124 LT.-COL. G. MACKINLAY ON BIBLICAL ASTRONOMY. 



their movements. Our climate prevents us from seeing them, 

 especially when they are near the horizon, except at uncertain 

 intervals ; a large number of us live in towns lighted by gas 

 and electricity, and thus the brilliancy of the stars is eclipsed. 

 If we travel at night, we enter a well lighted railway carriage 

 and we look outside it but little; we have good almanacks and 

 clocks, and consequently most of us have no need to consult the 

 celestial time-keepers, which regulate the earthly ones, and as 

 our civil calendar has nothing to do with the moon, the variation 

 in its appearance is not a matter of importance. 



The modern astronomer is accustomed to refer his observa- 

 tions for accuracy to the vertical meridian. He believes most 

 of the theories of the ancients were wrong, and consequently 

 he generally bestows little thought on the efforts of man long- 

 ago to wrestle with the problems of the heavens, notwithstand- 

 ing the fact that the length of the year, the correct arrange- 

 ment of the calendar, and the direction of true north, were 

 accurately known from the results of laborious observations 

 some thousands of years ago. 



But in Bible times how different was the standpoint. The 

 heathen nations surrounding the Hebrews paid great attention to 

 astronomy, and this is proved by the frequent, perhaps invariable, 

 orientation of their temples to the rising or setting of the sun at 

 a solstice, or at an equinox, or to the rising of some star. The 

 study of astronomy was intimately connected with heathen 

 worship. Professor Sayce tells us that the first known observa- 

 tories in the world were those attached to Babylonian temples, 

 which were generally dedicated to one of the heavenly host, or 

 to some god connected with one of them by ancient myth. The 

 priests were the observers, and under the authority of the king 

 they regulated the calendar ; they dabbled in astrology, 

 doubtless for gain, and in order to keep up their power over 

 the people. The Hebrew authors of the Scriptures, on the other 

 hand, drew attention to the heavens in order to declare the 

 glory of God, or to make some grand parallel to His grace and 

 mercy. In Bible lands there is a bright clear atmosphere and 

 a genial climate : there was little artificial light at night, and 

 that only dim, and there was little hiding of the heavens 

 during travel. The lunar month was employed by the Hebrews 

 for their calendar, and consequently the position and appear- 

 ance of the moon indicated the progress of the month. 

 Almanacks and time-measuring instruments were few and 

 rude, and hence the ancients generally must have frequently 

 consulted the heavenly bodies for various purposes. Astro- 



