DEC 11 1911 BL 240 .S44 1910 Seiss, Joseph Augustus, 182. -1904 The gospel in the stars l¥" vv THE Y&V, '"— •***»"- EC11] _SE Gospel in the Stars; OR, gnnubal gstronomg. BY JOSEPH A. SEISS, D.D., LL.D FIFTH EDITION. #... ra ndvza xae iv naatu Xptardc. CHARLES C. COOK, 150 Nassau Street, new york, n. y. 1910. Copyright, 1884, 3y JOSEPH A. SEIS& Westcott & Thomson, SJtrtotypers and Electrotype* i PREFACE. It may seem adventurous to propose to read the Gospel of Christ from what Herschel calls " those uncouth figures and outlines of men and monsters usually scribbled over celestial globes and maps." So it once would have seemed to the writer. But a just estimate of the case cannot be formed without a close survey of what these figures are, what rela- tions they bear to each other, whence they originated, and what meaning was attached to them by the most ancient peoples from whom they have been trans- mitted to us. Such a survey the author of this vol- ume has endeavored to make. From an extended induction he has also reached conclusions which lead him to think he may do good service by giving publicity to the results of his examinations. The current explanations of the origin and mean ing of the constellations certainly are not such as should satisfy those in search of positive truth. Herschel characterizes them as " puerile and absurd." They are nowhere to be found outside of Greece and Rome and modern works which have thence derived them. They are part of the staple in the theories and arguments of infidelity. The more ancient and 3 6 PREFACE. explanations to do away with the intended conclu- sion as a 11011 sequitur. The argument of these in- fidels is indeed fatally defective, especially in assum- ing that the old astronomy throughout, and all the myths and worships associated with it, have come solely from the natural observation and imagination of man, apart from all supernatural light, revelation, or inspiration. With this starting-point unproven and incapable of verification, and with the positive assertions of all the primeval world and all the indi- cations directly to the contrary, the whole argument necessarily breaks down. Like all the efforts of unbelief, it signally fails. But though the argu- ment, as such, is false and worthless, it does not fol- low that the materials collected to build it are the same. For the most part, they are solid enough in themselves, and the gathering of them was a valu- able contribution to a better cause. The showings made of the close likeness between the old constel- lations and the Gospel are well founded, and can now be illustrated to a much greater and more mi- nute extent. But, instead of proving Christianity a mere revival of old mythologies, they give powerful impulse toward the conclusion that the constellations and their associated myths and traditions are them- selves, in their original, from the very same pro- phetic Spirit whence the Sacred Scriptures have come, and that they are of a piece with the bib- lical records in the system of God's universal enun- ciations of the Christ. Gale, in his Court of the Gentiles, Faber, On Pagan PREFACE. 7 Idolatry, Roberts, in his Letters to Volney, Haslam, on The Cross and the Serpent, and the author of Pri- meval Man Unveiled, have slightly touched upon the subject, and furnish some materials in the direction of the same conclusions. Sir William Drummond, in his Origines, C. Piazzi Smyth, in his Life and Work, and J. T. Goodsir, On Ethnic Inspiration, also present some important facts and considerations relating to the general inquiry. A more valuable aid to the study of the subject as treated in this volume is Frances Rolleston's Mazzarotli ; or, The Constellations — a book from an authoress of great linguistic and general literary at- tainments, whom Providence rarely favored for the collection of important facts and materials, partic- ularly as respects the ancient stellar nomenclature. The tables drawn up by Ulugh Beigh, the Tartar prince and astronomer, about a. d. 1420, giving Ara- bian astronomy as it had come down to his time, with the ancient Coptic and Egyptian names, like- wise the much earlier presentations, made about a. d. 850 by Albumazer, the great Arab astronomer of the Caliphs of Grenada, and Aben Ezra's commen- taries on the same, are, to a considerable extent, re- produced in her book. Fac-similes of the Dendera and Esne Zodiacs are also given in the last edition (1875) of her work. And from her tables and refer- ences the writer of these Lectures was helped to some of his best information, without which this book could hardly have become what it is. If any others have treated directly, or even inci- 8 PREFACE. dentally, of what is sought to be shown in this vol- ume, its author has not discovered their records or their names. With but little, therefore, but the star-maps and descriptions as given by astronomers, and such no- tices of the constellations as are to be found in the remains of antiquity and general literature, he had to make his way as best he could. With what suc- cess he has done his work, and in how far his con- clusions are entitled to credit or respect, he now submits to the decision of a candid and intelligent public. Festival of the Epiphany, \ Philadelphia, 1882. ) Table of Contents. Uecture dfitzt. The Starry Worlds 15— 38 The Sun — Vastness of the Universe — Objects of these Creations — The Stars as Signs — Record the Promises of Redemption — ■ The Glory of God — The Gospel Story — How the Stars are made to Speak — Star-groups — Figures of the Star-groups. ^Lecture Serontf. The Sacred Constellations . . • 39~^5 The Constellations— The Zodiac— The Twelve Signs— Mansions of the Moon — The Decans of the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac — The Planets — The Constellations Divine — Age of the Con- stellations— The Sabbatic Week and the Stars — The Alphabet and the Stars. ilecture 3If)trtJ. The Desire of Nations 66-89 The Ethnic Myths of a Coming Saviour — Infidel Argument — The Sacred Intention of the Signs traceable — A Covered Picture — The Sign of Virgo — The Virgin's Son — Coma — The Desire of Nations — The Double Nature — Bootes — The Great Shepherd- Summary on Virgo. Uecture dfourtf). The Suffering Redeemer 90-113 The Sign of Libra — Commercial Idea in Christianity — The South- ern Cross — The Cross as a Sign — The Victim Slain — A Turn in the History — The Northern Crown — A Sneer Answered. IO TABLE OF CONTENTS. Hecture dFtftf). PAGES The Toiling Deliverer 1 14-137 The Ancient Mysteries — The Sign of Scorpio — The Suffering Saviour — The Serpent — Ophiuchus — ^Esculapius — The Great Physician — Hercules and his Twelve Labors — A Picture of Christ Uecture ictxti). The Triumphant Warrior 138-161 The Sign of Sagittarius — Cheiron — The Hero-Prophet of Double Nature — The Harp — The Lyre of Orpheus — The Universal Joy — Ara, the Burning Pyre — The Under-world — The Dragon — Origin of the Symbol of the Dragon — Slayers of the Dragon. Hecture gebentf). Death and New Life 162-188 Order of the Signs — The Sign of Capricornus — Type and Antitype — The Church — The Mystical Union — The Myths — Spiritual Conceptions — The Arrow — The Pierced Eagle — The Dolphin — Death and Resurrection — Salvation through Atonement — The Faith of the Patriarchs. Hecture IStgfjtf). The Living Waters 189-210 Water — The Sign of Aquarius — Promise of the Holy Spirit — The Waters of Life — The Southern Fish — Pegasus — The Good News — The Pierian Springs — The Swan — Lord of the Waters — The Carried Cross — A Beautiful Picture — The Fountain Flows. Hectute Ntntf). The Mystic Fishes 21 1-232 Apostolic Fishing — The Sign of Pisces — The Myths — Twofoldness of the Church— The Band of the Fishes— Cepheus— The Church's King — Andromeda — The Church in this World — Andromeda's Chains — Ill-favor of the Church — Church not from the Signs. TABLE OF CONTENTS. II ILccture Cent!). PAGES The Blessed Outcome 233-257 The Lamb in Heaven— The Sign of Aries— The Mythic Stories —Cassiopeia— The Church Delivered— Cetus— Satan Bound- Perseus — The Myths — Perseus and Christ— Medusa's Head— The Church's Hope— Union with the Church. Hecture lElebentf)* The Day of the Lord 258-284 A Psalm of Redemption— The Unicorn, or Reem— The Judgment — The Sign of Taurus — The Myths — The Sacred Prophecies — Orion — The Glorious Prince — Myths on Orion — Eridanus — The River of Fire — Mercy in Judgment — Auriga — The Great Shep- herd— A Solemn Outlook. Hecture Ctoelfti). The Heavenly Union 285-310 The Sign of Gemini — Mythic Accounts — The Star-names — Christ's Union with His Church — The Marriage of the Lamb — Lepus, the Mad Enemy — Sirius, or the Nazseirene — The Sublime Prince — The Companion of Sirius — The Myths — Summary on Gemini. Eectute flTfjttteentf). The Blessed Possession 31 1-335 The Oath of God— The Sign of Cancer— The Crab— The Scara- basus — Praesepe — The Heavenly Rest — The Myths — The Names —Ursa Minor— The Lesser Sheepfold— The Pole-Star— Ursa Ma- jor— The Greater Sheepfold — Argo — The Names — The Treasure Secured — A Sweet Consolation. Uecture jFnurteentf). The Consummated Victory 336-360 The Lion — Christ as the Lion — The Lion-work — The Sign of Leo — Hydra — The Serpent Deceiver — Myths and Names — Cra- ter, or the Cup of Wrath — Corvus, or the Raven — Career and Fate of the Serpent— The End. PAGES 12 TABLE OF CONTENTS. lecture jFtfteentf). The Secrets of Wisdom 361 Things More than they Seem- The Ground thus Far— The Lunar Zodiac — Names of the Lunar Mansions— Record the Story of Redemption — The Milky Way — Signs in and on this Way — Names of the Primeval Patriarchs— The Names, Standards, and Jewel-representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel — The Jewel- foundations of the New Jerusalem. Uecture Sixteenth Primeval Man 387-423 Age of Astronomy— Dates back to Adam's Time — The Facts The Traditions — The Bible Representations — Reasonableness of the Case— Claimed to be Originally from God — The Star- Record itself— Contents of its Three Books— Inevitable Infer- ences— The First Man not a Gorilla — Revelation a Fact. ILecture Seventeenth The Star of Bethlehem 424-452 Visit of the Magi — Diverse Opinions about the Star — Astronomic Facts — A Primitive Tradition — A New Star in Coma— Con- junctions of Jupiter and Saturn— The Sign of the Fishes— The Following of the Star — Junction of Prophecy and Astronomy — Who the Magi were— Sum of the Whole — Conclusion. Supplement. {New Matter.) Notices of this Book — Criticisms — No Champion for the Current Theories — The Southern Cross — Is one of the Ancient Signs — Dr. Seyffarth— Origin of Language and Writing — Science and the Constellations — The Bible and the Constellations — The Book of Job — The Hebrew Prophets — The New Testament — The Star Bible 453 Index, and Glossary of the Star-names 511 The profoundest riddles of the world have often remained con- cealed, not because of their great intricacy, but because of their exceeding simplicity. — CzOLBE. When truth is found, it always proves to be somewhat like the egg of Columbus. — Schelling. It is the pert, superficial thinker who is generally the strongest in all kinds of unbelief. — Sir Humphry Davy. " Why did not somebody teach me the constellations and make me at home in the starry heavens, which are always overhead, and which I don't half know to this day?" — Thomas Carlyle. ' This prospect vast, what is it ? — Weighed aright, 'Tis Nature's system of divinity; 'Tis Elder Scripture, writ by Go 1's own hand : Scripture authentic ! uncorrupt by man." Edward Young. " The mvsteries of the Incarnation, from the Conception on to the Ascension i.ito heaven, are shown us on the face of the sky, and are signified oy the stars." — Albertus Magnus. 14 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. JLecture jfitst THE STARRY WORLDS. Gen. i : 14 : " And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night ; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years." THE sublimest visible objects of human contemplation are the Starry Heavens. The beholder is awed at every thoughtful look upon them. And when viewed in the lieht of astronomical science the mind is over- whelmed and lost amid the vastness and mag- nificence of worlds and systems which roll and shine above, around and beneath us. The Sun. The most conspicuous, to us, of these won- derful orbs is the Sun. Seemingly, it is not as large as the wheel of a wagon, but when we learn that we see it only at the distance 15 1 6 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. of more than ninety-one millions of miles, and consider how the apparent size of objects diminishes in proportion to their remoteness, we justly conclude that it must be of enor- mous magnitude to be so conspicuous across a gulf so vast. Our earth is a large body ; it takes long and toilsome journeying for a man to make his way around it. But the Sun fills more than a million times the cubic space filled by the earth. A railway-train running thirty miles an hour, and never stopping, could not go around it in less than eleven years, nor run the distance from the earth to the Sun in less than three hundred and sixty years. If we were to take a string long enough to reach the moon, and draw a circle with it at its utmost stretch, the Sun would still be six times larger than that circle. Be- longing to the system of which it is the centre there are eight primary planets, some of them more than a thousand times larger than our earth, besides eighty-five asteroids, twenty- one satellites or moons, and several hundred comets. But the Sun itself is six hundred times greater than all these planets and their satellites put together. The greatest of them might be thrown into it, and would be to it no more than a drop to a bucket, a bird-shot VASTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE. 1 7 to a cannon-ball, or an infant's handful to a bushel measure. The Vastness of the Universe. But, great and glorious as the Sun is, and seemingly so much greater than every other object in the sky, it is really only a tiny frag- ment, a mere speck, in the magnificent starry empire of which it is a part. It is less to the material universe at large than a globule to our globe. With all its retinue of ponderous orbs, it is only one of innumerable hosts of such suns and systems. There are myriads of stars in space immeasurably greater than it. They look very diminutive in comparison with it, but they are hundreds of thousands of times farther off. A ball shot from a can- non and moving at the rate of five hundred miles an hour could not reach the nearest of them in less than thirteen millions of years. Light is the rapidest of known travellers. A ray from the Sun reaches us in about eight and a quarter minutes. But there are some stars in these heavens known to be so remote that if a ray of light had started from them direct for our world when Adam drew his first breath, it would hardly yet have reached the earth. Sirius alone gives out nearly four 2* B 1 8 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. hundred times as much light as the Sun, and yet Sirius is a star of moderate size among the stars. The Sun is no more to many other stars than one of our smaller planets is to it. We know that the Sun turns on its axis as the earth turns, and that it is ever moving on a journey around some transcendently greater centre, just as the earth and other planets revolve around it as their centre. It takes the earth one year to complete its revolution around the Sun, but it takes the Sun eighteen millions of our years to make its revolution around the centre which it obeys. We are amazed and overwhelmed in the contemplation of worlds and systems so vast. But there is solid reason for believing that all these tremendous systems, in which uncounted suns take the place of planets, are themselves but satellites of still immeasurably sublimer orbs, and thus on upward, through systems on systems, to some supreme physical Omnipo- tent, where the unsearchable Jehovah has His throne, and whence He gives forth His invincible laws to the immensity of His glori- ous realm. These are the " lights," light-bearers, or luminaries to which the text refers, and which the potent creative Word has brought into OBJECTS OF THESE CREATIONS. 