The brightest star, ± (in the head), is called Al Phiratz (Arabic), the broken down. The star ² (in the body) is called Mirach
2. ANDROMEDA (The Chained Woman).
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(Hebrew), the weak. The star ³ (in the left foot) is called Al
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Maach, or Al Amak (Arabic), struck down.
The names of other stars, not identified, are Adhil, the afflicted; Mizar, the weak; Al Mara (Arabic), the afflicted. ARATUS
speaks of Desma, which means the bound, and says—
“Her feet point to her bridegroom
Perseus, on whose shoulder they rest.”
Thus, with one voice, the stars of Andromeda speak to us of the captive daughter of Zion. And her coming Deliverer thus addresses her:—
“O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, Behold, ... in righteousness shalt thou be established: Thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: And from terror; for it shall not come nigh thee.”
(Isa. liv. 11-14.)
“Hear now this, thou afflicted....
Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion;
Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem....
Shake thyself from the dust;
Arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem:
Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; And ye shall be redeemed without money.”
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The Witness of the Stars
(Isa. li. 21-lii. 3.)
“The virgin daughter of My people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow” (Jer. xiv. 17).
The picture which sets forth her deliverance is reserved for the next chapter (or Sign), where it comes in its proper place and order. We are first shown her glorious Deliverer; for we never, in the heavens or in the Word, have a reference to the sufferings without an immediate reference to the glory.
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3. CEPHEUS (The King).
Their Redeemer Coming to Rule.
Here we have the presentation of a glorious king, crowned, and enthroned in the highest heaven, with a sceptre in his hand, and his foot planted on the very Polar Star itself.
His name in the Denderah Zodiac is Pe-ku-hor, which means this one cometh to rule.
Plate 23: CEPHEUS (the Crowned King)
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The Greek name by which he is now known, Cepheus, is from the Hebrew, and means the branch, and is called by EURIPIDES
the king.
An old Ethiopian name was Hyk, a king.
There are 35 stars, viz. , three of the 3rd magnitude, seven of the 4th, etc.
The brightest star, ± (in the left shoulder), is called Al De-ramin, which means coming quickly. The next, ² (in the girdle), is named Al Phirk (Arabic), the Redeemer. The next, ³ (in the left knee), is called Al Rai, which means who bruises or breaks.
It is impossible to mistake the truth which these names teach.
The Greeks, though they had lost it, yet preserved a trace of it, even in their perversion of it; for they held that Cepheus was the father of Andromeda, and that Perseus was her husband.
Yes; this is the glorious King of Israel, the “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” It is He who calls Israel His “son,” and will yet manifest it to all the world.
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In Jer. xxxi., after speaking of Israel's restoration, Jehovah says ( v. 1):—
“At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel,
And they shall be My people....
For I am a father to Israel,
And Ephraim is My firstborn”
( v. 9).
As He said to Moses: “Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn” (Exod. iv. 22).
Here is the foundation of Israel's blessing. True, it is now in abeyance, but “the LORD reigneth,” and will in due time make good His Word, for
“The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever.
The thoughts of His heart to all generations.”
The Witness of the Stars
(Ps. xxxiii. 11.)
This leads us up to the last chapter of the Second Book, which shows us the fulfilment of all the prophecies concerning the Redeemed and the sure foundation on which their great hope of glory is based.
Chapter IV. The Sign ARIES (The Ram or
Lamb).
The Blessings of the Redeemed Consummated and Enjoyed.
This Second Book began with the Goat dying in sacrifice, and it ends with the Lamb living again, “as it had been slain.” The goat had the tail of a fish, indicating that his death was for a
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multitude of the redeemed. In the two middle Signs we have had these fishes presented to us in grace, and in their conflict.
We come now to the last chapter of the book: and, as we have seen, like each of the other books, it ends up with victory and triumph. Here we are first shown the foundation on which that victory rests, namely, Atonement. Hence we are taken back and reminded of the “blood of the Lamb.”
This is pictured by a ram, or lamb, full of vigour and life; not falling in death as Capricornus is.
Chapter IV. The Sign ARIES (The Ram or Lamb).
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Plate 24: ARIES (the Ram)
In the Denderah Zodiac its name is Tametouris Ammon, which means the reign, dominion, or government of Ammon. The lamb's head is without horns, and is crowned with a circle.
The Hebrew name is Taleh, the lamb. The Arabic name is Al Hamal, the sheep, gentle, merciful. This name has been mistakenly given by some to the principal star, ±. The Syriac name is Amroo, as in the Syriac New Testament in John i. 29: “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” The ancient Akkadian name was Bara-ziggar. Bar means altar, or sacrifice; and ziggar means right making; so that the full name would be the sacrifice of righteousness.
There are 66 stars in this sign, one being of the 2nd magnitude, two of the 4th, etc.
Its chief star, ± (in the forehead), is named El Nath,54 or El Natik, which means wounded, slain. The next, ² (in the left horn), is called Al Sheratan, the bruised, the wounded. The next,
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³ (near to ²), is called Mesartim (Hebrew), the bound.
How is it there is no conflicting voice? How is it that all the stars unite in one harmonious voice in testifying of the Lamb of God, slain, and bruised, but yet living for evermore, singing 54 “El Nath” is used by Chaucer as the name of a spring star.
The Witness of the Stars
together, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing” (Rev. v. 12)?
This rejoicing connected with the Lamb shines faintly through the heathen perversions and myths: for HERODOTUS tells us how the ancient Egyptians, once a year, when it opened by the entrance of the sun into ARIES,55 slew a Ram, at the festival of Jupiter Ammon; branches were placed over the doors, the Ram was garlanded with wreaths of flowers and carried in procession.
Now the sun entered ARIES on the 14th of the Jewish month Nisan, and another lamb was then ordered to be slain, even “the LORD'S passover”—the type of that Lamb that should in the fulness of time be offered without blemish and without spot. Owing to the precession of the equinoxes, the sun, at the time of the Exodus, had receded into this sign of ARIES, which then marked the Spring Equinox. But by the time that the antitype—the Lamb of God, was slain, the sun had still further receded, and on the 14th of Nisan, in the year of the Crucifixion, stood at the very spot marked by the stars ±, El Nath, the pierced, the wounded
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or slain, and ², Al Sheratan, the bruised or wounded! God so ordained “the times and seasons” that during that noon-day darkness the sun was seen near those stars which had spoken for so many centuries of this bruising of the woman's Seed—the Lamb of God.
Was this design? or was it chance? It is far easier to believe the former. It makes a smaller demand upon our faith; yes, we are compelled to believe that He who created the sun and the stars “for signs and for cycles,” ordained also the times and the seasons, and it is He who tells us that “WHEN THE FULNESS OF TIME
WAS COME, God sent forth His Son” (Gal. iv. 4), and that “in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. v. 6).
55 TAURUS{FNS then marked the Spring Equinox.
1. CASSIOPEIA (The Enthroned Woman).
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1. CASSIOPEIA (The Enthroned Woman).
The Captive Delivered, and Preparing for her Husband, the Redeemer.
In the last chapter we saw the woman bound; here we see the same woman freed, delivered, and enthroned.
ULUGH BEY says its Arabic name is El Seder, which means the freed.
In the Denderah Zodiac her name is Set, which means set, set up as Queen. ALBUMAZER says this constellation was anciently called “the daughter of splendour.” This appears to be the meaning of the word Cassiopeia, the enthroned, the beautiful. The Arabic name is Ruchba, the enthroned. This is also the meaning of its Chaldee name, Dat al cursa.
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There are 55 stars in this constellation, of which five are of the 3rd magnitude, five of the 4th, etc.
This beautiful constellation passes vertically over Great Britain every day, and is easily distinguished by its five brightest stars, forming an irregular W.
Illustration showing the W of Cassiopeia
This brilliant constellation contains one binary star, a triple star, a double star, a quadruple star, and a large number of nebulæ.
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The Witness of the Stars
Plate 25: CASSIOPEIA (the Enthroned Woman)
In the year 1572 Tycho Brahe discovered in this constellation, and very near the star º (under the arm of the chair), a new star, which shone more brightly than Venus. It was observed for nearly two years, and disappeared entirely in 1574.
The brightest star, ± (in the left breast), is named Schedir (Hebrew), which means the freed. The next, ² (in the top of the chair), likewise bears a Hebrew name— Caph, which means the branch; it is evidently given on account of the branch of victory which she bears in her hand.
She is indeed highly exalted, and making herself ready. Her hands, no longer bound, are engaged in this happy work. With her right hand she is arranging her robes, while with her left she is adorning her hair. She is seated upon the Arctic circle, and close by the side of Cepheus, the King.
This is “the Bride, the Lamb's wife, the heavenly city, the new
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Jerusalem,” the “partakers of the heavenly calling.”
He who has redeemed her is “the Lamb that was slain,” and He addresses her thus:
1. CASSIOPEIA (The Enthroned Woman).
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“Thy Maker is thine husband;
The LORD of Hosts is His name;
And the Holy One of Israel is thy Redeemer;
The God of the whole earth shall He be called.
For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit,
Even a wife of youth when she is cast off, saith thy God.
For a small moment have I forsaken thee;
But with great mercies will I gather thee.
In overflowing wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; But with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.”
(Isa. liv. 5-8. R.V.)
“Thou shalt be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, And a royal diadem in the hand of thy God,
Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken;
Neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate; But thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah ( i.e. , my delight is in her),
And thy land Beulah ( i.e. , married); For the LORD delighteth in thee,
And thy land shall be married.
For as a young man marrieth a virgin,
So shall thy sons ( Heb. thy Restorer) marry thee: And as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride,
“So shall thy God rejoice over thee.
(Isa. lxii. 3-5, R.V.)
“The LORD hath appeared of old (or from afar) unto me, saying,
Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.
Again will I build thee, and thou shalt be built, O Virgin of Israel....
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The Witness of the Stars
He that scattered Israel will gather him,
And keep him as a shepherd doth his flock,
For the LORD hath ransomed Jacob,
And redeemed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.”
(Jer. xxxi. 3-12, R.V.)
Can we close our eyes to the testimony of these scriptures—that Israel is the Bride of the Lamb? When we have all these, and more, why should we read “the Church” into these ancient prophecies, which was the subject of a long-subsequent revelation, merely because (in Eph. v. 25) Christ's love to His Church is compared to a husband's love for his wife? “Husbands, love your wives, even AS Christ also loved the Church.” There is not a word here about the Church being His wife. On the contrary, it reveals the secret that the Church of Christ is to be the mystical “Body of Christ,” part of the Husband in fact, “One new man” (Eph. ii. 15)! whereas restored Israel is to be the Bride of this “New Man,” the Bride of Christ, the Lamb's wife! Blessed indeed it is to be united to Christ as a wife to a husband, but glorious beyond all description to be “one” with Christ Himself, part of His mystical Body.
If men had only realised the wondrous glory of this mystery, they would never have so wrongly divided the Word of Truth by interpreting Psalm xlv. of this Mystical Christ. If we “rightly divide” it, we see at once that this Psalm is in harmony with all the Old Testament scriptures, which must be interpreted alike, and
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can be interpreted only of Israel however they may be applied.
Having spoken of the Godhead and glory of this King (faintly and in part foreshown by Cepheus), the Holy Spirit goes on in the latter part of the Psalm to speak of the Bride—the Queen:
1. CASSIOPEIA (The Enthroned Woman).
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“At Thy right hand doth stand the Queen in gold of Ophir, Hearken, O daughter, and consider, incline thine ear; Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; So shall the King desire thy beauty;56
For He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him....
The King's daughter within the palace is all glorious; Her clothing is inwrought with gold,
She shall be led unto the King in broidered work; The virgins her companions57 that follow her shall be brought unto thee,” etc.
(Ps. xlv. 9-17, R.V.)
Then shall she sing her Magnificat:
“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD,
My soul shall be joyful in my God;
For He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud,
And as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth;
So the Lord GOD [Adonai Jehovah] will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the
nations.”
56 “Thy beauty; for it was perfect through My comeliness, which I put upon thee (Jerusalem), saith the LORD{FNS” (Ezek. xvi. 14).
57 Those who interpret the Queen here of the Church as the Bride, interpret the “Virgins” in Matt. xxv. of the Bride also. But how inconsistent! If the
“Virgins” be the Church in Matt. xxv., then where is the Bride? If the Queen is the Bride (the Church) in Ps. xlv., then who are the “virgins her companions”?
Both cannot be the correct interpretation. In fact, both are wrong, and hence the confusion. The Bride must be interpreted by the Old Testament scriptures, and the Prophecies which belong to Israel must not be robbed and given to the Church. They cannot be thus diverted without bringing confusion into the Scripture, and causing loss to our souls.
The Witness of the Stars
(Isa. lxi. 10, 11.)
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This, then, is the truth set forth by this enthroned woman. The blessing founded on Atonement, and the Redemption wrought by the Lamb that was slain, result in a glorious answer to Israel's prayer, “Turn our captivity, O LORD” (Ps. cxxvi. 4): when they that have “sown in tears shall reap in joy,” and the LORD shall loosen her bonds, and place her enthroned by His side.
This, however, involves the destruction of her enemy, and this is what we see in the next section.
2. CETUS (The Sea Monster).
The Great Enemy Bound.
When John sees the New Jerusalem, the Bride, the Lamb's wife (Rev. xxi. 10, 2), Satan has been bound already: for we read, a few verses before (xx. 1-3): “I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, that Old Serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him [ and kept him bound] a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled.”
This is what we see in the second section of this chapter—the second constellation in ARIES.
2. CETUS (The Sea Monster).
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Plate 26: CETUS (the Sea Monster)
The picture is that of a great Sea-monster, the largest of all the constellations. It is the natural enemy of fishes, hence it is
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placed here in connection with this last chapter, in which fishes are so prominent.
It is situated very low down among the constellations—far away towards the south or lower regions of the sky.
Its name in the Denderah Zodiac is Knem, which means subdued. It is pictured as a monstrous head, trodden under foot by the swine, the natural enemy of the serpent. The hawk also (another enemy of the serpent) is over this figure, crowned with a mortar, denoting bruising.
It consists of 97 stars, of which two are of the 2nd magnitude, eight of the 3rd, nine of the 4th, etc.
The names of the stars interpret for us infallibly the meaning of the picture.
The brightest star, ± (in the upper mandible), is named Menkar, and means the bound or chained enemy. The next, ² (in the tail), is called Diphda, or Deneb Kaitos, overthrown, or thrust down.
The star ¿ (in the neck) is named Mira, which means THE
REBEL. Its name is ominous, for the star is one of the most remarkable. It is very bright, but it was not till 1596 that it was discovered to be variable. It disappears periodically seven times
The Witness of the Stars
in six years! It continues at its brightest for fifteen days together.
M. Bade says that during 334 days it shines with its greatest light, then it diminishes, till it entirely disappears for some time (to the naked eye). In fact, during that period it passes through several
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degrees of magnitude, both increasing and diminishing. Indeed its variableness is so great as to make it appear unsteady!
Here, then, is the picture of the Great Rebel as shown in the heavens. What is it, as written in the Word?
The Almighty asks man:—
“Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a fish hook?
Or press down his tongue with a cord?
Canst thou put a rope into his nose?
Or pierce his jaw through with a hook?...
Shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?
None is so fierce that he dare stir him up.”
(Job xli. 1-10, R.V.)
