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



" Maker of heaven and earth " (Gen. xiv, 19, 22). The heathen 

 governor nnder Darius reported to him that the Jewish elders 

 stated that they were " servants of the God of heaven and 

 earth" (Ezra v, 11), and Darius uses the same title of Jehovah 

 in his letter of reply (Ez. vi, 9). Artaxerxes also addresses 

 Ezra as "the Scribe of the Law of the God of heaven" (Ez. 

 vii, 12 and 23). Jer. x, 11, is in Aramaic, probably that it 

 might serve as a special message to the Chaldeans : " Thus 

 shall ye say unto them, the gods that have not made the 

 heavens and the earth, these shall perish " ; and then in Hebrew 

 the prophet states to the J ews that the Lord " stretched out the 

 heavens." Daniel, uses the titles " God of Heaven " before 

 Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. ii, 44), and " Lord of Heaven " before 

 Belshazzar (Dan. v, 23). Jonah names Him " God of Heaven " 

 (Jonah i, 9) before the heathen sailors ; and in the New 

 Testament. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra speak of the " living 

 God who made the heaven and the earth" (Acts xiv, 15), and 

 again at Athens, Paul spoke of Him before the Greeks as " the 

 Lord of heaven and earth" (Acts xvii, 24, E.V.). 



The majestic Psalms of the day (xix) and of the night (viii) 

 each begin by demonstrating the glory given to Jehovah by His 

 vast works in the universe ; the former announces that " the 

 heavens declare the glory of God," while the latter addresses 

 Him, who has set His " glory above the heavens." 



In some places God's great work of creation is linked with 

 His great work of atonement and redemption, as in Ps. xix, 1 

 and 14, "The heavens declare the glory of God . . . 0 

 Lord my rock, and my redeemer " ; and Col. i, 16 and 20, " In 

 Him were all things created in the heavens . . . through 

 Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, having made peace 

 through the blood of His Cross " ; see also Pro v. viii, 23, 27, 

 and ix, 1, 2, "I was set up from everlasting . . . when 

 He established the heavens I was there . . . wisdom 

 . . . . hath killed her beasts : she hath mingled her wine ; 

 she hath also furnished her table." Modern science can teach 

 us nothing of the second of these great works, but the 

 advances of astronomy have enlarged our knowledge of the 

 vastness and grandeur of the universe, and consequently 

 have taught us a fuller sense of the glory of the Maker and 

 Euler. 



(2) Worship of the Heavenly Bodies Forbidden. 



Every careful reader of the Old Testament must be struck 

 by the fact that worship of the heavenly host was very preva- 



