Balder Ex-Libris

Author : Capt E. Raymond
Title : The Glory of the Stars
Year : 1976

Link download : Capt_E_Raymond_-_The_Glory_of_the_Stars.zip

Gazing upon the multitude of stars that shine in the nocturnal heavens, one might despair of reading anything intelligible in their design - they seem to be so scattered, so entirely without order, spread with such confusion over the face of the sky. As we behold these twinkling points of light, shining down from their serene heights, we recall the words of the Psalmist. "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night.unto night sheweth knowledge... Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun" (Psalm 19: 1-4). Having declared that the heavens reveal God's glory, the Psalmist informs us that the heavens declare a message in a language that is understood by all peoples. These starry worlds, as such, do show forth His "handiwork·: but explain little about the "glory of God". How then can the stars be made to speak, in a language everyone can understand ? The answer is quite evident. Pictures speak in all dialects. They speak a universal language, to all peoples everywhere. Somewhere in the earliest ages of human existence the visible stars were named. Certain ones were arranged into groups by someone thoroughly familiar with the laws of astronomy. Those names and groupings were at the same time included in certain figures, natural or imaginary, but intensely symbolic and significant. Today we know them as the Constellations. Twelve constellations make up the Zodiac. These major stargroupings form a belt which circles the sky close to the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun. Modern atlases list them in the following order: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. It is well known that the ancient races drew charts of these Zodiacal Signs; that ancient astrology was actually the father of astronomy. Astronomers sometimes denounce the Zodiac as unnatural and confusing, yet they have never been able to brush it aside or to substitute anything better or more convenient in its place. The Signs of the Zodiac are part of the common universal language of astronomical science. The Zodiac is found in religious faiths and pagan superstitions. Astrology is based upon it. The Bible is replete with it. The Companion Bible tells us that all the verbs in the second half of Psalm 19 are of an astronomical nature. The written words of Scripture parallel the words written in the heavens and preserved in the Signs of the Zodiac. Authors of books on astronomy, when referring to the figures associated with the constellations, speak of the antiquity of their origin. Without exception they are unable to give the source of the inspiration which resulted in the naming and meaning of the pictorial groupings. The existence of Zodiacal figures have been traced in all ages and among all nations, with all their features settled and fixed from the most distant periods. Learned antiquarians of modern times have searched every page of heathen mythology, ransacked all the legends of poetry and fables to answer the question, Who framed this system? Investigations of all the religions, sciences, customs and traditions of every nation, tribe and people have failed to discover who first so accurately observed the celestial bodies and so sublimely wove them together into one great scheme. What the stars were meant to signify, over and above what is evidenced by their own nature, interpreters have been at a loss to tell us. Were such wonderful creations of almighty power and wisdom without purpose or meaning? Was there some original, divine science connected with the star designs ? Is there evidence to show it was the will of the Eternal God and that His sons and daughters enjoy His handiwork and understand His glory? The purpose of this study is to present the findings of past eminent scholars, together with those of modern scientific investigators, in order to show the stars do reveal "words written in the heavens"- words that declare the "glory of God". ...