
possible? Have they ignored Moses
Christ when they pretend to believe
quoted and endorsed time and again t.
his disciples. Didn't he cay to thu
Pharisees: Remember Lots wife?'
Didn't he say in one of his parallels
IF they will rot believe Moses and tn,
prophets neither would they believ.
though one rose from the dead" Didn'
Paul preach sermon on faith ant
quote Moses and Elijah and speak O
the very miracles they performed?
l confess that was shocked when
read the Rev. Cadman's new departur.
from the faith of the fathers and sti!
more shocked when the 400 cheeret
him. It seems that they were not sur
rrised. for Cadman had been for som,
time delivering himself on this sam,
line, and had made many convert
among them. ''Our belief must con
form to human reason" said he, ant
yet the idiot can't tell how his viii
raises his hand, nor how he winks hi
eye, nor how the leaves OF the tree ex
pand and grow and oil conform to tn
same shaps and size. nor how the ros
takes on its beautiful colors. Ali natur
10 a miracle and gives evidence of tn
existence of Supreme Being, and it i
only the fool who saith in his hear
there is no God, or that .aere is n,
irnth in the Old Testament So far q
| bm COuCeIus 1861 rs II Wa0 uOEuiuS
and less than nothing in the scale T.
existence, for do n1t know whence
came nor where I am going nor by wha
power think, nor what makea1rI hear
to beat while I am sleeping. III did no
!, put my trust in great and g6d Gre
ator in whom I live and move and hav
my being would be most miserable
He made me aud He will take care O
me. The Bible has stood as the bull
wark and foundation Of the Christian
!: faith for nineteen centuries and no,
, the Rev. Cadmen and these 400 pro
pose to strike DIVA and annihilate til
Old Testament Moses and the prophet
aud the ten commandments must &c
, for they cannot strike out the miracle
, and leave the rest to stand. As ye,
! we have seen. no reply to or explains
: ton Of this astounding departure frol
tina faith nf the fafhars Ara Tho tim a