But he whom man cannot bind can be bound by the Lamb, and He is seen with “the Band” that has bound the fishes, now in His hands, which he has fastened with a bright star to his neck, saying,—
“Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, Even the dregs of the cup of My fury;
Thou shalt no more drink it again,
But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee.”
(Isa. li. 22, 23.)
“Behold, the LORD cometh forth out of His place To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity....
In that day the LORD, with His sore, and great, and strong sword,
Shall punish Leviathan, the piercing serpent,
And Leviathan, the crooked serpent;
And He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.”
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(Isa. xxvi. 21-xxvii. 1.)
“For God is my king of old,
Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
Thou didst divide (marg. Heb. , break) the sea by Thy strength,
Thou brakest the heads of the dragons (R.V. marg., sea monsters) in the waters.
Thou brakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces.”
(Ps. lxxiv. 12-14.)
And this Second Book closes by revealing to us this glorious
“Breaker.”
3. PERSEUS (“The Breaker.”)
“The Breaker” delivering His Redeemed.
Here we have set before us a mighty man, called in the Hebrew Peretz, from which we have the Greek form Perses, or Perseus (Rom. xvi. 13). It is the same word which is used of Christ in Micah ii. 13. When He shall surely “gather the remnant of Israel” ( v. 12), it is written—
“THE BREAKER is gone up before them....
Their King is passed on before them,
And the LORD at the head of them.”
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The Witness of the Stars
This is what is pictured to us here. We see a glorious “Breaker” taking His place before His redeemed, breaking forth at their head, breaking down all barriers, and breaking the heads of Leviathan and all his hosts. In His right hand He has His “sore, and great, and strong sword” lifted up to smite and break down the enemy. He has wings on His feet, which tell us that He is coming very swiftly. In His left hand He carries the head of the enemy, whom he has slain.
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In the Denderah Zodiac His name is Kar Knem, he who fights and subdues.
Plate 27: PERSEUS (the Breaker)
It is a beautiful constellation of 59 stars, two of which are of the 2nd magnitude, four of the 3rd, twelve of the 4th, etc.
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Their names supply us with the key to the interpretation of the picture.
The star ± (in the waist) is called Mirfak, who helps. The next, ³ (in the right shoulder), is named Al Genib, which means who carries away. The bright star in the left foot is called Athik, who breaks!
In his left hand he carries a head, which, by perversion, the Greeks called the head of Medusa, being ignorant that its Hebrew root meant the trodden under foot.58 It is also called Rosh Satan (Hebrew), the head of the adversary, and Al Oneh (Arabic), the subdued, or Al Ghoul, the evil spirit.
The bright star, ² (in this head), has come down to us with the name Al Gol, which means rolling round.
It is a most remarkable phenomenon that so many of these enemies should be characterised by variable stars! But this head of Medusa, like the neck of Cetus, has one. Al Gol is continually changing. In about 69 hours it changes from the 4th magnitude to the 2nd. During four hours of this period it gradually diminishes in brightness, which it recovers in the succeeding four hours; and in the remaining part of the time invariably preserves its greatest lustre. After the expiration of this time its brightness
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begins to decrease again. Fit emblem of our great enemy, who,
“like a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour”
(1 Pet. v. 8.); then changing into a subtle serpent (Gen. iii.
8.); then changing again into “an angel of light” (2 Cor. xi.
14.). “Transforming himself” continually, to devour, deceive, and destroy.
This brings us to the conclusion of the Second Book, in which we have seen the Redeemed blessed with all blessings, delivered out of all conflict, saved from all enemies. We have seen their 58 See Job xxxix. 14, 15, where it is said, the ostrich “leaveth her eggs in the dust, forgetting that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.”
The Witness of the Stars
Redeemer, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,”
“the Conqueror,” “the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”
This is the Revelation recorded in the heavens. This is the prophetic testimony inspired in the Book. And this is the heart-cry prompted by both:—
“Come, Lord, and tarry not,
Bring the long-looked-for day;
Oh, why these years of waiting here,
These ages of delay?
Come, for Thy saints still wait;
Daily ascends their cry:
‘The Spirit and the Bride say, Come’;
Dost Thou not hear their cry?
Come, for creation groans,
Impatient of Thy stay;
Worn out with these long years of ill,
These ages of delay.
Come, for Thine Israel pines,
An exile from Thy fold;
Oh, call to mind Thy faithful word,
And bless them as of old.
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Come, for Thy foes are strong;
With taunting lips they say,
‘Where is the promised advent now,
And where the dreaded day?’
Come, for the good are few;
They lift the voice in vain;
Faith waxes fainter on the earth,
And love is on the wane.
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Come, in Thy glorious might;
Come, with Thine iron rod;
Disperse Thy foes before Thy face,
Most mighty Son of God.
Come, and make all things new,
Build up this ruined earth;
Restore our faded paradise,
Creation's second birth.
Come, and begin Thy reign
Of everlasting peace;
Come, take the kingdom to Thyself,
Great King of Righteousness.”
Dr. Horatius Bonar.
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HIS SECOND COMING.
In this Third and Last Book we come to the concluding portion of this Heavenly Revelation. Its subject is Redemption completed, and consummated in triumph. No more sorrow, suffering, or conflict; no more the bruising of the heel of the Redeemer.
We have now done with the prophecies of “the sufferings of Christ,” and have come to those that relate to “the glory that should follow.”
No more reference now to His first coming in humiliation. No more coming “forth” to suffer and die, a sacrifice for sins; the reference now is only to His second coming in glory; His coming
“unto” this earth is not to suffer for sin (Heb. ix. 28.), but it will be a coming in power to judge the earth in righteousness, and to subdue all enemies under His feet.
Like the other two books, it consists of four chapters.
The first chapter is the prophecy of the coming Judge of all the earth.
The second sets before us the two-fold nature of the coming Ruler.
The third shows us Messiah's redeemed possessions—the Redeemed brought safely home, all conflict over.
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The fourth describes Messiah's consummated triumph.
Chapter I. The Sign TAURUS (The Bull).
Messiah, the coming Judge of all the Earth.
Chapter I. The Sign TAURUS (The Bull).
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The picture is that of a Bull rushing forward with mighty energy and fierce wrath, his horns set so as to push his enemies, and pierce them through and destroy them.
It is a prophecy of Christ, the coming Judge, and Ruler, and
“Lord of all the earth.”
Plate 28: TAURUS (the Bull)
The Egyptian Zodiac of Denderah already, 4,000 years ago, had forgotten the truth to which the prophecy had referred, and called him Isis, i.e. , who saves or delivers, and Apis, i.e. , the head or chief. The Bull is clearly represented, and in all the zodiacs which have come down to us is always in the act of pushing, or rushing.
The name of the sign in Chaldee is
, Tor. Hence,
Arabic, Al Thaur; Greek, Tauros; Latin, Taurus, etc. The more common Hebrew name was
, Shur, which is from
a root which means both coming and ruling. There are several Hebrew words for bulls and oxen, etc. But the common poetical term for all is
, Reem, conveying the idea of loftiness, exaltation, power, and pre-eminence. We find the root in other kindred languages (Etruscan, Sanscrit, etc.), and it can be traced in the name of Abram, which means pre-eminent or high father; Ramah, high place, etc.
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The Witness of the Stars
The stars in Taurus present a brilliant sight. There are at least 141 stars, besides two important groups of stars, which both form integral parts of the sign.
The brightest star, ± (in the bull's eye), has a Chaldee name— Al Debaran, and means the leader or governor. The star ² (at the tip of the left horn) has an Arabic name— El Nath, meaning wounded or slain. Another prophetic intimation that this coming Lord should be first slain as a sacrifice.
Then there is the cluster of stars known as the Pleiades.
This word, which means the congregation of the judge or ruler, comes to us through the Greek Septuagint as the translation of the Hebrew
, Chima, which means the heap or accumulation, and occurs in Job ix. 9; xxxviii. 31, 32, and Amos v. 8.
It consists of a number of stars (in the neck of Taurus) which appear to be near together. The brightest of them, marked · in all the maps,59 has come down to us with an Arabic name— Al Cyone, which means the centre, and has given the idea to some astronomers that it is the centre of the whole universe. The Syriac name for the Pleiades is Succoth, which means booths.
Another group of stars (on the face of the Bull) is known as
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The Hyades,60 which has the similar meaning of the congregated.
Other stars, not identified, are named Palilicium (Hebrew), belonging to the judge; Wasat (Arabic), centre or foundation; Al Thuraiya (Arabic), the abundance; Vergiliæ (Latin), the centre (Arabic, vertex) turned on, rolled round.
Every thing points to the important truth, and all turns on the fact that the Lord is COMING TO RULE! This is the central truth of 59 The others have names, but they were given by the Greeks from the names of the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. The Hyades were their sisters.
Together they tell us that the saints will be secure with this mighty Lord when he comes to rule.
60 The Pleiades and Hyades are sometimes spoken of as constellations, but this is a mistake; they are integral parts of Taurus.
Chapter I. The Sign TAURUS (The Bull).
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all prophecy. “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
All hope for Creation, all hope for the world, all hope for Israel, all hope for the Church, turns on this, that “Jesus is coming again,” and that when He comes His saints, “the daughters of the King” (like the Pleiades and Hyades), will be with Him.
There is nothing of “the Church” revealed here. The Church will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, to be for ever with the Lord (1 Thess. iv. 17) before He thus comes unto the world in judgment. He will come forth to receive the members of His Body unto Himself, before He thus comes with them to destroy all His enemies and “judge (or rule) the world in righteousness.” When we read this Sign of Taurus, therefore, we are to understand that His Church will be with Him, safe from all judgment.
There is very much in the Scripture of the Book, (as there is in the prophecies in the heavens) about the coming of the Lord in judgment; and about this time of His indignation. For Enoch, who doubtless was used in arranging these prophetic signs, uttered the prophetic words, “Behold the Lord cometh
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with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all and to convict all that are ungodly” (Jude 14, 15).
We have said (pages 17, etc.) that at a very early period these signs were appropriated to the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and borne upon their “standards.” This may be traced in the Blessing of Jacob (Gen. xlix.), and in the Blessing of Moses (Deut. xxxiii.).
Taurus was assigned to Joseph, or rather to his two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, like the two powerful horns:
“The firstling of his bullock (marg. his firstling bullock)—majesty is his,
And his horns are the horns of the wild-ox ( Reem).
With them he shall PUSH (marg. gore) the peoples, all of them, even the ends of the earth.
And they are the ten thousands of Ephraim,
And they are the thousands of Manasseh.”
The Witness of the Stars
(Deut. xxxiii, 17, R.V.)
It is not, however, merely by men alone that this will be done, for David sings:
“Thou art my King, O GOD....
Through Thee will we PUSH down our enemies;
Through Thy Name will we tread them under that rise up against us.”
(Ps. xliv. 5.)
“I will punish the world for their evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity;
I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible....
Every one that is found shall be THRUST THROUGH.”
(Isa. xiii. 11-15.)
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Speaking of that day, the Holy Spirit says by Isaiah: For the LORD hath indignation against all the nations,”
And fury against all their host:
He hath utterly destroyed them,
He hath delivered them to the slaughter....
The LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah,
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom,
And the wild oxen [ Reem] shall come down with them, And the bullocks with the bulls;
And their land shall be drunken with blood,
And their dust made fat with fatness.
For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance,
The year of recompense in the controversy of Zion.”
(Isa. xxxiv. 2-8, R.V.)
“Behold, the LORD cometh forth out of His place To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: The earth also shall disclose her blood,
And shall no more cover her slain.”
1. ORION (The Coming Prince).
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(Isa. xxvi. 21.)
This is the united testimony of the two Revelations. It is pictured in the heavens, and it is written in the Book. It is the prophecy of a coming Judge, and of a coming judgment.
It is, however, no mere Bull that is coming. It is a man, a glorious man, even “the Son of Man.” This is the first development, shown in the first of the three constellations belonging to the sign.
1. ORION (The Coming Prince).
Light Breaking Forth in the Redeemer.
The Witness of the Stars
Plate 29: ORION (the Glorious One)
This picture is to show that the coming one is no mere animal,
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but a man: a mighty, triumphant, glorious prince.
He is so pictured in the ancient Denderah Zodiac, where we see a man coming forth pointing to the three bright stars ( Rigel, Bellatrix, and Betelguez) as his. His name is given as Ha-ga-t, which means this is he who triumphs. The hieroglyphic characters below read Oar. Orion was anciently spelt Oarion, from the Hebrew root, which means light. So that Orion means coming forth as light. The ancient Akkadian was Ur-ana, the light of heaven.
Orion is the most brilliant of all the constellations, and when he comes to the meridian he is accompanied by several adjacent constellations of great splendour. There is then above the horizon the most glorious view of the celestial bodies that the starry firmament affords; and this magnificent view is visible to all the habitable world, because the equinoctial line (or solstitial colure) passes nearly through the middle of Orion.
ARATUS thus sings of him:—
“Eastward, beyond the region of the Bull,
Stands great Orion. And who, when night is clear, Beholds him gleaming bright, shall cast his eyes in vain To find a Sign more glorious in all heaven.”
The constellation is mentioned by name, as being perfectly well known both by name and appearance, in the time of Job; and as being an object of familiar knowledge at that early period of the world's history. See Job ix. 9; xxxviii. 31, and Amos v.
8 (Heb.
, Chesil, which means a strong one, a hero, or giant).
It contains 78 stars, two being of the 1st magnitude, four of
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the 2nd, four of the 3rd, sixteen of the 4th, etc.
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A little way below ¹ (in the sword) is a very remarkable nebulous star. A common telescope will show that it is a beautiful nebula. A powerful telescope reveals it as consisting of collec-tions of nebulous stars, these again being surrounded by faint luminous points, which still more powerful telescopes would resolve into separate stars.
Thus beautifully is set forth the brilliancy and glory of that Light which shall break forth when the moment comes for it to be said, “Arise, shine, for thy light is come.”
The picture presents us with “the Light of the world.” His left foot is significantly placed upon the head of the enemy. He is girded with a glorious girdle, studded with three brilliant stars; and upon this girdle is hung a sharp sword. Its handle proves that this mighty Prince is come forth in a new character. He is again proved to be “the Lamb that was slain,” for the hilt of this sword is in the form of the head and body of a lamb. In his right hand he lifts on high his mighty club; while in his left he holds forth the token of his victory—the head and skin of the “roaring lion.”
We ask in wonder, “Who is this?”61 and the names of the stars give us the answer.
The brightest, ± (in the right shoulder), is named Betelgeuz, which means the coming (Mal. iii. 2) of the branch.
The next, ² (in the left foot), is named Rigel, or Rigol, which means the foot that crusheth. The foot is lifted up, and placed
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immediately over the head of the enemy, as though in the very act of crushing it. Thus, the name of the star bespeaks the act.
The next star, ³ (in the left shoulder), is called Bellatrix, which means quickly coming, or swiftly destroying.
The name of the fourth star, ´ (one of the three in the belt), carries us back to the old, old story, that this glorious One was once humbled; that His heel was once bruised. Its name is Al 61 See Jer. xxx. 21; and Matt. xxi. 10.
The Witness of the Stars
Nitak, the wounded One.62 Similarly the star º (in the right leg) is called Saiph, bruised, which is the very word used in Gen.
iii. 15, thus connecting Orion with the primeval prophecy. Like Ophiuchus, he has one leg bruised; while, with the other, he is crushing the enemy under foot.
