Year: 1871

Extent OF the universe. ..


The statements of the Bible concern


ing Gods interest in man are rendere.


more Impressive II we consider the ex


tent of the universe in the midst q


which man Is placed. It is common 4


hear persons say they had no idea of tn
extent of our country till after riding da,
in the the hurrying car across the prar


les of the West. And now that to eros.
the continent is becoming a frequen


pastime, our ideas of distances are grow


ing larger and larger and more clear. L


is but the merest glimpse of scenery
which one can gain seated on the OBJ


servation car of the Pacific railway, but
supposing traveller to be able to sec
twenty miles on either hand right and
left, and thus to view belt of forty
miles in width as he Is hurried over il
at speed of thirty miles an hour, q
rapid railroad speed, and supposing the
surface Of the land on oul
globe to lie stretched out in such a con.
tinuous strip both sides of the rail. road
and traveller to gaze steadily at it fol-
the etwelve hours of daylight each day, it
would take him, to catch even such q
hasty glance at the land merely, leaving
out all the water of the world in which
we live, more than twelve years.


Men travel around the world in
ayear; but it is a narrow line merely
which meets their eyes; few objects
here and there only which they exam.
inc, aud they return wearied with the
greatness of the way" But supposing
we were to leave the world" and travel to
the planets and stars, we must take a
greater speed than this. The other day
on Western railroad two men journy-
ed before. Sixty miles an hour in car
is fearful speed. Eighty miles an hour
is computed as the speed of the clouds
in the blast of hurricane. But these
two men were on runaway lumber car
on down grade, and for eight or ten
miles, till long ascending grade
brought them to halt, it was
thought that they flew at the rate of
over hundred miles an hour. They
dashed through the towns like thund-
erbolt and the bystanders said it seem.
ed not car, but cannon-ball that shot
by them. Yet cannon-ball goes some.
times at the rate of 500 miles an hour.


Suppose We could stand outside our
world somewhere, and see the earth
move by in its yearly journey round the
sun-a cannon-ball not eight inches in
diameter, but 5000 miles in diameter
we should see it rush by, if indeed we
could see it at all flying at so vast a
speed, not at 500 miles an hour, but at
the rate of sixty eight thousand miles
an hour, for that is the rate at which We
go, all of us swim ming through the eth
er, voyaging among the stars, night and
day, every hour, as gently as the thistle
down on the evening zephyr, so soft aud
even is our pace, but sixty eight thous-
aud miles, real distance made, good
measure, every hour. But this only
carries US around our own sun once In
q whole year. We must travel faster
than this to get about much among the
stars. Well, harness the light to our
chariot, and 60 literally in a flash, quick
as light. Fly from world to world.
How fast should we go then? Say two
hundred thousand miles an hour? 2OO,-
600 miles a minute? Faster! Faster
sixty times as fast! Yes, no matter
though the brain whirls at thought of
it, 200, 900 miles a second, eight times
around the world while your heart
beats once, ar your eye winks. ...


With such a speed set out, and let not
your winged coursers tire till you draw
rein, and alighting, step off upon one OF
the nearest and most brilliant of the
fixed stars. Nine years and three
months at this. breathless speed you
have been travelling to get there, and
then you have but just begun your trav-
els, for this fixed star, as we call it, for
so it appears to US, is itself sun of an.
other system, and while it has its plan.
cts revolving around it, it is itself
whirling with astonishing velocity
around some inightier, more distant orb
in far-off center, and if we would 60
with it, we must get aboard quick, when
we reach it, for it is spinning away al
the rate of 13,69S millions Of miles all
hour, without, however, even rufiiing
the air, SO quiet, SO easy is its motion,
and in one short year accomplishing a
journey of l2O millions of millions OF
miles. And this, remember, is what we
learn visiting one Of the nearest of the
stars visible to the naked eye, but back
of these, further off, are worlds behind
worlds, more numerous far than those
our unassisted eyes can see. So that in
breadth of the sky no larger than tina,
which the apparent size of the moon
will cover, more stars are seen by teles


copic power than our eyes, unaided, car
see in the whole vault of heaven. Ir
seven minutes once, as Herscllel's tel


escope was aimed at the sky, over SO, O,0Ot
stars swept in silent glory across it,
field Of view. Armed with an instru


mentof 6. 900 timesmagnifying power, W,
peer out in one direction, and far as W,
can see still stretch the far distant orb


at illimitable distances beyond. Lool


in tho opposite-in any direction, an'


il is the same.
To our poor finite minds this seem


infinite, but there is nothing infinit


except God, the maker and upholder Q
all this grandeur. The everlasting God


tho Lord, the Creator of all things, VIII
! fainteth not, neither is weary. Grea