Astronomy and the Bible;

196 ASTRONOMYANDTHEBIBLE

thesamenumberandthesamerelativedistancewhen
thesamelightandprismareemployed.
"Apatientstudyofthesesignsofsubstancereveals
richerresultsthanastudyofthecuneiformcharacters
engravedonAssyrianslabs; foroneisthehandwrit-
ingofmen,theotherthehandwritingofGod."
AsWarrenhassaid,theselinesarethealphabetsto
newrealmsofknowledge. Theyareproducedbyspe-
cific substances in the sun. Each substance has its
ownpeculiarline orlines. Sodiumalways hastwo
lines ina certainplaceintheyellow. Lightpassing
throughvaporofsodiumhasthevibrationsthatwould
fallon thesetwo narrow lines intheyellow utterly
destroyed, leaving instead two black spaces. Light
passingthroughvapor ofburningironhashundreds
ofvibrationsabsorbed,leavingintheirsteadthatnum-
berofblacklines; butifthesaltorironis glowing
gas,inthesourceofthelightitself,thesamelinesare
brightinsteadofdark.
Bytakingadvantageoftheseprinciples,wecande-
tectthe presence of a large number of well-known
terrestrial elements inthe sun. The solar spectrum
iscrossedbydarklines,which,withaninstrumentof
high dispersion, number several thousand; and by
proper arrangement, itispossible toidentify among
theselinesmanythatareduetothepresence,inthe
sun'sloweratmosphere,ofknownterrestrialelements
inthestateofvapor.
"Thus wehave brought to our doors a readable
recordoftheverysubstancescomposingeveryworld
hotenoughtoshinebyitsownlight. Wefindinour