rs
in 1900, already referred to, one observer who watched the eclipse from
the sea, said--

"The sky was blue all round the sun, and the effect of the
silvery corona projected on it was beyond any one to describe.
I can only say it seemed to me what angels' wings will be
like."[129:1]

[Illustration: CORONA OF MINIMUM TYPE.

Drawing made by W. H. Wesley, from photographs of the 1900 Eclipse.]

It seems exceedingly probable that the symbol of the ring with wings
owed its origin not to any supposed analogy between the ring and the
wings and the divine attributes of eternity and power, but to the
revelations of a total eclipse with a corona of minimum type. Moreover
the Assyrians, when they insert a figure of their deity within the ring,
give him a kilt-like dress, and this kilted or feathered characteristic
is often retained where the figure is omitted. This gives the symbol a
yet closer likeness to the corona, whose "polar rays" are remarkably
like the tail feathers of a bird.

Perhaps the prophet Malachi makes a reference to this characteristic of
the eclipsed sun, with its corona like "angels' wings," when he
predicts--

"But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness
arise with healing in His wings."

But, if this be so, it must be borne in mind that the prophet uses the
corona as a simile only. No more than the sun itself, is it the Deity,
or the manifestation of the Deity.

In the New Testament we may find perhaps a reference to what causes an
eclipse--to the shadow cast by a heavenly body in its revolution--its
"turning."

"Every good gift and every perfect boon is from above, coming
down from the Father of Lights, with Whom can be no variation,
neither shadow that is cast by turning."

FOOTNOTES:

[129:1] _The Total Solar Eclipse of May, 1900_, p. 22.

CHAPTER XII

SATURN AND ASTROLOGY

The planets, as such, are nowhere mentioned in the Bible. In the one
instance in which the word appears in our versions, it is given as a
translation of _Mazzaloth_, better rendered in the margin as the "twelve
signs or constellations." The evidence is not fully conclusive that
allusion is made to any planet, even in its capacity of a god worshipped
by the surrounding nations.

Of planets, besides the earth, modern astronomy knows Mercury, Venus,
Mars, many planetoids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. And of
satellites revolving round p