LT.-COL. G. MACKINLAY ON BIBLICAL ASTRONOMY. 127 



with the brief majestic statements in Scripture, but I would 

 note that as we pass on through the Bible we rind a very large 

 number of similar statements of God's creative and ruling 

 power made by various writers, with unerring consistency, right 

 up to and through the times of the New Testament. 

 A few only are now quoted. 



" Thou hast prepared the light and the sun" (Ps. lxxiv, 16 ; 

 see also Ps. viii, 3, and lxxxix, 11); "Him that by under- 

 standing made the heavens" (Ps. cxxxvi, 5, 7 ; see also Prov. 

 hi, 19) ; " Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who created 

 these things " (Is. xl, 26 ; see also xlv, 18) ; " All things were 

 made by Him " (John i, 3 : see also Col. i, 16 ; and Heb. 

 iii, 4). 



Certain miraculous astronomical events are emphatically 

 narrated in Scripture. The sun standing still (Josh, x, 12-14 ; 

 Is. xxviii, 21 ; Hab. iii, 11). The shadow moving backward on 

 the dial (n Kings xx, 10-11 ; Is. xxxviii, 8; n Chr. xxxii, 31). 

 The star at Bethlehem (Matthew ii, 9). The failing of the light 

 of the sun at the Crucifixion (Matt, xxvii, 45 ; Mark xv, 33 ; 

 Luke xxiii, 44). These have been difficulties to many ; but 

 no one can deny that they are not in strictest accord with the 

 repeated statements that God is ruler of the heavens. 



The Bible records astronomical facts as they appear to an 

 ordinary observer ; no scientific astronomer can object to this, 

 as he himself (using popular language) speaks of a " new 

 moon,"* of the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies ; and 

 even in his own technical arrangements, a star is said to " cross 

 the wires " in the field of view T of the transit instrument. 

 Whatever explanation we give of the extraordinary events 

 narrated in the Bible, the fact remains that they are recorded 

 as miraculous exhibitions of divine power. 



The majestic titles of Maker and Lord of Heaven are often 

 used in Scripture, specially by believers in Jehovah when they 

 addressed the heathen ; the hearers could understand something 

 of the glory indicated by those names, though they were 

 ignorant of His spiritual attributes of righteousness and 

 mercy. 



Thus we find both Melchizedec and Abraham, in the presence 

 of the king of Sodom, speaking of God as " the Possessor " or 



* A lady friend beginning to take an interest in astronomy was once 

 talking to me about the new moon, and said she often wondered what 

 became of the old ones ! If the conventional language of prosaic English 

 needs some care in order to understand it, can we wonder if Eastern 

 expressions are not always to be taken quite literally 1 



