No More Learning

1
Cetus, the Whale.
Noah's Dove.
Argo Navis, the Ship Argo . . . .
Canis Major, the greater Dog. . . .
Cants Minor, the lesser Dog . . . .
Cor Hydra . . . .
Fomalhaut . . . .
Pisces Australia, Southern Fish . . .
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LETTER VII. 133
GENERAL TABLE OF THE FIXED STARS.
CONSTELLATIONS.
NO.
MAGNITUDE OF STARS.
SIGNS.
I.
ii.
m.
IV.
VI.
TOTAL.
12
5
16
44
120
183
646
1014
Northern Hemisphere . . .
34
6
24
59
200
291
635
1215
Southern Hemisphere . . .
45
9
36
84
190
221
323
863
91
20
76
187
510
695
1604
3092
As to the number of the fixed stars, it is calculated, that on the
brightest star-light night we can seldom see more than two thousand;
yet the stars are numberless. (Gen. xv. 5. ) Dr. Herschel says, when
gazing on the milky way, that beautiful galaxy of light, that looks
like a wreath of bright silvery clouds fixed in the azure sky, that he
observed five hundred and eighty-eight stars through his telescope
at the same time, and they continued equally numerous for a quarter
of an hour. In one portion of the milky way he computed there
were two hundred and fifty thousand stars.
Thus, my dear children, I have sought to bring before your young
minds, the blessings of this fourth day's creation; little, indeed, I have
said to what might have been said, for the subject is boundless. Rela-
tive to the astronomical part of the letter, I have endeavoured to
gather as much information as I could in so small a compass, from
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? 134
THE CREATION.
the best established authorities, but I know the subject is one of pro-
found depth; " a few pebbles have been gathered on the sea-shore,"
as Sir Isaac Newton so beautifully and humbly said, " but the illimit-
able ocean is before us," and yet the little we do know is, as I before
remarked, of amazing benefit to us. A little while, and the whole
scene will fade away, for the day is hastening when the heavens shall
be gathered together as a scroll, and as a vesture shall the Lord fold
them up, and they shall be changed. (Ps. cii. 26; Heb. i. 12. )
Beloved children, may the Lord give to each of you to be his own,
so that that day shall have no terror in it to you; but with loins
girded, and lamps burning, may you wait his return, (Luke xii. 35,)
who shall rise " the Sun of Eighteousness, with healing in his
wings. " (Mal. iv. 2. ) Then shall the night pass away, and all will
be joy, unutterable joy, to those who love his appearing. (2 Tim. iv. 8,
compared with Heb. ix. 28. )
Believe me, dear Children,
Ever your affectionate Father.
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? THE CREATION.
135
LETTER VIII.
THOU, LORD, IN THE BEGINNING, HAST LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THE EARTH; AND
THE HEAVENS ARE THE WORKS OF THINE HANDS: THEY SHALL PERISH; BUT THOU
REMAINEST: AND THEY ALL SHALL WAX OLD AS DOTH A GARMENT; AND AS A
VESTURE SHALT THOU FOLD THEM UP, AND THEY SHALL BE CHANGED: BUT THOU
ART THE SAME, AND THY YEARS SHALL NOT FAIL. --Hebrews i. 10--12.
My dear Children,
I have been thinking much of the scene to which I allnded at the
close of my last letter, and of the verses especially which I have
selected as a motto for this. That which so forcibly strikes me, is the
progression we had made in passing on from one planet to another,
thousands and millions of miles; until, having reached the Georgium
Sidus,* we found ourselves in the utmost bounds of the solar system,
eighteen thousand millions of miles from the sun: from thence we
passed on into the boundless heaven of the fixed stars, and here all
? Foreign astronomers have given this star the beautiful name of Uranus, which
is derived from the Greek word for " the heavens," probably considering it the
boundary of the solar heavens.
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THE CREATION.
calculation was at an end, and space seemed lost in infinitude: and yet
this is the language of Scripture concerning those illimitable heavens:
" as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed. "
Consider this figure, " as a vesture. " That starry sky shall be folded
up, shall be changed; whatever this in its extent may signify, it
conveys at one glance the most vast and sublime conceptions of the
power of God; yes, those hands once suspended on the cross of
Calvary, shall one day fold the azure sky together: " they shall perish,
but Thou endurest; they shall wax old as doth a garment, and as
a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed. " The
quotation of Psalm cii. , by the apostle in Hebrews i. 10, most explicitly
applies this act to that blessed One who died for us.
