e prophet Isaiah used a very similar figure--

"All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens
shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall
fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a
falling fig from the fig-tree."

Whilst the simile of a great aerolite is that employed by St. John in
his description of the star "Wormwood"--

"The third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from
heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third
part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters."

St. Jude's simile of the "wandering stars, to whom is reserved the
blackness of darkness for ever," may have been drawn from meteors rather
than from comets. But, as has been seen, the two classes of objects are
closely connected.

The word "meteor" is sometimes used for any unusual light seen in the
sky. The Zodiacal Light, the pale conical beam seen after sunset in the
west in the spring, and before sunrise in the east in the autumn, and
known to the Arabs as the "False Dawn," does not appear to be mentioned
in Scripture. Some commentators wrongly consider that the expression,
"the eyelids of the morning," occurring twice in the Book of Job, is
intended to describe it, but the metaphor does not in the least apply.

The Aurora Borealis, on the other hand, seldom though it is seen on an
impressive scale in Palestine, seems clearly indicated in one passage.
"Out of the north cometh golden splendour" would well fit the gleaming
of the "Northern Lights," seen, as they often are, "as sheaves of golden
rays."

CHAPTER XI

ECLIPSES OF THE SUN AND MOON

We do not know what great comets, or aerolites, or "star-showers" were
seen in Palestine during the centuries in which the books of the Bible
were composed. But we do know that eclipses, both of the sun and moon,
must have been seen, for these are not the results of chance
conjunctions. We know more, that not only partial eclipses of the sun,
but total eclipses, fell within the period so covered.

There is no phenomenon of nature which is so truly impressive as a total
eclipse of the sun. The beautiful pageants of the evening and the
morning are too often witnessed to produce the same effect upon us,
whilst the storm and the earthquake and the volcano in eruption, by the
confusion and fear for personal safety they produce, render men unfit to
watch their developments. But the eclipse