recently discovered method of spectroscopic investigation opened an entirely new field of research. Seven years ago (A. D. 1864), an English astronomer, Mr. Huggins, undertook to analyze the light of the nebula. By a method, which will be set forth in another lecture, he determined the fact, that, while many of the nebula are, indeed, simple clusters of closely aggregated stars, there are many others which are mere masses of flaming gas, uncondensed, and incandescent elementary atoms, ranging themselves upon the line of evolution; clouds of luminous vapor, gathering in the depths of space, to the birth of suns and stars without number. Thus the nebular hypothesis has become the dominant, theory of the Universe. Viewed in its light, the evolution of our own little solar system is lifted into a direct relation with the growth of every other system in the Creation. In every portion it gives evidence of progressive condensation of matter. We find the larger planets at distances from the sun, which satisfy the requirements of the hypothesis; and we also find them less condensed than the more central and more slowly moving planets. Jupiter, with a volume 1400 times greater than our earth, is but 338 times as heavy, or onethird heavier than a like volume of water; while Saturn, with a volume 776 times larger than the earth, is but 100 times as heavy, i. e. its specific gravity is not greater than that of oak or of sulphuric ether. This, too, is a fact which might be anticipated, in accordance with the theory, for the surface of a small sphere is much greater, in proportion to its volume, than the surface of a large sphere. The small planets, consequently, lose heat more rapidly than the large; and they pass more rapidly through the different stages of evolution. The moons which revolve around the larger planets, are more concentrated than the primaries from which they were thrown off. They have lived faster than their parents, and have fallen into premature old age. Upon a surface, scarred by fire and seamed by water, our moon presents abundant evi dence of its community of origin with the earth; but, at present, no signs of lunar fire or water, or even of any atmosphere can be discovered. Those enormous volcanoes have ceased to vomit flame. Those oceans of water have vanished into the caverns of the interior. So eagerly does every moveable particle tend towards the center of gravity, that the air itself has disappeared among the solid elements of the orb Organic life finds no place in that desert, nor can it possibly exist under the conditions presented by such a world. It is a voiceless, lifeless, sphere, waiting only for the day which shall mingle again its atoms with the atoms of its mother earth. Passing hastily over the numerous proofs of our hypothesis which are furnished by the conformation of a planet, like Saturn, with numerous moons and manifold rings, which have not been condensed into yet more satellites, let us briefly consider the transformations which our earth must have experienced during a period of evolution, from the condition of a gaseous ring. At first, a whirling ring of luminous vapor, thrown from the surface of the sun, then collapsing into a fiery globe, the earth took its place among the other planets. Parting with matter sufficient to form a moon, the spheroid continued to shrink as it lost heat from its surface. Gradually a liquid layer became condensed between the heated interior. and the cooler gases which surrounded the globe. What an extensive atmosphere we then possessed! The oxygen and the hydrogen of water were forming clouds in the air-such clouds as will never again be rolled together around this ball. The molten surface cooled, at length, below the boiling point of water, and the ocean began to cover the face of the earth. Obedient to the law of gravitation, whenever the fiery subterranean tides disturbed the level of the solid crust, vast bodies of water were displaced, and set in violent motion. The radiant heat of the sun, which, too, is ever dispersing itself as a consequence of the continual approach of solar matter towards its center, served to establish a constant circulation of air and water, producing winds and currents, and rains and storms. By these means, as the crust of the earth became more uneven, the mountains were worn away, and their dust was scattered over the bed of the sea, forming extensive layers of stratified rock. And, when the slow movement of the geological ages had filled the hollow of the ocean, and had drowned the mountain peaks, these stratified rocks were the foundations of the continents upon which have been displayed the varying phenomena of organic life. Ever since those ancient days, these processes have been continued by the ceaseless tendency of matter towards its common center. That the tendency is still active, we are reminded by the fall of the leaf, by the dropping of the rain, by the rush of the cataract, by the tumult of the earthquake, by the roar of the ocean. Not even the ground beneath our feet is at rest. Whole continents are tilting up, first one side, than another, as they settle into the fiery mass below. Here a mountain chain is pushed upwards, by the sinking of a neighboring coast, There, the everlasting hills are going down at sea, leaving only the white coral reefs to mark their burial place. Thus it has been, and so it will be until the face of the earth is worn like the face of the moon; until clouds, and air, and sea, have disappeared; until even the dream of the poet shall become a literal fact "And like the baseless fabric of a vision, The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, ARTICLE III. THE TRIAL OF JESUS CHRIST. In reading the New Testament histories of the transactions of the Jews and Pilate, which resulted in the crucifixion and death of our blessed Lord, we are accustomed to look at the facts and incidents in their general statement. Perhaps we have not, therefore, sufficiently fixed in mind some points of interest and instruction ascertainable by looking at those transactions in their particular relations to law and justice. It could not be expected that under the Roman government, in the time of Christ-being, as it was, under the debasing influence of heathenism; nor that under the Jewish government, as having become corrupted through the national degeneracy, -provisions so just and humane as in Christian countries now, should exist and be acted upon. Yet even the Romans were not without some wise and just laws concerning the treatment of crimes. Their courts were such in number, and so constituted, as to give opportunity for a hearing before successive tribunals, and erroneous and unjust decisions delivered in the lower courts might be reviewed and revised in the higher. The Jews themselves might be challenged to point to any laws in the Mosaic code which justified the proceedings had in the case of the Son of God. The Talmudists say that "trials by night were forbidden, and also trials on festival days." It was also "unlawful to examine a cause, pass sentence, and put it in execution on the same day." It has been pretended by Jewish historians that forty days were allowed Jesus of Nazareth in which to prepare and make His defense. The preten sion, groundless as it is, recognizes the existence of such a rule, or of a usage which had grown into a rule. A distinguished archaeologist has stated that among the Jews "the witnesses were sworn, and in capital cases the parties con cerned. Two witnesses were required, beside the accuser; the witnesses were examined separately, in the presence of the accused." From Daniel vii: 10, it appears probable that in the time of ancient Jewish trials the book of laws was open before the judge. Laws are found in the books of Moses against bribes and gifts to pervert judgment, and also against false testimony. According to Roman law, as administered in the days of the apostles, and as cited by Festus when Paul stood before Agrippa, it was "not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accuser face to face, and have license to answer for himself concerning the crimes laid against him." The accounts of the trials of Paul, Peter and John, before the high priest and elders of Jerusalem, contain evidence that there were rules and usages, having somewhat of propriety in them, for the conduct of trial, and which must have been in existence prior to the trial of Jesus Christ, and they were practiced upon subsequent to that occasion, although disregarded in his case. The apostles were on one occasion cleared and released, even by obviously prejudiced and unwilling judges, while the spotless Son of God was hurried through the forms of trial without the semblance of impartiality, and on the same day condemued and executed as a malefactor. . One important fact should here receive special attention. So far as the Jews acted in reference to Jesus Christ, it is not perceivable that they had at any time the honest purpose of maintaining public justice, ecclesiastical or civil. Their manifest and sole object was to accomplish the destruction of this one man, Jesus Christ. So long previous and so publicly notorious was this fact, that on one of the public national festivals in Jerusalem, previous to His final arrest, men asked, "Is not this He whom they seek to kill?" Jesus himself publicly and repeatedly laid to their charge this, their real and steady design: "Ye seek to kill me;" and challenged them |