This is betokened by other stars, not identified, named Al Rai, who bruises, who breaks (as in Cepheus); and Thabit (Hebrew), treading on.
Other (Arabic) names relate to His Person: Al Giauzâ, the branch; Al Gebor, the mighty; Al Mirzam, the ruler; Al Nagjed, the prince; Niphla (Chaldee), the mighty; Nux (Hebrew), the strong.
Some names relate to His coming, as Betelgeuse and Bellatrix, as above; Heka (Chaldee), coming; and Meissa (Hebrew), coming forth.
Such is the cumulative testimony of Orion's stars, which, day after day, and night after night, show forth this knowledge. That
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testimony was afterwards written in the Book. The Prince of Glory, who was once wounded for the sins of His redeemed, is about to rise up and shine forth for their deliverance. Their redemption draweth nigh; for—
“The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man,
He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war;
He shall cry, yea, roar;
He shall prevail against His enemies.
I have [ He says] long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself:
Now will I cry like a travailing woman;
I will destroy and devour at once.”
62 The star ¶ (in the belt) is called Mintaka, dividing, as a sacrifice. (Lev. viii.
2.)
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(Isa. xlii. 13, 14.)
Then it will be said to His people (and the setting of the prophecy in its beautiful introverted structure shows us the beauty and glory of the truth it reveals):63
a Arise,
b Shine; for thy light is come,
c And the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
d For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
d And gross darkness the people; c But the LORD shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.
b And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, a And kings to the brightness of thy rising.
(Isa. lx. 1-3.)
This is “the glory of God” which the heavens constantly declare (Ps. xix. 1). They tell of that blessed time when the whole earth shall be filled with His glory (Num. xiv. 21; Isa. xi. 9); when “the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
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see it together” (Isa. xl. 5), as all see now the beauty of Orion's glory.
But side by side with the glory which the coming Light of the world shall bring for His people, there is “that wicked,” whom the Lord “shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” Hence, as in the concluding chapter (IV.) of the First Book (of which this Third Book is the expansion) we had in LYRA ( the harp), as
§ 1, Praise prepared for the Conqueror; and in ARA ( the burning 63 Note, that—
In a and a, we have the rising of Israel; In b and b, the light that is come upon her; In c and c, the glory of the LORD{FNS; and In d and d, the darkness of the world.
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The Witness of the Stars
pyre), as § 2, Consuming fire prepared for His enemies: so in the first chapter of this book, we have in ORION, as § 1, Glory prepared for the Conqueror; and in ERIDANUS, as § 2, the River of wrath prepared for His enemies. This brings us to—
2. ERIDANUS (The River of the Judge).
The River of Wrath Breaking Forth for His Enemies.
It issues forth, in all the pictures, from the down-coming foot of Orion. While others see in it, from the ignorance of fabled story, only “the River Po,” or the “River Euphrates,” we see in it, from the meaning of its name, and from the significance of its position, the river of the Judge.
2. ERIDANUS (The River of the Judge).
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Plate 30: ERIDANUS (the River)
In the Denderah Zodiac it is a river under the feet of Orion. It is named Peh-ta-t, which means the mouth of the river.
It is an immense constellation, and our diagram is on a smaller scale than the others (which are all in relative proportion, except where otherwise noted).
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According to the Britannic catalogue, it consists of 84 stars; one of the 1st magnitude, one of the 2nd, eight of the 3rd, etc.
The brightest star, ± (at the mouth of the river), bears the ancient name of Achernar, which is in, as its name means, the after part of the river.
The next star, ² (at the source of the river), is named Cursa, which means bent down. The next, ³ (at the second bend in the river), is called Zourac (Arabic), flowing. Other stars, not identified, are Pheat, mouth (of the river); and Ozha, the going forth.
Here, then, we have a river flowing forth from before the glorious Orion. It runs in a serpentine course towards the lower regions, down, down, out of sight. In vain the sea monster, Cetus, strives to stop its flow. It is “the river of the Judge,” and speaks of that final judgment in which the wicked will be cast into the lake of fire. It was evidently originally associated with fire; for the Greek myths, though gross perversions, still so connect it.
According to their fables, something went wrong with the chariot of the sun, and a universal conflagration was threatened. In the trouble, Phaeton (probably a reference to the star Pheat) was killed and hurled into this river, in which he was consumed with its fire. The whole earth suffered from such a burning heat that great disasters ensued. We see from this myth two great facts preserved in the perverted tradition, viz. , judgment and fire.
ARATUS also preserves the connection,—
The Witness of the Stars
“For yonder, trod by heavenly feet,
Wind the scorched waters of Eridanus' tear-swollen flood, Welling beneath Orion's uplifted foot.”
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Is not this the testimony afterwards written in the Book? Daniel sees this very river in his vision of that coming day, when the true Orion shall come forth in His glory. He says, “I beheld till the thrones were placed, and one that was ancient of days did sit:...
His throne was fiery flames, and the wheels thereof burning fire.
A FIERY STREAM ISSUED AND CAME FORTH FROM BEFORE HIM.” This is the River of the Judge; for he goes on to say, “the judgment was set, and the books were opened” (Dan. vii. 9-11, R.V.).
We have the same in Ps. xcvii. 3-5 (R.V.), which describes the scene when the Lord shall reign:
“A FIRE GOETH BEFORE HIM,
And burneth up His adversaries round about.
His lightnings lightened the world:
The earth saw and trembled,
The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.”
So again in Ps. l. 3, we read:
“Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence, A FIRE SHALL DEVOUR BEFORE HIM,
And it shall be very tempestuous round about Him.”
By Habakkuk the coming of the Lord is described; and it is written:
“His brightness was as the light, ...
Before Him went the pestilence,
And burning coals went forth at His feet.”
2. ERIDANUS (The River of the Judge).
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(Hab. iii. 5.)
What is this but Orion and Eridanus!
Again, it is written in Isaiah xxx. 27-33 (R.V.):
“Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far,
Burning with His anger, and in thick rising smoke:
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His lips are full of indignation,
And His tongue is as a DEVOURING FIRE:
And His breath is as AN OVERFLOWING STREAM [ of fire]....
For a Topheth is prepared of old;
Yea, for the king [ Moloch] it is made ready; He hath made it deep and large;
The pile thereof is FIRE and much wood;
The breath of the LORD, LIKE A STREAM OF BRIMSTONE, doth kindle it.”
So, again, we read in Nahum i. 5, 6:
“The mountains quake at Him,
And the hills melt;
And the earth is burned up at His presence,
Yea, the world and all that dwell therein.
Who can stand before His indignation?
And who can abide in the fierceness of His anger?
His fury is POURED OUT LIKE FIRE.”
In Isa. lxvi. 15, 16, we read:
“For, behold, the LORD will come with fire,
And with His chariots like a whirlwind,
To render His anger with fury,
And His rebuke with FLAMES OF FIRE,
For BY FIRE, and by His sword, will the LORD plead with all flesh.”
The Witness of the Stars
With this agree the New Testament scriptures, which speak of
“the Day of the Lord,” “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, IN FLAMING FIRE taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. i. 7, 8).
This is the true Eridanus. It is no mere “picture.” It is a dread reality! It is written in stars of fire, and words of truth, that men
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may heed the solemn warning and “flee from the wrath to come”!
But we ask, “Who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth” (Mal. iii. 2)? “Who can stand before His indignation,” when “His fury is poured out like fire”
(Nah. i. 6)?
The answer is given in the next picture!
3. AURIGA (The Shepherd).
Safety for the Redeemed in the Day of Wrath.
Here is presented to us the answer to the question, “Who may abide the day of His coming?”
“Behold, the Lord GOD (Adonai Jehovah) will come as a mighty one,
And His arm shall rule for Him:
Behold, His reward is with Him,
And His recompense before Him.
He shall feed His flock like a shepherd,
He shall gather the lambs in His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And shall gently lead those that give suck.”
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(Isa. xl. 10, 11. R.V.)
This is exactly what is presented before us in this last section of the chapter, which tells of the coming judgment. We have had the picture of a mighty Bull rushing forth; then the fiery river of the Judge; and now we see a Great Shepherd. He is seated upon
“the milky way,” holding up on his left shoulder a she goat. She clings to his neck, and is looking down affrighted at the terrible on-rushing Bull. In his left hand he supports two little kids,
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apparently just born, and bleating, and trembling with fear.
ARATUS says,—
“She is both large and bright, but they—the kids—
Shine somewhat feebly on Auriga's wrist.”
Is not this the Great Shepherd gathering the lambs in His arm?
and carrying them in His bosom? Is He not saying:
“I will save My flock,
And they shall no more be a prey.”
(Ezek. xxxiv. 22.)
“And David my servant shall be king over them,
And they shall have one shepherd.”
( ib. xxxvii. 24.)
“And they shall fear no more,
Nor be dismayed,
Neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.”
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The Witness of the Stars
(Jer. xxiii. 4.)
Plate 31: AURIGA (the Shepherd)
AURIGA is from a Hebrew root which means a shepherd. It is a beautiful constellation of 66 stars; one of the 1st magnitude, two of the 2nd, nine of the 4th, etc.
The brightest star, ± (in the body of the goat), points her out as the prominent feature of the constellation, for its name Alioth (Hebrew) means a she goat. It is known by the modern Latin name Capella, which has the same meaning.
The next star, ² (in the shepherd's right arm), is called Menkili-non, and means the band, or chain of the goats, and points out the truth that they are never more to be lost again, but to be bound,
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with the bands of love, to the Shepherd for evermore.
The name of another star is Maaz, which means a flock of goats.
Can there be any mistake as to who this Shepherd is? for the bright star in his right foot is called El Nath 64 (like another in 64 It is also reckoned in the horn of Taurus.
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ARIES), which means wounded or slain. This is He, then, who was once bruised or wounded in the heel. He is “the GOOD
Shepherd,” who gave His life for the sheep (John x. 11), but He was “the GREAT Shepherd” brought again from the dead (Heb.
xiii. 20); and is now the CHIEF Shepherd (1 Pet. v. 4) seen in the day of His coming glory. Another star emphasises this truth, for it is named Aiyuk, which also means wounded in the foot.65
The star marking the kids is called Gedi (Hebrew), kids.
In Latin, the word Auriga means a coachman or charioteer, the band in his right hand being taken as his reins. But the incongruity of a charioteer carrying a she-goat, and nursing two little kids, never struck them; nor did the fact that he has no chariot and no horses! When man blunders in the things of God, he does it thoroughly!
In the Zodiac of Denderah the same truth was revealed more than 4,000 years ago; but the Man, instead of carrying the sheep, is carrying a sceptre, and is called Trun, which means sceptre or power. But this is a strange sceptre, for at the top it has the head of a goat, and at the bottom, below the hand that holds it, it ends
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in a cross! With the Egyptians the cross was a sign of life. They knew nothing of “the death of the cross.” Here, then, we see life and salvation for the sheep of His flock when He comes to reign and rule in judgment. The truth is precisely the same, though the presentation of it is somewhat varied.
The connected teaching of the two constellations, Eridanus and Auriga, is solemnly set forth in Mal. iv. 1-3 (R.V.):
“Behold, the day cometh,
It burneth as a furnace;
And all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble:
And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD
of hosts,
65 The same as in 2 Sam. iv. 1.
The Witness of the Stars
That it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
BUT UNTO YOU that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings;
And ye shall go forth and gambol as calves of the stall.
And ye shall tread down the wicked;
For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet In the day that I do make (marg. do this), saith the LORD of hosts.”
In Psalm xxxvii. this day is repeatedly referred to, the day when “the wicked shall be cut off”; and it concludes by summa-rizing the same great truth ( vv. 38-40, R.V.):
“As for transgressors, they shall be destroyed together; The latter end of the wicked shall be cut off,
But the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD: He is their stronghold in the time of trouble,
And the LORD helpeth them, and rescueth them;
He rescueth them from the wicked and saveth them, Because they have taken refuge in Him.”
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Oh, that all who read these pages may heed the solemn warning, and flee for refuge to Him who now, in this day of grace, is crying, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, O all ye ends of the earth” (Isa. xlv. 22).
Chapter II. The Sign GEMINI (The Twins).
Messiah's Reign as Prince of Peace.
All the pictures of this sign are confused. The Greeks claimed to have invented them, and they called them Apollo and Hercules.
They are given in our illustration. The Latins called the Castor
Chapter II. The Sign GEMINI (The Twins).
145
and Pollux; and the name of a vessel in which Paul sailed is so called in Acts xxviii. 11, ”¹¿Ãº¿{Á¿¹.
The name in the ancient Denderah Zodiac is Clusus, or Claus-trum Hori, which means the place of Him who cometh. It is represented by two human figures walking, or coming. The second appears to be a woman. The other appears to be a man. It is a tailed figure, the tail signifying He cometh.
Plate 32: GEMINI (the Twins)
The old Coptic name was Pi-Mahi, the united, as in brotherhood. Not necessarily united by being born at the same time, but united in one fellowship or brotherhood. The Hebrew name is Thaumim, which means united. The root is used in Exod. xxvi.
24: “They (the two boards) shall be coupled together beneath.”
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In the margin we read, “Heb. twinned” (R.V. double). The Arabic Al Tauman means the same.
We need not trouble ourselves with the Grecian myths, even though we can see through them the original and ancient truth. The two were both heroes of peculiar and extraordinary birth—sons of Jupiter. They were supposed to appear at the head of armies; and as they had cleared the seas of pirates, they were looked upon as the patron saints of navigation. (Hence the name
The Witness of the Stars
of the ship in Acts xxviii. 11.) They were held in high esteem both by Greeks and Romans; and the common practice of taking oaths and of swearing by their names has descended even to our own day in the still surviving vulgar habit of swearing “By Gemini!”
The more ancient star-names help us to see through all these and many other myths, and to discern Him of whom they testify; even Him in His twofold nature—God and Man—and His twofold work of suffering and glory, and His twofold coming in humiliation and in triumph.
There are 85 stars in the sign: two of the 2nd magnitude, four of the 3rd, six of the 4th, etc.
The name of ± (in the head of the one at our right hand) is called Apollo, which means ruler, or judge; while ² (in the head of the other) is called Hercules, who cometh to labour, or suffer.
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Another star, ³ (in his left foot), is called Al Henah, which means hurt, wounded, or afflicted. Can we have a doubt as to what is the meaning of this double presentation? In Ophiuchus we have the two in one person: the crushed enemy, and the wounded heel. But here the two great primeval truths are presented in two persons; for He was “two persons in one God,” “God and man in one Christ.” As man, suffering for our redemption; as God, glorified for our complete salvation and final triumph. A star, µ (in the centre of his body), is called Waset, which means set, and tells of Him who “set His face like a flint” to accomplish this mighty Herculean work; and, when the time was come, “steadfastly set His face to go” to complete it.
He bears in his right hand (in some pictures) a palm branch. In the one from which our illustration is taken, it is a club; but both the club of this one and the bow of the other are in repose! These united ones are neither in action nor are they preparing for action, but they are at rest and in peace after victory won. The star µ (in the knee of the other, “Apollo”) is called Mebsuta, which means treading under feet. The names of other stars, which are
Chapter II. The Sign GEMINI (The Twins).
147
not identified, have come down to us with the same testimony.
One is called Propus (Hebrew), the branch, spreading; another is called Al Giauzâ (Arabic), the palm branch; another is named Al Dirâ (Arabic), the seed, or branch.
