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attention of the antediluvian patriarchs. This globe has undergone vast changes since it became the habitation of man. Nations have risen and passed away, and mighty conquerors have existed, concerning whom we know little more than the letters which spell their names. Yet although these great terrestrial revolutions have occurred, the scenery of the heavens is the same as on the day when our first parents gazed on the glories of the firmament from the garden of Eden. When we remember the frequent references made by the sacred writers to the heavenly bodies, it seems an additional reason to direct our attention to the objects with which they were so familiar. If we desire variety, we have only to engage in this most fascinating study; for the celestial vault resembles some mighty panorama, ever presenting fresh exhibitions of the Creator's skill to invite our study and admiration. The present store of astronomical knowledge is the result of the researches of many centuries, and in no previous age did there exist such manifold opportunities of pursuing this most delightful study as the present. The object of the following series of papers is to unfold to the ordinary reader some of the most remarkable of the celestial phenomena worthy of notice, so that, by the contemplation of the marvels of the firmament the mind may be led from the study of Nature to the love and reverence of Nature's God.

Let us commence our investigations on the first clear evening, and gaze at the glories of the starry concave. We cannot fail to observe the different aspect of the heavens presented on a winter's night to that of summer. Those constellations which now form part of the celestial panorama, a few months hence will disappear, and those which are now veiled by the rays of the orb of day will take their place. Directing our attention to the firmament, our first thought is one of sublime admiration at the multitude of resplendent orbs which appear in every direction. The sentiments of the pious Hervey are peculiarly appropriate to the

present occasion:-"What a grand and majestic dome is the sky! Where are the pillars that support the stately concave? What art, most exactly true, balanced the pressure? What props, of insuperable strength, sustain the weight? How is that immeasurable arch upheld, unshaken and unimpaired, while so many generations of busy mortals have sunk and disappeared? If those stars are of such an amazing bulk, how are they also fastened in their lofty situation? Are they hung in golden or adamantine chains? Rest they their enormous load on rocks of marble or columns of brass? No... the Almighty Architect stretches out the north," and its whole starry train, over the empty place.' He 'hangs the earth,' and all the ethereal globes, upon nothing.' Yet are their foundations laid so sure, that they can never be moved at any time," except by the Hand that made them.

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the constellations are marked with the letters of the Greek alphabet, beginning with the brightest star; and when the alphabet is exhausted, numerals are employed. When it is remembered that there are in the whole firmament about 100 constellations, the necessity for this method of classifying and arranging the stars visible to the naked eye (about 1,500 in the northern hemisphere) becomes a matter of importance. There are about 17 stars of the first magnitude, 76 of the second, 223 of the third, and the number increases as the scale of magnitude diminishes. There are

several remarkable double stars in Orion, but these require a strong magnifying power to show the faint companion star. Rigel, when powerfully magnified, presents a beautiful appearance, and the contrast of colours between the large star and its minute attendant is a sight which must be seen to be appreciated. The large star is white, and the small one red. Sir W. Herschel, in the course of his astronomical career, detected as many as 500 double stars visible in our latitude, which are scattered over the whole heavens; and it is related of the celebrated astronomer Struve, at the Dorpat observatory in Russia, that he arranged a list of 3,000 double stars, in the compilation of which he examined singly as many as 120,000 stars. Further mention will be made of double stars in the course of these papers.

Another wonderful object, which seems almost beyond the powers of the human mind fully to grasp, is the magnificent nebula in what is called the "sword of Orion." If the reader has access to a celestial globe, he will readily see why the terms "belt" and "sword" are employed. Orion is there represented as a mighty hunter, with uplifted club. The three stars in the centre of the square, in an oblique direction, are called the "belt," and through the uppermost of these, called Mintika, the equinoctial circle passes. The "sword" is immediately under the belt; it also consists of three stars, and to the naked eye the middle star appears as a hazy, cloudy

object. Huyghens, a Dutch astronomer, in 1656, with a very unwieldy telescope, examined the nebulous star in the "sword," but was unable to penetrate sufficiently far into the depths of space to discover the real nature of this wondrous object. Sir W. Herschel, more than a century later, employed the full power of his gigantic forty-feet reflector, but even the extraordinary penetrating power of his monster instrument failed to resolve this nebulous mass of light into separate stars. This honour has been reserved for the Earl of Rosse, who with his immense six-feet mirror, with a reflecting surface of 4,071 square inches, has succeeded in resolving certain portions of the great nebula into minute, star-like points. With what exquisite art must the figure of this mirror be formed to accomplish this most difficult problem, for the slightest flaw in the workmanship would turn a well-defined group of stars into a blot! But still more wonderful must be the real nature of this far-distant assemblage of brilliant points, when a very high authority places it at the enormous distance of 320 billions of miles from the earth on which we move! We once saw it stated that light, which travels at the rate of 192,000 miles in a second, occupies the incredible interval of 60,000 years to render this nebula visible!! Truly may we say of the Almighty Architect, HE alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea he maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south: he doeth great things past finding out," for "his name is Wonderful."

