ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
21 
that which they did not possess themselves, and they possessed 
neither the knowledge of One Only God, nor the observance of 
the seventh day of rest. 
Turning now to the light which the astronomy of to-day can 
throw upon Scripture, we first note the significance it gives 
to many allusions. Thus St. John uses both the fall of 
a great aerolite or bolide, and a meteoric shower in his 
prophetic imagery. “ There fell a great star from heaven, 
burning as it were a lamp,” and “ The stars of heaven fell unto 
the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she 
is shaken of a mighty wind.” The great Leonid meteoric swarm, 
which has afforded us the most striking displays in modern 
times, had probably not entered the solar system when St. John 
wrote, but some similar sight no doubt, suggested his simile. 
Joel and Amos refer to eclipses both of sun and moon, “The 
sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood ” ; 
possibly having the tradition or recollection of the solar eclipse 
of b.c. 831, which occurred about midday in Judea. Modern 
meteorology illustrates quite a large number of passages, and 
these, taken together, show the Hebrews to have had a very 
clear and complete idea of the atmospheric circulation. Thus 
Eliliu describes the process of evaporation : — 
“ For God draweth up the drops of water, 
Which distil in rain from his vapour 
Which the skies pour down, 
And drop upon man abundantly.” 
Referring to the mystery of how it is that the clouds float, 
each in its own place, at its own level, each perfectly 
“ balanced ” in the thin air, he asks the significant question 
which we still have to leave without full answer : — 
“ Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous 
works of Him which is perfect in knowledge 1 ” 
Astronomy comes into two or three of the Scripture 
narratives. In the case of the return of the shadow on the 
“ dial of Ahaz,” and in that of the Star of Bethlehem, we are 
obliged to conclude, that the narratives are too incomplete — 
from the astronomical point of view — to justify any 
astronomical deductions. All that the science can do to help 
us — but this is not an insignificant matter — is to enable us to 
reject, as unsatisfactory, several explanations that have been 
suggested. 
