Scripture, other than is afforded us by the two quotations just made.
Natural objects, natural phenomena are not referred to for their own
sake. Every thought leads up to God or to man's relation to Him.
Nature, as a whole and in its every aspect and detail, is the handiwork
of Jehovah: that is the truth which the heavens are always
declaring;--and it is His power, His wisdom, and His goodness to man
which it is sought to illustrate, when the beauty or wonder of natural
objects is described.

"When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers,
The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained;
What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?
And the son of man, that Thou visitest him?"

The first purpose, therefore, of the following study of the astronomy of
the Bible is,--not to reconstruct the astronomy of the Hebrews, a task
for which the material is manifestly incomplete,--but to examine such
astronomical allusions as occur with respect to their appropriateness to
the lesson which the writer desired to teach. Following this, it will be
of interest to examine what connection can be traced between the Old
Testament Scriptures and the Constellations; the arrangement of the
stars into constellations having been the chief astronomical work
effected during the centuries when those Scriptures were severally
composed. The use made of the heavenly bodies as time-measurers amongst
the Hebrews will form a third division of the subject; whilst there are
two or three incidents in the history of Israel which appear to call for
examination from an astronomical point of view, and may suitably be
treated in a fourth and concluding section.

FOOTNOTES:

[7:1] _Astronomy in the Old Testament_, p. 12.

CHAPTER II

THE CREATION

A few years ago a great eclipse of the sun, seen as total along a broad
belt of country right across India, drew thither astronomers from the
very ends of the earth. Not only did many English observers travel
thither, but the United States of America in the far west, and Japan in
the far east sent their contingents, and the entire length of country
covered by the path of the shadow was dotted with the temporary
observatories set up by the men of science.

It was a wonderful sight that was vouchsafed to these travellers in
pursuit of knowledge. In a sky of unbroken purity, undimmed even for a
moment by haze or cloud, there shone down the fierce Indian sun.
Gradually a dark