Let us quit this gorgeous constellation, and look immediately above it, and we shall meet with other objects equally wonderful. The star marked Betelguese is immediately on the edge of that remarkable zone, the Milky Way. Sir W. Herschel, when exploring this region with his twenty-feet telescope, had fields of view containing from 60 to 110 stars visible at once, in places where not a star can be seen by the naked eye. So thickly studded with stars are some portions of the Milky Way, that on

one occasion this powerful telescope remaining stationary, the revolution of the earth on its axis caused the incredible number of 50,000 stars to pass through the field of view in an hour! An examination of this region in a telescope of great space-penetrating power will confirm the remark of Sir J. Herschel, who describes it as consisting "entirely of stars, scattered by millions, like glittering dust, on the black ground of the general heavens." Knowing this, how appropriate is the reference of the Almighty to the number of the heavenly bodies, as an illustration of the prodigious increase of Abraham's posterity (Gen. xv. 5). The late Rev. Dr. Dick tells us that he has never been inspired with higher ideas of grandeur and sublimity, nor felt deeper emotions of humility and reverence, than when occasionally contemplating various parts of the Milky Way. The sight is one that baffles all attempts at description, and is calculated to inspire sensations of wonder and reverence at the immensity of the Creator's kingdom.

To the right of Orion we see the ruddy star Aldebaran, in the constellation Taurus: this star will be occulted or eclipsed by the moon on the evening of the 16th. Near Aldebaran is the cluster called the Pleiades, an object which every reader of these lines ought to see in an ordinary telescope. Seven stars may be seen by the naked eye, 40 or more with a telescope, and, according to Rheita, as many as 200. The configuration of these stars in a common telescope is exquisitely beautiful, as it gives a very fair idea of the manner in which space is magnified in the telescope. One star near the centre of this cluster, of the third magnitude, named Alcyone, is the "central sun," according to Maedler, who maintains that the entire stellar heavens, together with the solar system, revolve round this star as their common centre of motion.

To the left of Orion, at a lower elevation, the dazzling brilliancy of Sirius catches the eye. This is the brightest star in the heavens, after the planets Venus and Jupiter.

The blaze of large stars in powerful telescopes was almost overpowering to Sir W. Herschel, who says that when Sirius entered the field of his telescope, its brightness resembled the rising sun, so that he was forced to take his eye from the beautiful sight. Sirius cannot be less distant than 20 billions of miles, which would take a cannon-ball, flying at the velocity of 19 miles a minute, 2,000,000 years to cross this mighty interval. A most striking proof of the immense distance of the fixed stars is shown in the following fact. If we employ the highest powers of a large telescope to magnify a star of the first magnitude, the disk of the star diminishes, instead of increasing in size. If the same telescopic power is employed on the moon or any of the planets, the size of those bodies is sensibly increased. This fact proves beyond a doubt the immensity of the abyss which separates our earth and the members of the solar system from the region of the nearest of the fixed stars.

Whoever examines the heavens closely, will notice the change of place which the moon undergoes on three or four successive nights. Her monthly revolution is performed in about 27 days, during which she passes near each of the planets. She is immediately above Venus on the morning of the 3rd; near Jupiter on the 7th at midnight, Uranus on the evening of the 18th, Mars on the 19th at noon, Saturn on the 28th, and again approaches Venus on the evening of the 31st. The moon when on the meridian, or due south, rises to a much higher elevation during the winter months than in summer. The moon is new on the 5th, at midnight, and full on the 20th. The star Aldebaran suffers an occultation or eclipse by the moon on the 16th at 8.14 p.m.-a phenomenon worthy of notice. It is well known to all that the sun rises lower in the sky in winter than in summer, but it is not generally known that we are nearer to the sun in winter than when the days are longest. The planet Mars rises on the 10th when the sun sets, and is a conspicuous object in the south-east for the next few

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AND ITS RELATION TO RELIGIOUS

LIFE AND PROGRESS.

PRAYER is so plainly and so frequently enjoined in the Holy Scriptures, that no one can admit their Divine authority and deny its obligation. Whoever despises and neglects it is manifestly ungodly. The prayerless are ever godless. When the quickening influence of the Divine Spirit is first felt in the soul, awakening the conscience from its guilty slumber, and filling the heart. with penitential sorrow, its thoughts and emotions find their fitting form of expression in the language of prayer. So the prodigal, when he came to himself, fled from his misery to his father, with the confession of his sin and the cry for help bursting from his heart. And so the publican, convicted and penitent, went up to the temple, and offered the prayer, "God be merciful to me a sinner." And when that great persecutor of the Church, Saul of Tarsus, felt himself the subject of a twofold darkness, bodily and spiritual, we hear it said of him, " Behold, he prayeth." And thus it is with every humble, contrite sinner-he needs, and he seeks the salvation of God. The pressure of his want and misery prompts the earnest, heart-reaching cry,

Lord have mercy upon me,

and save me."

