SUN AND HEAVEN.
Now to show the intimate connexion with the Sun and Heaven, spoken of in the Scriptures, we will here group together a few of the many passages found written therein.
The prophet Jeremiah, in referring to the great and terrible day of the Lord, says "the light shall be darkened in the heavens;" and in the Gospel according to St. Mark, referring to the same, we read that "the Sun shall be darkened;" and in the Revelation, that "the Sun and the air were darkened." Again, Jehovah, speaking to His people, saith: "I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark;" and, in order that we may more fully comprehend, he added: "I will cover the Sun with a cloud;" and the Psalmist tells us that "He covereth the heaven with a cloud;" and thus saith the Lord through His prophet: "Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them."
Thus we see that the Sun and heaven are often spoken of in connexion with each other in regard to light. The Sun is to us the source of all light, and in covering the heaven He covereth the Sun. But we see, as above, that He hath made this matter plain to our comprehension by His own utterance: "Be not dismayed by the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them."
Now you will remember that the heathen, in ancient times—and even so with them at the present day—were always dismayed and frightened at the recurrence of an eclipse of the Sun, and imagined the time of the world had come to an end. But the science of astronomy has comprehended the laws of nature, and has revealed the true causes of these seeming phenomena to the enlightenment of the world, and many years previous to their occurrence. Astronomers can foretell the day, the hour, and even the very moment when they will appear, or be visible in any part of the world, as, also, when they will disappear. But we see, however, that God himself has spoken of such eclipses as "signs in the heaven," and yet they are eclipses of the Sun.
But still more pointed and clear is the evidence of their connexion given by the Saviour, where the Pharisees and Sadducees desired him to show them "a sign from heaven." Hear His answer: "When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair-weather, for the sky is red; and in the morning, It will be foul weather to-day, for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites! ye can discern the face of the sky, but ye cannot discern the signs of the times." Now we here see that they asked Him for a sign from heaven, and the Saviour answered promptly by referring to the apparent phenomena produced by the disappearing and reappearing of the Sun. Thus answering by signs which they had marked; produced by the Sun, which covereth the heaven from our view.
We have shown what all must acknowledge; that the Sun is the only source of fire, heat, and light which is comprehended in Nature. Revelations of the Past, and predictions as to the Future, assure us that God's wrath is revealed by fire. Now from whence cometh this fire when His wrath is thus revealed? God rained down fire and brimstone from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and thus destroyed those cities and their wicked inhabitants. Now, as the wrath of God is revealed by fire, St. Paul sets this matter at rest. Hear him: "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." Thus, His spirit of wrath is manifested by fire; the source of fire is the Sun, and He sends fire from heaven. Hence, we cannot for a moment doubt the correctness of our hypothesis that the source of fire, as manifested in the Past, and also that which shall be manifested in the Future, is the Sun. And wherein it is declared that fire came down from heaven, or out of heaven, it was natural that such expressions were used, because it was held that God resided in heaven, and He sent down fire from thence to execute His judgments.