J 46 



LT.-COL. G. MACKINLAY ON BIBLICAL ASTROKOMY. 



cases their numbers are mentioned in conjunction with the 

 sand upon the sea shore innumerable ; now 6,000 grains of 

 sand do not fill a very large space, and the linking together of 

 these two examples of large numbers might not have appeared 

 very apt to, the first hearers. (Gen. xv, 5 ; xxvi, 4 ; Deut. i, 10, 

 x, 22, xxviii, 62 ; Jer. xxxiii, 22; Nahum iii, 16 ; Heb. xi, 12). 

 But when telescopes were invented, the numbers which could 

 be seen rapidly grew to hundreds of thousands, and of late 

 years t o millions ; and when photography came to the aid of 

 astronomy, pictures appeared of other stars (never even 

 yet seen by human eye in the most powerful telescope), and the 

 totals now reach hundreds of millions. Of late years the 

 spectroscope has confirmed what was previously only a 

 suspicion, that many bright stars have other dark ones 

 revolving with them. Sir Robert Ball tells us that " the 

 brilliant objects that we see, though they are overwhelmingly 

 numerous, yet they must be absolutely as nothing in 

 comparison with the myriads of dark objects which are 

 totally invisible to us, except when certain very remarkable 

 circumstances occur." Thus our modern Science humbles us 

 by showing that it is more difficult than it appeared at the 

 time to comply with the demand, " tell the stars, if thou be able 

 to tell them " (Gen. xv, 5). And it enables us to see a fuller 

 meaning in the grand and simple statement, " He telleth the 

 number of the stars " (Ps. cxlvii, 4). 



The lately recognised dark stars of the modern astronomer 

 may perhaps be referred to in Jude 13. 



Except that a few of them were used for the practical 

 purposes of finding the time and the latitude, the bulk of* the 

 stars were not of much interest to scientific astronomers a few 

 years ago ; though of course different magnitudes were assigned 

 to them, and differences of colour were observed, some were 

 noted as double and others as variable in their light. But now- 

 a-days, with the aid of the spectroscope, it is found that all are 

 moving with great and diverse rapidity ; some are one thousand 

 times as brilliant as our sun, while others are less so. Instead 

 of the old apparent monotony among the stars. Professor 

 S. Newcomb now writes: "Most remarkable is the diversity 

 of their actual luminosities or the amount of heat and light 

 which they individually emit. The whole tendency of recent 

 research is to accentuate this diversity." Thus now-a-days, 

 thanks to recent science, we can see more force than formerly 

 in the words of Scripture, " one star differeth from another star 

 in glory " (i Cor. xv, 41), and our present knowledge of the 



