ezrkiel's vision of the divine glory. 



171 



Mosulj which is about the same latitude, severe frosts frequently 

 occur, and the Tigris at Nineveh is sometimes nearly frozen 

 over. The climatic conditions, therefore, are such as to render an 

 occurrence of the Parhelia physically possible. I was anxious, 

 however, to ascertain whether the Parhelia had actually been 

 seen there, and in 1905 I wrote to Dr. Hume Griffith, who was in 

 charge of the Medical Mission at Mosul, asking him whether he 

 had seen the Parhelia, and if not, if he would keep a look out 

 for it, at the same time sending him a full description of the 

 phenomenon. Dr. Griffith replied saying that he had not seen 

 the Parhelia, but that he would watch for it. In the autumn of 

 1907 he was returning to England on furlough, and after crossing 

 the desert that lies between the Tigris and the Euphrates he had 

 encamped for the night on the banks of tlie river Khabur. 

 Late that evening, by a remarkable coincidence, he saw a fine 

 display of the Parhelia. In a subsequent letter to me Dr. Griffith 

 described what he saw : " Your previous letter had passed from 

 my mind, and when my wife called me out of our tent to see 

 ' the glorious sky ' I had forgotten that our tent was pitched for 

 tlie night on the banks of the river Khabur. The month was 

 November, about the first week, the evening was cold and 

 inclined to be frosty, the sun was setting, and from it projected 

 spokes of various hues, with an appearance of a wheel within 

 a wheel . . . the huge wing-shaped appearance on each side 

 of the wheel spread far up into the heavens. The whole 

 phenomenon lasted only a few minutes as the sun sank to rest. 

 After watching it and discussing the curious wheel-like appear- 

 ance I suddenly thought of where we stood, and of your long 

 forgotten letter, and wondered whether this was what you had 

 asked me to look out for." 



There can be no doubt that what Dr. Griffith saw was the 

 Parhelia, though in this case the most prominent features of the 

 phenomenon were the two halos and the tangential arcs at the 

 sides of the outer halo which were extended upwards to a great 

 height. 



We have therefore evidence that the Parhelia has been seen 

 on the very spot where Ezekiel saw his Vision, and that Ezekiel 

 gives a description agreeing at every point with that of the 

 Parhelia. These facts taken together force upon us the 

 conviction that Ezekiel had the Parhelia before him at the time 

 of his Vision, and that this phenomenon constituted the natural 

 object on which the Vision was based. 



In conclusion I would suggest that the Vision of Ezekiel 

 does not lose anything of its spiritual value, that it is not in 



