160 LT.-COL. G, MACK1NLAY ON BIBLICAL ASTRONOMY. 



when an eclipse of the moon occurred, if we had been in India we 

 should have found the populace blowing horns and beating drums 

 to frighten away the demon who was swallowing the moon. 



Everybody knows in India that the sun, moon, and different stars 

 are supposed to be witnesses to any great event. So also one often 

 sees near the temples a slab on which are carved figures of the sun 

 and the moon, to bear eternal witness against anybody who dares 

 to resume the land on which the temple was built. As regards the 

 winged disc of the sun in India, it is very much easier than in more 

 northern countries to see the sun rise. I have often ridden eight or 

 nine miles before the sun rose, and have seen it rising with not 

 unf requently on either side of light white clouds which had the 

 appearance of wings. 



Professor Orchard. — I thank the author for this able and 

 suggestive paper. I might express my own satisfaction that he has 

 emphasized on page 127 the fact that certain astronomical facts were 

 miracles, and in the next paragraph that the Bible records 

 astronomical facts as they appeared to an ordinary observer. It 

 would be perfectly absurd to speak the scientific language of the 

 astronomer to people who do not understand the meaning of the 

 terms. On page 132 the author has done well to remind us, in 

 connection with the new moon and the Sabbaths of the Bible, that 

 the Jewish arrangement of Sabbaths was not the same as that of the 

 Babylonians. There are some people who imagine that it was, and 

 that the Jewish arrangement was derived from the Babylonians. 

 That is an error. It was not so derived, and both the Babylonian 

 and Jewish arrangements were indicative of a primal revelation. 



On page 145 the globular form of the earth is inferred from the 

 statements of the xvii chapter of St. Luke and the xxiv chapter of 

 St. Matthew. May I point out, however, that these statements 

 carry more, that they prove the fact of the earth's rotation ; since 

 at one and the same time there is early dawn, full daylight, and 

 night. That of course leads us to see that the earth must rotate. 



I wish personally to thank the author for the pleasure and the 

 profit which we have derived this evening. 



Rev. W. F. Connor. — The word " yam " is the same both in 

 Hebrew and Arabic, and it is used in colloquial Arabic with the idea 

 of "at all" or immensity. You say you have not seen a person^ 

 all. The word for north is tsdphon. I only know one word for north 