I will again recur to this subject at the close of this letter, but
will now seek to bring before your young minds some of the scrip-
tures that draw their illustrations more especially from the fourth
day's creation. Let us first then turn to the Old Testament, and
remember that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,
(Rev. xix. 10;) to him gave all the prophets witness, (Acts x. 43;)
and thus whether in Moses, in the Prophets, or in the Psalms,
(Luke xxiv. 44,) we shall, (if we search, by the Spirit's guidance,)
find him there, even Jesus, the Alpha and Omega--the beginning
and end--the first and last of all Revelation. (Rev. i. 8. )
How beautiful is the nineteenth Psalm, " The heavens declare the
glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto
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LETTER VIII.
137
day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There
is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line
is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the
world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a
bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man
to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his
circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat
thereof. " Now we are not left to conjecture in the application of
the figures of this Psalm; the Spirit of God, in the Epistle of Paul to
the Romans, (chap. x. ver. 18,) explains it to us, and shows, that as
the heavenly bodies visited all parts of the globe in their circuit; so
had the gospel gone out to every creature, yes, to every creature, for
there is no limit to " these glad tidings of great joy to all people,"
(Luke ii. 10,) none are to be hid from its blessing. But what is the
great character of the gospel message ? It is Jesus. Philip went
down and preached Christ at Samaria, and testified to the eunuch of
Jesus, (Acts viii. 5, 35;) this was the name wherewith he was named
by the angel, (Matt . i. 21,) because, as the name implies, he should
save his people from their sins; you remember, I believe, all of you, the
sweet hymn of Cowper:--
" How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer's ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.
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138
THE CREATION.
"It makes the wounded spirit whole,
And calms the troubled breast,
'Tis manna to the hungry soul,
And to the weary rest. "
Yes, this is the name which is above every name, (Phil. ii. 9;) and
this Psalm most beautifully sets it forth. Now suppose we look again
at the fifth verse, " In heaven hath He set a tabernacle for the sun,
which is as a bridegroom coming forth of his chamber; and rejoiceth
as a strong man to run a race. " Jesus, the true Sun of Righteousness,
(Malachi iv. 2,) is the heavenly bridegroom; and he, by the Spirit,
dwells ever in his church, (1 Cor. vi. 19,) and manifests through her
his own light. The church is his tabernacle, " the goodly building
fitly framed, (Eph. ii. 21,) and her office is to make the circuit of the
globe, to go to every creature and preach Jesus--and Jesus only, as
the way--the truth--the life, (John xiv. 6;) she is to proclaim the
blessed message of mercy far and wide, nothing is to be hid from
the heat thereof. The church of God is essentially missionary--.
her field of operation is the habitable globe, and " every creature"
her only limit, (Matt. xxviii. 19;) she has received the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, (2 Cor.
iv. 6,) not to hide it, but to manifest it; not to put her light under
a bushel, but to place it on a candlestick, that it may give light
to all that are in the house, (Matt. v. 15;) but we must read the
whole portion through, for it beautifully shows forth how the Lord
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? LETTER VIII.
139
by the ministry of the word, converts, enlightens, makes wise, makes
glad, and establishes a people unto himself; and the last verse is one
of the sweetest and most blessed of prayers for the child of God to
use: " Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be
acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. "
Commit this Psalm to memory, dear children, and whenever you find
the Old Testament quoted in the New, know that you have God's expo-
sition of his own truth; cherish it, and may his whole mind be to you,
as this Psalm says, more precious than gold, yea than much pure gold,
sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb, (Ps. xix. 10;) but, as
I said, all the Psalms testify of Jesus, and for your instruction I just
subjoin a little selection on the life of our Lord, with New Testament
references. *
The eighty-fourth Psalm has also a beautiful illustration drawn
from this fourth day, " how amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of
hosts! " This Psalm is evidently the meditation of an Israelite absent
from the courts of the Lord, in one of the intervals of the three great
feasts (Exodus xxiii. 14.
) I shall have, however, again to recur to
this Psalm in my observations on the fifth day's creation, and will
therefore now simply allude to the closing verses. " The Lord God
is a sun and shield, he will give grace and glory, and no good thing
will he withhold from them that walk uprightly; whatever the sun is,
to gladden the day, to make fruitful the harvest, to cheer the traveller,
* See Appendix.
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THE CREATION.
such is the Lord to his children. The early blessings of grace, and the
final blessings of glory, the seed time now, and the harvest hereafter,
are all from Him, who delighteth in the happiness of his children.
