Do people tell their troubles?
science and the Bible by Bolton Davidheiser, • Chairman-, Science Division,' • Biola College v ;
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do? If he left his telescope and the transit occurred while he was away, he would never have a chance to see it again. “ The inward voice seemed to tell him that the Creator Himself is more worthy of worship than the phenomena He has instituted for ad miration.” He went to church. When he re turned he hastened to his telescope. The transit had just begun! Where his friend Crabtree was watching, the sky was cloudy but cleared long enough for him to see it also and to confirm the observation of Horrocks. It is interesting to note, in contrast to this, the experience of a Frenchman named Legentil who went to India to observe the next transit of Venus, 121 years later. Because a war was in progress his ship was delayed and he did not reach land until the transit was over. As the following transit was to occur only eight years later, he decided to stay in India and wait. It is not likely that he attended church during this period of waiting, as this was some 20 years before the time that William Carey went to India as the first missionary of modem times. When the day of the transit arrived, the sky was cloudy and Legentil saw nothing of it. After being shipwrecked twice on his way home, he arrived in France to find his heirs preparing to divide his possessions. Between that time and the present, Venus has twice crossed the face of the sun. The next transit will occur on the 8th of June in the year 2004. On July 7, 1959, Venus passed in front of the bright star Regulus, and as the light of the star was seen for a few seconds on both sides of the planet, astronomers were able to as certain more accurately than before the diameter of Venus. The same day that the ping pong affair was published, it was also re ported that a local public school has refused the use of a classroom for a Sunday School class, but the audit orium and other facilities are at the disposal of the Communist Party for its meetings! E ditok ’ s N o te : The information of 200 years given in last month’s column should have been 2000 years.
I t h a s just been announced that two 17 year old boys have won the endurance ping pong championship by batting a ball across a table for 52 consecutive hours. Starting on Friday evening, they played until 10 P.M. Sunday. We do not know whether they gave up Sunday School and church to do this or whether they would not have gone there anyway. But it brings to mind an instance where a boy just three years older than they had to make a decision one Sunday whether to go to church or to do something else he wanted very much to do. The great astronomer Johann Kepl er had predicted mathematically that on the 6th of December, 1631, the planet Venus would pass in front of the sun. Kepler himself did not live to see this day, but a Frenchman named Pierre Gassendi prepared to observe the phenomenon. He watched in vain, for Venus made its transit across the face of the sun after the sun had set on Europe. According to Kepler, this would not happen again for over a hundred years. But an English boy in his teens, Jeremiah Horrocks, did some figuring of his own and found that Venus should repeat its performance in just a few years. Going over his calcula tions, he found that it was indeed so and that Venus should again pass in front of the sun on the 4th of Decem ber, 1639. He was timid about men tioning this to anyone and told only his best friend William Crabtree. Modem astronomers can tell at what time of day such a phenomenon will be visible at any place on earth where it can be seen, but the calcula tions of Jeremiah Horrocks told him only the day, and it was a Sunday. No one had ever seen Venus move across the disk of the sun. Besides the unusualness of this event, it had im portant theoretical implications in the science of astronomy. After this day, no one on earth would have an oppor tunity to see it for 121 years. He watched from sunrise without inter ruption, but nothing happened. He was assistant to the pastor and had some duties at the church, but he could miss this Sunday. The time for church drew near. What should he
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A U N T NAN AND TH E MILLER FIVE By Esther Eby Glass Illustrated by Allan Eitzen
Answers problems of real life through the Miller family — 15 more stories. A new character enters, an elderly aunt with no place to live. Appreciated by all ages, especially those 9 to 14 years old. Emphasizes the family. Readers of The Miller Five will not want to miss this sequel. 140 pages, $2.50.
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OCTOBER, 1961
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