Extracted text
Editorial transcription, lightly normalized from the scan. Line-break hyphenation, spacing, capitalization, and unmistakable OCR errors have been repaired; the claims remain those of The Flaming Sword.
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The Open Court of Inquiry.
THE EDITOR.
Universal Accuracy and Limitation.
"1. How nearly can astronomers tell the exact time?
A. Time may be determined with ease to the hundredth of a second, and very closely to the thousandth of a second. The position of the stars and bodies of the solar system may be known to the same exactness.
2. How nearly can they tell the time of a coming eclipse? A week ahead? A month ahead? A year ahead? Ten years ahead?
A. Eclipses are calculated to any desired time ahead. They occur with regularity in a cycle of 18 years 11⅓ days. Hence it is a simple matter to determine the return of any particular eclipse. The tables are given in the nautical almanacs for each year. The books appear several years in advance." — From "Notes and Queries" Department of the Scientific American, April 1, 1905.
(1) The character of Deity is perfectly expressed in the cosmos; the great world of effect must accurately mirror the face of Cause. It has been said that with the Almighty there "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." This means not only that the Almighty is true to his promises and predictions, but also that he must be eternal. He is a constant factor in the universe, in possession of eternal life, and must therefore be eternally related to the great world of his necessary and inevitable expression. The attribute of constancy was ascribed to Deity by the Apostles and Prophets of ancient times. They must have known something of their subject and the object of their thoughts, else what they said would not now be so definitely and absolutely corroborated in the most exact astronomical observations and measurements.
It has long been known that sidereal time is without variableness or shadow of turning. It is exactly the same throughout the centuries and the cycles. So complete is the harmony of universal motion that every star moves with perfect regularity, never varying the thousandth or the millionth part of a second. What a marvel of accuracy is the great clock of the universe! The hands of time move second by second around the circles on the great dial of the ages. The times are all determined and definite. Did no one ever lay out these times and determine their length? Is there no mind that governs the universe and impulses the wheels of time? The movements of the universe are accurate. The word accurate is from the Latin ad, to, and curare, to take care. Does no one ever take care to adjust in the most exquisite harmony, the elements and substances of which the world is produced, the races impulsed, the ages and the cycles measured and determined?
The accuracy of the motions of the universe demonstrates the truth of two great Koreshan declarations—that the universe is limited, and that the universe is eternal. Universal equipoise would be impossible in such a cosmos as conceived in modern times. The principles and laws of universal perpetuity do not admit of such enormous waste as would be inevitable and unavoidable if all radiations are sent out into infinite space without possibility of return to the original source of generation.
The principle of accuracy demands definite relation of every part of the universe with every other part, and that the whole so react on itself as to produce the same and invariable results cycle after cycle, from all time to all time, without beginning or ending. Such reaction demands limitation, by which only absolute reciprocity between center and circumference, or between cause and effect, could possibly be maintained.
In the accuracy of universal motion there is every guaranty of the stability of the universe that the rational mind could possibly ask or conceive. The million wheels of the universe, or the myriads of cycles of time, from the second up to the longest period of universal progress and expression, fit together in the marvelous whole. The universe was not made to run only a few thousand years or a few million years, as generally conceived. It is constructed to run eternally. Are the resources of All-Wisdom so meager as to make eternal existence impossible? If at some time in the past the universe never existed, it would have been impossible to bring it into existence. The fact that the universe exists is evidence that it has always been, and moreover, that it is utterly impossible to destroy it. "The earth abideth forever;" it is eternally the footstool or outermost pediment of expression of the life of Deity.
(2) The law of universal repetition applies to eclipses as well as to any other motions or events in the cosmos. We have long endeavored to impress this fact upon the world. One of the most common "proofs" offered by modern minds that the Copernican system of astronomy is true, is the fact that eclipses are accurately predicted by astronomers. The heads of observatories get an enormous amount of glory on this account. They can lay down the rules, and make the planets, sun, and moon, come to time exactly! We have repeated over and over again that eclipses occur in regular cycles, and that eclipse tables are mere calendars embracing the eclipse periods. Many people have refused to believe us when we said that neither the Copernican nor any other astronomical theory entered as a factor in eclipse predictions or calculations.
The editor of the Scientific American has declared the truth of the matter—just as we have many times before. "They occur with regularity in a cycle of 18 years 11⅓ days. Hence it is a simple matter to determine the return of any particular eclipse." Thus a favorite objection against the Koreshan Cosmogony is dealt a hard blow by a popular editor. The old woman's treasured pitcher is dashed to pieces; and it can never be offered to us again as a refutation of the Inside Theory.
The Mississippi Runs Down Hill.
"It is stated that the Mississippi flows up hill on account of the centrifugal force of the earth. There are probably places where it does not descend ten feet to the mile, but are there any places where it is below sea-level? Is not the sea-level at the poles thirteen miles nearer the center of the earth than it is at the equator?
A. Sea-level is the level of still water on the earth. It takes into consideration all the conditions of the case as to centrifugal force, and any other disturbing cause whatever. This being the definition of a level, it follows that there are no rivers of the earth which run 'up hill,' as is so often stated in popular periodicals." — Scientific American, April 1, 1905.
Sometime ago, Professor Larkin, of Mt. Lowe Observatory, undertook to show that the extension, in a southerly direction, of such a line as we surveyed at Naples, Florida, in 1897, would extend into the surface of the convex globe, because of the equatorial bulge due to the rapid rotation of the sphere. That the surface of the earth upon which we live is convex, there has never been the slightest real proof offered; and that the earth diurnally rotates on its axis and annually revolves about the sun, are dependent and wholly undemonstrated assumptions. We took great pleasure in showing the utter fallacy of Professor Larkin's arguments.
We now have the pleasure of presenting a corroboration of our conclusions, from the pen of the editor of the Scientific American, who is rational enough to see that the sea-level must conform in contour to the shape and form of the earth. Whether the equatorial bulge exists or not, makes no difference with the general and specific laws of hydrostatics; for if the equatorial bulge existed, it is obvious that the true sea-level would be the surface of the sea on the bulge. Professor Larkin's arguments against the Naples air-line fall as flat as the usual argument that the Copernican system must be true because eclipses are so accurately predicted years, decades, and even centuries in advance.
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The source scans remain the record. This page preserves the article's argument without presenting its conclusions as independently established results.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 18, No. 45 · April 18, 1905 · PDF pp. 12–13
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The Flaming Sword · Vol. 18, No. 45 · April 18, 1905 · PDF pp. 12-13