Babylon
[THE RUINS OF BABYLON]
The prophecies of the scriptures are frequently predictions at once unexampled and unparalleled. Nations could not perish before they had grown,nor empires be destroyed till they had accumulated. Babylon, Nineveh, Damascus and Tyre had been growing and flourishing for a thousand years, at the time that Jonah, Micah, Hosea and Isaiah pronounced their sentences against them. At that time, mankind had not yet seen a ruined empire. Judging from the past they had no reason to expectanything else than prosperity concerning these cities; yet the prophets pronounced desolation and solitude against these cities which were then the capitals of nations more populous than this continent at the present time, and displayed buildings, a sight of whose crumbling ruins is deemed sufficient recompense for the perils of a journey of ten thousand miles. Every church, hall, school-house, theatre and hospital of Salt Lake City could have been conveniently arranged in the basement of the great temple of Belus. On the first floor there was room enough for the whole adult population of Utah to assemble, while the remaining seven stories would have still been open for the accomodation of the citizens of Babylon. When the prophets wrote their predictions, the walls of Babylon had been raised to the hight of three hundred and fifty feet, and made broad enough for six chariots to drive upon them abreast. From its hundred brazen gates issued the armies which trampled under foot the liberties of mankind, and presented their lives to the nod of a despot, who slew whom he would, and whom he would, allowed to live. Twenty years' provisions were collected within its walls, and the world would not believe that an enemy could enter its gates. Nevertheless, the prophets of God pronounced against it a doom of destruction as extraordinary as the pride and wickedness which procured it. Tyre, the London of Asia, was to "become a place for the spreading of nets" (Ezekiel xxvi5), The infidel, Volney, tells us that, "Its commerce has declined to a trifling,fishery;" but even that implies some few resident inhabitants. Rabbah of Ammon was to become, "A stable for camels and couching place for flocks" (Ezekiel xxv, 5). Lord Lindsay reports that, he "could not sleep amidst its ruins for the bleating of sheep in the sheep-folds and the braying of camels in its ruins." Yet sheep-folds imply that their Arab owners would occasionally reside near its ruins. But desolation, solitude and utter abandonment to the wild beast of the desert is the clearly-predicted doom of the ancient world's proud capital: "Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in, from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch his tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their folds there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces" (Isaiah xiii, 19 22).
Every traveler attests the fulfillment of this strange prediction. "It is a tenantless and desolate ruin," says Mignon, who, though fully armed and attended by six Arabs, could not be induced by any reward to pass the night among its ruins, from his apprehension of evil spirits. So completely fulfilled is the prophecy, "The Arabian shall not pitch his tent there." The same voicethat called camels and flocks to the palaces of Rabbah, summoned a very different class of tenants for the palaces of Babylon. Rabbah was to be a sheep-fold, Babylon a menagerie of wild beasts—a very specific difference and very improbable. However, after it was destroyed and deserted, one of the Persian kings repaired its walls, converted it into a vast hunting ground and stocked it with various kinds of wild beasts; and to this day the apes of the Spice Islands, and the lions of the African wilds meet in its ruins and howl their testimony to the truth of God's word. Only a few years ago. Sir R. K. Porter and Dr. Rich, saw two majestic lions in the "Mujelibe" or ruins of the palace.
The nations selected as examples of divine justice are as various as their sentences are different—covering a space as long as from New York to San Francisco and climes as various as those between Canada and Cuba; peopled by men of every shade of color and degree of capacity from the negro servant of servants, to the builders of the Coliseum and the pyramids. The prophecies describe in their own expressive symbols, the nations yet unfounded and kings unborn, who should ignorantly execute the judgments of God. They also predict the future of over thirty states—no two of which are alike.
If, for instance, a prophet should declare that New York should be overturned and become a little fishing village—that Philadelphia should become a swamp and never be inhabited—that NewOrleans should become a dry, barren desert, and Chicago be utterly consumed with fire and never be rebuilt—that learning should depart from Boston and no travelers should pass through it any more—that New England should become the basest of the nations and no native American ever be president of the Union, but that it should be a spoil and a prey to the most savage tribes—that the Russians should tread Washington under foot for a thousand years, but that God would preserve Pittsburg and Salt Lake City in the midst of destruction; then, if all these things should come to pass, would any man dare to say that the prophet spake the dictates of human sagacity, or the calculations of human reason, and was not inspired by the Spirit of God?
