My Father’s mansion lies.”
[45] Cruden’s Concordance, article “Heaven.”
The modern theoretical astronomy affirms that the Moon is a solid opaque, non-luminous body; that it is, in fact, nothing less than a material world. It has even been mapped out into continents, islands, seas, lakes, volcanoes, &c., &c. The nature of its atmosphere and character of its productions and possible inhabitants have been discussed with as much freedom as though our philosophers were quite as familiar with it as they are with the different objects and localities upon Earth. The light, too, with which the Moon so beautifully illuminates the firmament is declared to be only borrowed—to be only the light of the Sun intercepted and reflected upon the Earth. These doctrines are not only opposed by a formidable array of well-ascertained facts (as given in previous sections), but they are totally denied by the scriptures. The Sun and Moon and Stars are never referred to as worlds, but simply as lights to rule alternately in the firmament.
Genesis i., 14, 16—“And God said let there be lights in the firmament of the Heaven to divide the day from the night. * * * And God made two great lights—the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.”
Psalm cxxxvi., 7, 9—“O give thanks to Him that made great lights: the Sun to rule by day, the Moon and Stars to rule by night.”
Jeremiah, xxxi., 35—“The Sun is given for a light by day, and the ordinances of the Moon and of the Stars for a light by night.”
Ezekiel, xxxii., 7, 8—“I will cover the Sun with a cloud; and the Moon shall not give her light.” “All the bright lights of Heaven will I make dark over thee.”
Psalm cxlviii., 3—“Praise him Sun and Moon, praise him all ye Stars of light.”
Isaiah xiii., 10—“The Sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the Moon shall not cause her light to shine.”
Matthew xxiv., 29—“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkened, and the Moon shall not give her light.”