Another favorite theory of the unbeliever is the uniformity of nature. "Where," says he, "is the promise of Christ's coming to judgment; for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were since the beginning of the world?" But on examination astronomy dispels the illusion, exhibits the course of nature as a succession of catastrophies, displays the conflagration of other worlds, and the extinction of other suns, before our eyes, and asks, _Why should our sun differ from other suns_? In short there is no permanence in the heavens, any more than on the earth; but a perpetual change is the destiny of suns and stars. A few instances it may be well to transcribe: "On the 11th of November, 1572, as the illustrious Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, was walking through the fields, he was astonished to observe a new star in the constellation Cassiopea, beaming with a radiance quite unwonted in that part of the heavens. Suspecting some delusion about his eyes, he went to a group of peasants to ascertain if they saw it, and found them gazing at it with as much astonishment as himself. He went to his instrument and fixed its place, from which it never after appeared to deviate. For some time it increased in brightness--greatly surpassing Sirius in luster, and even Jupiter--so that it could be seen by good eyes in the day time. After reaching its greatest brightness, it again diminished, {168} assuming in succession the hues of a dying conflagration, and then finally disappeared. It is impossible to imagine anything more tremendous than a conflagration that could be visible at such a distance" (_Nicholl's Solar System, page_ 118). Sir John Herschell describes the star, Eta Argus, which, in the year 1837, went through similar variations. Humboldt gives a catalogue of twenty-four such stars, whose variations have been recorded, and asks, _Why should our sun differ from other suns?_ "What we no longer see is not necessarily annihilated. It is merely the transition of matter into new forms--into combinations which are subject to new processes. Dark cosmical bodies may, by a new process of light, again become luminous" (_Cosmos Vol. III, page_ 232). Nicholl sums up the matter in the following emphatic words: "No more is light inherent in the sun than in Tycho's vanished star; and with it and other orbs a time may come when the sun shall cease to be required to shine. The womb which contains the future is that which bore the past" (_Solar System, page_ 190). The threatenings of God's word are invested with a mantle of terrible literality by the facts we have been contemplating. {169} CHAPTER XI. MOSES AND MODERN SCIENCE. SCIENCE AGREES WITH RELIGION--NEBULAR THEORY--SUN A DARK BODY--SUN SPOTS--VARIOUS SOURCES OF LIGHT--PRIMEVAL OCEAN--DENSITY OF EARLY ATMOSPHERE--VEGETATION OF COAL PERIOD EVERYWHERE IDENTICAL--UNIFORMITY OF CLIMATE.