1 9 being and placed in die firmament of the heaven. Objects of these Material Creations. Such wonderful creations of almighty pow- er and wisdom were not without a purpose. It was the will of the eternal God to be known — to have creatures to understand and enjoy His glory — to provide for them suitable homes — to acquaint them with His intelli- gence, power, and perfections — to fill them with a sense of the existence and potent pres- ence of an infinite creative Mind, from which all things proceed and on which all creatures depend. All the purposes of creation we cannot be- gin to fathom or comprehend. No plummet- line of human understanding- can reach the bottom of such depths. We stand on solid ground, however, when we say and believe that the intent of the physical universe is to declare and display the majesty and glory of its Creator. Hence the apostolic assertion : "The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." But the particular ends and objects included in this grand purpose 20 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. are as multitudinous and diverse as the things themselves. Among the rest, there is one specially expressed and emphasized in the text. When God created these heavenly worlds He said, "And let them be for signs." The Stars as Signs. A sign is something arbitrarily selected and appointed to represent some other thing. The letters of the alphabet are "signs" — signs of sounds and numbers. The notes on a clef of musical writing are "signs" — signs of the pitch and value of certain tones of voice or instrument. There is no relation whatever between these " signs" and the things they signify, except that men have agreed to em- ploy them for these purposes. Their whole meaning as " signs" is purely conventional and arbitrary — something quite beyond and above what pertains to their nature. And so with all " signs." When Moses said that the swarm of flies should be a "sign" to the Egyptians, there was nothing in the nature of the thing to show what was thereby signified. When the prophet told Hezekiah that the going back of the shadow on the dial should be a " sign " that he would recover from his sickness, THE STARS AS SIGNS. 21 live yet fifteen years, and see Jerusalem delivered out of the hand of the Syrian in- vader, there was nothing in the nature of the thing to express this gracious meaning. Isa- iah's walking barefoot had no natural connec- tion with the Syrian conquest of Egypt, and yet this was " for a sign" of that fact. And thus when God said of the celestial lumina- ries, "and let them be for signs" He meant that they should be used to signify something beyond and additional to what they evidence and express in their nature and natural offices. Nor can any sense be attached to the words, consistent with the dignity of the record, with- out admitting that God intended from the be- ginning that these orbs of light should be made to bear, express, record, and convey some special teaching different from what is naturally deducible from them. What the stars were thus meant to signify, over and above what is evidenced by their own nature, interpreters have been at a loss to tell us. And yet there should not be such a total blank on the subject. Light has been at hand all the while. For ages this whole field has been almost entirely left to a superstitious and idolatrous astrology, which has befouled a noble and divine science and done immeas- 22 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. urable damage to the souls of men. But we here find it claimed to be a sacred domain laid out of God in the original intent of creation itself. And when I look at the deep and al- most universal hold which a spurious and wicked treatment of this field has so long had upon mankind, I have been the more led to suspect the existence of some original, true, and sacred thing back of it, out of which all this false science and base superstition has grown, and of which it is the perversion. There is no potent system of credulity in the world which has not had some great truth at the root of it. Evil is always perverted good, as dirt is simply matter out of place. It is the spoliation of some better thing going be- fore it. And so there is reason to think that there is, after all, some great, original, divine science connected with the stars, which as- trology has prostituted to its own base ends, and which it is our duty to search out and turn to its proper evangelic use. " As from the oldest times the suns and other worlds have been arranged into groups, is it not allowable to inquire whether there was not a unity of purpose and connected meaning in them, though these grotesque figures are represented as hieroglyphs which THE STARS AS SIGNS. 23 we trace to the Chaldeans and Phoenicians ?" is a question which Ingemann, the distinguished Danish author, puts, and who was by far more persuaded of their probable reference to di- vine revelations than of their origin as more commonly explained. Richer, a French writer, has repeatedly as- serted that the whole primitive revelation may be traced in the constellations. Albumazer describes the various constella- tions as known over all the world from the beginning, and says, " Many attributed to them a divine and prophetic virtue." Cicero, in translating the account of the constellations by Aratus, says, " The signs are measured out, that in so many descriptions divine wisdom might appear." Roberts, in his Letters to Volney, accepts it as a truth that the emblems in the stars refer to the primeval promise of the Messiah and His work of conquering the Serpent through His sufferings, and traces out some of the particular instances. Dupuis, in L Origine des Cultus, has col- lected a vast number of traditions prevalent in all nations of a divine person, born of a woman, suffering in conflict with a serpent, but triumphing over him at last, and finds the 24 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. same reflected in the figures of the ancient constellations. Dr. Adam Clarke says of the ancient Egyp- tians that they held the stars to be symbols of sacred things. Lucian and Dupuis assert the same, and say that " astronomy was the soul of the Egyptian religious system." The same is equally true of the Chaldeans and Assyrians. Smith and Sayce, in The Chaldean Account of Genesis, say : " It is evident, from the open- ing of the inscription on the first tablet of the great Chaldean work on astrology and as- tronomy, that the functions of the stars were, according to the Babylonians, to act not only as regulators of the seasons of the year, but also used as signs ; for in those ages it was generally believed that the heavenly bodies gave, by their appearance and positions, signs of events which were coming on the earth!' The learned G. Stanley Faber admits the connection between the starry emblems and the myths and mysteries of the ancients. He thinks " the forms of men and women, beasts and birds, monsters and reptiles, with which the whole face of heaven has been disguised, are not without their signification" and allows that the reference, in parts at least, is to the THE STARS AS SIGNS. 25 Seed of the woman, and His bruising of the Serpent. It is furthermore a matter of inspired New- Testament record that certain wise men from among the Gentile peoples not only looked to the stars as by some means made to refer to and represent a coming Saviour, even the Lord Jesus himself, but were so moved and persuaded by their observations of the stars, from what they saw there signified, that they set out under the guidance of those starry indications to find Him whom they thus per- ceived to have been born in Judea, in order that they might greet Him as their Lord and honor Him by their adoration and their gifts (Matt. 2:1-11). All that entered into this case we may not now be able to determine, but the fact remains that these wise men of the Gentiles did actually come to Jerusalem, and thence to Bethlehem, to find and worship the new-born Saviour, moved and led by as- tronomic sigits, which they never could have understood as they did if there had not been associated with the stars some definite evan- gelic prophecies and promises which they could read, and believed to be from God. And since these starry emblems are inva- riably connected with the most striking and 3 26 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. sublime appearances in the visible creation, seen in all climates, accompanying the out- wandering tribes of man in all their migra- tions, why should we not expect to find among the names and figures annexed to them some memorial of great and universal importance to the whole human race ? Certainly, if we could find connected with every constellation and each remarkable star some divine truth, some prophetic annunciation, some important revelation or fact, there would be opened to us a field of grand contemplations and of sublime memorializations which we may well suppose the infinite Mind of God would neither overlook nor leave unutilized. For my own part, having investigated the subject with such aids as have been within my reach, I am quite convinced, as much from the internal evidences as the external, that the learned authoress of Mazzaroth was cor- rect in saying that from the latent significance