THE MILKY WAY | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 25, 1859

THE MILKY WAY.

Infidels tell us that Astronomy has brought to light facts which stamp the Mosaic record of creation as utterly puerile and false. Stars have been discovered, they tell us, so immensely distant, that hundreds of thousands of years would be required for the transmission of their light to this earth; hence the earth must be hundreds of thousands years older than the Bible makes it. Were this the fact in regard to the stars, it would prove nothing for the skeptic, since such stars might have existed for ages before our earth was called into existence; but it appears from the following statement that the theory itself is not true, as light from points so remote could never reach us, since, expanding and decomposing in its progress, it would be utterly dispersed in space. The "Marvels of Science," thus speaks of the Milky way:

"The Milky Way forms the grandest feature of the firmament. It completely encircles the whole fabric of the skies, and sends its light down upon us, according to the best observations, from no less than 18,000,000 of suns. These are planted at various distances, too remote to be more than feebly understood; but their light, the medium of measurement, requires for its transit to our earth periods ranging from ten to a thousand years. Such is the sum of the great truths revealed to us by the two Herschels, who, with a zeal which no obstacle could daunt, have explored every part of the prodigious circle. Sir William Herschel, after accomplishing his famous section, believed that he had gaged the Milky Way to its lowest depth, affirming that he could follow a cluster of stars with his telescope, constructed expressly for the investigation, as far back as would require 330,000 years for the transmission of its light. But, presumptuous as it may seem, we must be permitted to doubt this assertion, as the same telescope, in the same master-hand was not sufficiently powerful to resolve even the nebulæ in Orion. Nor must we forget that light, our only clue to those unsearchable regions, expands and decomposes in its progress, and coming from a point so remote, the radiant waves would be dispersed in space. Thus the reflection is forced upon us, that new clusters and systems, whose beaming light will never reach our earth, still throng beyond; and that, though it is permitted to man to behold the immensity, he shall never see the bounds of the creation."

The time given in the above for the transmission of light to this earth from the most distant visible point in the Milky Way is one thousand years. The idea it would seem to convey is, that light requiring a longer period than that for its transit, would be dispersed in space, and so never reach us. If this be so, allowing the utmost latitude to the opponents of revelation, no objection can be drawn from the stars to the Scripture record.