The day has here come to fulfil the prophecies concerning Him who is “the Branch,” “the Branch of Jehovah,” “the man whose name is the Branch.”
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“In that day shall the Branch of Jehovah be beautiful and glorious;
And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely For them that are escaped of Israel.”
(Isa. iv. 2.)
“Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness,
And princes shall rule in judgment;
And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind.”
(Isa. xxxii. 1, 2.)
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD,
That I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, And He shall reign as King and deal wisely,
And shall execute judgment and justice in the land.
In His days Judah shall be saved,
And Israel shall dwell safely:
And this is His name whereby He shall be called, The LORD is our Righteousness.”
(Jer. xxiii. 5, 6, R.V.)
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD,
That I will perform that good word which I have spoken Concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah.
In those days, and at that time.
Will I cause a Branch of Righteousness to grow up unto David;
And He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.”
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The Witness of the Stars
(Jer. xxxiii. 14, 15, R.V.)
This is what we see in this sign—Messiah's peaceful reign. All is rest and repose. We see “His days,” in which “the righteous shall flourish; and abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth” (Ps. lxxii.).
But, for this blessed time to come, there must be no enemy!
All enemies must be subdued.
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This brings us to the first section of this book.
1. LEPUS (the Hare), THE ENEMY.
The Enemy Trodden under Foot.
The names of the three constellations of this Sign, as well as the pictures, are all more or less modern, as is manifest from the names being in Latin, and having no relation to the ancient names of their stars. To learn their real meaning, therefore, we must have recourse to the ancient Zodiacs. In the Persian planisphere the first constellation was pictured by a serpent. In the Denderah (Egyptian) Zodiac it is an unclean bird standing on the serpent, which is under the feet of Orion. Its name there is given as Bashti-beki. Bashti means confounded, and Beki means failing.
1. LEPUS (the Hare), THE ENEMY.
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Plate 33: LEPUS (the Hare) or ENEMY
ARATUS says,—
“Below Orion's feet, the Hare
Is chased eternally.”
It is a small constellation of 19 stars (all small), three of which are of the 3rd magnitude, seven of the 4th, etc.
The brightest, ± (in the body), has a Hebrew name, Arnebo, which means the enemy of Him that cometh. The Arabic, Arne-beth, means the same. Other stars, not identified, are Nibal, the mad; Rakis, the bound (Arabic, with a chain); Sugia, the deceiver.
There can be no mistaking the voice of this united testimony.
For this enemy is under the down-coming foot of Orion, and it tells of the blessed fact that when the true Orion, “the Sun of
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Righteousness, shall arise,” and “the true light” shall shine over all the earth, He “shall tread down the wicked” (Mal. iv.), and every enemy will be subdued under His feet. “It is He that shall tread down our enemies” (Ps. lx. 12), as He has said:
“I will tread them in Mine anger,
And trample them in My fury ...
For the day of vengeance is in Mine heart,
And the year of My redeemed is come.”
The Witness of the Stars
(Isa. lxiii. 3, 4.)
2. CANIS MAJOR (The Dog), or SIRIUS (The
Prince).
The coming Glorious Prince of Princes (Sirius).
This second constellation carries on the teaching, and tells of the glorious Prince who will thus subdue and reign.
In the Denderah Zodiac he is called Apes, which means the head. He is pictured as a hawk ( Naz,
, caused to come
forth, coming swiftly down). The hawk is the natural enemy of the serpent, and here it has on its head a pestle and mortar, indicating the fact that he shall crush the head of the enemy.
In the Persian planisphere it is pictured as a wolf, and is called Zeeb, which in Hebrew (
) has the same meaning.
Plutarch translates it Á¿yÀÄ·Â, Leader. In Arabic it means coming quickly.
2. CANIS MAJOR (The Dog), or SIRIUS (The Prince).
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Plate 34: CANIS MAJOR (the Dog) and CANIS MINOR (the Second Dog)
Its ancient name and meaning must be obtained from the names of its stars which have come down to us. There are 64
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altogether. Two are of the 1st magnitude, two of the 2nd, four of the 3rd, four of the 4th, etc. Of these ± (in the head) is the brightest in the whole heavens! It is called Sirius, the Prince (
, Sar), as in Isa. ix. 6.
Sirius 66 was, by the ancients, always associated with great heat. And the hottest part of the year we still call “the dog days,”
though, through the variation as observed in different latitudes, 66 Our English “Sir” is derived from this word.
The Witness of the Stars
and the precession of the equinoxes, its rising has long ceased to have any relation to those days. Virgil says that Sirius
“With pestilential heat infects the sky.”
Homer spoke of it as a star
“Whose burning breath
Taints the red air with fevers, plagues, and death.”
It is not, however, of its heat that its name speaks, but of the fact that it is the brightest of all the stars, as He of whom it witnesses is the “Prince of princes,” “the Prince of the Kings of the earth.”
Though this “Dog-Star” came to have an ill-omened associa-tion, it was not so in more ancient times. In the ancient Akkadian it is called Kaaiata, which means the Leader and Prince of the heavenly host. While (as Mr. Robert Brown, Junr., points out)
“the Sacred Books of Persia contain many praises of the star Tistrya or Tistar ( Sirius), ‘the chieftain of the East.’ ”67
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The next star, ² (in the left fore foot), speaks the same truth. It is named Mirzam, and means the prince or ruler. The star ´ (in the body) is called Wesen, the bright, the shining. The star µ (in the right hind leg) is called Adhara, the glorious.
Other stars, not identified, bear their witness to the same fact.
Their names are— Aschere (Hebrew), who shall come; Al Shira Al Jemeniya (Arabic), the Prince or chief of the right hand! Seir (Egyptian), the Prince; Abur (Hebrew), the mighty; Al Habor (Arabic), the mighty; Muliphen (Arabic), the leader, the chief.
Here there is no conflicting voice; no discord in the harmonious testimony to Him whose name is called “Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God ... the Prince of Peace” (Isa. ix. 6).
67 Euphratean Stellar Researches.
3. CANIS MINOR (The Second Dog).
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The names of the stars have no meaning whatever as applied to an Egyptian Hawk, or a Greek Dog. But they are full of significance when we apply them to Him of whom Jehovah says:
“Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the people, A LEADER and commander to the people.”
(Isa. lv. 4.)
This is “the Prince of princes” (Dan. viii. 23, 25) against whom, “when transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance ... shall stand up,” “but he shall be broken without hand,” for he shall be destroyed “with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thess. ii. 8). This is He who shall come forth “King of kings and Lord of Lords” (Rev. xix. 16).
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But Sirius has a companion, and this brings us to—
3. CANIS MINOR (The Second Dog).
The Exalted Redeemer (Procyon).
The same facts are to be remembered concerning the Greek picture, and Latin name of this constellation.
The Egyptian name in the Denderah Zodiac is Sebak, which means conquering, victorious. It is represented as a human figure with a hawk's head and the appendage of a tail.
This small constellation has only 14 stars according to the Britannic catalogue. One of the 1st magnitude, one of the 2nd, one of the 4th, etc.
The brightest star, ± (in the body), is named Procyon, which means REDEEMER, and it tells us that this glorious Prince is none other than the one who was slain. Just as this chapter begins with two persons in one in the Sign (Gemini), one victorious, the other wounded; so it ends with a representation of two princes, one of whom is seen triumphant and the other as the Redeemer.
The Witness of the Stars
This is confirmed by the next star, ² (in the neck), which is named Al Gomeisa (Arabic), the burthened, loaded, bearing for others. The names of the other stars, not identified, still further confirm the great truth; viz. , Al Shira, or Al Shemeliya (Arabic), the prince or chief of the left hand, answering to the star in Sirius.
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One right, the other left, as the two united youths are placed. Al Mirzam, the prince or ruler; and Al Gomeyra, who completes or perfects.
This does, indeed, complete and perfect the presentation of this chapter: Messiah's reign as Prince of Peace; the enemy trodden under foot by the glorious “Prince of princes,” who is none other than the glorified Redeemer.
This is also what is written in the Book:
“Shall the prey be taken from the mighty,
Or the lawful captives68 be delivered?
But thus saith the LORD,
Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, And the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: For I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, And I will save thy children.
And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; And they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine;
And all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour, And thy REDEEMER—the Mighty One of Jacob.”
(Isa. xlix. 24-26, R.V.)
“When the enemy shall come in like a flood,
The Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him, And the REDEEMER shall come to Zion.”
68 Marg., “the captives of the just,” or, as read by the Vulg. and Syr. , “the captives of the terrible.”
Chapter III. The Sign CANCER (The Crab).
155
(Isa. lix, 19, 20.)
“And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He hath poured out His soul unto death.”
(Isa. liii. 12.)
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Chapter III. The Sign CANCER (The Crab).
Messiah's Redeemed Possessions held fast.
With regard to the sign of CANCER, one thing is certain, that we have not got the original picture, or anything like it.
It does not agree with the names either of its three constellations which have come down to us, or of its stars.
In the ancient Denderah Zodiac it is represented as a Scarabæus, or sacred beetle.69
In the Zodiac of Esneh and
in a Hindu Zodiac (400 B.C.) it is the same.
69 The Scarabæus, passing its early existence as a worm of the earth, and thence issuing as a winged denizen of heaven, was held sacred by the Egyptians as an emblem of the resurrection of the body.
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The Witness of the Stars
Plate 35: CANCER (the Crab)
According to the Greeks, Jupiter placed this Crab amongst the signs of the Zodiac.
In Sir William Jones's Oriental Zodiac we meet with a crab, and an Egyptian Zodiac found at Rome bears also the crab in this sign.
The more ancient Egyptians placed Hermanubis, or Hermes, with the head of an ibis or hawk, as the symbol of the sign now allotted to Cancer.
The Denderah name is Klaria, or the cattle-folds, and in this name we have the key to the meaning of the sign, and to the
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subject of this chapter.
The Arabic name is Al Sartan, which means who holds or binds, and may be from the Hebrew
, to bind togeth-
er (Gen. xlix. 11). There is no ancient Hebrew word known for the crab. It was classed with many other unclean creatures, and would be included in the general term “vermin.”
The Syriac, Sartano, means the same. The Greek name is Karkinos, which means holding or encircling, as does the Latin,
Chapter III. The Sign CANCER (The Crab).
157
Cancer, and hence is applied to the crab. In the word Khan, we have the traveller's rest or inn; while Ker or Cer is the Arabic for encircling. The ancient Akkadian name of the month is Su-kul-na, the seizer or possessor of seed.
The sign contains 83 stars, one of which is of the 3rd magnitude, and seven are of the 4th magnitude, and the remainder of inferior magnitudes.
In the centre of the Sign there is a remarkably bright cluster of stars, so bright that they can be sometimes seen with the naked eye. It looks like a comet, and is made up of a great multitude of stars. Modern astronomers have called it the Beehive. But its ancient name has come down to us as Praesepe, which means a multitude, offspring.
The brightest star, ¶ (in the head), is called Tegmine, holding.
The star ± (or ±1 and ±2), in the lower large claw, is called Acubene, which, in Hebrew and Arabic, means the sheltering or hiding-place. Another is named Ma'alaph (Arabic), assembled thousands; Al Himarein (Arabic), the kids or lambs.
North and south of the nebula Praesepe are two stars, which Orientalists speak of by a name evidently of some antiquity.
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Asellus means an Ass, and one was called Asellus Boreas, the northern Ass; while the other, Asellus Australis, is the southern Ass.
The sign was afterwards known by the symbol
, which
stands for these two asses.70
This connects it with the Tribe of Issachar, who is said to have borne upon the Tribal standard the sign of two asses.
This is doubtless the reference in Jacob's blessing (Gen. xlix.
11, R.V.):—
“Issachar is a strong ass,
Couching down between the sheepfolds;
And he saw a resting-place that it was good;
70 The Ass was the emblem of Typhon, the king who smites or is smitten.
The Witness of the Stars
And the land that it was pleasant;
And he bowed his shoulder to bear,
And became a servant under task work.”
Have we not here the gathering up of the teaching of this sign—
Messiah's redeemed possessions held fast.
Here we come to the completion of His work. In CANCER we see it with reference to His redeemed, and in the next (the last) Sign, LEO, with reference to His enemies.
The three constellations develope the truth. What is now called Ursa Minor is the Lesser Flock; Ursa Major gives us The Sheepfold and the Sheep; while Argo, The Ship, shows the travellers and the pilgrims brought safely home—all conflict over.
To accomplish this, we see the true Issachar bowing his shoul-
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der to bear. He could say, “My soul is bowed down” (Ps. lvii.
6). HE became a servant, and humbled Himself to death. HE
undertook the mighty task of saving His people from their sins.
“Their Redeemer is strong” (Jer. l. 34); for help was laid on
“One that was mighty” (Ps. lxxxix. 19). And His redeemed shall come to a resting-place that is good, and to a land that is pleasant.
No earthly Khan on earth affords them a home. They look for a heavenly home, and in the many mansions of the Father's house they shall find eternal rest.
Here we see that sheltering home to which the names of these stars point; where the assembled thousands ( Ma'alaph) shall be received into the true Klaria, even the “everlasting habitations.”
These are now to be shown to us.
1. URSA MINOR (The Little Bear).
The Lesser Sheepfold.
1. URSA MINOR (The Little Bear).
159
Here we come to another grievous mistake, or ignorant perversion of primitive truth, as shown in the ancient names of these two constellations.
It is sufficient to point to the fact that no Bear is found in any Chaldean, Egyptian, Persian, or Indian Zodiacs, and that no bear was ever seen with such a tail! No one who had ever seen a bear would have called attention to a tail, such as no bear ever had, by placing in its very tip the most important, wondrous, and mysterious Polar Star, the central star of the heavens, round which all others revolve. The patriarchal astronomers, we may be sure, committed no such folly as this.
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The primitive truth that there were two, or a pair of constellations is preserved; and that of these two, one is larger, and the other smaller. But what were they? We have the clue to the answer in the name of the brightest star of the larger constellation, which is called Dubheh. Now Dubheh means a herd of animals.
In Arabic, Dubah means cattle. In Hebrew,
,
DMhver, is a fold; and hence in Chaldee it meant wealth. The Hebrew
, DMhveh, means rest or security; and certainly there is not much of either to be found or enjoyed with bears! The word occurs in Deut. xxxiii. 25: “As thy days so shall thy strength be.” The Revised Version gives in the margin,
“So shall thy rest or security be.” This accords with what we have already seen under “CANCER”: “Couching down between the sheepfolds,71 he saw a resting-place that it was good.”
Here are the two Sheepfolds, then; the Greater fold, and Lesser; and here is the rest and security which the flocks will find therein.
But in Hebrew there is a word very similar in sound, though not in spelling—
or
, dMhv, which means a
bear! So we find in Arabic dub; Persian, deeb and dob. We can see, therefore, how the Hebrew DMhver, a fold, and DMhv, a bear, 71 The word is so rendered in Judges v. 16, in A.V.{FNS
160
The Witness of the Stars
were confused; and how the Arabic Dubah, cattle, might easily have been mistaken by the Greeks, and understood as a bear.
Plate 36: URSA MINOR
The constellation, which we must therefore call THE LESSER
SHEEPFOLD, contains 24 stars, viz. , one of the 2nd magnitude, two
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of the 3rd, four of the 4th, etc.