Such was the character of the prophecies concerning the geographical, political, social and religious condition of the greatest nations of antiquity.
Considering the modes of ancient warfare, Egypt was one of the most defensible countries in the world. Bounded on the south by high mountains, on the east by the Red Sea, on the west by the trackless, burning desert, she was able to defend the mouths of her river with a powerful navy, to drown an invading army every year by the inundation of the Nile. Egypt had not only maintained her independence, but extended her conquests for a thousand years. She had given learning, art, science and idolatry to half the world and had not yet risen to the hight of her fame or extent of her influence until many years after thepredictions against her were uttered. Yet it was prophesied, "I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked; and I will make the land waste and all that is therein by the hand of strangers. I, the Lord, have spoken it. Thus saith the Lord God, I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease out of Noph, and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt."
Egypt
[SPHYNX AND PYRAMIDS]
The infidel, Volney, thus relates the fulfillment of these predictions:
"Such is the state of Egypt. Deprived twenty-three centuries ago of her natural properties, she has seen her fertile fields successively a prey to the Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Arabs, the Georgians and at length the race of Tartars distinguished by the name of Ottoman Turks. The Mamelukes purchased as slaves, and introduced as soldiers, soon usurped the power and selected a leader. If their first establishment was a singular event, their continuance is no less extraordinary; they are replaced by slaves, brought from their original country." (Volney's Travels, Vol. I, page74).
Gibbon, another infidel, states, "The most illustrious sultans of the Baharite and Beyite dynasties were themselves promoted from the Tartar and Circassian bands; and the four and twenty beys, or military chiefs, have ever been succeeded, not by their sons, but by their servants." (Decline and Fall, chap. xlix).
It is needless to remind the reader that the idols are cut off. Neither the nominal Christians of Egypt nor the Mahometans allow images among them. The rivers, too, are drying up. In one day's travel forty dry water courses will be crossedin the delta of the Nile; and the traveler needs to carry water with him, who explores the ruined cities through which once floated Greek and Roman navies.
Again, it was prophesied, "It shall be the basest of the kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations, for I will diminish them that they shall no more rule over the nations." (Ezekiel, xxix, 15). Every traveler attests the truth of this prediction. The wretched peasantry are rejoiced to labor for any one who will pay them five cents a day, and then quickly hide the treasure in the ground from the rapacious tax-gatherer.
"In Egypt there is no middle class, neither nobility, clergy, merchants nor land-holders. A universal appearance of misery arrests the attention of the traveler and points out to him the rapacity and oppression as well as the ignorance of the inhabitants, who are equally unable to perceive the cause of their evils or to apply the necessary remedies. Ignorance diffused through every class, extends its effects to every species of moral and physical knowledge."
Babylon was to be reduced to utter barrenness and desolation, Egypt to slavery and degradation; but a different and still more incredible doom is pronounced in the Bible upon Judea and its people: "I will make your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out asword after you: and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste." (Leviticus,xxvi, 31-33.)
"The generation to come of your children and the stranger from a far land shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus to this land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger?"
The following testimony of Volney is an example of the manner in which God causes infidels and scoffers to fulfill the prophecies:
"I journeyed in the empire of the Ottomans, and traversed the provinces, which were formerly the kingdoms of Egypt and Syria. This Syria, said I to myself, now almost depopulated, then contained a hundred flourishing cities, and abounded with towns, villages and hamlets. What has become of those ages of abundance and of life? Great God! from whence proceed such melancholy revolutions? For what cause is the fortune of these countries so strikingly changed? Why are so many cities destroyed? Why is not that ancient population reproduced and perpetuated? A mysterious God exercises His incomprehensible judgments. He has doubtless pronounced a secret malediction against the earth. He has struck with a curse the present race of men in revenge of past generations." (Volney's Ruins, Book I),
The malediction is no secret to any one who will read the twenty-ninth chapter of Deuteronomy.
