live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world.

We are thus taught, that they must be very clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. Spiritual priests, and spiritual sacrifices, must be washed in the laver of Christ's blood, and of regeneration. We must wash often, for we daily contract pollution; we must cleanse our hands, and purify our hearts. Plentiful provision is made for our cleansing; so that if we have our lot for ever among the unclean, it will be our own fault. Let us, therefore, bless God for the fountain which he hath opened by the sacrifice of Christ for sin and for uncleanness.

ASTRONOMY.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ASTRONOMY AS IL

and attributed all things to that vague and indefinable thing they call chance. But supposing that we could admit their data, and concede to them that the worlds were formed by the fortuitous combination of atoms, they would find it difficult to prove that they ought necessarily to revolve in their present orbits. The orbits in which the planets revolve are nearly circular, each differing from the others in a small degree, and yet all bearing a considerable resemblance. They might have moved in other than their present oval orbits, and there would be nothing very remarkable in that, for a different impulse would give a different curve; but they all revolve in paths that are nearly circular, and we may be permitted to ask the atheistical astronomer, How has it happened that the planets revolve in their

LUSTRATING THE WISDOM AND POWER present concentric orbits?

OF GOD.

THE discoveries of astronomers offer some most interesting and astonishing illustrations of the wisdom and power of God, as exhibited in material creation. This statement will be best proved by a few examples.

The solar system consists of eleven planets, all of which revolve round the sun in orbits nearly circular, some of them being attended by satellites that move in orbits of the same form. These motions are produced and preserved by the constant exertion of two opposite but equally balanced forces, (see Weekly Visitor, for 1834, page 426.) The attraction of the sun prevents the planets from flying off into space, and that of the planets supports the satellites. All these bodies have an influence on one another at a distance, connecting themselves together as certainly as though they were absolutely united, and that influence is the attraction of gra

vitation.

Now, supposing that the opinions of the fatalist could be true, and that the particles of which the planetary bodies are composed had once wandered about in space without control, but casually meeting together had united, and formed bodies, what is there to support his opinions when his data are admitted? The word of God informs us, that it is the fool who has said in his heart, "There is no God," and yet there have been such among philosophers; men whose intellects have been strengthened by the study of the visible works of the Creator; and these have contemned his authority, or rather have denied his existence,

It cannot be denied that this is a most singular circumstance, and could not arise from chance; for if chance regulated the the paths of the planets, why do not some of them move in circles, and others in ovals? or, in other words, how has it happened that the orbits of the planets are nearly concentric circles? The idea of chance having directed the paths of the wandering stars is worse than absurd. They have evidently been placed in such positions, and compelled to take such paths, as must prevent them from interfering with each other's motions, either by positive contact, or by the powerful disturbing force they might have exerted upon each other. There are proofs, therefore, in the very arrangements of the solar system, of the agency of a wise, as well as of a powerful mind, of that God who is "excellent in power, and in judgment."

But the existence and wisdom of a superintending Being may be deduced, not only from the choice of particular orbits, a contact or disarrangement of the bodies being thus prevented, but also from their eccentricities. In the instance of our earth, whose greatest and least distances from the sun are as 12 to 13, we see an adaptation of planetary motion to the existence of animal and vegetable life. If the eccentricity were as 1 to 2, or as 1 to 3, the present course of the seasons would be disturbed, and so great would be the differences of temperature upon the surface of the earth, that the changes could scarcely fail to be destructive of life.

There is another view of the solar system, that impresses us with a sublime conception of the Divine Being, and that is,

its stability. The present arrangement of | a limit to these changes in the very conthe members of the solar system, as far as stitution of the system. They may go on investigation has carried us, is the only progressing for a time, but they must end; one by which the stability of the whole and the bodies that are for a while discould be secured. In contemplating the arranged, be brought again to their first stability of the system, it must be borne condition. It may be readily imagined, in mind, that the planets are not only that it is not an easy problem to determine attracted by the sun, but that they attract the amount of these perturbations, and each other. The earth, for instance, is the time when they will be corrected; for, attracted by the central body, but it is pro- it must be remembered, that every fresh portionally affected, that is, according to position of the disturbing bodies will their masses and distance, by Mercury, cause an alteration in the motion of the Venus, Jupiter, and the other planets, even body acted on. But, Lagrange and by the remote Herschel. All these planetary Laplace have proved, that these perbodies are constantly changing their positions turbations cannot exceed a certain unin relation to the earth, and to each other; injurious limit. The effect produced upon and upon the discovery of this fact, we are a planet, by the attractions of minor naturally led to inquire, what will be the bodies, are only periodical; they reach ultimate result of these combined attrac- a maximum, and then gradually cease to tions. The question is not whether they operate; so that, the disturbed body is will produce an immediate effect injurious brought again into the orbit from which to the general stability of the system, but it had departed, without any derangewhether they will not do so in ages to come. ment of the order of the system. In a single revolution their influence must be small, for the attractions of all the planetary bodies, by which the disturbances are produced, are insignificant when compared with that of the sun. But if these slight influences continue to act upon the body, revolution after revolution, they must, in process of time, remove it from its present orbit.

To bring our inquiry to a particular point, let us ask whether it be not possible that the attractions of the planets may, in process of time, draw the earth from its orbit, and thus produce all the evils that would result from a change of seasons. Or, is it not possible, that it may thus be drawn so near to another body, as to cause a universal deluge? There are perturbations; and, if they can be carried on without limit, there is no possibility of calculating, or even of imagining, the wretched condition to which the earth and all its sister planets may be reduced, by their long-continued and progressive action on each other.