The brightest star, ± (at the point of the tail), is the most important in the whole heavens. It is named Al Ruccaba, which means the turned or ridden on, and is to-day the Polar or central star, which does not revolve in a circle as does every other star, but remains, apparently, fixed in its position. But though the star does not revolve like the others, the central point in the heavens is very slowly but steadily moving. When these constellations were formed the Dragon possessed this important point, and the star ±, in Draco, marked this central point. But, by its gradual recession, that point is sufficiently near this star Ruccaba, in the Lesser Sheepfold, for it to be what is called “the Polar Star.” But, how could this have been known five or six thousand years ago?
How could it have been known when it received its name, which means the turned or ridden on? That it was known is clear: so likewise was it made known in the written Word that the original blessing included not merely the multiplication of the seed of
1. URSA MINOR (The Little Bear).
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faithful Abraham, but it was then added, “And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies” (Gen. xxii. 17).
This star was called by the Greeks šÅ½yÿÅÁ±, the “Cyno-sure.” ARATUS seems to apply this term to the whole of the seven stars of the Lesser Bear. Mr. Robert Brown, Junr., shows72 that šÅ½yÿÅÁ±, once supposed to be Hellenic, is non-Hellenic, and possibly Euphratean in origin, from a word which he transliter-ates An-nas-sur-ra, and renders it, “as it literally means, high in rising, i.e. , in heavenly position.” Is not this the primitive truth
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of the Revelation? Will not this Lesser Fold be high, yea, the highest in heavenly position?
The Polar Star has been removed from the Dragon, and is now in the Lesser Fold; and when the Dragon shall be cast down from the heavens, the heavenly seed will be safely folded there. But this is the Lesser Sheepfold. These are they who all through the ages have been “partakers of the heavenly calling,” who desired a better country, that is, a heavenly; wherefore God “hath prepared for them a city,” the city for which Abraham himself “looked.”
This was no earthly city, but a city “whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. xi. 10-16). These have always been a smaller company, a “little flock,” but the kingdom shall be theirs, even the kingdom of God, for which they now look and wait. They have not yet “received the promises; but, having seen them afar off” by faith, they “were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth”
(Heb. xi. 13). Their Messiah has accomplished “the redemption of the purchased possession,” and in due time the redeemed will inherit it, “unto the praise of His glory” (Eph. i. 13).
The bright star ² is named Kochab, which means waiting Him who cometh. Other stars, not identified, are named Al Pherkadain (Arabic), which means the calves, or the young (as in Deut. xxii.
6), the redeemed assembly. Another, Al Gedi, means the kid.
72 Euphratean Stellar Researches, pp. 8, 9.
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Another is Al Kaid, the assembled; while Arcas, or Arctos (from which we derive the term Arctic regions), means, according to one interpreter, a travelling company; or, according to another, the stronghold of the saved.
But there is not only the heavenly seed, which is compared
“to the stars of heaven,” but there is the seed that is compared to “the sand of the sea”—the larger flock or company, who will enjoy the earthly blessing.
This brings us to—
2. URSA MAJOR (The Great Bear).
The Fold and the Flock.
Of these it is written:—
“But in Mount Zion there shall be those that escape, And it shall be holy:
And the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.”
(Obad. 17-19, R.V.)
It is a large and important constellation, containing 87 stars, of which one is of the 1st magnitude, four of the 2nd, three of the 3rd, ten of the 4th, etc. It always presents a splendid appearance, and is perhaps, therefore, the best known of all the constellations.
In the Book of Job (ix. 9, and xxxviii. 31, 32) it is mentioned under the name of Ash. “Canst thou guide Ash and her offspring?”
which is rendered in the A.V., “Arcturus and his sons,” and in the
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R.V., “The Bear with her train” (marg., “sons”). The Arabs still call it Al Naish, or Annaish, the assembled together, as sheep in a fold. The ancient Jewish commentators interpreted Ash as the seven stars of this constellation. They are called by others Septentriones, which thus became the Latin word for North.
2. URSA MAJOR (The Great Bear).
163
Plate 37: URSA MAJOR
The brightest star, ± (in the back), is named Dubhe, which, as we have seen, means a herd of animals, or a flock, and gives its name to the whole constellation.
The star ² (below it) is named Merach (Hebrew), the flock (Arabic, purchased).
The star ³ (on the left of [Greek: beta]) is called Phaeda, or Phacda, meaning visited, guarded, or numbered, as a flock; for His sheep, like the stars, are both numbered and named. (See Psalm cxlvii. 4.)
The star µ is called Alioth, a name we have had in Auriga, meaning a she goat.
The star ¶ (in the middle of the tail) is called Mizar, separate or small, and close to it Al Cor, the Lamb (known as “g”).
The star · (at the end of the so-called tail) is named Benet Naish (Arabic), the daughters of the assembly. It is also called Al Kaid, the assembled.
The star ¹ (in its right foot) is called Talitha.
The names of other stars, not identified, all give the same testimony: El Alcola (Arabic), the sheep-fold (as in Ps. xcv.
7; and c. 3); Cab'd al Asad, multitude, many assembled; Annaish, the assembled; Megrez, separated, as the flock in the fold; El Kaphrah,
protected, covered (Heb. redeemed and
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The Witness of the Stars
ransomed); Dubheh Lachar (Arabic), the latter herd or flock; Helike (so called by HOMER in the Iliad), company of travellers; Amaza (Greek), coming and going; Calisto, the sheepfold set or appointed.
There is not one discordant voice in the rich abundance of this testimony. We have nothing to do here with the Grecian myths about bears or wild boars. We see only the innumerable seed gathered by Him who scattered (Jer. xxxi. 10).
Many are the Scriptures we might quote which speak of this gathering and assembling of the long-scattered flock. It is written as plainly in the Book, as it is in the heavens. The prophecies of this gathering are as conspicuous in the Word of God as the
“Seven Stars” are in the sky. It is difficult even to make a selection from the wealth of such promises; but few are more beautiful than that in Ezek. xxxiv. 12-16:
“As a shepherd seeketh out his flock
In the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; So will I seek out my sheep,
And will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
And I will bring them out from the people,
And gather them from the countries,
And will bring them to their own land,
And feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers And in all the inhabited places of the country.
I will feed them in a good pasture,
And upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be:
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There shall they lie in a good fold,
And in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.
I will feed my flock,
And I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.
(Adonai Jehovah).
I will seek that which was lost,
165
And bring again that which was driven away,
And will bind up that which was broken,
And will strengthen that which was sick:
But I will destroy the fat and the strong;
I will feed them with judgment.”
It is of this judgment with which this book, and indeed the whole Revelation, ends, in the next and final chapter.
But before we come to that we have one more picture in the third constellation of this Sign, which combines the first two in one.
3. ARGO (The Ship).
The Pilgrims safe at Home.
This is the celebrated ship of the Argonauts, which HOMER
sung nearly ten centuries before Christ. Sir Isaac Newton puts the expedition of the Argonauts shortly after the death of Solomon (about 975 B.C.). While Dr. Blair's chronology puts it 1236 B.C.
Whatever fables have gathered round the story there can be no doubt as to its great antiquity. Some think that the story had its origin in name, as well as in fact, from the Ark of Noah and its mysterious journey. All that is clear, when divested of mythic details, is that the sailors in that ship, after all their dangers, and toils, and battles were over, came back victorious to their
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own shores. The “golden fleece,” for which the Argonauts went in search, tells of a treasure that had been lost. “Jason,” the great captain, tells of Him who recovered it from the Serpent, which guarded it with ever-watchful eye, when none else was able to approach it. And thus, through the fables and myths of the Greeks, we can see the light primeval shine; and this light, once seen, lights up this Sign and its constellations, so that their teaching cannot be misunderstood.
The Witness of the Stars
ARATUS sings of Argo:—
“Stern-foremost hauled; no mark of onward-speeding ship.
Sternward she comes, as vessels do
When sailors turn the helm
On entering harbour: all the oars back-water,
And gliding backward, to an anchor comes.”
It tells of that blessed home-coming, when—
“The ransomed of the LORD shall return
And come to Zion with songs,
And everlasting joy upon their heads;
They shall obtain joy and gladness,
And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
(Isa. xxxv. 10.)
It tells of the glorious Jason,73 of whom it is asked:
“Art thou not it which hath cut Rahab,
And wounded the dragon?
Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep;
That hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?
Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, And come with singing unto Zion,” etc.
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(Isa. li. 9-11.)
“For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob,
And ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion And shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD.”
73 The Græco-Judean equivalent of Joshua or Jesus.
3. ARGO (The Ship).
167
(Jer. xxxi. 11, 12.)
This is the return of the great emigrant-ship ( Argo) and all its company of travellers (for this is the meaning of the word Argo).
Plate 38: ARGO (the Ship)
In Kircher's Egyptian Planisphere Argo is represented by two galleys (as we have two sheepfolds), whose prows are surmounted by rams' heads; and the stern of one of them ends in a fish's tail. One of the two occupies four segments of the sphere (from Taurus to Virgo), while the other occupies the four from Leo to Capricorn. One half of the southern meridians is occupied with these galleys and their construction and decorations. Astronomers tell us that they carry us back, the one to the period
The Witness of the Stars
when the Bull opened the year (to which time VIRGIL refers); and the other to the same epoch, when the summer solstice was in Leo—“an era greatly antecedent to the Argonautic expedition.
How else, they ask, do we account for the one ship having her prow in the first Decan of Taurus, and her poop in the last Decan of Leo? or for one galley being freighted with the installed Bull, and the other with the solstitial Lion?”74
These are the words of an astronomer who knows nothing whatever of our interpretation of the heavens which is set forth
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in this work.
It will indeed be a large vessel, the true Argo, with its company of travellers, “a great multitude which no man can number.” All this is indicated by the immense size of the Constellation, as well as by the large number of its stars. There are 64 stars in Argo (reckoning by the Britannic catalogue); one of the 1st magnitude, six of the 2nd, nine of the 3rd, nine of the 4th, etc. Only a small part of the ship's poop is visible in Britain.
Its brightest star, ± (near the keel), is called Canopus or Canobus, which means the possession of Him who cometh. Other star-names, not identified, are— Sephina, the multitude or abundance; Tureis, the possession; Asmidiska, the released who travel; Soheil (Arabic), the desired; and Subilon, the Branch.
Is not all this exactly in harmony with the rest of this sign?
And is not this what is written in the Book?
“Therefore, fear thou not, O My servant Jacob, saith the LORD;
Neither be dismayed, O Israel:
For, lo, I will save thee from afar,
And thy seed from the land of their captivity;
And Jacob shall return and be in rest,
And be quiet, and none shall make him afraid,
For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee.”
74 Jamieson's Scientific Display, &c., p. 58.
169
(Jer. xxx. 10, 11.)
“Lift up thine eyes round about, and see;
All they gather themselves together, they come to thee; Thy sons shall come from far,
And thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side,
Then thou shalt see, and flow together,
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And thine heart shall fear and be enlarged;
Because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee....
Who are these that fly as a cloud?
And as doves to their windows?
Surely the isles shall wait for me,
And the SHIPS of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far.”
(Isa. lx. 4, 5, 8, 9.)
The whole chapter (Isa. lx.) should be read if we wish to understand the great teaching of this Sign, which tells of Messiah's secured possessions, the safe folding of His blood-bought flock, the blessed return of His pilgrims, and their abundant entrance into everlasting rest.
“There is a blessed home
Beyond this land of woe,
Where trials never come,
Nor tears of sorrow flow;
Where faith is lost in sight,
And patient love is crowned,
And everlasting light
Its glory throws around.
The Witness of the Stars
O joy, all joys beyond,
To see the Lamb who died,
And count each sacred wound
In hands, and feet, and side;
To give to Him the praise
Of every triumph won,
And sing through endless days
The great things He hath done.
Look up, ye saints of God,
Nor fear to tread below
The path your Saviour trod
Of daily toil and woe;
Wait but a little while
In uncomplaining love,
His own most gracious smile
Shall welcome you above.”
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Chapter IV. The Sign LEO (The Lion).
Messiah's Consummated Triumph.
Here we come to the end of the circle. We began with Virgo, and we end with Leo. No one who has followed our interpretation can doubt that we have here the solving of the Riddle of the Sphinx. For its Head is Virgo and its Tail is Leo!
In Leo we reach the end of the Revelation as inspired in the Word of God; and it is the end as written in the heavens.
BAILLY ( Astronomy) says, “the Zodiac must have been first divided when the sun at the summer solstice was in 1° Virgo, where the woman's head joins the Lion's tail.”
Chapter IV. The Sign LEO (The Lion).
171
As to its antiquity there can be no doubt. JAMIESON says, “the Lion does not seem to have been placed among the Zodiacal symbols, because Hercules was fabled to have slain the Nemean Lion. It would seem, on the contrary, that Hercules, who represented the Sun, was said to have slain the Nemean Lion, because Leo was already a Zodiacal sign. Hercules flourished 3,000 years ago, and consequently posterior to the period when the summer solstice accorded with Leo.” ( Celestial Atlas, p. 40).
There is no confusion about this sign. In the ancient Zodiacs of Egypt (Denderah, Esneh) and India we find the Lion. The same occurs on the Mithraic monuments, where Leo is passant, as he
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is in Moor's Hindu, and Sir William Jones's Oriental Zodiacs. In Kircher's Zodiacs he is courrant; in the Egyptian Zodiacs he is couchant.
In the Denderah Zodiac he is treading upon a serpent, as shown in Mr. Edward Cooper's Egyptian Scenery.
Plate 39: LEO (the Lion)
Its Egyptian name is Pi Mentekeon, which means the pouring out. This is no pouring out or inundation of the Nile, but it is the pouring out of the cup of Divine wrath on that Old Serpent.
This is the one great truth of the closing chapter of this last Book. It is
The Witness of the Stars
THE LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH AROUSED FOR THE RENDING
OF THE PREY.
His feet are over the head of Hydra, the great Serpent, and just about to descend upon it and crush it.
The three constellations of the Sign complete this final picture: 1. Hydra, the old Serpent destroyed.
2. Crater, the Cup of Divine wrath poured out upon him.
3. Corvus, the Bird of prey devouring him.
The Denderah picture exhibits all four in one. The Lion is presented treading down the Serpent. The Bird of prey is also perched upon it, while below is a plumed female figure holding
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out two cups, answering to Crater, the cup of wrath.
The hieroglyphics read Knem, and are placed underneath.
Knem means who conquers, or is conquered, referring to the victory over the serpent. The woman's name is Her-ua, great enemy, referring to the great enemy for which her two cups are prepared and intended.
The Hebrew name of the sign is Arieh, which means the Lion.
There are six Hebrew words for Lion,75 and this one is used of the Lion hunting down his prey.
The Syriac name is Aryo, the rending Lion, and the Arabic is Al Asad; both mean a lion coming vehemently, leaping forth as a flame!
It is a beautiful constellation of 95 stars, two of which are of the 1st magnitude, two of the 2nd, six of the 3rd, thirteen of the 4th.
The brightest star, ± (on the Ecliptic), marks the heart of the Lion (hence sometimes called by the moderns, Cor Leonis, the heart of the Lion). Its ancient name is Regulus, which means 75 (1) Gor, a lion's whelp. (2) Ciphir, a young lion when first hunting for himself. (3) Sachal, a mature lion in full strength. (4) Laish, a fierce lion. (5) Labia, a lioness; and (6) Arieh, an adult lion, having paired, in search of his prey (Nah. ii. 12; 2 Sam. xvii. 10; Num. xxiii. 24).