Of Jerusalem it was predicted, "It shall be trodden down of the Gentiles." Saracens, Turks, Crusaders and pilgrims from all parts of the earthhave been and are fulfilling this prediction at the present day. Of the temple, it was said, "There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." History has preserved, and the Jews to this day curse the name of the soldier, Terentius Rufus, who plowed up the foundations of the temple. The Roman emperor, Julian, attempted to falsify the Savior's words, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate;" and sent his friend, Alypius, with a Roman army and abundant treasure, to rebuild it. The Jews flocked from all parts to assist in the work; but the combined forces were obliged to desist from the attempt. "Horrible balls of fire, breaking out from the foundations with repeated attacks, rendered the place inaccessible to the scorched workmen and the enterprise was dropped." (Ammiam Marcellus, Book xxiii, chap. 1).
Such is the testimony of a heathen, confirmed by Jews and Christians. The Mahometan Mosque of Omar now rears its lofty dome where once stood the Temple of Solomon, and no Jew is permitted to tread that sacred spot.
Of the Israelitish nation God predicted that it should be a peculiar, distinct people, dispersed among, yet separate from, the other nations of the earth: "I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth." (Amos ix, 9). Again, "And yet, for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy themutterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God." (Lev. xxvi, 44).
Here are four distinct predictions; national peculiarity, grievous oppression, universal dispersion and remarkable preservation. The fulfillment is obvious and undeniable. The infidel is sorely perplexed to give any account of this great phenomenon. How does it happen that these singular people are dispersed over all the earth, and for eighteen hundred years have resisted all the influences of nature, all the customs of society and all the powers of persecution driving them toward amalgamation, and irresistible in all other instances. In spite of the power of imperial Rome and the tortures of the Spanish Inquisition, amid the chaos of Asiatic and African tribes, and the fusion of American democracy, on the plains of Australia and the streets of San Francisco, the religion and the customs of the children of Israel are as distinct this day as they were three thousand years ago when Moses wrote them in the Pentateuch, and their physiognomy the same as when Shishak caused them to be engraven on the monuments of ancient Karnack. Human sagacity cannot explain these facts as they exist to-day, much less could it foretell them three thousand years ago.
Did space permit, it might be shown that the predictions against the seven churches of Asia, were literally fulfilled. (See Rev. i and ii).
Ephesus, once famous for its magnificence and the great temple of Diana, the mart of commerceand the busy avenue of travel, was the first to receive the doom of abused privileges: "I will remove thy candlestick out of its place unless thou repent."
"A few unintelligible heaps of stone," says Arundell, "with some mud cottages untenanted, are all that remain of the great city of the Ephesians. Even the sea has retired from the scene of desolation, and a pestilential morass, covered with mud and rushes, has succeeded to the waters which brought up the ships laden with merchandise" from the whole known world.
Laodicea, some of whose public buildings would contain 100,000 persons; Sardis, that once contained more specie than is now in circulation in the United States; Thyatira, that once manufactured the royal purple of kings and princes; Pergamos, the seat of learning and the birth-place of Galen, the father of medicine; all these cities are in ruins. Amid the fallen columns and broken arches, the temple of Jupiter, of Venus or of Diana, will equally elude the search of the curious traveler. They have all received their doom according to the words of Jesus. Yet, Smyrna, against which no doom was pronounced, is still the queen city of Asia Minor; and Philadelphia, of which it was said, "I will write upon him my new name," is still erect—a column in a scene of ruins. The prediction of the Savior is fulfilled in its modern name,Allah Sehr—the city of God.
The prophecies regarding the Messiah and their fulfillment might also be noticed. The time, theplace, the manner of His birth, His parentage and reception, were plainly declared, hundreds of years before He appeared. Compare Micah v. 2, and Matthew ii. 1; also Isaiah lxi. 1, and Matthew xi. 5; likewise Isaiah liii. 3, and Matthew xxvi. 56. These and many other passages prove that the character and mission of the coming Messiah were pointedly foretold long before He made His appearance in the flesh.
The one grand, unparalleled fact of the resurrection from the tomb is also predicted, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor wilt Thou give Thine Holy One to see corruption" (Psalm xvi. 10). Often did Jesus predict this event before friend and foe. Even His enemies declared, "Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive. After three days I will rise again." The last chapters of the gospel relate the proofs by which He convinced His incredulous disciples that the prophecy was fulfilled, "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have. And when He had thus spoken He showed them His hands and His feet. And while they yet believed not for joy and wondered. He saith unto them, 'Have ye here any meat?' And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb. And He took it and did eat before them" (Luke xxiv. 39). Afterwards, "He led them out as far as to Bethany and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And while He was blessing them He was parted from them and carried up intoheaven" (Luke xxiv. 50, 51). And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel and said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven" (Acts i. 10-12). With our own eyes we shall see the fulfillment of this prophecy. Every eye shall see Him. The clouds of heaven shall then reveal the vision now sketched on the page of revelation.