The eccentricity of the earth's orbit has been decreasing from the period when astronomical observations were first made, and its satellite the moon has been moving more and more rapidly, from the time of the first recorded eclipse. It may be an object of rational inquiry, When will these changes end? What, but destruction, can result from these innovations on the beauty, harmony, and stability of the system? But the Author of this incomparable mechanism has not left his work to disarrange and destroy itself: there is

Can any thing give us a more elevated notion of the wise arrangements of the Supreme God, than these considerations? If these bodies had been projected with either greater or less velocity than they were, the planets would have moved in orbits of greater or less eccentricities; and then the stability of the entire system would have been destroyed, and an element of destruction have been introduced. It will therefore appear, that no other arrangement, as far as we can judge, from the calculations that have been made, would have produced the desired effect, or ensured the combination from destruction.

The immensity of the universe, and the number and vastness of the bodies composing it, are also calculated to give us a sublime conception of the Creator. If, on some unclouded night, we take a survey of the bright hemisphere above us, what a sublime sight is presented to our view! Thousands of worlds surround us: worlds that, for aught we know, may be as thickly inhabited as our own; and all these are at a distance too great to be measured, and yet possessing in themselves a light, sufficiently intense, to cast a glimmering ray upon the earth. Ask the astronomer what they are, and he will tell you they are suns, which, in all probability, are the centres of systems, as large and as important as that of which the earth is an individual, and, comparatively, an insignificant member. But, when the observer avails himself of the aid which is offered by art, he is lost in the

Without it industry would want an object, and intellect a stimulus; and as indolence increases crime, vice would predominate in society. All this is in part prevented by commerce, which depends on navigation, while navigation depends on astronomy.

After a consideration of the influence of astronomy upon navigation, and the indirect influence it exerts upon the public morals, it is but little to add, that we are indebted to it for many of the comforts and luxuries of life. Not half the articles of consumption in this country are the growth of its own soil, for there are few branches of trade that are not in some measure dependent on the importation of foreign produce. The raw materials used in many of our manufactories, are the growth of distant lands; and not only are we indebted to navigation for the supply of our individual wants, but in many instances commerce and civilization are aided by the conveyance of the same materials in a manufactured state to their original cultivators.

If

sonified, to be destroyed by a second horde of barbarians; or imagine us as a nation to be entirely ignorant of the celestial science, and how different will be the scene then presented to the mind, from that we are accustomed to witness! An attempt to direct a vessel over the billows, under such circumstances, would require an intrepidity and self-sufficiency, nothing inferior in degree to that which dictated the words of Cesar, when he said to the terrified mariner, "What dost thou fear? thy vessel carries Cesar." That in every age of the world, minds have existed in which an unconquerable obstinacy of purpose, and intrepidity of action, have been the governing principle, is not sufficient to do away with the importance of those guides to navigation which astronomy affords. Had it not been for astronomy, we might still have been deceived by our senses, and have imagined the earth to be an immense plain, encircled by an impassable ocean; and,under this conviction, have experienced no feeling that might rouse the powers of mind necessary for But these are not the only positions enterprise, and have satisfied ourselves under which we may consider the importwith the conviction, that there was no ap-ance of astronomy in its application to the propriate or hopeful field of action. Or, art of guiding a vessel over the ocean. had the attempt been made, like Diaz, the astronomical phenomena had never been unprotected mariner might well have been studied, and the laws which govern the terrified with the stormy turbulence of the motions of the heavenly bodies had not Atlantic and Indian oceans, and still been determined, the human race might at more by their vast extent. It is, indeed, this moment have been confined to a small as impossible to imagine what means extent of country, and have been little could have been devised to give security more civilized than many of the barbarians to navigation, with an ignorance of astro- who, in the present day, have no resource nomy, as it is to compare the present con- beyond their personal exertions. We can dition of mankind, with what it would scarcely have a stronger idea of what have been under such circumstances. If human nature would have been, than by a these principles were forgotten or lost, consideration of what the inhabitants of a the communication between nation and large portion of central Africa are. Lander nation must be restricted to land carriage has mentioned, with surprise, the ignorance and coasting voyages; all the growing of those who live on the banks of the Niger, improvements in ship-building would be of its rise, course, and termination; and useless; the important and almost uni- many other nations are ignorant of navigaversal agency of steam would lose half its tion, but this is a necessary result of a want value; and, some of the most interesting of astronomical knowledge. Had they posand important principles in mechanics sessed a knowledge of astronomy, they and hydrostatics might be erased from would have acquired the power of guiding our works on practical science. a vessel over the sea; a spirit of enterprise would have been induced or encouraged, and they might have become a commercial people. But being ignorant, they have no curiosity; their intercourse with men is confined to the inhabitants of a few of the neighbouring states, and upon themselves alone they depend for the production of the articles required for the support of life. With this confined view of society, and possessing the indolence and

But if it be astronomy that gives security to navigation, we are indebted to it for our commerce. By the power we possess of directing a vessel over the water, from one country to another, we are able to procure the produce of other nations, by bartering the superfluous productions of our own soil and manufactories, for foreign articles. This is the origin of commerce; it is this gives activity to our intelligent population.

nomical knowledge to the art of navigation. THE IMPORTANCE OF ASTRONOMY AS AFThis happy discovery has distributed men over the whole earth; different climes have enabled them to raise different productions, and the intercourse that is maintained, has given them an opportunity of exchanging their surplus produce: in this way the comforts of man have been increased, and civilization and social welfare secured.