Page images
PDF
EPUB

STUDY IX.

DAY II." GOD MADE THE FIRMAMENT."

"Was wär' ein Gott der nur von aussen stiesse,
Im kreis das all am Finger laufen liesse !
Ihm ziemts', die Welt im Innern zu bewegen,
Natur in sich, sich in Natur, zu hegen.

So dass was in Ihm lebt und webt und ist
Nie seine Kraft, nie seinen Geist vermisst."

GOETHE.

"Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."-ISAIAH.

THE second day's work was not praised for being good. We know not why, unless the work, being imperfect as to the earth until the third day, and not complete as to heaven till the fourth, the blessing waited for the delicately formed plant and the cheerful sun, when it would be well seen that God filled the earth with the fruit of His works, and covered Himself with light as with a garment. All God's works are at present, like half-suggested thoughts, riddles to be solved -so great will be the future glory.

The sacred narrative of the earth's early state would naturally have that meaning applied to it by unscientific men, which the appearance of things suggested. Being told of a firmament dividing the waters above from the waters below, they possibly thought of a transparent floor in the skies, on which the upper waters rested, and pictured "the earth standing in the centre of a hollow crystal sphere, in which the stars were fixed like golden nails;" but observation and reason soon showed that rain could not descend through such a floor, and that the waters above the firmament were, as St. Augustine thought, in a state of vapour. Even a

Ancient Poetic Phrases.

149

rustic would not think the sky was a solid vault, nor call the stars bright nails fixed in to hold it up. The Hebrew people saw birds soar aloft, and the moon cross the sky. Very early it would be known that as words to ideas, so phenomena are symbols to things unseen.

The phrases "windows of heaven" (Gen. vii. 11), "foundations" (2 Sam. xxii. 8), "pillars" (Job xxvi. 11), “doors" (Ps. lxxviii. 23), have led unpoetic persons to imagine that Moses and the Hebrews really did think of the firmament as a solid vault in which fowls fly and winds blow. Ancient sages were not so simple. Poetic expressions, like that of Job (xxxvii. 18), "The sky, which is strong and as a molten looking-glass," are sometimes a contrast, sometimes a comparison. Job meant that the sky, though rare, fine, and spread out, is established and strong as metal. Scientific men say now the æther is softer than dew, yet harder than steel. Ancient worthies knew that the earth was hung upon nothing (Job xxvi. 7), and when they spoke of it as firm and not to be moved, it was in the sense of being sustained by the Almighty. They knew of the sea as a fountain to water the whole earth (Amos ix. 6); of the rivers returning to it again (Eccl. i. 7); of the firmament as an expanse; of light existing apart from the sun; and of stars innumerable, or, as an astronomer would say—“Like grains of sand on the sea-shore." They accounted the present as but a momentary space in the interval between two eternities, earning blessings or cursings for ever according to man's efforts to do good and hate evil. They thought of the future as a place of rest from evil, a home of everlasting beauty, in which the whole creation should praise God. They saw living things. and men in a vast procession, not urged by blind force, but guided by Divine Intelligence to higher activities and more glorious spheres. Good men have always known that the reciprocities of right could not be gainsaid.

The knowledge of ancient sages was wonderful. We are beginning to be conscious of it. For some time before the age of Sir Isaac Newton, the physical system commonly accepted was the Ptolemaic; but Newton proved it erroneous, and demonstrated the truth of the Copernican, which had been propounded by Pythagoras, two thousand years before. The sun is the centre around which the planets and satellites revolve. This example, chosen from many, is proof that

wise men in the early days possessed wisdom that often used the natural aspect of things to discern inner meaning and power. They regarded God as the One who bound up the thick clouds with strength, that the waters might not rend them (Job xxvi. 8); who apportioned the atmosphere, made a balance for the winds, a decree for the rain, and a path for the lightning (Job xxviii. 24-27). Solomon, or whosoever it was that wrote in his name, had understanding of the wind going toward the south, the turning about unto the north, and why the fulness of the sea was not over-fulness (Eccl. i. 6, 7). Science, since those old-world days, has weighed the wind, traced its path whirling in continual currents; knows that an atmospheric pressure of fifteen tons is on every man, and that, if it were not so, his lungs could not well use the air. It is a physical fact, that the air of the firmament, by a secret process, raises and suspends water, eight hundred times heavier than itself; and in quantity so vast that, if it descended at once upon the earth, there would be another deluge. The ascent and descent are so graduated that the earth is not unduly parched; nor animal nor vegetable destroyed by a general flood. Great as is the advance of modern science, no man has exceeded Solomon in wisdom, nor Job in philosophy, nor convinced Moses of folly for saying "God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament."