In conclusion, let us notice a few of the prophecies given through the Prophet Joseph, and their wonderful fulfillment. When Joseph Smith was an obscure, unlearned youth, living at his father's house, in the then sparsely settled region of western New York, the angel Moroni told him that God had a work for him to do, and that his name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds and tongues. Men of all classes are witnesses how literally this has been fulfilled.
Then, again, in 1832, when the United States were enjoying the blessings of profound peace, the Lord declared, by the mouth of the Prophet Joseph: "Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls. * * * * * *
For behold the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nationof Great Britain, as it is called," etc., (Doc. and Cov., Sec. lxxxvii). The whole adult population of the United States are witnesses of the fulfillment of this prophecy. For many years it remained unfulfilled, and the Elders who proclaimed it met with scorn and sneers; but, at length, arrived the terrible havoc and storm of war. There had been many rebellions within the territory of the United States. In Virginia had occurred Bacon's rebellion; in Maryland, Clayborne's rebellion; in New England, the insurrection, controlled by the Hartford convention, of 1814; in Western Pennsylvania, the State of Franklin, had, at one time, held a political existence for nearly two years. Then, by what human sagacity was it predicted that the war must commence in South Carolina? Let the skeptic read and ponder.
CHAPTER X.INFIDEL OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED.ARROGANCE OF INFIDELS—THEIR IGNORANCE—SUN'S HEAT—SATURN'S RINGS—A SCIENTIST'S THEORY OF THE DELUGE—DENSITY OF COMETS—THE MILKY WAY—UNKNOWN FORCES OF THE UNIVERSE—ANTIQUITY OF THE EARTH—TEACHINGS OF ANCIENT PROPHETS—TEACHINGS OF PRIMITIVE CHURCH—MODERN SCIENTISTS.
CHAPTER X.INFIDEL OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED.ARROGANCE OF INFIDELS—THEIR IGNORANCE—SUN'S HEAT—SATURN'S RINGS—A SCIENTIST'S THEORY OF THE DELUGE—DENSITY OF COMETS—THE MILKY WAY—UNKNOWN FORCES OF THE UNIVERSE—ANTIQUITY OF THE EARTH—TEACHINGS OF ANCIENT PROPHETS—TEACHINGS OF PRIMITIVE CHURCH—MODERN SCIENTISTS.
The grand error of infidel theories in regard to creation lies in the arrogant assumption on which every one of them must be founded. They assume that the theorist is acquainted with all substances and all forces in the universe, and with all the modes of their operation. This knowledge must apply, not merely to the present age, but to all past epochs; not merely to this world, but, likewise, to others in widely different and utterly unknown situations and conditions. Otherwise, that unknown force must have had its influence in framing the world. For instance, a theory of creation which would neglect the attraction of gravitation would be manifestly false. But there are other laws, the power of repulsion, for instance, whose omission would be equally fatal. Skepticsare aware of this fact, and have sought to simplify matters, by reducing all substances to a few simple elements, and all forces to the form of one universal law. Instead of this, chemistry, every year, reveals new substances and increases our knowledge of nature's variety. At one time, it was boasted that astronomy would enable us to account for all the operations of the universe; but, instead of this, it has revealed substances and forces, whose nature and combinations are entirely unknown.
For example, it is estimated that the sun's heat at its surface is 300,000 times greater than at the surface of the earth. An exceedingly few rays of the sun, concentrated by a burning mirror, will convert gold and platina into vapor. At this rate, it is calculated that "if a cataract of icebergs, a mile high and as broad as the Atlantic ocean, was launched into the sun, with the velocity of a cannon ball, it would be converted into steam as fast as it entered his atmosphere, without cooling his surface in the least degree. But how is such an enormous heat kept up? Hitherto, every discovery, so far from giving us an explanation, seems rather to remove farther the prospect of probable explanation." (Outlines of Astronomy, Vol. vi., p. 400.) Yet the sun is the nearest of the fixed stars, by far the best known, and most nearly related to us. In fact, we are dependent on his influence for life and health. But if the infidel cannot tell the sun's substance, or the nature and cause of the light and heat he sends us, how can he presume totell us how this same sun was formed, or declare that the Biblical account is false?