of the names and emblems of the ancient astronomy " we may learn the all-important fact that God has spoken — that He gave to the earliest of mankind a revelation, equally im- portant to the latest, even of those very truths afterward written for our admonition *n whom the ends of the world are come." THE GLORY OF GOD. 2f Taken along with the myths and traditions which have been lodged among all the na- tions, I am quite sure that we have here a glorious record of primeval faith and hope, furnishing a sublime testimony to the antici- pations of the first believers, and at the same time an invincible attestation to the blessed Gospel on which our expectations of eternal life are built. Not to the being and attributes of an eternal Creator alone, but, above all, to the specific and peculiar work of our redemp- tion, and to Him in whom standeth our salva- tion, are these "lights in the firmament" the witnesses and "signs" The Glory of God. One of the sublimest of the Psalms, which celebrates the twofold world of Nature and Revelation, begins with the ever-memorable assertion, " The heavens declare the glory of God!' What the heavens are thus said to declare certainly includes more than the ce- lestial bodies naturally tell concerning their Creator. Their showing forth of His " handi- work," His wisdom and power, is the subject of a separate and distinct part of the grand sentence. The chief "glory of God" cannot be learn- 28 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. cd from Nature alone, simply as Nature. The moral attributes of Deity, and His manifesta- tions in moral government, are pre-eminently His glory. In the sending, incarnation, per- son, revelations, offices, and achievements of Jesus Christ, above all, has God shown forth His glory. We are told in so many words that Christ is " the image and glory of God ;" nay, " the brightness — the very outbeaming — of His glory." The glory of God is " in the face of Jesus Christ." There can therefore be no full and right declaring of " the glory of God" which does not reach and embrace Christ, and the story of redemption through Him. But the starry worlds, simply as such, do not and cannot declare or show forth Christ as the Redeemer, or the glory of God in Him. If they do it at all, they must do it as " signs," arbitrarily used for that purpose. Yet the Psalmist affirms that these heavens lo " declare the glory of God." Are we not therefore to infer that the story of Christ and redemption is somehow expressed by the stars ? David may or may not have so understood it, but the Holy Ghost, speaking through him, knew the implication of the words, which, in such a case, must not be stinted, but accc pted in the fullest sense they THE GOSPEL STORY. 29 will bear. And as it is certain that God meant and ordained a use of the heavenly bodies in which they should " be for signs" and as we are here assured that what they have been arranged to signify is " the glory of God" there would seem to be ample scriptural warrant for believing that, by spe- cial divine order and appointment, the illus- tration of God's moral government, partic- ularly as embraced in the story of sin, and redemption by Jesus Christ, is to be found in the stars, according to some primordial and sacred system of astronomy. Thus, by way of the Bible itself, we reach the idea of the Gospel in the Stars, which it is my purpose, with the help of God, to identify, illustrate, and prove. The Gospel Story. The Gospel is chiefly made up of the story of the Serpent and the Cross — the doctrine of the fall and depravity of man through the subtlety of "the Dragon, that old Serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world," and the recovery of fallen man through a still mightier One, who comes from heaven, assumes human nature, and by suffering, death, and exaltation to the right 3* 30 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. hand of supreme dominion, vanquishes the Dragon and becomes the Author of eternal salvation. The preaching of this is the preaching of the Gospel, and the earnest and hopeful belief of this is the belief of the Gospel, according to the Scriptures and all the accepted Creeds of the Church from the days of the apostles till now. The same was also known and believed from the earliest periods of human existence. The Bible is particular to tell us, in its very first chapters, of a subtle and evil spirit, contemplated and named as " the Serpent," through whose agency Eve was beguiled, and the human race, then consisting of but two persons, brought into sin, condemnation and death. It is equally particular to tell us in the same chapter that while Adam was yet in Par- adise, though guilty and about to be driven out into an adverse world, the Lord pronounced a sentence on the Serpent, in which He gave forth the comprehensive primordial Gospel promise; with all the fundamental elements of the true and only evangelic faith : " And the Lord said unto the serpent, Becatise thou hast done this, thou art cursed. . . . And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and betweeii her Seed and thy seed ; it (He) shall THE GOSPEL STORY. 31 bruise thy head, arid thou shalt bruise His heel " (Gen. 3: 14, 15). From the most sacred and authoritative of records we thus find the original of all le- gends and myths of the Serpent and his De- stroyer, of the conflict with the Dragon, and the ultimate slaying of him by that mighty One to be born of woman ; who would have to toil and suffer indeed, but would not give over till His victory should be complete. In that one pregnant text we identify the Ser- pent and the Cross — the Prince of Evil and the Prince of Peace — the Dragon-Deceiver and the suffering Redeemer — the deadly ma- lignity of the one and the self-sacrificing be- neficence of the other — an irreconcilable feud between them, with a promised crushing out of the Destroyer by the wounded Saviour. In other words, we thus, from the very begin- ning of human history, come upon and iden- tify the one great master-theme of both Tes- taments, the chief substance of all prophecy and promise, and the sum of all evangelic preaching, faith, and hope, from the founda- tion of the world. And what I propose to show in this series of Lectures is, that this very story, in all its length and breadth, stands written upon the stars, put there in 32 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. the original framing of astronomy as an ever- lasting witness of God's gracious purposes toward our race, and that the heavens do verily declare the highest glory of God. How the Stars are Made to Speak. To those who have never looked into the science of astronomy, its truths, predictions, and revelations necessarily appear very mys- terious and surprising. Looking out upon the multitude of stars that shine in the noc- turnal heavens, they seem to be so scattered, so entirely without order, so confusedly spread over the face of the sky, that the untutored mind may well despair of reading anything intelligible there. And when, by the aid of the telescope, thousands are multiplied to mil- lions, and suns, systems, and universes rise to view, and the eye sweeps outward to distances which no figures of our arithmetic can express, and into unfathomable gulfs of space all filled up with an endless profusion of innumerable worlds, any understanding of them, especially the deciphering of great evangelic truths from them, would seem to be the height of impos- sibility. And if now, for the first time, man had to grapple with the problem, with nothing going before to assist him, vain indeed would STAR-GROUPS. 