Chapter IV. The Sign LEO (The Lion).
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treading under foot. The next star, ², also of the 1st magnitude (in the tip of the tail), is named Denebola, the Judge or Lord who cometh. The star ³ (in the mane) is called Al Giebha (Arabic), the exaltation. The star ´ (on the hinder part of the back) is called Zosma, shining forth.
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Other stars, not identified, are named Sarcam (Hebrew), the joining; intimating that here is the point where the two ends of the Zodiacal circle have their joining. Another star has the name of Minchir al Asad (Arabic), the punishing or tearing of the Lion.
Another is Deneb Aleced, the judge cometh who seizes. And another is Al Dafera (Arabic), the enemy put down.
What can be more expressive? What can be more eloquent?
All is harmony, and all the names unite in pointing us to what is written of “the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.”
And why is Messiah thus called? Because it is applied to Him in Rev. v. 5 in connection with His rising up for judgment: and because the Lion is known to have been always borne upon the standard of Judah, whether in the wilderness (Num. ii.) or in aftertimes.
In Israel's dying blessing the prophetic words foretold of Judah:
“Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; ...
Judah is a lion's whelp;
From the prey, my son, thou art gone up.
He stooped down, he couched as a lion,
And as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?”
(Gen. xlix. 8, 9.)
In the prophecy of Balaam (Num. xxiv. 8, 9), we read:
“He shall eat up the nations his enemies,
And shall break their bones,
And pierce them through with his arrows,
He couched, he lay down as a lion,
And as a great lion; who shall stir him up?”
The Witness of the Stars
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The same testimony is borne by the Prophet Amos:
“Will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey?
Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he hath taken nothing?...
The lion hath roared, who will not fear?”
(Amos iii. 4, 8.)
When “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” is roused up for the rending, the Spirit describes the scene in Isa. xlii. 13:
“The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man,
He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war;
He shall cry, yea, roar;
He shall prevail against His enemies.”
And this is what is meant and included when the Elder says for John's comfort, “the Lion of the Tribe of Judah hath prevailed,” and hence, is “worthy ... to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing”
(Rev. v.).
Whether we look, therefore, at the primeval Revelation in the heavens, or at the later Revelation in the Word, the story is one and the same.
And what we see of Leo and his work in both, we find developed and described in the three constellations of the Sign.
1. HYDRA (The Serpent).
The Old Serpent Destroyed.
The time has at length come for the fulfilment of the many
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prophecies pictured in the heavens: and in its three final con-
2. CRATER (The Cup).
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stellations we see the consummation of them all in the complete destruction of the Old Serpent, and all his seed, and all his works.
Plate 40: HYDRA (the Serpent), CRATER (the Cup), CORVUS
(the Raven)
It is the special work of the Messiah, as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” to trample it under foot.
It is pictured as the female serpent (Hydra), the mother and author of all evil. Hydra has the significant meaning, he is abhorred!
It is an immense constellation extending for above 100 degrees from east to west, beneath the Virgin, the Lion, and the Crab. It is composed of 60 stars; one of the 2nd magnitude, three of the 3rd, twelve of the 4th, etc.
The brightest star, ± (in the heart of the Serpent), is sometimes called by the moderns Cor Hydræ on that account. Its ancient name is Al Phard (Arabic), which means the separated, put away. Another is called Al Drian, the abhorred. Another star is named Minchar al Sugia, the piercing of the deceiver.
There can be no doubt as to what is taught by the constellation of Hydra, nor is it necessary to quote the Scriptures concerning the destruction of the Serpent. We pass on to consider the second.
2. CRATER (The Cup).
The Witness of the Stars
The Cup of Divine wrath Poured out upon Him.
“God is the Judge.
He putteth down one, and setteth up another,
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FOR IN THE HAND OF THE LORD THERE IS A CUP,
And the wine is red; it is full of mixture,
And He poureth out of the same:
But the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them.”
(Ps. lxxv. 8.)
“Upon the wicked he shall rain snares,
Fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest:
THIS SHALL BE THE PORTION OF THEIR CUP.”
(Ps. xi. 6.)
This is no fabled wine-cup of Bacchus; but it is “The cup of His indignation” (Rev. xiv. 10); “The cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath” (Rev. xvi. 19). This is what we see set forth in this constellation. The Cup is wide and deep, and fastened on by the stars to the very body of the writhing serpent. The same stars which are in the foot of the Cup form part of the body of Hydra, and are reckoned as belonging to both constellations.
This Cup has the significant number of thirteen stars (the number of Apostacy). The two— Al Ches (±), which means the Cup, and (²)—determine the bottom of the Cup.
3. CORVUS (The Raven).
The Birds of Prey devouring the Serpent.
Here is the final scene of judgment. We have had Zeeb; the Wolf; now we have Oreb, the Raven. Her-na is its name in the Denderah Zodiac. Her, means the enemy; and Na, means
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breaking up or failing. That is to say, this scene represents the breaking up of the enemy.
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There are nine stars (the number of judgment) in this constellation. The bright star ± (in the eye) is called Al Chibar (Arabic), joining together, from the Hebrew Chiba (Num. xxiii. 8), which means accursed. This star, then, tells of the curse inflicted.
The star ² (in the right wing) is called Al Goreb (Arabic), from Hebrew Oreb, the Raven. A third star is named Minchar al Gorab (Arabic), and means the Raven tearing to pieces.
This brings us to the end. There is nothing beyond this.
Nothing remains to be told. We know from the Word of God that—
“The eye that mocketh at his father,
And despiseth to obey his mother,
The ravens of the valley shall pick it out.”
(Prov. xxx. 17.)
We remember how David said to the Giant Goliah—a type of this enemy of God's people—“I will smite thee, and take thy head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth” (1 Sam. xvii. 46).
When the great day of this judgment comes, an angel standing in the sun will cry “to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come, and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great” (Rev. xix. 17, 18).
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And after these awful words shall be fulfilled, in the closing words of the prophecy of Isaiah, Jehovah foretells us how—
The Witness of the Stars
“They shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against Me;
For their worm shall not die,
Neither shall their fire be quenched;
And they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.”
This is the teaching of the whole Sign of LEO! It is all summed up in Jer. xxv. 30-33:—
“Therefore prophesy against them all these words, and say unto them,
The LORD shall roar from on high,
And utter His voice from His holy habitation;
He shall mightily roar upon His habitation;
He shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, Against all the inhabitants of the earth.
A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; For the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, He will plead with all flesh;
He will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts,
Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, And a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.
And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth
Even to the other end of the earth;
They shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; They shall be dung upon the ground.”
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Here is the conclusion of the whole matter! Here is the final triumph of the Son of Man in the consummated victory of the Seed of the woman: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive
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power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing” (Rev. v. 12).
“O what a bright and blessed world
This groaning earth of ours will be,
When from its throne the tempter hurled,
Shall leave it all, O Lord, to Thee!
But brighter far that world above,
Where we, as we are known, shall know;
And, in the sweet embrace of love,
Reign o'er this ransomed earth below.
O blessed Lord! with longing eyes
That blissful hour we wait to see;
While every worm or leaf that dies
Tells of the curse, and calls for Thee.
Come, Saviour! Then o'er all below
Shine brightly from Thy throne above,
Bid heaven and earth Thy glory know,
And all creation feel Thy love.”
Man has ever sought to rob Christ of His glory. He has long since done his best to obliterate His name and His work from the Revelation which had been written in the stars of light. When He humbled Himself, and came as the promised Seed of the woman, men “saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him.” And these were religious men. It was religious men, not the common rabble, whom the Old Serpent made use of to wound Him in the heel. The Devil could not touch Him himself; he must use them as his instruments; and it was only religious men that could be so used.
It was the “chief priests and scribes,” men learned in the Scriptures, whose very knowledge of the Word was used to compass
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His death amongst the babes at Bethlehem (Matt. ii. 4-6).
It was the same priests and scribes who were used to put Him to death, and give the long-prophesied wound in the heel.
Religion without Christ is enmity against God! Knowledge of the Scriptures where the heart is not subject to Christ, and where Christ is not seen in them, is powerless and lifeless. It is true of the Scriptures, as it will be of the heavenly Jerusalem—“THE
LAMB IS THE LIGHT THEREOF” (Rev. xxi. 23).
The Church of Rome has been used of the great enemy to rob the Lamb of God of His promised glory. JEROME, in his Latin translation of the Bible (405 A.D.), wrote “ipse,” HE, in Gen. iii.
15, as the “bruiser of the serpent's head.” And, in spite of the fact that JEROME himself so quotes it in his commentary, and that it is masculine in all the other ancient translations of the Bible, Rome has first corrupted JEROME'S Vulgate by changing the “e” into
“a,” and putting “ipsa” (she) instead of “ipse” (He); then she has so translated this corruption and perpetuated this perversion in
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various languages! So that in all her versions, in her pictures and statues, in the decree of Pope Pius IX., which promulgated the dogma of the “immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary,” this lie of the Old Serpent has been foisted on unnumbered thousands of deluded souls, who have thereby been deceived into putting Mary in the place of Jesus; the “co-Redemptress” in the place of the Redeemer; the creature in the place of the Creator; the woman in the place of the woman's Seed;—until the outcome is reached by emblazoning, in huge gilt letters, on the outside of a
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large church in Rathmines, Dublin, “MARIÆ PECCATORUM
REFUGIUM,” to Mary the Refuge of Sinners!
So complete has been the success of the subtlety of the Serpent, that he has beguiled thousands of Protestants to unite in circulating these corrupted versions as the Word of God, thus giving currency to the Devil's lie. This is done on the plea of expediency, in order that these versions might come to many as Protestant truth instead of Popish error; but thus misleading those who were seeking for light, while confirming Papists in their darkness.
But through all the “wisdom of the Serpent” we can detect his lie. It is very thinly veiled, and the Old Serpent has not succeeded in blinding the eyes which the Spirit of God has opened. True, we see in all Rome's pictures and statues the foot of Mary, on the Serpent's head, but the foot is not coming down, nor is the head crushed! Rather is the woman's foot resting on its head; and the woman herself supported by the Serpent.
The whole system of Mary-anity is thus seen to be the outcome of the Serpent's wisdom in opposition to the true Christ-ianity.
How different are the primeval star-pictures of the heavens.
There, the club is lifted up, the foot is coming down, yea, the foot is actually planted upon the enemy, treading the Scorpion under foot.
Rome may corrupt the words of the Book, but she cannot touch the stars of heaven! The Devil himself cannot move them
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The Witness of the Stars
from their places. He may choose and use his servants and agents for corrupting the Scriptures written in the Book, but he cannot change the Revelation of the stars.
There,—no woman's foot is seen upon the Serpent's head!
There,—no woman usurps the place of the all-glorious Redeemer!
In Ophiuchus we see HIM in dread conflict with the Serpent, and we see HIS foot upon the Scorpion's heart (SCORPIO). We see HIM, the Risen Lamb (ARIES), binding Cetus, the great Monster of the Deep; we see HIM in the glorious Orion, whose foot is coming down on the enemy's head ( Lepus); we see HIM in the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (LEO), about to tread down that Old Serpent ( Hydra) the Devil; we see HIM in the mighty Hercules, who has his foot on the head of the Dragon ( Draco), and his up-lifted club about to inflict the long-threatened blow; we see HIM crowned in Cepheus, with all His enemies subdued, and His right foot planted upon the Polar Star!
True, we do see a WOMAN in this heavenly and Divine revelation; for there are four women. Two are connected with the REDEEMER, and two with the REDEEMED. The Redeemer is seen in the one (VIRGO) as the “promised Seed”; in the other ( Coma), He is seen as the child born, the Son given. The Redeemed are represented in one as a captive chained ( Andromeda), with no power to wage conflict with an enemy, but a prey to every foe;
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in the other ( Cassiopeia), she is enthroned, with no necessity for conflict. For with one hand she waves the palm of a victory which another ( Perseus) has wrought on her behalf, while with her right hand she is preparing and making herself ready for “the marriage of the Lamb.”
Thus pure and undefiled is this primeval fountain of Divine truth. Thus harmonious is it with the written Word of God.
And He who gave them both to enlighten a dark world which lieth in the power of this wicked one, has filled both with one subject—“The sufferings of Christ and the glory that should
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follow.”
These are set forth by the Holy Spirit in a double sevenfold expansion of the prophetic promise of Gen. iii. 15, giving seven steps in His humiliation and seven in His glorification (Phil. ii.
5-1176).
CHRIST JESUS,
1. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery (a thing to be grasped at and held) to be equal with God; 2. But made Himself of no reputation (Gr. emptied Himself),
3. And took upon Him the form of a servant,
4. And was made in the likeness of men:
5. And being found in fashion as a man. He humbled Himself.
6. And became obedient unto death,
7. Even the death of the cross.
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WHEREFORE
1. God also hath highly exalted Him,
2. And given Him a name which is above every name: 3. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 4. Of things in heaven,
5. And things on earth,
6. And things under the earth;
7. And that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Amen.
76 The passage consists really of two members, each of which is arranged as an introversion, where the subject of 1 corresponds to 7; 2 corresponds to 6; etc.
The Witness of the Stars
“Come, then, and, added to Thy many crowns,
Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth,
Thou who alone art worthy! It was thine
By ancient covenant, ere Nature's birth;
And Thou hast made it Thine by purchase since,
And overpaid its value with Thy blood.
Thy saints proclaim Thee king; and in their hearts Thy title is engraven with a pen
Dipp'd in the fountain of eternal love.
Thy saints proclaim Thee king; and Thy delay
Gives courage to their foes, who, could they see The dawn of Thy last advent, long desired,
Would creep into the bowels of the hills,
And flee for safety to the falling rocks.”
“Come, then, and, added to Thy many crowns,
Receive yet one, as radiant as the rest,
Due to Thy last and most effectual work,
Thy Word fulfilled, the conquest of a world.”
( Cowper. )
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We have seen the great truths which are taught from the position, and forms, and names of the heavenly bodies. There are also truths to be learnt from their motions.
When God created them and set them in the firmament of heaven, He said, in Gen. i. 14—
“Let them be for signs and for seasons.”
Here the word “signs” is othoth (
, plural of
, oth, from the root
, to come). Hence,
a sign of something or some One to come. In Jer. x. 2 Jehovah says, “And be not dismayed at the signs (
)
of the heavens, for the heathen are dismayed at them.” The word
“seasons” does not denote merely what we call the four seasons of the year, but cycles of time. It is
, appointed
time (from the verb
, to point out, appoint). It occurs three more times in Genesis, each time in connection with the promised Seed—
Gen. xvii. 21, “At this set time in the next year”; Gen. xviii. 14, “At the time appointed I will return”; and Gen. xxi. 2, “At the set time of which God had spoken.”
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Gen. i. 14 is therefore, “They (the sun, moon, and stars) shall be for signs (things to come) and for cycles (appointed times).”
Here, then, we have a distinct declaration from God, that the heavens contain not only a Revelation concerning things to come in the “Signs,” but also concerning appointed times in the wondrous movements of the sun, and moon, and stars.
The motions of the sun and moon are so arranged that at the end of a given interval of time they return into almost precisely the same position, with regard to each other and to the earth, as they held at the beginning of that interval. “Almost precisely,”
The Witness of the Stars
but not quite precisely. There will be a slight outstanding difference, which will gradually increase in successive intervals, and finally destroy the possibility of the combination recurring, or else lead to combinations of a different character.