The sun, moon, and stars, are introduced very strikingly in the
second dream of Joseph, which he told to his brethren; and Jacob's
application, or unfolding of the dream, shows us that he understood
the sun to set forth himself the head of the family; the moon de-
riving her light from the sun--his wife; and the eleven stars--his
family. And one may hereby get a key to the understanding of these
figures, in this relation ; for our Lord himself, the head, the bride-
groom of his church, is called the Sun of Righteousness; and the
church deriving all her light from him, is called the moon; and the
children of God are said to shine as the stars for ever and ever, (Daniel
xii. 3;) though in the passage of the Canticles that speaks of the
church as the moon, it also compares her to the sun. " Who is she
that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun,
and terrible as an army with banners? " (Song of Solomon, vi.
10;) so also (Matt. xiii. 43) the children of God are said to shine
forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father: but this blessedly
sets forth the people of the Lord under another figure, even as the
sharers of his glory, (Eph. v. 30;) sitting with him--his bride--his
elect one, in whom his soul delighteth. (Ps. xlv. )
The vision of the Transfiguration, again, most strikingly introduces
this figure of the sun: the Lord had said to his disciples that there
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? LETTER VIII.
141
were some standing by him, who should not taste of death, until they
had seen the Son of man coming in his kingdom, (Luke ix. 27,) con-
cerning which he had just been speaking; and after eight days* he took
Peter, James, and John, and went up into a mountain alone, and
whilst in prayer suddenly that countenance that was so " marred more
than any man's, and his form more than the sons of men," became
transfigured, and shone as the sun, and his raiment became white as
the light; there were also two others with him in glory, whom Peter
recognised at once as Moses and Elijah; the former had died, and
God had buried him, and concerning his body, Satan had been
rebuked by the archangel Michael when contending with him; and
the other--Elijah, without tasting of death had been caught up to
heaven in a chariot of fire. Now, dear children, what did this vision
of glory, for such doubtless it was, signify ? evidently the kingdom
of God,--the foreshowing of the Son of man coming in his kingdom;
for so St. Peter explains it, when he says he was an eye-witness of
his majesty. (2 Peter i. 16. ) There was the King in the dazzling
brightness of his glorified body; Moses as the earnest of the raised
saints; and Elijah of the living; and Peter, James, and John, in the
body; and yet, unlike Daniel by the waters of Ulai, and John in
Patmos, capable of sustaining this superhuman glory; they had not,
? In the seventeenth of Matthew it says six days, hut Luke included the day on
which the Lord spake, and the day of which he spake; this reconciles the
apparent difficulty.
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THE CREATION.
as the Lord had promised them, tasted of death, and they had seen
the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
But one of the most blessed allusions to the sun, is in the conversion
of Saul of Tarsus. He was on his way to Damascus, bent on the
destruction of the church, when suddenly there shone round about
him a glory above the brightness of the sun--above it; and what
a change was this from that scene of Calvary, then the sun was
darkened, while the righteous judgment of death visited that holy
surety; now the sun is eclipsed by the greater glory of that blessed
One, in his risen splendour, and he that ere now lay a dead man in the
sepulchre of Joseph, can say in all his power as King of kings and
Lord of lords, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise, and
stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose,
to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou
hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;
delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom
now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness
to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive
forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified
by faith that is in me. " (Acts xxvi. 15--18; see also chap. ix. 3. )
In the Kevelation also the symbol of the sun is frequently used;
" an angel descended from heaven whose countenance was as the sun. "
(Kev. x. 1. ) " There was a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed
with the sun. " (Rev. xii. 1. ) I refer you to the passages; I do not
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? LETTER VIII.
143
attempt to explain them; but there is a blessing on him that reads,
and hears, and keeps the words of this prophecy, for the time is at
hand. (Rev. i. 3. ) The book of the Revelation is deeply mysterious,*
but the soul that traits upon God gets light on the word; patient wait-
ing in the Spirit, and the shoes from off the feet, is the way we should
approach God's Scriptures. It was a great word of St. Peter, " if any
man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. " (I Pet. iv. 11. )
The figure of the morning star is very striking; often have I at sea
watched this planet, the harbinger of day, than which nothing could
be more beautiful. When the moon was not up, its brightness was
such that its rays might be seen sparkling on the water. At first a
faint streak of light is seen in the eastern sky--in a few minutes it
rapidly increases, till " the morning spreads upon the mountains," and
the east glows with light;--and in a little time the sun arises, and
from beneath its wings sheds health, and verdure, and glory. Both
these figures are applied to our blessed Lord: he is the Root and Off-
spring of David, the bright and the morning star, (Rev. xxii. 16;)
he is the Sun of Righteousness, that rises with healing in his wings.