33 be our poor short-lived efforts to master such a tremendous field. But we have not now for the first time, or with only our weak and unaided powers, to make the commencement of this study. Men who lived almost a thousand years — men with powers of vision that lasted undimmed through nearly a decade of centuries — men with minds in much closer communion than ours with the infinite and eternal Intelligence — have em- ployed themselves, helped as they were by the great Maker's Spirit, in observing, classi- fying, grouping, and designating these starry worlds, assigning them their names, marking their courses, and making them the bearers of wisdom the dearest and most precious ever made known to man. In their hands and to their peering scrutiny this wilderness of stellar glories took order, shape, and readable mean- ing which the depravities of the after ages have not been able to set aside, and which, by the scientific enlightenment of our times, we may retrace, and bring our minds into communion with their own. Star-Groups. Any one attentively observing the starry heavens will see that some of the stars are 34 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. brighter than others, " for one star cliffereth from another star in glory." Some hold their places from age to age with variations so slight as scarcely to be observable in thou- sands of years. Some of them are " wander- ing stars," changing places continually, going and returning at fixed intervals. Some of them are nestled together in particular groups, or stand alone in their special glories so as to be easily distinguished. By means of these facts maps of the heavens can be made as well as maps of the earth ; and by the long and careful observation and study of them it has come to be known how these heavenly configurations stood and will stand at any particular period of time. The starry heavens, therefore, are not mere unmeaning and incomprehensible show — not a boundless and trackless wilderness of lu- minous orbs. There are paths which we can thread, sometimes dark and rugged, and often leading into depths through which it is hard to follow them, but still not untraceable. As men can find a way through the most intricate musical composition, through a great poem, through a sublime oration, and through the plans and ideas of the most complicated spe- cimen of mechanism or architecture, so may STAR-GROUPS. 35 we find our way through the starry heavens, and mostly tell where we are, what we are contemplating, what relation part bears to part, and read from these glorious luminaries as we would read from the face of a clock or from the placements of the letters of the alphabet. And as most of these star-groups retain al- most precisely the same places and relations for thousands on thousands of years, if any one cognizant of the facts, and setting himself for the first time to describe them, had wished to record certain great ideas for unchanged per- petuation to the most distant ages, among all the objects of Nature he could have selected none so appropriate to his purpose or so per- manently enduring as these stellar groups and configurations. Naming them, and connect- ing them with certain symbols of the ideas he wished to convey, and transmitting and ex- plaining to his posterity those names and fig- ures thus conjoined with the stars, he would link with his astronomy a whole system of thoughts and hopes as clear as the stars them- selves, and utterly imperishable as long as that astronomy should remain in the know- ledge of men. And this, as I hope to make manifest, is exactly what has been done. 36 the gospel in the stars. Figures of the Star-Groups. Somewhere in the earliest ages of human existence the stars were named and arranged into groups by some one thoroughly familiar with the great facts of astronomy. Those names and groupings were at the same time included in certain figures, natural or imagi- nary, but intensely symbolic and significant. These names and figures have thence been perpetuated in all the astronomic records of all the ages and nations since. They are founded on indisputable astronomic truth, and hence form the groundwork of all maps and designations of the celestial presentations. They are in all the planispheres, celestial globes, and star-charts among all people, from one end of the earth to the other. Astrono- mers growl at them, consider them arbitrary and unnatural, and sometimes denounce them as cumbrous, puerile, and confusing, but have never been able to brush them off, or to substi- tute anything better or more convenient in their place. They are part of the common and uni- versal language of astronomical science. They have place and representation in all the alma- nacs of all enlightened peoples. They are in all the books and records devoted to descriptions FIGURES OF THE STAR-GROUPS. S7 of the heavens. Faith and skepticism, piety and irreligion, alike adopt and use them. Revelation and pagan superstition both recog- nize them. Heathen, Mohammedans, and Chris- tians, the oldest with the latest, disagreeing in so many things, yet agree in adopting and honoring these primitive notations of the stars. Even those who have the most fault to find with them still employ them, and can- not get on without them. And in and from these the showing is, that all the great doc- trines of the Christian faith were known, be- lieved, cherished, and recorded from the ear- liest generations of our race, proving that God has spoken to man, and verily given him a revelation of truths and hopes precise- ly as written in our Scriptures, and so fondly cherished by all Christian believers. The announcement may sound strange, and the undertaking to trace it may be deemed adventurous and fanciful ; but if those who hear me will go with me into the investiga- tion, and look at and weigh the facts, I am sure that we shall come out of the study all the more satisfied with the certainty of our Christian hopes, and all the more filled with admiration of the goodness and wisdom of o the eternal Creator of all things. 38 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. I ask no preliminary scientific knowledge of astronomy in order to follow what I have to say, as that will not be needed. If a star- map, celestial chart, or globe of the heavens were consulted to familiarize the mind with the figures denoting the principal constella- tions, it would aid in appreciating the discus- sion ; but if my hearers will favor me with their attention, and follow me with their sym- pathetic and earnest interest, it will be enough to secure a reasonable impression of the sub- ject, and to enable them to see and judge of these star-pictures, whether they do not grand- ly set forth great religious truths, past, pres- ent, and to come.* * Such a chart or map of the heavens, giving the original forty- eight figures, and their relative locations and principal stars, has been prepared to accompany this work ; but it may prove more satisfactory to consult the usual charts or planispheres prepared for astronomic studies. In the absence of facilities for consulting the common appa- ratus for learning astronomy, the reader will be much helped by re- ferring carefully to the chart here given as allusion is made to the particular constellations in the course of the discussion. ILccture g>ccontr. THE SACRED CONSTELLATIONS. Job 26 : 13 : "By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens ; His hand hath formed the crooked Serpent." THE Gospel story, as written on the stars, like much of the sacred Scriptures, is pictorial. The record is accompanied with important explanatory materials, but the chief substance is given in pictures. The Constellations. Every atlas of the heavens is filled up with figures and outlines of men, women, animals, monsters, and other objects, each including a certain set of stars. These stars, as thus des- ignated and embraced, constitute so many separate clusters or groups called the Con- stellations, and these asterisms or constella- tions cover all the principal stars visible to the naked eye. In the primeval astronomy the number of these figures or star-groups was forty-eight. In imitation of them, dozens more have been 39 40 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. added, mostly by modern philosophers. Among these additions are the Sextant, the Giraffe, the Fox and Goose, the Horned Horse, the Fly, the Greyhounds, the Lynx, the Bird of Paradise, Noah's Dove, the Clock, the Sculp- tor's Workshop, the Painter's Easel, the Air- Pump, Sobieski's Shield, the Brandenburg Sceptre, and such like ; which may serve to designate the groups of inferior stars to which they have been assigned, but which are other- wise totally meaningless, and utterly unworthy of the associations into which they have been thrust. Havino- no connection whatever with the primitive constellations, except as poor and impertinent imitations, they must of course be thrown out and cast quite aside from the inquiry now in hand. They are no part of the original writing upon the stars, as pro- posed for our present reading. The primary and chief series of the old forty-eight constellations is formed on the line which the Sun seems to mark in the prog- ress of the year, called the Ecliptic. That line is really the path of the earth around the Sun, in the course of which the Sun seems to move thirty degrees every month, and at the end of the twelfth month appears again where it started at the beeinnincr 0f tne fjrst month. THE ZODIAC. 