Saturn
[VIEW OF SATURN, SHOWING RINGS.]
Concerning the nearest planets, how little do we know! Are they built of the same materials as our planet? Are Saturn's rings solid or liquid? The planet, Saturn, is surrounded with a revolving belt consisting of several distinct rings, containing an estimated area a hundred and forty-six times greater than the surface of our globe, with a thickness of a hundred miles. From mechanical considerations, it has been proved that these rings could not be of uniform thickness all around, else when a majority of her seven moons were on the same side, the attraction would draw them in upon her on the opposite side; and once attracted to her surface, they could never get loose again, if they were solid. It was next ascertained that the motion of the moons of Saturn and her rings was such that the rings must be capable of changing their thickness according to circumstances. Finally, it was demonstrated that these rings were fluid and that their density is nearly that of water, and that the inner portion, at least, is so transparentthat the planet has been seen through it. The rings of Saturn are, then, a stream or streams of fluid, rather denser than water, flowing about the planet. This extraordinary fact, which shows how God can deluge a planet when He pleases, is given in the language of a philosopher whose thoughtless illustration of revelation is all the more valuable that it is unintentional:
"M. Otto Struve, Mr. Bond and Sir David Brewster are agreed that Saturn's third ring is fluid, that it is gradually approaching the body of Saturn, and that we may expect, sooner or later, to see it united with the body of the planet. With this deluge impending, Saturn would scarcely be a very eligible residence for men whatever it might be for dolphins." (See Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1856, p. 377.)
Let the skeptic show that God did not, or could not suspend a similar celestial ocean over the earth, or cease to pronounce a universal deluge impossible.
Again, it may be asked. Has the moon an atmosphere? Are the atmospheres of the planets like ours? What is the cause of the light and heat of the sun? These and many other questions scientists variously answer, but leave unanswered after all.
Comets constitute by far the greatest number of the bodies of our solar system. Arago says seven millions frequent it, within the orbit of Uranus. They are the largest bodies known to us, stretching across hundreds of millions of miles.
Comet
[THE COMET OF 1811.]
They approach nearer to this earth than any other bodies, sometimes even involving it in their tails, and generally exciting great alarm among its inhabitants. But the nature of the transparent, luminous matter of which they are composed is utterly unknown. While their density was doubtful, they formed very convenient material for the atheist's world-factory; but recently they have been literally dissipated into smoke by powerful telescopes. In fact a respectable wreath of smoke is quite substantial compared with the densest of the comets. Stars of the smallest magnitude remain distinctly visible though covered by what appears to be their densest portion; although these same stars would be completely obscured by a moderate fog extending only a few yards above theearth. Neither are they dense enough to cast a shadow. It is thus evident that the most substantial clouds which float in our atmosphere are dense and massy bodies compared with the filmy and all but spiritual texture of a comet's tail.
Neither do men understand the laws that govern the motion of comets. As they approach the sun, they come under an influence directly the opposite of attraction. While the body of the comet travels towards the sun, sometimes with a velocity nearly one-third of that of light, the tail shoots forth in the opposite direction with much greater velocity. The greatest velocity with which we are acquainted on earth is the velocity of light, which travels a million times faster than a cannon ball, or at the rate of 195,000 miles per second.
Orbit of a Comet
[COMET PASSING ROUND THE SUN (ITS PERIHELION).]
But infidels tell us that the universe is infinite, and therefore self-existent. This assertion is essential to their creed. They must establish this factbefore they can convince themselves or any other person, that the universe had no Creator; for that which exists by the necessity of its own nature must exist in all time and in every place. But it can be easily shown that our solar system has boundaries, and does not fill the immensity of space. That broad band of luminous clouds, which stretches across the heaven, called the Milky Way, consists of millions of stars, so small and distant that we cannot see the individual stars, and so numerous that we cannot help seeing the light of the mass; just as we may see the outline of a forest at a distance, but are unable to distinguish the individual trees. Besides the Milky Way there are many other star-clouds, in various parts of the heavens, which have successively been shown by the telescope to consist of multitudes of stars. But all around these star-clouds, or Nebulae as they are called, the clear blue sky is discovered by the naked eye. Now it is easy to perceive that if all the regions of space were filled with self-luminous suns or planets capable of reflecting light, or even comets, we should see no blue sky at all: in a word, the whole heaven would be one vast Milky Way.