(Mal. iv. 2. ) Thus, my beloved children, the sun by day, and the
moon and stars by night, not only bring to us temporal blessing, but
also beautifully set forth divine truth.
Sometimes the stars alone are used in illustration. The Lord had
promised Abram, when he called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans,
? See Appendix.
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? 144
THE CREATION.
that he would make of him a great nation, and that all the families
of the earth should be blessed in him, (Gen. xii. 1, 3;) but years
elapsed; and therefore, when the Lord the second time appeared to
him, with the promise of blessing, the answer of the patriarch was,
" / go childless? (Gen. xv. 2;) and then it was that the Lord brought
him abroad, and said, " Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars if
thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, so shall thy seed be;
and Abram believed God, and it was counted to him for righteous-
ness ;" after this those sacrifices took place, which were commanded of
God, and these must have occupied the whole day, for it was when
the sun went down, that the horror of great darkness fell upon Abram;
when he saw the smoking furnace, and burning lamp pass between the
divided animals; thus God ratified his covenant with Abram, and
gave unto his seed the land, from the river of Egypt to the great river,
the river Euphrates. (Gen. xv. 18. )
Sometimes, however, the sun is used as the instrument and emblem
of judgment; thus, its scorching rays beat upon the defenceless head
of the disobedient prophet, (Jonah iv. 8;) so also in the parable
of the sower, it detected the shallowness of the stony ground hearer,
(Matt . xiii. 6--21;) but he whose eyes are lifted up to God for strength
and protection, shall not be hurt by it. How sweet is the word
of the Psalmist, " The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade
upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the
moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall
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? LETTER VIII.
145
preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy
coming in from henceforth, and even for evermore. " (Ps. cxxi. 5--8. )
Once in the Old Testament, the stars in their courses are said to have
fought against the enemies of God: it was at the defeat of Sisera;
and mention of it occurs in the triumphant hymn of Deborah,
(Judges v. 20. ) At another time also, the sun and moon stood still
a whole day, until Joshua had fully effected his victory. (Joshua x. 12. )
And for the strengthening of Hezekiah's faith, the sun-dial of Ahaz
went back ten degrees. (Isa. xxxviii. 8. ) These were miracles. And
he that made the sun, and moon, and stars of light, stayed them in
their course: they were miracles, and happy is it for man not to attempt
to explain them; God spake, and it was done; he commanded, and
it stood fast; and this is enough for the humble child of God to
know.
In the Prophecy of Joel, (ii. 31,) also in that of our blessed Lord
himself, (Matt. xxiv. 29,) the heavenly bodies are represented as
being shaken, in the terrors of the approaching judgment; and so also
in the opening of the sixth seal, for then, " the sun became black as
sackcloth of hair, the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven
fell unto the earth, as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is
shaken of a mighty wind," (Kev. vi. 13;) and terrible indeed will be
that day to the wicked and impenitent, to the thoughtless and the
gay; but not to the righteous; to them the future is the day, the
H
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THE CREATION.
present is the Night;* and the night is far spent, the day is at
hand, (Rom. xiii. 12;) for not only are they not to fear the day of
the Lord, but to long for it, to be looking for, and hasting unto the
coming of the day of God, (2 Pet. iii. 12;) to lift up their heads when
they sec it appear, (Luke xxi. 28;) to groan within themselves,
waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body, (Rom.
viii. 23 ;) for when the Son of man shall be manifested, and they shall
see him again, their heart shall rejoice, and their sorrow shall be
turned into joy, (John xvi. 22;) then in a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, they shall be translated, (1 Cor. xv. 52;) caught up to
meet the Lord in the air, and so shall ever be with the Lord. (1 Thess.
iv. 17. ) How striking is the description of the redeemed in Rev. xxi.
2, 3, and 22--24 ; "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with
them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with
them, and be their God. " " And I saw no temple therein: for the
Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the
city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for
the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
* The taunting inquiry of Edom to Israel, and the Prophet's answer, are most
strikingly descriptive of present things: "Watchman, what of the night? watch-
man, what of the night? the morning cometh, also the night: if ye will inquire,
inquire ye : return, come. " (Isa. xxi. 11, 12; see also 2 Peter iii. 6. )
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? LETTER VIII.
147
And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it:
and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. "
But while the church of God will be thus happy and blessed in her
glory celestial, the ancient people of God, the Jews, will also be
blest in their glory terrestrial ; for when the fulness of the Gen-
tiles is come, all Israel shall be saved, for there shall come out of Zion
the Deliverer, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob, (Rom.