LT.-COL. G. MA i K I \ LAY OX BIBLICAL ASTRONOMY. 



155 



fear that the little attention I have hitherto paid to the subject of 

 biblical astronomy will preclude my contributing much of value to 

 its discussion. 



However, with regard to certain miraculous astronomical events 

 recorded in the Old Testament, and alluded to by the lecturer, it 

 seems to me that if we accept as a fact that the planet upon which 

 we live, and I am not going to enter into any controversy as to the 

 opinio] is held by various scientists with respect to the earth's age 

 or the manner of its formation, together with the sun, the moon and 

 the vast myriads of other heavenly bodies pursuing their allotted 

 courses through space, were created by the Supreme Spirit, whom w r e 

 designate as God, then it is an equally simple matter to believe that 

 the Great Architect of the Universe, in the exercise of His unfathom- 

 able wisdom and in the plenitude of His illimitable power, so 

 temporarily dislocated or changed the working of the complex 

 machinery which He himself had made, as to cause, without bringing 

 about general destruction and chaos, the extraordinary astronomical 

 phenomena which we are told, and know T , have proved such stumbling 

 blocks in the path of the faithful throughout subsequent ages of the 

 world. To my mind, the two questions are indissoluble ; if we 

 accept the one we must accept the other, and if we reject the one 

 we must reject the other. 



Passing on ; if, as the lecturer states, the astronomers of the 

 present day are but little inclined to pay much attention to the 

 scientific work of the ancients, the reason would seem to be 

 intelligible. While those pioneers of astronomical science had 

 certain glimmerings of the truth, that truth w-as more or less 

 obscured and choked by erroneous matter ; and with a vast field 

 before them, which constant research is ever enlarging, modern 

 observers may well be pardoned if they not unnaturally prefer to 

 press forward rather than to look backward. 



Nevertheless, it is not always safe to assume that the ancients 

 were quite as ignorant as they are sometimes supposed and 

 represented to have been. As an instance in poini, I may 

 mention that in the museum at Naples there is a case containing 

 surgical instruments recovered from long buried Pompeii, and among 

 those instruments is at least one w r hich is identical with w^hat is 

 termed a modern invention. 



Coming to the worship of the heavenly bodies by the ancients, 



