The Opening Heavens: or a Connected View of the Testimony of the Prophets and Apostles, Concerning the Opening Heavens, Compared With Astronomical Observations, and of the Present and Future Location of the New Jerusalem, the Paradise of GodBates, Joseph
Religion
The Opening Heavens: or a Connected View of the Testimony of the Prophets and Apostles, Concerning the Opening Heavens, Compared With Astronomical Observations, and of the Present and Future Location of the New Jerusalem, the Paradise of God
Bates, Joseph
Bible -- Prophecies; Paradise; Second Advent
I have now given a general description of this celestial wonder, but
some may still doubt whether any thing can be ascertained with respect
to objects so far removed. If the most accurate calculations had not
already been made in respect to many of the heavenly bodies, how could
the tempest tossed mariner, after being driven for days, and sometimes
weeks, sailing on all points of the compass, and perhaps, not have known
his position from the time he had taken his departure from his port,
only by dead reckoning, nothing in sight but sea and sky, ascertain his
true position? Just look,--there stands the captain, on some convenient
part of the deck of his ship, holding in his hand a three cornered
instrument, called a Sextant, measuring the distance between the sun and
moon, or if it be in the night, between the moon and some lunar star,
(which is millions on millions of miles removed from the Solar System,)
noting the moment by his watch when he brings the outer or inner edges
of these two celestial objects to touch; then measuring their distance
from the horizon. With the help of a Nautical Almanac, (which had been
published years before,) in the course of twenty minutes he so
confidently ascertains his position, (however strange it may appear to
landsmen,) that he would, after running ten or one hundred miles more or
less, as the case may be, direct one of his crew to go to the mast head,
and tell him at the same time in what direction to look for land.
Presently the cry would come down, thrilling through every soul in the
ship, "Land ho!" "Where away?" "Off the starboard bow, sir, where you
told me to look." Such instances are not rare, but of daily occurrence.
"How could that be?" says one, "it looks like a miracle!" So it would
be, if the great God had not directed these celestial objects to move in
perfect harmony. A place for every one, and every one in its place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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