North Park union., 1902-01-03
vn,DAy. JANUARY .. 1909.
CnRIsr11ALxo. :.

CHRIsTlGAs-N0. =.
Az Tn PREcsssIoH Of tile equi.
noxes viii bs the basis Of al this
Argument No will explain 1t . little
fuller. The ancients, after long peri
ids Of time, had observed that the
sun In crossing the equator retro
graded, or fell back 50 seconds of
degree every year, or which would be
ths Same thing, the starr, the oonstel-
lations, had advanced the same dis
lance. By calculations that must
hAve required the lapse Of long and
Indefinite periods Of time they estab-
lishsd the phsnomenon Of the precss-
iion Of the equinoxss, and some very
learned moderss now think they
tried 70 perpstuate forever this
knowledge In that wonderful oompos-
ks construction, known as the SPHINX.
Baillie In his celebrated work, "The
Astronomy Of the Anclsnts,'
says: "Ths seasons were formerly
dymbolized by the four signs most
significant Of the operations proceed
Ing on earth-namsly, the Bull, the
Lion, the Eagle, and the Man. That
Ihese signs were the evangelists or
tecordefs Of the Guns passage
through the heavens during the solar
year, we have ample testimony, even
IN the fact that the early historians
adopted them to symbolic Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John, the eyangelis-
TIC historians Of Christ; but the sun
holds q very different relation 10 the
agns now to what he did five thou
sand years ago. This change, togeth-
sr with corresponding variations in
the order Of the seasons, is occasioned
by an apparent slow forward motion
of all the stars round the polos Of
The scliptio. called the procession of
The equinoxes. And this actual po-
alton of the sun In the seasons, af-
lords us the best evidence that as
tronomy was understood and identi-
bed with the worship Of the anoients
hvo thousand years ago. :.
Now, in connection With this advance
Of the stars, sbout the poles Of the
scliptic, the sun appears to fall back
Or retrograde, change n OF sppreci-
able from day to day, or yoar to
year, until we come to rsckon about
nineteen years, when it will be seen
that the sun has retrograded, or
the stars advanced, . vell.dehned 500
pon Of . degree"
Some writers, among them, Dupius
volney and Godfrey Higeins, go go
far a. to trace the Wharfage Supper
u Cana in Galiles" and the miracle
Of tho five loaves and two fishes 70
the ancient midsummer feast in hon.
Or Of the miracle working sun In
pshering in the grape harvest the
mythical marriage Of the seasons,
and the festivities Of the Grscian
Goddess, Ceres, in celebrating the
growth and expansion of i've ears Of
corn into an abundant harvest, and
The watery sign Of Pices-February
into the grape harvest Of summer.
The origin Of grsemasonry is also
traced to ancient mysteries. The
tune required for the sun to pass en-
tirsly through one constellation was
about 1000 years. Some calculated
RlS0 years But an intermediate
oyols, OF Neros, occurred every six
hundred years, or when the sun and
moon appeared in the heavens in
that particular line or conjunction,
= to the ancisnts, represented mar.
fiaRe Of the masculine and feminine
symbols, and this fact suggested q
birth Of . goldman or ssSon Of God, Z
whc should b divine, and an incar-
hafinn n f1sftv.
{e 3A6ed next veek)