THE ASTRONOMER AND THE ATHEIST.
By Dr. Horton
THERE is a charming story told of an old astronomer called Athenasius Kirchner, who had a friend professing to be an atheist, and he determined to convince his atheistic friend of his mistake. Accordingly he constructed, with great care, an orrery, or image of the planets moving round the sun, and he placed the ingenious toy in the observatory when his friend was calling. Directly his friend entered, his attention was directed to the orrery. He came and examined it with great delight, and then he said to the astronomer, "This is beautifully made; who made it?" Kirchner answered, "No one made it." "What do you mean?" said the man. "O," said Kirchner, "it came by chance." "But," said the man, "you are trifling with me. Tell me who made it. It is impossible that it should come by chance." "Is it impossible?" said Kirchner; "I thought you told me that the planetary system, of which this is but a very imperfect and trivial copy, came by chance. Why not the copy?" And that searching question has come home to every human mind, and the man who thinks he is an atheist is only an atheist because he does not think; he can not steadily inquire into the origin of an ordered world without the great discovery that there is a God behind the world.—Dr. Horton.