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On keeping the heart.—We have learned, by experience, that the only way to keep the heart free from sinful thoughts, is to keep it filled with thoughts of God ; and the best way to destroy a relish for sin, is to cherish the love of God. Let the heart send out its thoughts after God, and delight itself in communing with him, and it will remain in peace and safety. We know of no better—we know not but we may say with propriety, we know of no other conservative within the reach of man. Hut even to avail ourselves of this, we must first seek and receive the influences of the Holy Spirit.—Index.Love one another.—A Welch parson preaching f rom this text, *• Love one another,” told his congregation, that in kind and respectful treatment to our fellow creatures we were inferior to the brute creation. As an illustration of the truth of this remark, lie quoted an instance of two gouts in his own patish, that once met upon a bridge so very narrow that they could not pass by without one thrusting the other into the river. “ And, (continued he,) how do you think they acted ? Why, I will tell you.—Onegoatjlaid himself down and let the other leap over him.”Power of God.—The sun is as large as 337,-000 of our worlds. Jupiter is as large as 1,2S1 of our wot Ids. Mercury flies along,in its path, at the rate of twenty miles a second. Uranus is seventeen times as large as our world, one billion eight hundred millions of miles from the sun, and flies along at the rate of two hundred and forty miles every minute!Here, then, is the power of God ! Aworld, with all its mountains, and oceans,and kingdoms, is but a pebble in the handsof the Almighty!Comets.-,— The opinions of Astronomer's.— As having some interest just now, we propose to notice a few facts in relation to comets as stated by Sir Richard Phillips, Professor Dick and others. Comets are believed by Philips, to be moveing masses of transparent fluids or vapors, and are estimated at many thousands in number. Their popular characteristic is the stream of light which is directed from them in opposition to the relative place of the sun—just such as a glass globe of water would present on the side contrary to strong light. The luminous projection is generally directly opposite the sun, follows them as they approach the sun, and goes before them as they Icav it, and is a head or tail as their positions vary. The tail of the comet of 1680 was 100,000, 000 of miles long. Arago, the French astronomer, thinks that not lessthan 7000 comets revolve in our system.Comets have various nuclei. They have been observed to transit the Sun like dark spots. One was observed to pass across the sun in the morning of November 18th, 1S26-by M. Gambart and M. Flaucerques, shewing the probability that it was an opaque or dense body.Arago thinks that some comets are destitute of the nucleus.That with others nuclei are transparent. That others again are more brilliant than the planets, the nuclei of which are probably solid and opaque.Stars hare been seen through the nuclei of the more transparent comets.In general, the tail of a comet inclines towards the region last quitted by the comet, and it is enlarged in the most cases in proportion to its distance from the head of the comet.In some cases, the tails are divided, as in the comet of March, 174 4, when there weresix branches in the tail.A body moving at the rate of 20 miles an hour, would not pass over the space occupied by the tail of the comet of 1GS0, in less than G43 years.Dick says that the substance of which the tails are composed of are not known.In one instance it is recorded, that two tails had been observed on the opposite side of the comet.Whether comets shine with their own native light, or derive their light from the sun, is yet a question, says Dick—although it is probable that they derive their light from the planets. Schroeter and Herschell thought that the comet of 1811 shone by inherent light.It is stated as a remarkable fact, that the real diameter of the nebulosity increases proportionablv as the comet becomes distant fiom the sun.The speculations of Dick,as to the possibility of the Comet corning in contact with the earth, ore not a little interesting. He says that as comets move in orbits which form extremely elongated ellipses; as they move in all imaginable directions; as they traverse almost every part of the solar system in returning from the farthest verge of their excur-sions ; as they penetrate within the interior of the planetary orbits, even within the orbit of Mercury, and across the orbits of the earth and the other planets, it is not impossible that a comet may come in contact with our globe. An apprehension of such an event produced a considerable degree of alarm in Europe at different periods, particularly in 1773 and 1832. Hut when we consider the immense cubical space occupied by the planetary system in which the comets move, and compare it with the small capacities of these bodies, and when we take into view certain mathematical calculations in reference to the subject, the probability of a shock from a comet is extremely small. 4 Let us suppose,’ says Arago 4 a comet of which we only knowthat at its perihelion it is nearer the sun than we are, and that its diameter is one fourth of that of the earth ; the calculation of probabilities show that of2Sl,000,000ofchajices]thereJis only one unfavorable, theic exists but one which can produce a collision between the two bodies. As for the nebulosity, in its most general dimensions, the unfavorable chances will be from ten to twenty in the same number of two hundred and eighty-one millions. Admitting, then, for a moment, that the comets which may strike the earth with their nuclei would annihilate the whole human race, then the danger of death to each individual, resulting from the appearance of an nu-knoivn comet, would be exactly equal to the risk he would run, if in an urn there was only one single white ball of a total number of 281,000,000 balls, and that his condemnation to deaih would he the inevitable consequence of the white ball being produced at the first drawing.”When we consider that a Wise and Almighty Ruler superintends and directs the movements of all the great bodies in the universe, and the erratic motions of comets among the rest ; and that no event can befall the world without bis severing permission and appointment, we may repose ourselves in perfect security that no catastrophe from the impulse of celestial agents shall ever take place but in unison with his will, and for the accomplishment of the plans of his universal providence. At the same time, the possibility of a shock from a large comet shows us that this earth and all of its inhabitants are dependant for their present existence and comforts on the will of an Almighty agent, 44in whom we live, and move, and have our being;” and that, were it conformable to his all wise and eternal designs, he could easily disarrange the structure of our globe, and reduce its inhabitants either to rnisrey or to complete dost ruction ; and that, too, without altering a single physical law which now operates throughout the whole universe.”“If we recognize the Scriptures as a revelation from God, we rr.avrest assured that* *no danger front such a cause can happen to our world for ages yet to come ; for there are many important predictions contained in revelation which have not received their accomplishment, and must be fulfilled before any fatal catastrophe can happen to our globe. It is predicted that the Jews shall he brought into the Christian Church “with the fulness ofthe Gentiles;” that 4the idols ofthe nations shall be abolished;’ that 4war$ shall cease to the ends ofthe earth ;’ that the kingdom of Messiah shall extend over all nations ; that ‘the knowledge of Jehovah shall cover the earth, and that all shall know him fiom the least to the greatest,* that * the earth shallyield its increase,* and its desolate wastes be cultivated and inhabited that moral order shall prevail, and righteousness and praise spring foith before all nations; and that this happy era of the world shall continue during a laps of ages. These events have notyet been accomplished, though at the present moment they appear either in a state of commencement or of progression; but they cannot be supposed to be fully realized till after a lapse ofj centuries. The believer in Divine revelation, therefore, has the fullest assurance that, whatever directions comets may take in their motions towards the centre of our system, none of them shall he permitted to impinge upon our globe, or to effect its destruction, till the above and other predictions be completely accomplished.”
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Madison Southern Miscellany
Madison, Georgia, US
Sat, Mar 25, 1843
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USA 11 Oct 2022
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