Though the telescope discovers multitudes of stars where the naked eye sees none, yet they are seen projected on a perfectly dark heaven. "And even through the Milky Way, and the other star-clouds, the telescope penetrates through intervals absolutely dark and completely void of any star of the smallest telescopic magnitude" (Outlines of Astronomy, chap. xvii).It may assist us to understand the full import of this declaration to remember that the largest telescopes now in use, clearly define any object on the moon's surface as large as the Deseret Bank. We may comprehend to some extent their power of penetrating space by the fact that light, which flashes from San Francisco to London quicker than you can close your eye and open it again requiresthousands of yearsto travel to our earth from the most distant stars discernible by these telescopes. If a solar system like ours existed anywhere within this amazing distance these telescopes would certainly reveal it. In gazing through these instruments we are made to feel most sensibly that not merely this world which constitutes our earthly all, and yon glorious sun which shines upon it, but all the host of heaven's suns, planets, moons and firmaments, which our unaided eyes behold, are but as the handful of sand of the ocean shore, compared with the immensity of the universe. But ever, and along with this it has shown us the ocean, as well as the shore, and revealed boundless regions of darkness and solitude stretching around and far away beyond these islands of existence.
When we come to consider the vastness of these regions of darkness, over whichno light has traveled for millions of years, and remember also that astronomers have looked clear through the nebulae, and find that they bear no more proportion to the infinite darkness behind them, than the sparks of a chimney do to the extent of the sky againstwhich they seem projected, so far from imagining the solar system to be infinite, we stand confounded at its relative insignificance.
There is no possible evasion of this great fact. It cannot be objected "that stars may exist at vast distances, whose light has not yet reached the limits of our system;" for there is no possible distance over which light could not have traveled, during eternal duration. But the eternal existence of these stars is the very thing which the atheist is concerned to prove. If we admit that these worlds had a beginning, we are compelled to seek a cause for that beginning: that is to say, a Creator.
Nor will it answer the purpose to say, "that these dark regions may be filled with dark stars." If it could be proven that some stars shine, while others are dark; then why this difference? Variety is an effect, and demands a prior cause. Worlds therefore do not exist by the necessity of their own nature, wherever there is room for them, but must have had a pre-existent, external and supernatural cause of their existence in the places where they exist. This implies design—will— God.
In these amazing disclosures of the unknown forces of the heavens, do we not hear a voice rebuking the presumption of ignorant theorists, and asking, "Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth" (Job xxxviii. 33). How many influences, hitherto undiscovered by our ruder senses, may be everstreaming toward us, and modifying every terrestrial action. And yet, because man has traced a little concerning one or two of these laws, we have deemed our astronomy complete. We have no reason, save our own self-sufficient arrogance, to believe that the discovery of these forces exhausts the treasures of infinite wisdom.
But the infidel asks us, "Does not the Bible make a false declaration, when it says that the universe was created only some six or seven thousand years ago?" We reply by asking,Where does the Bible say so? "But," says our objector, "is not this the doctrine held by the various sects and taught by the various commentators?" That is not the question before us just now. We are not asking what sects believe, or uninspired teachers teach; but, "What does the Bible say." The Bible uniformly attributes the most remote antiquity to the work of creation. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. i, 1). So far from supposing man's appearance on the earth to be even approximately coeval with the creation, human presumption is reproved in the remarkable words, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?" (Job, xxxviii. 4.) In majestic contrast with the frail human race, Moses glances at the primeval monuments of God's antiquity, as though by them he might form some faint conceptions of eternity, and sings, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting, to everlasting thou art God" (Ps. xc, 2). Thevery phrasein the beginning, is in itself an emphatic refutation of the notion, that the work of creation is only some six or seven thousand years old. Geologists have been unable to invent a better, and have borrowed from the Bible this very form of speech, to designate as theprimary formations, those strata beyond which human knowledge cannot penetrate. This phrase, in Bible language, marks the last promontory on the boundless ocean of past eternity: the only positive phrase, by which we can express the most remote period of past duration. It expresses not a date—a point of duration; but a period—a vast cycle. But one boundary is perceptible to mortals: that where creation rises from its abyss. Created eye has never seen the other shore.