Thus the daily difference between the movement of the sun and of the stars leads the sun back very nearly to conjunction with the same star as it was twelve months earlier, and gives us the cycle of the year. The slight difference in the sun's position relative to the stars at the end of the year, finally leads the sun back to the same star at the same time of the year, viz. , at the spring equinox, and gives us the great precessional cycle of 25,800 years.
So, too, with eclipses. Since the circumstances of any given eclipse are reproduced almost exactly 18 years and 11 days later, this period is called an Eclipse Cycle, to which the ancient
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astronomers gave the name of Saros;77 and eclipses separated from each other by an exact cycle, and, therefore, corresponding closely in their conditions, are spoken of as being one and the same eclipse. Each Saros contains, on the average, about 70 ±
eclipses. Of these, on the average, 42 ± are solar and 28 ± are lunar. Since the Saros is 11 days (or, more correctly, 10.96 days) longer than 18 years, the successive recurrences of each eclipse fall 11 days later in the year each time, and in 33 Sari will have travelled on through the year and come round very nearly to the original date.
But as the Saros does not reproduce the conditions of an eclipse with absolute exactness, and as the difference increases with every successive return, a time comes when the return of the Saros fails to bring about an eclipse at all. If the eclipse be a solar one before this takes place, a new eclipse begins to form a month later in the year than the old one, and becomes the first 77 General Vallancey spells Saros
, which amounts to 666
by Gematria! Viz. ,
= 300 +
= 70 +
= 200 +
= 6 +
= 90 = 666.
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eclipse of a new series.
This is the history of one such eclipse: On May 15 (Julian), 850 A.D., there was a (new) eclipse of the sun, and it occurred as a partial eclipse. On August 20 (Julian), 1012 A.D., this new eclipse became total. From that time it has been an annular eclipse, the latitude of the central shadow gradually shifting southward from the north, until on December 17 (Julian), 1210, it had reached N. Lat. 24°. It turned northward again after 1210, until March 14 (Julian), 1355, when it fell in N. Lat. 43°. Then it turned south, and has moved steadily in that direction, until on March
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18 (Greg.), 1950, its last appearance as an annular eclipse will take place. On May 22 (Greg.), 2058, it will fall so far from the node that a new eclipse will follow it on June 21. It will make three more appearances as an ever-diminishing partial eclipse, and be last seen on June 24 (Greg.), 2112. Its total life-history, therefore, will have been 1,262 years and 36 days, and will have occupied 70 Sari.
In the above life-history of an eclipse78
The last appearance
of this new eclipse, which first appeared on July 22, 586, was on August 28 (Greg.), 1848, so that it had a life history of 70 Sari, amounting to 1,262 years 36 days (after the Julian dates have been corrected to correspond to the Gregorian). Thus the eclipse that died, so to speak, on August 28 (Greg.), 1848, first appeared on July 22 (Julian) in A.D.{FNS 586. See an important article on Eclipses by Mr. E. W. Maunder in Knowledge, for October 1893, where other life-histories of eclipses are given, and the whole subject of eclipses clearly explained.
there is not the slightest difficulty as to its identification. The 78 These facts are kindly supplied by Mr. E. W. Maunder, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, who gives another example, as follows:—
In A.D.{FNS 586 there were two solar eclipses: on June 22 (Julian) the old and dying eclipse, and on July 22 (Julian) another (the new one). A Saros ( viz. , 18 years and 11 days) earlier there was only one, viz. on June 11 (Julian), A.D.{FNS 568, there being no eclipse on July 11 of that year.
The Witness of the Stars
Saros shows no break, and no interruption; nor does the character of the eclipse suffer any abrupt change. The district over which it is visible moves in a slow and orderly fashion from occurrence to occurrence over the earth's surface.
Now the important point is this, that if we take the prophetic reckoning of 360 days to the year, we have the following significant Biblical numbers:—
In the first place, we already have the 70 ± Sari divided into two portions of 33 + 37.
A perfect cycle is accomplished in 33 Sari, or 595 years, when
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the eclipse, by a series of unbroken Sari, has accomplished a passage through the year of 360 days; or, if we reckon only the whole numbers, i.e. , the 18 completed years, we have for the 33
Sari the period of 594 years, while the remaining portion of 37
Sari makes 666 years (37 x 18) ; and the whole 70 ± Sari makes 1,260 years (594 + 666).79
We have then the following figures:—
18 x 33 = 594 years.
18 x 37 = 666 years.
18 x 70 = 1260 years.
Independently of this, we also know that 1,260 years is a soli-lunar cycle, so exact that its epact, or difference, is only 6
hours!
There must, therefore, be something significant in these numbers, e.g. , 70; in the number 1,260, with its divisions, not into two equal parts, but into 594 and 666; as also in its double, 2,520.
There must be something to be learned in the occurrence and repetition of these heavenly cycles, which for nearly 6,000 years 79 The relations between 595 years and 1,262 years 36 days, are the same as the relations between 594 years and 1,260 years. The difference of the 2 years 36 days is due to the excess of 10.96 days over the 18 completed years in each Saros.
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have been constantly repeated in the heavens, especially when we find these same numbers very prominently presented in the Word of God in connection with the fulfilment of prophecy.
We have the great “seven times” (2,520) connected with the duration of Israel's punishment, and of the Gentiles' power. We have in Daniel and the Apocalypse the half of this great period
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presented as “days” (1,260), as “months” (42), and as “times,”
or years (3-½).
Futurists believe that these “days” and “months,” etc., interpret for us the purposes and counsels of God as connected with “the time of the end,” and as meaning literal “days” and
“months,” etc.
Historicists take these terms and themselves interpret the numbers, in the sense of a “day” being put for a year, and they believe that these “1,260 days” will be fulfilled as 1,260 years.
One party boldly and ungraciously charges the other with teaching “The Fallacies of Futurism”; while the other might well retort with a reference to the Heresies of Historicism.
But is there any necessity for the existence of two hostile camps? Is it not possible that there may be what we may call a long fulfilment in years? And is it not more than probable that in the time of the end, the crisis, there will also be a short and literal fulfilment in days?
We firmly believe that there will be this literal and short fulfilment. We believe that when God says “days,” He means days; and that when He says “42 months,” He means months, and not 1,260 years. In all of the passages referred to by historicists in support of what is called “the year-day theory,” the Holy Spirit uses these words “days” and “years” in the sense of days and years. In the two particular instances of Israel's wanderings (Num. xiv. 34), and Ezekiel's prophesying (Ezek. iv. 6), He chooses to take the number of days as denoting the same number
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of years; but He does not tell us that we are to do the same in other cases! He only asserts His sovereignty by thus acting,
The Witness of the Stars
while we only show our presumption in taking His sovereign act as a general principle.
But while fully believing in the short fulfilment, we are quite prepared to admit that there may be a long fulfilment as well; and that, owing to the wondrous harmony, and marvellous correspondence, and infinite wisdom of all the works and ways of God, there may be a fulfilment, or rather a “filment,” if we may coin the word, in years, which will be only a foreshadowing of the literal ful-filment afterwards to take place in days.
If historicists will allow us this liberty as to interpretation, and permit us to believe that God means what He says, we will give them some remarkable evidence in support of their views, by way of application. In other words, if they will allow us to interpret “days” as meaning days, we will gladly allow them, and be at one with them, in applying them to years. So that while we believe the interpretation to mean “days,” and to teach a short fulfilment at the time of the end, we will thankfully admit an application which shall take these days as foreshowing a long fulfilment in years.
In applying, then, these significant numbers (42, 70, 594, 666, 1,260, and 2,520) to years, from what point or date shall we begin to reckon the “times of the Gentiles” (Luke xxi. 24)? That there
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are such definite “times” the words of the Lord Jesus show, when He says, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” (Luke xxi. 24). That there are “seven times” of Gentile dominion is more than intimated by the symbolic episode in the life of Nebuchadnezzar as recorded in Dan. iv.; and that there are “seven times” of Israel's punishment is clearly stated in Lev. xxvi. 18. “Seven times,” according to the Historicist school of interpreters, are equal to 2,520 years.
Instead of asking where they begin, let us first note the fact that it is duration which is emphasised in the Scriptures rather than chronology; and look at the duration of these years independently of, and before we attempt to fix, their beginning and ending.
191
In Daniel ii. and vii. it is shown first to Nebuchadnezzar in a “dream,” and afterwards to God's servant the prophet in a “vision,” that Israel was to be put on one side and become
“Lo-Ammi” ( not My people), while government was to be put into the hands of the Gentiles. Jerusalem was the central point of both these great and solemn facts. That is to say, during 2,520 years, while Jerusalem should remain in the power of the Gentiles, Israel could be “no more a nation” in possession of their land and city.
We know, as a matter of fact, that to-day Jerusalem is in the hands of the Turks, and that it is still “trodden down of the Gentiles.”
If we ask how long it shall continue to be “trodden down”?
how long it will be before Israel shall again possess their city and their land?—the answer brings us at once to the heart of our subject.
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In seeking to determine both duration and chronology, it is necessary to plant our feet on sure ground. To do this, let us take a point on which all are agreed.
There is one date which is universally accepted; and concerning which the evidence is unquestioned.
ABU OBEIDA, the Mahommedan General, laid siege to Jerusalem towards the close of 636 A.D. The city was then occupied by the Romans, who held out for four months. When they capitulated, the Patriarch SOPHRONIUS obtained a clause in the treaty giving security to the inhabitants, and requiring the ratification of OMAR himself. OMAR, who had therefore to be sent for, arrived some six months afterwards, and the delay caused the actual delivering up of the city to take place early in the autumn of A.D. 637.80
80 This is the date which concerns only the City of Jerusalem. The Romans were not completely driven out from the land until Cæsarea had fallen in 638, when the conquest was finally completed. See Gibbon's Decline and Fall.
The Witness of the Stars
The year A.D. 636-7 is therefore the accepted date of the passing over of Jerusalem from the Romans to the Turks.
OMAR seems to have stayed in the city only about ten days, during which he must have given his instructions for the erection of the Mosque on the site of the Temple. This Mosque, therefore, stands as the sign and the symbol of the treading down of Jerusalem, and while it remains, those times of treading down cannot be considered as fulfilled.
How steady was Israel's decadence from Nebuchadnezzar to OMAR! Nothing would exceed that darkest moment in Israel's
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history, when Israel was well nigh obliterated in the mighty struggles of her enemies who fought over her inheritance. Thus OMAR becomes the great central point of the 2,520 years, whether reckoned as Lunar, Zodiacal, or Solar, dividing them equally into two portions of 1,260 years.81
(2.) If we take Zodiacal
years (= 1242 Solar)—
(a.) reckoning backward we get to 608 B.C.{FNS, the date of the battle of Carchemish (2 Chron. xxxv. 20), when Babylon completed the conquest of Assyria, and became supreme; utterly shattering all the hope which Israel had in Egypt.
(b.) reckoning forward brings us to 1879 A.D.{FNS, when, by the Treaty of Berlin, Ottoman power received a blow from which it has never recovered, and which has prepared the way for its extinction.
(3.) If we take Solar years, then—
81 This date 636-7 is a great and important central date, whether we reckon backwards or forwards; whether we reckon them as Lunar, Zodiacal (360
days), or Solar (365 days) years.
(1.) If we take Lunar years (= 1222-1/2 Solar)—
(a.) reckoning backward, we get to 587 B.C.{FNS, the very date of the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar.
(b.) reckoning forward, we get to 1860 A.D.{FNS, the very date of the European intervention in the Lebanon, which has brought the Eastern Question into its present prominent position.
193
(a.) reckoning backward, we get to B.C.{FNS 624 (A.M.{FNS
3376), the beginning of the Babylonian kingdom, the “head of gold.”
(b.) reckoning forward we get to 1896-7 A.D.{FNS, which is yet future.
These reckonings in their beginnings and endings form an introversion, or Epanodos, thus:—
587 B.C.{FNS ...
606 B.C.{FNS ...
624 B.C.{FNS ...
dates
increasing.
1860 A.D.{FNS ... 1879 A.D.{FNS ... 1896-7 A.D.{FNS ... dates increasing.
The Solar reckonings are the more important dates; the Lunar are next in significance; while Zodiacal reckonings furnish us with dates which, to say the least, fit neatly into their places.
Having thus fixed the central date, which already points forward to the end, let us go back and find the starting point, that we may the better understand the end.
When Daniel was explaining to Nebuchadnezzar his mysterious dream, he said, “Thou art this head of gold”! (Dan. ii. 38).
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This moment is popularly, but erroneously, supposed to mark the commencement of the Babylonian kingdom—the first of these four great Gentile powers.
But Daniel spoke of what ALREADY existed, and was explaining the then condition of things. He said, “God hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory” (Dan. ii. 37). The kingdom of Babylon had already been in existence for more than thirty years, for its king had destroyed Jerusalem and burnt the Temple with fire, and brought away many captives, amongst whom was Daniel and his companions. The opening words of the book make this very clear.
The monumental history of Babylon, as now dug up, shows that before this it had been sometimes tributary to, and sometimes almost independent of, Assyria. In A.M. 3352, after a severe struggle with Assurbanipal, the Assyrian king, Babylon was once
The Witness of the Stars
more subdued, and its king setting fire to his palace perished in the flames. After that there was peace for twenty-two years, during which time Kandalanu governed Babylon in succession to Sumas-sum-ukin, a son of Assurbanipal.
In A.M. 3375 ( i.e. B.C. 627),82 another revolt broke out, and the Assyrian king sent a general of great ability to quell it. His name was Nabu-pal-user (which means Nebo protects his son). He put
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down the rebellion with so much skill that Assurbanipal made him governor of Babylon. He shortly afterwards, in A.M. 3376, himself rebelled, and made himself King of Babylon. Associating with him his son Nebuchadnezzar, they commenced a campaign against Assurbanipal, which ended in the fall of Nineveh and the complete subjugation of Assyria. The kingdom of Babylon, thus commencing in B.C. 625,83 dates, the latter are always apparently one year in advance of the former, because B.C.{FNS 4000 was A.M.{FNS 1, and B.C.{FNS 3999 was A.M.{FNS 2. Hence A.M.{FNS
3376 is not B.C.{FNS 624, but it is B.C.{FNS 625.
became the first great Gentile kingdom as foretold in Daniel.
There is practically no question, now, as to this date.
The actual duration of the three kingdoms that followed—Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece, may not perhaps be so accurately determined. Their total duration is known, because it is fixed by a known date at the other end, but it might introduce controversial matter if we attempted to assign to them their exact relative duration. Probably they were, roughly:—Babylon about 90 years; Medo-Persia about 200 years; Greece about 304 years.
82 These dates are those furnished by the Monuments, as given by Dr. Budge, of the British Museum, in his Babylonian Life and History, R.T.S., 1885. They also agree with the dates dug up by Sir Henry Rawlinson in 1862, consisting of fragments of seven copies of the famous “Eponym Canon of Assyria,”
by which the Assyrian chronology has been definitely settled. Before this, historians had to be content with inferences and conjectures.
83 In adjusting the A.M.{FNS and B.C.{FNS
195
We believe these to be fairly proportionate,84 3672. This would slightly vary the above distribution of the years of separate duration.
but whether they are or not, their total amount must have been 594 years, because the undisputed date of the battle of ACTIUM
by which Augustus became the head of the Roman Empire, was September B.C. 31. From this date Jerusalem passed permanently
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under the power of Rome until the Mahommedan conquest in A.D. 636-7.
