sion
of spring and summer, autumn and winter, seedtime and harvest, cold and
heat, rain and drought. If there be but eyes to see, this majestic
Order, so smooth in working, so magnificent in scale, will impress the
most stolid as the immediate acting of God; and the beholder will feel
at the same a reverent awe, and an uplifting of the spirit as he sees
the action of "the ordinances of heaven," and the evidence of "the
dominion thereof in the earth."

Dr. Cheyne, however, only sees in these beautiful and appropriate lines
the influence upon the sacred writer of "the physical theology of
Babylonia";[256:1] in other words, its idolatrous astrology, "the
influence of the sky upon the earth."

But what would Job understand by the question, "Canst thou bring forth
Mazz[=a]r[=o]th in his season?" Just this: "Canst thou so move the
great celestial sphere that the varied constellations of the zodiac
shall come into view, each in their turn, and with them the earth pass
through its proper successive seasons?" The question therefore embraced
and was an extension of the two that preceded it. "Canst thou bind the
sweet influences of the Pleiades? Canst thou prevent the revival of all
the forces of nature in the springtime?" and "Canst thou loose the bands
of Orion; canst thou free the ground from the numbing frosts of winter?"

The question to us would not greatly differ in its meaning, except that
we should better understand the mechanism underlying the phenomena. The
question would mean, "Canst thou move this vast globe of the earth,
weighing six thousand million times a million million tons, continually
in its orbit, more than 580 millions of miles in circuit, with a speed
of nearly nineteen miles in every second of time, thus bringing into
view different constellations at different times of the year, and
presenting the various zones of the earth in different aspects to the
sun's light and heat?" To us, as to Job, the question would come as:

"Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven?
Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?"

It is going beyond astronomy, yet it may be permitted to an astronomer,
to refer for comparison to a parallel thought, not couched in the form
of a question, but in the form of a prayer:

"Thy will be done,
As in heaven, so in earth."

FOOTNOTES:

[254:1] Rev. T. K. Cheyne, M.A., _Job and Solomon_, p. 290.

[254:2] _Ibid._, p. 52.

[256:1] Rev. T. K. Cheyne, M