41 The moon and planets follow apparently much the same path, and are always seen within eight or nine degrees of the line of the Sun's course. We thus have a Nature-indicated belt, about sixteen degrees wide, extending around the entire circuit of the heavens, half the year north and half the year south of the equator of the earth extended into the sky. The Zodiac. Whilst the sun is thus making its annual course from west to east through the centre of this belt or zone, the moon makes twelve complete revolutions around the earth, sug- gesting the division of this belt into twelve parts, or sections, of thirty degrees each ; for twelve times thirty degrees complete the cir- cle. We thus note twelve equal steps or stages in the Sun's path as it makes its an- nual circuit through the heavens. And this belt or zone, with these twelve moons or months for its steps or stages, is called the Zodiac, from the primitive root zoad, a walk, way, or going by steps, like Jacob's ladder. The Twelve Signs. So, again, each of these steps, stages, or sections includes a certain number of fixed 4* 42 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. stars, making up a group or constellation, which has its own particular figure, picture, or " sio-n " to designate it, and after which it is called. Hence the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, which are given in all the regular al- manacs, and to which people have generally had much regard in timing their industries and undertakings. These signs are : I. Virgo, the Virgin : the figure of a young woman lying prostrate, with an ear of wheat in one hand and a branch in the other. II. Libra, the Scales : the figure of a pair of balances, with one end of the beam up and the other down, as in the act of weighing. In some of the old planispheres a hand, or a wo- man, appears holding the scales. III. Scorpio, the Scorpion : the figure of a gigantic, noxious, and deadly insect, with its tail and sting uplifted in anger, as if striking. IV. Sagittarius, the Bowman : the figure of a horse with the body, arms, and head of a man— a centaur — with a drawn bow and ar- row pointed at the Scorpion. V. Capricornus, the Goat: the figure of a goat sinking down as in death, with the hinder part of its body terminating in the vigorous tail of a fish. VI. Aquarius, the Waterman : the figure THE TWELVE SIGNS. 43 of a man with a large urn, the contents of which he is in the act of pouring out in a great stream from the sky. VII. Pisces, the Fishes : the figures of two large fishes in the act of swimming, one to the northward, the other with the ecliptic. VIII. Aries, the Ram, by some nations called the Lamb : the figure of a strong sheep, with powerful curved horns, lying down in easy composure, and looking out in conscious strength over the field around it. IX. Taurus, the Bull : the figure of the shoulders, neck, head, horns, and front feet of a powerful bull, in the attitude of rushing and pushing forward with great energy. X. Gemini, the Twins, or a man and woman sometimes called Adam and Eve : usually, two human figures closely united, and seated together in endeared affection. In some of the older representations the figure of this constellation consists of two goats, or kids. XI. Cancer, the Crab : the figure of a crab, in the act of taking and holding on with its strong pincer claws. In Egyptian astronomy the scarabseus beetle, grasping and holding on to the ball in which its eggs are deposited, takes the place of the crab. XII. Leo, the Lion : the figure of a great 44 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. rampant lion, leaping forth to rend, with his feet over the writhing body of Hydra, the Serpent, which is in the act of fleeing. These twelve cardinal signs cover a large part of the visible heavens, and extend en- tirely around the earth, making and marking the Solar Zodiac. The Mansions of the Moon. But ancient astronomy gives a further sub- division of these twelve signs into twenty- eight, called the Mansions of the Moon, or the Lunar Zodiac. The moon makes its revolu- tion around the earth in about twenty-eight days, and so suggests the division of its course through the heavens into twenty-eight sec- tions, or steps, one for each day. Two and a third of these sections or Mansions are em- braced in each sign of the Solar Zodiac, and each mansion is marked with its own partic- ular name and smaller group of stars. Some Oriental nations also had particular and sepa- rate sets of figures for the designation of these Lunar Mansions, though not uniformly the same. It is rather from the names of these Mansions, and of the stars in them, than from the figures connected with them, that the sig- nifications are to be learned, the main theme THE DECANS. 45 being most commandingly given in the twelve cardinal signs of which they are parts. The Thirty-six Decans. But these twelve great signs do not stand alone. Each one of them has conjoined with it, either on the north or south side of the Zo- diacal belt, three other conspicuous constella- tions, called Decans, from the Shemitic dek, a "part" or "piece." Albumazer — sometimes called Abu Masher — a great Arab physician and astronomer who lived about a thousand years ago, and whose minute and learned writings on the subject have been commented on by Aben Ezra as of the highest authority, refers to " the Decans and their houses according to the Persians, Babylonians, and Egyptians," and says : " Here follow the Decans, which the Arabs in their language call faces. They are three to each sign of the Way!' He says that the Indians also had these Decans to each sign. And Aben Ezra says : " According to Albumazer, none of these forms from their first invention have varied in coming down to us, nor one of their words [names] changed, not a point added or removed." Southey (in The Doctor, vol. iii. p. 115) remarks that " in Egypt every 46 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. month was supposed to be under the care of three Decerns, or directors, for the import of the word must be found in the neighbor- ing language of the Hebrews and Syrians.* There were thirty-six of these, each superin- tending ten days ; and these Decans were be- lieved to exercise the most extensive influ- ence. Astrological squares calculated upon this mythology are still in existence." These Decans can, for the most part, be distin- guished by the fact that those belonging to any one particular sign come upon the merid- ian, or close along the meridian-line, at the same time with the sign to which they belong. Originally, they perhaps were all on the me- ridian along with the signs to which they per- tain. Albumazer's enumeration of them is fully credited by the Jewish Aben Ezra, himself a learned astronomer, Orientalist, and scholar, who wrote a commentary on Albumazer's work. And after the closest scrutiny, those who have most thoroughly examined and mas- tered the subject in its various relations entire- * This word is evidently from the Noetic or Shemitic Decah, to break. Hence Decan, a " piece," a " division." Thus we have dek in Dan. 2:45, to denote a fragment or piece. And thus we still have in English the word deck, to denote a part of a ship — the face of a ship, as the Arabs also called these Decans faces. THE DECANS. 47 ly agree with the same enumeration, which I therefore accept and adopt for the present inquiries into this starry lore, sure that the particular examination of each sign, with the Decans thus assigned to it, will furnish ample internal proof that this enumeration is cor- rect according to the original intention. I. The Decans of Virgo. i. Coma, the Infant, the Branch, the De- sired One (erroneously, Berenice s Hair) ; 2. Centauries, a centaur, with dart piercing a victim ; 3. Bootes, or Arcturus, the great Shepherd and Harvester, holding a rod and sickle, and walking forth before his flocks (erroneously called Bears). II. The Decans of Libra. 1. The Cross, over which Centaur is ad- vancing, called the Southern Cross ; 2. Victim of Centaur, slain, pierced to death ; 3. The Crozvn, which the Serpent aims to take, called the Northern Crown. III. The Decans of Scorpio. 1. The Serpent, struggling with Ophiuchus; 2. Ophiuchus, wrestling with the Serpent, 4 8 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. stung in one heel by the Scorpion, and crush- ing it with the other ; 3. Hercules, wounded in his heel, the other foot over the Dragon's head, holding in one hand the Golden Apples and the three-headed Dog of hell, and in the other the uplifted club. IV. The Decans of Sagittarius. 