THB CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 17 



God. They are the most evident signs and tokens to 

 all of his glory as a Creator ; of his Majesty as a 

 Sovereign ; of his Power as a Preserver. For what 

 but Omnipotence could have established the laws by 

 which so many burning suns and ponderous worlds are 

 prevented from rushing against each other, and 

 rendering the universe a scene of ruin and conflagration, 

 like that which it shall really become at the last great 

 day, when the stars of heaven shall cast themselves to 

 the earth, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a 

 scroll? (Rev. vi. 13.) 



Science and observation have led, even some of the 

 most distinguished of modern astronomers, to believe 

 that many of these heavenly bodies are undergoing 

 changes as great as that which overtook our globe at the 

 time of the universal deluge, and which shall again over- 

 take it at that "day of doom," when *' The heavens being 

 on fire shall be dissolved, and the earth, and all the works 

 that are therein, shall be burned up." Several stars have 

 been observed in the heavens from time to time, whose 

 light has at first surpassed the planets, and been visible 

 even at noon day ; and these after a time have gradually 

 become more and more dim, till at length their light has 

 totally expired ; from whence we may reasonably con- 

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