Astronomy and the Bible;

THEIMPRESSOFUGHT^91

languageshouldbe,"It [thesun] isturnedastheseal
totheclay." Butitreads,"asclaytotheseal."
Letussupply"earth" intheplaceof"it,"andsee
whatmeaningwegather. "It[theearth] isturnedas
claytotheseal." Theearth,byitsdailyrotation,is
turnedtothesunasclayisturnedtotheseal. Butto
statethisscientificfact,itwasnecessary torearrange
thefigure,andstateitinjustthereverseoftheusual
relationofthe sealandthe clay,to dowhichshows
carefulthought. Considerthis. Afiguremosthappy
andappropriateisdiscovered. Thisisthefigureofthe
clayandthe seal. Butwith clayand seal,theseal,
orsignetring,isturnedtotheclay,whileinthecase
of earth and sun, the reverse is true; that is, the
earth,theclay,isturnedtothesun,theseal. There-
fore, tousethe figure andbe scientifically exact,it
was necessary to reverse thefigure. This gives us
stillallthelessonthefigurecangive,anditmakesthe
statementscientific;buttoonesearchingintoitsmean-
ing,itisatfirstalittlepuzzling. Yet,understanding
it,wemustadmireitswealthofthought,andthecon-
cisenessandclearnessofitslanguage.
Butwhatdoestherestoftheversemean? Towhat
doesthatlastclauserefer,—"andtheystandasagar-
ment"?
Turning tothe RevisedVersion, I read, "and all
thingsstandforthasagarment."
"Andallthings stand forth as inrich apparel."

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Noyes'stranslation.
"Andtheystandforthasingayapparel."

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Trans-

lationoftheAmericanBibleUnion.