![]() But almost the first thing we read of Adam and Eve is, that they met with a clever-talking serpent, which beguiled them of their innocence and of their happiness at the same time, by exposing the weakness of their obedience to a divine command. The tradition is that they were created in perfect purity and happiness. Upon this atom of a globe, then, there was placed, according to the common belief, about six thousand years ago, a human pair, from whom are descended all the men and women now in existence. And, then, when we reflect that the pointing of a powerful telescope towards the heavens discloses everywhere new groups of stars, each group consisting in all probability of a countless multitude of solar systems, surely David had far less reason than we ourselves have to say, "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handiwork!" or, again, "Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him!" We know, further, that the sun itself is but one of myriads of similar bodies dispersed through the immensity of space-each, probably, the centre, like our own luminary, of a system of revolving planets-which we call stars the nearest of them being at a distance so vast, that the motion of our globe in its orbit, 185,000,000 miles in diameter, makes no perceptible difference in their relative positions towards each other as viewed by terrestrial observers. For we know that the earth, whirled through space at the inconceivable velocity of 1,500,000 miles a day, is but one, and that by no means the largest of the planets revolving about the central body of our system, which we call the sun. Made for the advantage and to excite the admiration of the dwellers upon earth? It is sometimes said that the present age has grown too materialistic, and that the progress of Science has divested Nature of all its poetry others, again, affirming that the Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is required to give men adequate conceptions of God and of the Universe whereby we see him the truth, however, is, that the revelations of modern Science are as much beyond the conceptions of the biblical writers as the genius of Sir Isaac Newton at the age of sixty was beyond the intelligence of the child Newton at six. For how could men upon whom the light of Science had not yet dawned conclude otherwise? When David looked out upon the star-spangled sky at nightfall, what other idea could he form than that those brilliant points of light were It were futile to cavil at these simple and primitive notions. Earth, sun, moon and stars-such is the order in which they were ranked according to a Hebrew's estimate of their relative importance. 6) and in that firmament were set the Sun or greater light to rule the day, the Moon or lesser light to rule the night, and the stars. ![]() 5) above it was the firmament or strong-vault to divide the waters from the waters (Genesis i. This Earth, our dwelling place, was, according to the conceptions of the ancient Israelites, so firmly fixed, that it could not be moved (Psalms xciii. ![]()
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