Let the geologist then penetrate as deeply as he can into the profundities of the earth's foundations, and bring forth the monuments of their hoary antiquity; we will follow with unfaltering faith. Let the astronomer raise his telescope and reflect, on our astonished eyes, the light which flashed from morning stars, on the first day of this earth's existence, or even the rays which began to travel from distant suns millions of years ere the first morning dawned on our planet: they shall shed a sacred lustre over the pages of inspiration, and give new beauties of illustration to its majestic symbols. But never in this life will geologists penetrate the depth of its mysteries, nor astronomers attain the sublimity of that beginning revealed in its pages. It is placed in anantiquity beyond the power of human calculation, in that sublime sentence with which it introduces mortals to the Eternal, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
The doctrine of the creation the earth only six or seven thousand years ago is a product of monkish ignorance. Clemens of Alexandria, who lived in the second century of the Christian era, and Justin Martyr, who was a disciple and companion of the Apostle John, both teach the existence of an indefinite period between the creation and the preparatory work, fitting it for the habitation of man. The Jewish rabbis also are perfectly explicit in recognizing these distinctions.
But it is replied, "Does not the Bible say, in the fourth commandment, 'In six days the Lord made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is?' etc" True. But we are speaking just now of a very different work; the work of creation. If any one does not know the difference between create and make, let him turn to his dictionary, and Webster will inform him. If he has no dictionary, he can satisfy himself thoroughly, as to the different meanings of these two words, by looking at their use in the Bible. He will find the term create used when there were no organized materials to form the earth from; unless we adopt the infidel absurdity that the paving stones made themselves. He will also find that the term make is applied to the adjusting of the earth in its present condition (see Gen., i, 21and27.Psalms, li, 10.Ecclesiastes, xii, 1.Col, i, 16).
But between these two widely different processes, namely the creation, and the organizing of the world there intervened a period of indefinite length. That original chaos, which some would find in the second verse, never had an existence save in the brains of atheistic philosophers. It is purely absurd. The crystals of the smallest grain of sand, the sporules of the humblest fungus on the rotten tree, and the animalculae in the filthiest pool of mud, are as orderly in their arrangements, as perfect after their kind, and as wisely adapted to their station as the most perfect beings on the earth.
If then astronomers and geologists assert that the earth was millions or hundreds of millions of years in process of preparation for its present state, by a long series of successive destructions and renovations, and gradual formations, there is not one word in the Bible to contradict that opinion; but on the contrary, very many texts which fully and unequivocally imply its truth.
Infidels frequently attempt to make sport of the figures of sacred poetry such as the "pillars," and "windows of heaven," the "corners of the earth," the "four winds of heaven," etc. One prominent infidel writer asserts that Moses was so ignorant of the nature of the atmosphere, and the origin of rain that he taught that the firmament was simply a brazen hemisphere or huge caldron placed in an inverted position over the earth, that a fresh-water ocean was outside of this, and that the figurative term "windows of heaven" meant trap-doors to letthe waters descend in the form of rain upon the inhabitants of the earth. If so, Moses did not put his teachings into practice; for we find that he set up a brazen hemisphere in the tabernacle and placed its mouth upwards and put water on the inside of it. Such are the miserable subterfuges to which infidels will resort when in want of an argument. They seem to forget that a thousand years before skeptics had learned to talk nonsense about crystal spheres, and trap-doors in the bottom of celestial oceans, the writers of the Bible were recording those conversations of pious philosophers concerning stars, clouds and rain, from which Galileo derived the first hints of the causes of barometrical phenomena. The origin of rain, its proportion to the amount of evaporation, and the mode of its distribution by condensation, could not be propounded by Humboldt himself with greater clearness than they are described by Job, the ancient philosopher of the land of Uz. "He maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapor thereof, which the clouds do draw and distil upon man abundantly" (Job xxxvi. 27). The cause of this rarefaction of cold water, is as much a mystery to modern scientific associations as it was to Job and Elihu; and even were all the electrical tension of vapors disclosed, "the balancing of the clouds" would only be more clearly discovered to be, as the Bible declares, "the wonderful works of Him, who is perfect in knowledge." Three thousand years before the theory of the trade winds wasdemonstrated by Maury, it was written in the Bible, "The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north," and, "The wind returneth again according to his circuits" (Eccl. i, 6). Thousands of years before Newton, Galileo and Copernicus were born, Isaiah was writing about the orbit of the earth and the earth's relative insignificance (Isaiah xl, 22). Even the modern names of some of the constellations of the heavens were known to the ancients. "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?" (Job xxxviii, 31).