1. Lyra, an Eagle holding the Lyre, as in triumphanfgladness ; 2. Ara, the Altar, with consuming fires, burning downward; 3. Draco, the Dragon, the old Serpent, winding himself about the Pole in horrid links and contortions. V. The Decans of Capricornus. 1. Sagitta, the Arrow, or killing dart sent forth, the naked shaft of death ; 2. Aquila, the Eagle, pierced and falling ; 3. Delphinus, the Dolphin, springing up, raised out of the sea. VI. The Decans of Aquarius. : . The Southern Fish, drinking in the strea m ; 2. Pegasus, a white horse, winged and speed- ing, as with good tidings ; 3. Cygnus, the Swan on the wing, going and returning, bearing the sign of the cross. THE BE CANS. 49 VII. The Decans of Pisces. i. The Band, holding up the Fishes, and held by the Lamb, its doubled end fast to the neck of Cetus, the Sea-Monster ; 2. Cepheus, a crowned king, holding a band and sceptre, with his foot planted on the pole- star as the great Victor and Lord ; 3. Andromeda, a woman in chains, and threatened by the serpents of Medusa's head. VIII. The Decans of Aries. 1. Cassiopeia, the woman enthroned; 2. Cetus, the Sea -Monster, closely and strongly bound by the Lamb ; 3. Perseus, an armed and mighty man with winged feet, who is carrying away in triumph the cut-off head of a monster full of writhing serpents, and holding aloft a great sword in his rigfht hand. IX. The Decans of Taurus. 1. Orion, a glorious Prince, with a sword girded on his side, and his foot on the head of the Hare or Serpent ; 2. Eridanus, the tortuous River, accounted as belonging- to Orion ; 3. Auriga, the Wagoner, rather the Shep* 50 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. herd, carrying a she-goat and two little goats on his left arm, and holding cords or bands in his right hand. X. The Decans of Gemini. i. Lepns, the Hare, in some nations a ser- pent, the mad enemy under Orion's feet ; 2. Cams Major, Sirius, the Great Dog, the Prince coming; 3. Cams Minor % Procyon, the Second Dog, following after Sirius and Orion. XI. The Decans of Cancer. 1 . Ursa Minor, anciently the Lesser Sheep- fold, close to and including the Pole ; 2. Ursa Major, anciently the Greater Sheep- fold, in connection with Arcturus, the guardian and keeper of the flock ; 3. Argo, the Ship, the company of trav- ellers under the bright Canopus, their Prince, the Argonauts returned with the Golden Fleece. XII. The Decans of Leo. 1. Hydra, the fleeing Serpent, trodden un- der foot by the Crab and Lion ; ?. Crater, the Cup or Bowl of Wrath on the Serpent ; THE PLANETS. 5 I 3. Corvus, the Raven or Crow, the bird of doom, tearing the Serpent. This ends up the main story. And the mere naming of these significant pictures casts a light over the intelligent Christian mind, which makes it feel at once that it is in the midst of the most precious symbols and ideas connected with our faith, as they are everywhere set out in the Holy Scrip- tures. The Planets. A further and very conspicuous marking among the heavenly bodies appears in the difference between the fixed stars and those more brilliant orbs which are continually changing their places. In reality, none of the stars are absolutely fixed. Nearly all of them have been observed to be in motion, shifting their relative places, but moving so very slowly that the changes are quite impercep- tible except when hundreds of years are taken into the observation. But it is very different with some four, five, or more of the most brilliant of the heavenly luminaries. Though seeming to go around the earth like all the other stars, their behavior is eccentric, and their periods and motions are uneven. 52 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. Two of them make their rounds in less than a year, and three others take two, twelve, and thirty years. They do not keep at the same distances from each other, nor their places among the more fixed stars. They are called Planets, or Wanderers. The names of these five old planets, as known to our astronomy, are, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Sat- urn. There are other planets, but they are not recognizable to the naked eye. And to these five wanderers, hence called planets, the ancients added the Sun and Moon, mak- ing the seven most renowned of all the celes- tial bodies. The path of each of them lies within the limits of the Zodiacal belt or zone ; and the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac them- selves were mostly regarded as the Twelve Mansions of these conspicuous travellers, which the old idolaters glorified as the seven great gods. The Constellations Divine. In these several markings, groupings, and designations of the heavenly hosts we have all the most conspicuous elements and nota- tions of the primeval astronomy. And these pre-eminently are what the text refers to as the garnish of the heavens, of which " the THE CONSTELLATIONS DIVINE. 53 crooked," or rather "fleeing, Serpent " is here named as a specific part. There are but three things with which to identify this " fleeing Serpent." It has been justly said, " It is not likely that this inspired writer should in an instant descend from the garnishing of the heavens to the formation of a reptile." The discourse is of the starry heavens, and " the Serpent " must necessarily pertain to the heavens. Barnes says : " There can be no doubt that Job refers here to the constellations," and that " the sense in the pas- sage is, that the greatness and glory of God are seen by forming the beautiful and glorious constellations that adorn the sky." But if the reference is to a sky-serpent, it must be either the Zodiac itself, often painted on the ancient spheres in the form of a serpent bent into a circle, with its tail in its mouth, or to Draco, or to Hydra, which is the longest figure in the sky, stretching through an entire night, and trailing along as if in flight from the point of the Scales, beneath the Virgin and the Lion, to the point where the feet of the Crab and the Lion press down its snaky head. All things duly considered, I take it as referring to Hydra, just as Leviathan (in Job 41 : 1) refers to Cetus. the Sea-monster. The Drae- 6 * 54 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. on does not so well answer to the description of "the fleeing Serpent" nor yet the sphere in the figure of a serpent. Hydra is in every respect " tJie fleeing Serpent" as distinguished from all other astronomic serpents. It does nothing but flee. It flees from the triumph- ing Lion, with the Bowl of Wrath on it and the bird of doom tearing it, whilst the holders of the precious possession trample its head beneath their feet. But, in either case, there is here a distinct recognition of the constella- tions and their figures, and the same noted as the particular garnishing of the heavens to which we are referred to see and read the transcendent glory of Jehovah. Who Job was we do not precisely know. That he lived before the Hebrew Exodus, be- fore the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and hence before Abraham, is evidenced from the character, style, contents, and non-con- tents of his sublime book, which is at once the oldest, broadest, most original, most scientific in all the Bible. From repeated astronomical allusions contained in this book, with which uninformed translators have had much trouble and done some very unworthy work, different mathematicians have calculated that Job lived and wrote somewhere about twenty-one hun- THE CONSTELLATIONS DLVINE. 