Prayer is the contrite sinner's voice,
Returning from his ways;
While angels in their songs rejoice,
And say, 'Behold, he prays.'

As prayer marks the entrance into the Christian life, it fails not to accompany every step of its progress. It is, indeed, essential to the spiritual life of man. Rightly has it been termed the Christian's vital breath. It is not with him a special or occasional duty, which requires his attention only in some peculiar circum

stances, but it is to him a necessity always. As his bodily life depends upon his breathing the vital air, so his spiritual life is dependent upon his continuing in prayer. The spirit of devotion is the native element of a child of God. The life of religion in the soul cannot be sustained without it. What is that life, but union with Christ by faith and love, a participation of the Divine nature, fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ? The cessation of this fellowship and communion with God would be the cessation of spiritual life. One of its best evidences, as well as chief supports, is prayer— not its form, but its spirit - the going out of the heart's desire after God-engaging in the duty, not as a mere duty, dull and wearisome, but as a glorious privilege, elevating and joyous. Waiting upon God, we renew our strength. Going to the throne of grace, we find mercy and grace to help us. How great the condescension, how marvellous the goodness of God, that he should lend an ear to the voice of our prayer, and put forth his power to bless at our request! Such condescending goodness in him may well amaze us, but we must not suffer it to be an occasion of unbelief. We may guard our minds against this danger by remembering his own words, in which he expressly sets before us at once his infinite majesty and his special and gracious regard to such as are of a humble and contrite heart. "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" (Isa. lvii. 15). "The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ear is open to their cry." He tells them to take hold of his strength. He urges them to ask, and receive, that their joy may be full. God never said to the children of men, "Seek ye my face in vain ;" and his people know that it is not a vain thing to wait upon him. Every command to pray carries with it a promise, expressed or implied, that

our prayer shall be answered. And to this effect there are given unto us many exceeding great and precious promises, that we might have hope, and approach the throne of grace with child-like confidence, and in the full assurance of faith. Prayer, then, is not an unmeaning ceremony, a vain form without effect. It is a mighty power, in which man wrestles and prevails with God. It is a communication between the heart of man and his heavenly Father. It is a golden key which God has given to his children, that they may enter the storehouse of heaven, and enrich themselves with its treasures of wisdom, grace, and consolation. There is no limitation of our blessedness but the limit of our own desires. If we "have not, it is because we ask not; or we ask and receive not, because we ask amiss," and not because God is unable or unwilling to give; for "he is able to do for us far more abundantly than we can ask or think."

As the health and prosperity of the soul are dependent upon our continuance in prayer, it is enjoined upon us that we pray without ceasing. The whole tenor of Christian experience goes to show this depend

ence.

A low state of religious feeling-formality, indifference, sluggishness, uncertainty, fear, unbelief -these are some of the evils which cluster about the soul, when it is neglectful of prayer, and aims at keeping itself right by its own strength. But prayer lays hold of Divine power; and, while it mortifies pride, it dignifies the soul, enlivens and purifies the affections, and disperses the clouds of sorrow, fear, and sin; and, as it realizes God's presence and blessing in the fulfilment of his promises, it destroys unbelief, and gives brightness and firmness to hope. As the poet expresses it—

"Prayer ardent opens heaven and lets down a stream

Of glory on the consecrated hour
Of man in audience with the Deity.
Who worships the great God, that in-
stant joins

The first in heaven, and sets his foot
on hell."

As the face of Moses caught and

reflected the rays of the Divine glory when he communed with God on Mount Sinai, and as Jesus was transfigured while he prayed, so have his followers, in prayer, been filled with the light of grace and truth.

But while prayer is a most essential means of grace, it does not set aside the need and use of any other means; nor will a right regard to that duty lead to the neglect of any other. On the contrary, it has a close affinity with every other means of grace and with every other duty. It is meant to attend them all, to add to their efficiency, and to make them perfect. As Luther said, "To pray well, is to study well," it may be also said that, "To pray well, is to work well." He who truly prays to God will diligently work for God, for he will feel the disposition and possess the needful strength. The whole life is sanctified to God, when the mind is habitually under the influence of true devotion.

Now, as the power and progress of religion is sustained in the individual by habitual fervent prayer, so it is evident that the prosperity of the Church, and its progress in the world, must be secured by the same means. The spiritual life and vigour of its members will be the life and vigour of the Church; and a praying Church will be a prosperous Church. The presence and power of its Divine Lord will be with it. The promise will be fulfilled, "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple," and as it is filled with His presence, its light has come, the glory of the Lord has risen upon it; it arises and shines, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners. "Without the Spirit and power of God, the professing Church is feeble, formal, and dying; its influence for good is lost. But it may always enjoy the presence of Him who has all power, for it is promised. Before he left his Church on earth, its Divine Head assured it of the coming of the Holy Ghost, and that he himself would be with it always. And when He had triumphed over death, He "went up on high, leading captivity captive, and receiving gifts for men, that the Lord

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