One of the most vaunted objections, which infidels bring against the Bible, is that which represents God as creating light before the sun, and the sun, moon and stars, only two days before the creation of man. They seem to forget that the term to create is nowhere used in connection with the preparing of the earth for the habitation of man. By careful reading it will be seen at once that the darkness spoken of in the first chapter of Genesis had reference to this planet only. There is not the remotest hint, in any portion of scripture, that any other planet or star was shrouded in gloom at that time. On the contrary, we are most distinctly informed that the wonders which God was performing in this world, at that very time, were distinctly visible amid the cheerful illumination of other orbs. "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy," as this earth emerged from its primeval darkness.
True the Bible represents that this earth was illuminated at a time when the sun was not visible from its surface. Now, if any one will presume to scoff at the Bible for speaking of light without sunshine—as infidels frequently do—what will he say of the light which exists in the midst of a London fog or on the banks of Newfoundland? To understand, how there may be day without sunshine, we need only conceive the whole earth enveloped in vapors such as Humboldt describes a portion of Peru. "A thick mist obscures the firmament in this region for many months. If by chance the sun's disc becomes visible during the day, it appears devoid of rays, as if seen through colored glasses. According to what modern geology has taught us concerning the ancient history of our atmosphere, its primitive condition must have been unfavorable to the transmission of light" (Humboldt's Cosmos, Vol iii, p. 139).
Dr. Dana is evidently of the same opinion. In speaking of the formation of coal and the peculiar vegetation which flourished upon the earth during that period, the remains of which are found imbedded in the coal measures; he says, "In the Pacific ocean, off the coast of Chili, there is an island named Chiloe, where it rains 300 days in the year, and where the light of the sun is shut out by perpetual fogs. On this island, arborescent ferns, form forests, beneath which grow herbaceous ferns, which rise three feet and upwards above a marshy soil, and a mass of plants flourish there,resembling in their main features the plants found in the coal fields" (Manual of Geology, 1880). Thus science corroborates the word of God.
Another favorite theory of the unbeliever is the uniformity of nature. "Where," says he, "is the promise of Christ's coming to judgment; for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were since the beginning of the world?" But on examination astronomy dispels the illusion, exhibits the course of nature as a succession of catastrophies, displays the conflagration of other worlds, and the extinction of other suns, before our eyes, and asks,Why should our sun differ from other suns? In short there is no permanence in the heavens, any more than on the earth; but a perpetual change is the destiny of suns and stars. A few instances it may be well to transcribe: "On the 11th of November, 1572, as the illustrious Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, was walking through the fields, he was astonished to observe a new star in the constellation Cassiopea, beaming with a radiance quite unwonted in that part of the heavens. Suspecting some delusion about his eyes, he went to a group of peasants to ascertain if they saw it, and found them gazing at it with as much astonishment as himself. He went to his instrument and fixed its place, from which it never after appeared to deviate. For some time it increased in brightness—greatly surpassing Sirius in luster, and even Jupiter—so that it could be seen by good eyes in the day time. After reaching its greatest brightness, it again diminished,assuming in succession the hues of a dying conflagration, and then finally disappeared. It is impossible to imagine anything more tremendous than a conflagration that could be visible at such a distance" (Nicholl's Solar System, page118).
Sir John Herschell describes the star, Eta Argus, which, in the year 1837, went through similar variations. Humboldt gives a catalogue of twenty-four such stars, whose variations have been recorded, and asks,Why should our sun differ from other suns?"What we no longer see is not necessarily annihilated. It is merely the transition of matter into new forms—into combinations which are subject to new processes. Dark cosmical bodies may, by a new process of light, again become luminous" (Cosmos Vol. III, page232).
Nicholl sums up the matter in the following emphatic words: "No more is light inherent in the sun than in Tycho's vanished star; and with it and other orbs a time may come when the sun shall cease to be required to shine. The womb which contains the future is that which bore the past" (Solar System, page190).
The threatenings of God's word are invested with a mantle of terrible literality by the facts we have been contemplating.