55 dred and fifty years before Christ, which car- ries us back more than one thousand years before Homer and the Greeks, and a millen- nium and a half before Thales, the first of the Greek philosophers. And yet, already in the time of Job the heavens were astronomically laid out and arranged in the manner just de- scribed, with the Zodiac formed, the constella- tions named, the figures of them drawn and recorded, and the same accepted and- cele- brated by God's people as the particular adornment of the sky in which to read the Almighty's glory. Very significant also is this word, "garnish- ed" here employed by our translators. Its main sense is that of ornament, decoration, something1 added for embellishment ; but it has the further meaning of summons and warning. o o And by these adornings God hath summoned the heavens and filled them with proclama- tions and warnings of His great purposes. Perhaps it would be hard to find another word to fit so truly to the facts or to the original for which it stands. It falls in pre- cisely with the whole idea of the celestial luminaries being used " for signs," of the Gospel being written in the stars, and of the adornment and beaming; of the heavens with 56 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. this brightness 0f all sacred brightnesses. And when we come to the direct analysis of these frescoes on the sky, as I propose in my next Lecture, we will find the diction of the Bible from end to end most thoroughly con- formed to these beautiful constellations. But more remarkable and important is the positive testimony here given to the divine origin of these embellishments and significant frescoes. All interpreters agree that the text refers to the heavenly constellations. This is made the more certain by the designation of the Serpent in the second part of the par- allelism. That " fleeing Serpent" must mean either Draco, the Zodiac, or Hydra. And the affirmation is clear and pointed that the thing referred to is divine in its formation. Of the Almighty and His wisdom and power Job is speaking ; and of that Almighty it is declared, <( By His Spirit He hath garnished the heav- ens," and " His hand formed the fleeing Ser- pent." If the frescoing of the sky with the constellations is meant, then He caused it to be done "by His Spirit" — by impulse and in- spiration from His own almightiness. If the Zodiac is meant, then His own hand bent and formed it. And if the constellation of the Dragon, or Hydra, is meant, then He himself THE CONSTELLATIONS DIVINE. S7 is the Author of it, and, by implication, the Author of the whole system of the constella- tions of which Draco, or Hydra, is a part.* We may wonder and stand amazed and con- founded at the assertion ; but here, from the Book of God, is the unalterable voucher for it, that these astronomic figures, in their orig- inal integrity and meaning, diY&from God, and as truly inspired as the Bible itself. And many are the facts which combine to prove that such is verily the truth. Who, of all the sons of men, can point out any other origin of these remarkable denota- tions of the starry heavens ? Who can tell us when, where, or by whom else the Zodiac was invented, its signs determined, and the attendant constellations fixed? Historical as- tronomy is totally at a loss to give us any other information on the subject. Here is the Solar Zoad, with its twelve signs and their thirty-six Decans ; here is the Lunar Zoad, with its twenty-eight Mansions, each with its own particular stars, and each with its very expressive name ; and here are the noted seven Chiefs, playing a part in the traditions, sciences, theologies, and superstitions of earth, as brilliant as their splendid display on the face of the sky ; but whence and how they 5 8 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. were framed into these systems or came tc place so conspicuous, acceptation so uni- versal, and life so commanding and imperish- able, even the science which handles them most is quite unable to explain. As seven cities claimed to be the birthplace of Homer, who most likely was born in neither, so men in their uncertainty have referred to names and widely different countries, times, and ages for the source and authorship of the primeval astronomy, with about equal reason for each, and no solid reason for either. The world has looked in vain for the orimn of these in- ventions on this side of the Flood, or any- where short of those inspired patriarchs and prophets who illumined the first periods of the race with their superior wisdom and ex- alted piety. Age of the Constellations. One great and commanding fact in the case is that, as far back as we have any records of astronomy, these sidereal embellishments and notations existed and are included. We know from the Scriptures that they are older than any one of the books which make up the Christian and Jewish Bible. We have mon- umental evidence in the Great Pyramid of AGE OF THE CONSTELLATIONS. 59 Gizeh that they were known and noted when that mighty science-structure was built, twenty- one hundred and seventy years before the birth of Christ and a thousand years before Homer, who also refers to them. The learn- ed Dr. Seyffarth, than whom there is not a more competent witness living, affirms that we have the most conclusive proofs that our Zodiac goes back among the Romans as far as seven hundred and fifty-two years before Christ, amono- the Greeks seven hundred and seventy-eight years before Christ, among the Egyptians twenty-seven hundred and eighty- one years before Christ, and among the Ori- ental peoples as far as thirty-four hundred and forty-seven years before Christ — even to within the lifetime of Adam himself. Riccioli affirms that it appears from the Arab astron- omy that it is as old as Adam's time, and that the names preserved by it are antediluvian. Bailly and others have given it as their con- clusion that astronomy must have had its be- ginning when the summer solstice was in the first degree of Virgo, and that the Solar and Lunar Zodiacs are as old as that time, which could only be about four thousand years be- fore Christ. Professor Mitchell says : " We delight to honor the names of Kepler, Gali- 60 THE GOSPEL IN THE STARS. leo, and Newton ; but we must go beyond the epoch of the Deluge, and seek our first dis- coveries among those sages whom God per- mitted to count their age by centuries, and there learn the order in which the secrets of the starry world yielded themselves up." According to Drummond, " Origen tells us that it was asserted in the Book of Enoch (quoted by the apostle Jude) that in the time of that patriarch the constellations were al- ready named and divided." Albumazer at- tributes the invention of both Zodiacs to Hermes ; and Hermes, according to the Arab and Egyptian authorities, was the patriarch Enoch. Josephus and the Jewish rabbis af- firm that the "starry lore" had its origin with the antediluvian patriarchs, Seth and Enoch. The Sabbatic Week and the Stars. It is generally claimed that the Sabbath, and the week of seven days which it marks, date back to the beginning of the race, to the insti- tution of God himself at the completion of the great creation-work. But that system of the seven days is essentially bound up with these selfsame astronomical notations. We find among all the ancient nations— Chaldeans, Persians, Hindoos, Chinese, and Egyptians THE SABBATIC WEEK. 6 1 that the seven days of the week were in uni- versal use ; and, what is far more remarkable, each of these nations named the days of the week, as we still do, after the seven planets, numbering the Sun and Moon amono- them. Hence we say £#«-day, Afoon-day, Tuisco or Times' -day (Tuisco being the Anglo-Saxon name for Mars), Woden s-ddcy (Woden being the same as Mercury), Thor's-d&y (Thor being the same as Jupiter), Friga-d&y (Friga or Freiya being the same as Venus), and lastly, Saturn-d&y> anciently the most sacred of the seven. The order is not that of the distance, velocity, or brilliancy of the orbs named, nei- ther does the first day of the week always co- incide among- the different nations ; but the succession, no matter with which of the days begun, is everywhere the same. It is impos- sible to suppose this mere accident or chance ; and the fact forces the conclusion that the de- vising and naming of the seven days of the week dates back to some primitive represen- tatives of the race, from whom the tradition has thus generally descended, and who at the same time knew and had regard to the seven planets as enumerated in the primeval astronomy. 62 the gospel in the stars. The Alphabet and the Stars. It is now mostly admitted that alphabetic writing1 is as old as the human family — that Adam knew how to write as well as we, and that he did write. There certainly were books or writing's before the Flood, for the New o Testament quotes from one of them, which it ascribes to Enoch, and Adam still lived more than three hundred years after Enoch was born. All the known primitive alphabets had the same number of letters, including seven vowels, and all began, as now, with A, B, C, and ended with S, T, U. But whilst we are using the alphabet every day in almost every- thing, how few have ever thought to remark why the letters appear in the one fixed order of succession, and why the vowels are so ir- regularly distributed among the consonants ! Yet in the simple every-day a, b,