As

The genius of ancient worthies was not less marvellous than their knowledge. The rude and ignorant are always a savage race; but the prophets rose to the grandest heights of philosophy and poetry. There were gleams of spirit and touches of genius which remind us of the best and purest portions of the classic page, which indeed they surpass. a literary production, there is nothing in any ancient or modern book equal in simplicity, or beauty, or grandeur, to the account by Moses of creation; and it seems written for our own time. The Book of Job cannot be styled less than perfect, the Psalms are matchless, Isaiah sublime. The Bible remains ever fresh by the life that is in it; creates new interest in men of every age, not only by the letter, but specially by the spirit. It is adapted to the various stages of history, and illustrates the great principles of moral government. It possesses a wider influence than when originally

Genius of Ancient Worthies.

151 spoken, and delights us with the charm of novelty as were it newly found. It is more romantic than romance by Divinity of origin, the sacred subduing sadness which pervades it; the high art of embalming the spirit, the thought, the laws, the life of a whole nation. The words of graceful imagery with which patriarchs and prophets describe God and His works, the ruin of beauty and glory by sin, are in the power of true world-poets. Sometimes the language is child-like, the figures express our commonest notions; but that child-like body is of excellent form, and the figures hold our life, win homage and love from the purest and wisest of mankind. The representation of Divinity is entrancing, our, delight deepens into awe. Sacred anger is aroused, as malignant hands, by wicked skilful dark strokes, turn favour into disfavour; that the purpose of God may be marred, and the image of man defaced. The two hemispheres of Divine holiness and Satanic iniquity are separated by a firmament of mercy. Beneath that firmament are forgiveness and sanctification overcoming iniquity; above that firmament, ascending to the height, are regeneration for the earth, glorification for men, the likeness of a throne, and on that throne the appearance of a Man (Ezek. i. 26). Stored and uncounted riches are hid in all creatures of God: influences unsought and uses not yet regarded.

"Aye, gloriously thou standest there,
Beautiful, boundless firmament !
That swelling wide o'er earth and air,
And round the horizon bent,

With thy bright vault and sapphire wall,
Dost overhang and circle all."

William Cullen Bryant.

Beware of regarding the primeval waters as existing in their present state. They were full of mineral and earthy ingredients, surcharged with gaseous elements; rather a molten mass of fluid and gaseous condition than water, as seen now, cooled down and formed by the chemical affinity of oxygen and hydrogen. Thick steam, arising from this heated fluidity and the other matters held in solution, rendered the circumference of the earth moist and cloudy. Vapours and gaseous elements were more and more separated and differentiated from mineral parts-made to

rise out of the water and expanded to become constituents of the life-sustaining atmosphere. There seems to have been a power which decomposed the fluid matter or water, a power of attraction and contraction on one hand, a power of repulsion and expansion on the other. This power, the diffusion principle, abstracted the elements of the firmament from submission to the universal law of gravity, enabled the watery vapour to penetrate it with perfect freedom, and to become a fountain of life in the atmospheric streams surrounding our earth. The vast details, accurately set down in our spirit, would be a more brilliant lighting up of our mind than with sunlight.

The words “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters," express the relative degrees of expansion. Those under the firmament are of less expansive principle; those above the firmament, being of more subtile or higher expansive principle, incline to ascend. Thus a division, ever varying in extent and degree, is established by means of the atmosphere, and wrought by Him to whom all things are easy, His Mind, as a master key, opening mysteries to His hand.

In speaking of the dew-point temperature, we mean the temperature of the air at which the invisible vapour of water existing in it at the time would saturate it if the air were cooled down. The higher the temperature of the air, the greater the quantity of invisible vapour of water it will hold. The amount of vapour which the air will hold increases in a greater ratio than the temperature. Air at 80° will hold more than double the amount of vapour it would hold at 40°. If anything cools down the air below dew-point, part of the vapour is condensed, changed into water, becomes visible as mist or cloud. When a glass of cold water is brought into a room, we often see dew deposited upon the surface of the glass; this is caused by the water in the glass (and, as a consequence, the glass itself) being below the temperature of the dew-point of the air in the room. All contrivances to find the dew-point really mean to get at the neutral point, or exact temperature when no dew will be deposited upon the glass, and no evaporation take place from the surface of the water. The dew-point temperature, even in this country, is sometimes 30° to 40° below the temperature of the air.

« PreviousContinue »