Isaiah ix., 19, 20—“The Sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the Moon give light unto thee. * * Thy Sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy Moon withdraw itself.”
Psalm cxxxvi., 7 to 9—“To him that made great lights, the Sun to rule by day, the Moon and Stars to rule by night.”
Job xxv., 5—“Behold even to the Moon, and it shineth not.”
Ecclesiastes xii., 2—“While the Sun, or the light, or the Moon, or the Stars be not darkened.”
Isaiah xxx., 26—“The light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun; and the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold.”
Deuteronomy xxxiii., 14—“And for the precious fruits brought forth by the Sun, and for the precious things put forth by the Moon.”
In the very first of the passages above quoted the doctrine is enunciated that various distinct and independent lights were created. But that two great lights were specially called into existence for the purpose of ruling the day and the night. The Sun and the Moon are declared to be these great and alternately ruling lights. Nothing is here said, nor is it in any other part of scripture said, that the Sun is a great light, and that the Moon shines only by reflection. The Sun is called the “greater light to rule the day,” and the Moon the “lesser light to rule the night.” Although of these two “great lights” one is less than the other, each is declared to shine with its own light. Hence in Deuteronomy, c. 33, v. 14, it is affirmed that certain fruits are specially brought forth by the influence of the Sun’s light, and that certain other productions are “put forth by the Moon.” That the light of the sun is influential in encouraging the growth of certain natural products; and that the light of the Moon has a distinct influence in promoting the increase of certain other natural substances, is a matter well known to those who are familiar with horticultural and agricultural phenomena; and it is abundantly proved by chemical evidence that the two lights are distinct in character and in action upon various elements. This distinction is beautifully preserved throughout the sacred scriptures. In no single instance are the two lights confounded. On the contrary, in the New Testament, St. Paul affirms with authority, that “there is one glory of the Sun, and another glory of the Moon, and another glory of the Stars.”
The same fact of the difference in the two lights, and their independence of each other is maintained in the scriptures to the last. “The Sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the Moon became as blood.” If the Moon is only a reflector, the moment the Sun becomes black her surface will be blackened also, and not remain as blood, while the Sun is dark and black as sackcloth of hair!
Again: the modern system of astronomy teaches that this earth cannot possibly receive light from the Stars, because of their supposed great distance from it: that the fixed Stars are only burning spheres, or Sun’s to their own systems of planets and satellites: and that their light terminates, or no longer produces an active luminosity at the distance of nearly two thousand millions of miles. Here again the scriptures affirm the contrary doctrine.
Genesis i., 16-17—“He made the Stars also; and God set them in the firmament to give light upon the earth.”