The few details which we have thrown together, bearing upon the natural light of our planet, derived from the sun, will suggest to the mind of the Christian those apt comparisons, of the broad light of day to the light of the gospel, transmitted to our souls from the Sun of righteousness. Till illuminated from above, man wanders in spiritual darkness; he sees neither the dangers that encompass him, nor the road by which he should go; he may have the light of nature and the light of science within him, but in spiritual affairs he is blind, and will be chosen only by the blind as a leader. Let, however, the light of revelation begin but to dawn upon him, and he learns to discover more and more clearly his real position, his true character, and the impossibility of his finding acceptance before God upon his own merits. He feels himself to be a sinful creature, and is led to rest upon the merits and atonement of the Son of God, who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification. Thus enlightened, he receives strength to pursue his journey to that bright and glorious kingdom of which God himself is the Sun, and where there shall no more be night, where "everlasting day abides," and all is glory and refulgence.
4. _Its Temperature._--Heat and light are distinct from each other, though in many cases one accompanies the other, and is produced by the same cause, as, for instance, by combustion, electricity, percussion, the sudden condensation of air, etc. Heat without light, however, is developed by the physical or chemical changes of bodies, as by the condensation of steam, and the admixture of water with sulphuric acid. It results, moreover, from the vital and mysterious operations which are constantly taking place in organic beings, and especially in the classes of mammalia and birds. But the great source of heat--that upon which the temperature of our atmosphere mainly depends--is produced by the influence of the solar rays.
There is, indeed, heat in the body of the globe itself; to say nothing of volcanoes, we may state, that the deeper we penetrate into the earth, the higher does its temperature become--a circumstance which has led many philosophers to infer, that the centre of our globe is in a state of incandescence. It is not here that we ought to moot this theory, neither shall we enter into any speculations relative to the intrinsic nature of heat; like light, it is a mysterious agent or product, imponderable, yet subject to certain laws--laws which belong to a branch of philosophy into which it is not now our province to enter.