We have, therefore, three fixed dates, and these decide for us the duration of the intervening periods; dividing them into the two great Eclipse Cycles of 594 years and 666 years!
Jerusalem under the Gentiles.
Babylon (the 1st Kingdom) commenced B.C. 625.
Battle of Actium, ending the possession of the 3rd Kingdom, B.C. 31.
Duration of the three Kingdoms, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece, together (1st Eclipse Cycle), 594 years.
Rome (the 4th Kingdom) became the possessor of
Jerusalem, B.C. 31.
Mahommedan conquest of Jerusalem, ending the possession of Rome, A.D. 636.
Duration of Rome's possession of Jerusalem (2nd Eclipse Cycle), 66685 2 to A.D.{FNS 2 is only three years, not four!
Thus—
From Jan. 1 B.C.{FNS 2 to Jan. 1 B.C.{FNS 1 is one year.
From Jan. 1 B.C.{FNS 1 to Jan. 1 A.D.{FNS 1 is one year.
From Jan. 1 A.D.{FNS 1 to Jan. 1 A.D.{FNS 2 is one year.
These make only three years.
84 Cyrus took Babylon, according to the Monuments, in the 17th year of Nabonidus, B.C.{FNS 539. 1 Maccabees i. begins the first of Alexander from the death of Darius Codomannus in A.M.{FNS
85 In passing from B.C.{FNS dates to A.D.{FNS dates, one year must always be deducted, e.g. , from B.C.{FNS
The Witness of the Stars
Hence, B.C.{FNS 31 to A.D.{FNS 636 is 666 years, not 667.
years.
FIRST HALF OF “THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES”, 1260 years.
Date of Mahommedan conquest of Jerusalem, A.D. 636-7.
SECOND HALF OF “THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES” and Duration of Mahommedan possession of Jerusalem, A.D. 1260, and 1260 years.
End and “fulness” of “the times of the Gentiles”, A.D. 1896-7, and 2520 years.
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From this it appears that 1896-7 A.D. would mark the fulfilment, and complete the duration, of “times of the Gentiles.”
The above reckoning has the following advantages over all previous historicist interpretations:—
1. Controverted dates are excluded.
2. The whole period of 2520 years is dealt with, instead of only the latter half (1260), as is usually the case.
3. It confines these “times” to the one place where the Lord Himself put them, viz. , “JERUSALEM.” He said, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”
These “times,” therefore, are confined to Jerusalem. This
“treading down” is confined to Jerusalem. It is not the city of Rome that is to be trodden down for 1260 years. Why, then, should these “times” be separated from what is characteristic of their duration, and applied to Rome, papal or imperial? Why should historicists search for some act of emperors or popes in the early part of the seventh century in order to add it to 1260, so as to find some terminal date in or near our own times!86
We claim that the Lord Himself has joined these “times of the Gentiles” with the city of “Jerusalem,” and we say, “What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder”
[191]
(Matt. xix. 6).
86 While the premisses of the Historicist school are thus strengthened, their conclusions are shown to be erroneous.
197
When Jesus spoke of this treading down, it looks as though it were then still future; for He said, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down,” etc., The occupation of Jerusalem by Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, was for purposes of government rather than for a wanton treading down. Government on the earth was committed unto them. But when Jerusalem passed from the government of the Roman Empire into the hands of the Turks, it could then be said, in a very special sense, to be “trodden down.” For of any government worthy of the name there has been none; and of desolation and desecration the city has been full. Under the feeble rule of the Turks, all the Gentiles seem to have combined in laying waste the holy city.
Though Jews are returning thither in ever-increasing numbers, they are only strangers there. They have as yet no independent position, nor can they make any treaties. But when these “times”
shall end, it means that they will have a position of sufficient independence to be able to make a treaty or league with the coming Prince (Dan. ix. 27); and then the course of events will bring on another treading down of 1260 literal “days” which will thus have had a fore-shadowing fulfilment in years! This is written in Rev. xi. 2. And to save us from any misunderstanding, the time is given, not in days, but in “months.”
The angel, after directing John to measure the Temple of God and the altar, adds, “but the court which is without the Temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles; and
[192]
the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.”
This refers to a future treading down, which will be limited to the brief period of “forty two” literal “months,” during the time of the coming Prince; and “in the midst” of the last week, when he shall break His covenant with the Jews,87 set up the 87 And cause sacrifice and oblation to cease (Dan. ix. 27). We know that is referred, by historicists, to the Messiah. But they are not entitled to so interpret this passage unless they take with it viii. 11, xi. 31, and xii. 11, where the same event is distinctly referred to, and is spoken, not of Christ, but of Antichrist.
The Witness of the Stars
“abomination of desolation” (Dan ix. 27; which is still future in Matt. xxiv. 15), and “tread down the holy city.”
We now desire to specially emphasize the fact that all these dates, and their termination in a rapidly approaching fulfilment, refer ONLY TO JERUSALEM, AND THE GENTILES, AND THE JEWS! They refer only to the end of the Gentile possession of Jerusalem, and to the settlement of the Jews in their own city and land.
These “times and seasons” have nothing whatever to do with
“the Church of God” (1 Thess. v. 1). The mystical Body of Christ, whenever its members are complete, “will be taken up to meet the Lord—the Head of the Body—in the air, so to be ever with the Lord” (1 Thess. iv. 15-17). This glorious event has nothing to do with any earthly sign or circumstance, so far as the
[193]
members of this mystical Body are concerned.
Therefore we are not dealing here with the coming of the Lord; either for His saints, or with them. We are not referring to what is commonly and erroneously called “the end of the world.” We are merely pointing out that the end of Gentile dominion over Jerusalem is drawing near! And we cannot close our eyes to the marvellous manner in which the veil is being removed from Jewish hearts: to the change which has come over the Jewish nation in its attitude towards Christ and Christianity, chiefly, under God, through the unparalleled circulation of more than a quarter of a million copies of a new translation of the New Testament into Hebrew, by the late Isaac Salkinson, published by the Trinitarian Bible Society, and freely distributed by the Mildmay Mission to the Jews: to the Palestine literature which has sprung up amongst the Jews in recent years: to the persecu-tions in various countries which are stirring their nest, and setting the nation in motion: to the organized emigration to Argentina, which its promoters avowedly speak of as “a nursery ground for Palestine” ( Daily Graphic, March 10th, 1892): to the railways completed and in course of construction in the Holy Land: to the numerous Societies and their branches which have permeated the
199
whole nation, which, while having various names, have only one object—“the colonisation of Palestine.”
When we put these events side by side with the teaching of the heavens as to the “cycles” or appointed times, we are merely showing how wonderfully they agree with what is written in the
[194]
Book, and witnessed to by great and uncontested historic dates.
Nor are we absolutely naming a definite year or day even for these Palestine events. After all, they can be only approximate, for man has so misused every gift that God has ever given him, that even with such wondrous heavenly time-keepers he cannot really tell you what year it is! And, besides this loss of reckoning, there is confusion as to the commencement of the A.D. era, which makes absolute accuracy between the A.M., B.C., and A.D. dates impossible.
Added to this, there is another point to be borne in mind, viz. , that when the “times of the Gentiles” shall end, Jewish independence need not be either immediate or complete!
For when Nebuchadnezzar began his kingdom of Babylon in A.M. 3376 (B.C. 625), the Jews, though in their land and city, were not independent. Nebuchadnezzar went to and fro to Jerusalem, and put down and set up whom he would; and it was not till some thirty years afterwards that he destroyed the City and Temple and made the people captives.
So, likewise, in the time of the end, there may be an epanodos.
There may be a similar period of possession without independence, a quasi-independence guaranteed by the Great Powers; and, for ought we know, it may be that, in order to gain complete independence, they may ultimately make that fatal league with
[195]
the coming Prince.
So that while we name the dates 1896-7 as being significant, we are not “fixing dates” in the ordinary sense of the term, but merely pointing out some of “the signs of the times,” concerning which we ought not to be ignorant.
The Witness of the Stars
The true interpretation will in any case still remain, and will surely be literally fulfilled in its own time. The Word of God will be vindicated; its prophetic truth will be verified; God Himself will be glorified; and His people saved with an everlasting salvation.
Meanwhile the members of His Body will “wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. i. 10). They will live “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people (R.V., a people for His own possession) zealous of good works” (Titus ii. 13, 14). They will “look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,” from heaven, believing that there is no hope either for “the Jew, the Gentile, or the Church of God,” or for a groaning creation, until “the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, whom the heaven must receive until the times of
[196]
restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of ALL HIS HOLY PROPHETS SINCE THE WORLD BEGAN”
(Acts iii. 19-21).
“The world is sick, and yet not unto death;
There is for it a day of health in store;
From lips of love there comes the healing breath,—
The breath of Him who all its sickness bore,
And bids it rise to strength and beauty evermore.
Evil still reigns; and deep within we feel
The fever, and the palsy, and the pain
Of life's perpetual heartaches, that reveal
The rooted poison, which, from heart and brain, We labour to extract, but labour all in vain.
201
Our skill avails not; ages come and go,
Yet bring with them no respite and no cure;
The hidden wound, the sigh of pent-up woe,
The sting we smother, but must still endure,
The worthless remedies which no relief procure,—
All these cry out for something more divine,
Which the worst woes of earth may not withstand; Medicine that cannot fail—the oil and wine,
The balm and myrrh, growth of no earthly land,
And the all-skilful touch of the great Healer's hand.
Man needs a prophet: Heavenly Prophet, speak,
And teach him what he is too proud to hear.
Man needs a priest: True Priest, Thy silence break, And speak the words of pardon in his ear.
Man needs a king: O King, at length in peace appear.”
[199]
Appendix. Note on the Sign LIBRA.
On page 47 we called attention to the point that in all probability the Sign LIBRA was a very ancient corruption.
The ancient Akkadian name for the seventh month, which was the month when the sun was in the Sign now called LIBRA, was Tul-ku, which means the sacred mound, or altar. The Akkadian name for this Sign was Bir, which means the Light, hence, the Lamp with its light, or the Altar with its fire.
Fig. 1—The Circular Altar, in the Sign now called Libra.
[200]
Its most ancient form was a circular altar.88 In Figure 1 we have reproduced this,89 and it will be at once seen that we have the original of the disc now preserved in the two circular scales which form the Sign of LIBRA.
88 See ARATOS{FNS, line 440.
89 As proved by Mr. Robt. Brown, junr., in his Remarks on the Euphratean Astronomical Names of the Signs of the Zodiac (p. 16).
Appendix. Note on the Sign LIBRA.
203
The next stage of the corruption is shown in the Akkadian name of Scorpio (the Scorpion)—the Sign immediately to the left of the Altar. It was called Gir-tab, which means the Seizer and Stinger, and the next Figure (2), taken from an Euphratean boundary stone,90 shows the two Signs combined, for the Scorpion is stretching out its claws in order to seize the Lamp or Altar.
Fig. 2—The Scorpion and the Lamp. (From a Euphratean Boundary Stone.)
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Thus the meaning of its name is exemplified. It is called the Seizer and Stinger. And just as in the constellation above it, the Serpent is struggling with the man, while at the same time it is stretching out its neck to seize the crown,91 so here the Scorpion, while trying to sting the same man in the heel, is stretching out its claws to seize the altar.
A seal on a contract, nearly 700 B.C., shows this Circular Altar actually in the grasp of the Scorpion.
90 By the kind permission of Mr. Robt. Brown, junr., The Celestial Equator of Aratos, p. 466.
91 See this shown on the cover of this book.
204
The Witness of the Stars
Fig. 3—Scorpion and Lamp. (From an Euphratean Seal.) Figure 3 is a picture of this Euphratean Seal, preserved on a contract made on the 8th day of the month Tisri, i.e. , this same seventh month!92
This then is the next stage. But Mr. Robert Brown, junr., observes, “The Circle or other representation of an Altar not un-
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naturally disappeared as the use of the Sign advanced westward; 92 Menant, Empreintes de Cachets Assyro-Chaldéens, 9. “Sur un contrat daté du 8 Tisri, de l'année de Bin-takkil-ani, 690 ou 645 avant J.C.”
Appendix. Note on the Sign LIBRA.
205
whether by sea, or across Asia Minor, or both, and the Chelai alone remained when the shores of the Ægean were reached.”93
This is quite true, for the Greek name for the Sign was Chelai, which means simply the Claws. And thus the Scorpion monopolised two Signs; its body one, and its claws the other.
This led to the mistake of SERVIUS, the intelligent commentator on VIRGIL,94 that “the Chaldean Zodiac consisted of but eleven constellations.” We now know that there were twelve Signs, and the mistake is thus explained.
Fig. 4—The Constellation of "the Claws." Formerly the Circular Altar, now Libra.
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Mr. Brown quotes ACHILLES TATIUS, about 475 A.D., in a Fragment on the Phainomena, who says, Äp Ƿ»p Äp º±»yżs½±Â
QÀ ¹³ÅÀÄwɽ –ųx½.95
ARATUS says that “some few stars of the Claws are in the (Celestial) Equator.” And PTOLEMY describes the stars, now reckoned in LIBRA, as being in what he calls “The Constellation of the Claws.” We have reproduced them so that his description of them may be readily traced. He speaks of—
93 Researches on the Euphratean Astronomical Names of the Signs of the Zodiac, p. 17.
94 In Georgica, i. 33.
95 AP PETAVIUS{FNS, Uranologion, 168, “The claws, called by the Egyptians Zugon,” i.e. , the yoke that joins any two things together.
The Witness of the Stars
“The bright one of those at the end of the southern Claw.” (It is named Zuben el Genubi and now marked ±).
“The one more northerly than it, and dimmer” (now marked ¼).
“The bright one of those at the end of the northern Claw”
(named Zuben el Chemali, and now marked ²).
“The one in front of it and dim” (´).
“The one in the middle of the southern Claw” (1 i).
“The one in the middle of the northern Claw” (now marked ³).
“The one behind it in the same Claw” (·).
“The foremost of the three more northerly than the northern Claws” (1 f).
“The southern one of the two hindmost” (µ).
“The hindmost of the three between the Claws” (one of the stars now marked º or »).
“The northern of the two remaining and preceding ones”
(¶).
“The southern one of them” (n).
This is how the stars formerly in the Sign of the (Circular)
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ALTAR, came to be reckoned in the Claws of the Scorpion; and this is how the circular scales of LIBRA came to be substituted for the ancient Circular ALTAR.
This corruption of the primitive teaching of the ALTAR, shows how the enemy attempted to seize on the Atonement, bring in
“the way of Cain,” and substitute human merit for the atoning sacrifice of Christ; thus perverting the truth at its fountain head.
Just as in Gen. iii. we have the woman's promised Seed in conflict with the Enemy, so in Gen. iv. we see the Scorpion's claws—“the way of Cain” in conflict with “the way of God.”
There can be but little doubt, therefore, that the first Sign of the Zodiac was VIRGO, the second was the ALTAR, and the third was the SCORPION. The lesson which they teach is clear: The Seed of the woman (VIRGO), who was to come as a child, should
Appendix. Note on the Sign LIBRA.
207
be a sacrifice (the ALTAR) for the sins of His people; endure a great conflict with the enemy (SCORPIO), in which He should be wounded in the heel; but should in the end crush and tread the enemy under foot.
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