Curiosities of Heat

ons instructive, but, in addition to the instruction, he made them more and more pungent and persuasive. He aimed to gather up the impressions and con

od; his self-will and pride of consistency rebelled against the thought of hearing and believing the gospel; but he was restless and discontented away from the place of worship. His associations with his infidel comrades grew distasteful. His Sundays were days of distress: with his attention relieved from business

im and Admah, those lascivious and festering cities of the plain; he sent his torturing and consuming plagues upon the Egyptians, and sunk the army of Pharoah like a stone in the deep waters of the Red Sea: "they sank as lead in the mighty waters;" he caused the earth to open and receive Korah and his adherents, and bade his angel in "one night" to touch with death the thousands of Sennacherib's army

nd prosperous, and as mighty in wickedness as in commerce and war. In the height of their prosperity God denounced upon them disaster and desolation, and by the natural processes of evil their decay and destruction came upon them. No miracle broke the harmony of their mighty march to decay and the silence of death. Great nations have perished, but not till they became corrupt. Rome fell, but luxury first gendered luxuriant vices, and vices enervated her hardihood and undermined the defences of her courage. No righteous nation ever pe

die. Men pass from childhood up to manhood, and from manhood down to second childhood, and return to the dust whence they came. By a like principle

; every man would say that it is made stronger. What if a third example be made of a third city? What if every wicked city is made an example? What if God embody his displeasure at evil-doing in the structure of the world, and give to the very atoms of matter and the elements of mind such natures that by the working of their own proper forces, without a miracle, they shall bring pain and evil, decay and death, upon the ungodly? What is this but writing his wrath against sin upon the earth and sky, upon matter and the conscien

their meetings they burned the Bible, baptized a cat, partook of the bread and wine as appointed for the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, and gave the elements to a dog. Then the wrath of God broke out upon them. 'On the evening of that very day he who had administered the mock sacrament was attacked with a violent inflammatory disease; his inflamed eyeballs were protruded from their sockets; his tongue was swollen, and he died before morning in great bodily and mental agony. Dr. H--, another of the same party, was found dead in his bed the next morning. D-- D--, a printer who was present, three days after fell in a fit, and died immediately. In a few days three others were drowned. Within fi

The smile of God beams direct upon the soul as the warm rays of the sun fall upon the cold ear

of vices-drunkenness, lust, devotion to gay, sensual pleasures-bring ruin to men. He had noticed that the saddest faces are those of worn-out lovers of pleasure, and he knew that lovers of pleasure are very quickly worn out-that five years of sensuality will waste the powers of life more than fifty years of good work. He knew also that infidels and blasphemers, whatever else they might be, were unhappy men, and died joyless, foreboding deaths. He was not exactly angry, but his heart rebelled against thus being held by

to discover the truth, but have tried to find reasons for disbelieving the Bible and denying the gospel. I ought to look at the other si

r. Wilton's Bible class-that is, if he would receive him willingly, of which he ha

should like, I hardly know why, to join your clas

tate of mind, the Spirit of God was bringing him to take this step. He had prayed for him; in prayer his soul had travailed in pain for him; and he felt that by way of the throne of grace he had obtained a hold upon Mr. Hu

kept yourself informed of the latest phases of modern science, I hope we shall have your help in

which I can to help the interest of your study, but I only ask

as usual, and the classes

ttle interest to you. We are now prepared to look at the goodness and wisdom of God in the management of heat. We are not trying to prove the existence of a Creator and Governor-we are only looking at the mighty and wise works of that God in whom we already believe. We shall find the works of God planned and wrought out with wondrous skill, and that wonderful skill is employed in the interest of goodness. God has planned and wrought for the benefit of his creatures. His wisdom and goodness are exhibited on the

cture. In the polar regions a natural temperature of seventy degrees below zero has been observed. At this temperature all the water upon the globe would turn to ice hard as adamant; all vegetation would cease, and with the disappeara

ead, the tides a

withered in th

louds are

wenty degrees below zero.' At this temperature some of the so-called permanent gases-as carbonic acid, chlorine, and ammonia-can be compressed into liquids, and it is believed that in the complete absence of all heat all the gases would become solids. But by the agency of heat

. Let a brute be placed in so unfavorable conditions that his growth is dwarfed and his natural instincts are not called into exercise, and no one would look upon that as a natural state. But man, wild, uncultured, undeveloped, is spoken of as being in his natural state. There could be no greater mistake. Culture and civilization are according to Nature, but culture and civilization require that man should get the mastery of Natur

s and beautify human life. By heat man prepares his food; by heat he drives his machinery; by heat he outstrips the flight of the winds; by heat he turns winter into summer and in his own dwelling makes for himself a perpetual springtime. For these purposes of human comfort and culture, God has provided generous stores of heat and placed them under man's control. He has placed in man

, "that the first word I speak in your class sho

ear your question, even though it be an o

ecially his higher wants-the wants of his intellectual and spiritual nature-only with the greatest difficu

ery wish is anticipated and his every aspiration is gratified without exertion on his own part, or one in which opportunity and means are furnished for self-help, one in which he can supply his wants and satisfy his aspirations only by the exercise of his best abilities? Which will encourage the larger manliness and nurture the higher culture and strength? He who has no need for exertion rises at best only to a soft and feeble luxury, without mental vigor or moral force. What

o find with it; I

ther subject. We will survey the storehouses of heat which God has prepared

the sun is the chi

at were the only supply. If but a fleecy cloud pass between the sun and the earth, we feel a decided change of temperature. A few hours less of sunshine each day, and a few degrees more of inclination to

e of the sun's he

ey present a dark centre with a narrow border or penumbra of lighter shade. To account for these spots, it has been conjectured that the body of the sun is dark, but surrounded by a double envelope of clouds, the outer layer of which is intensely luminous. Openings in such enveloping clouds would present an appearance like the spots upon the sun. According to this supposition, the heat and light of the sun proceed, not from the body of the sun, but from this luminous enveloping cloud. But granting that this supposition is true, it gives no explanation of the origin of the sun's heat. Laplace conjectured that the sun is a globe of fire in a state of violent, explosive conflagration, and that the spots are enormous crater-like caverns in its surface. Newton conjectured that comets falling into the sun and being consum

trum by a microscope shows certain fine dark lines across it. The lines are invariably the same in their position and grouping. The spectrum of the stellar light is found to differ from that of the solar light, and the light of one star differs from that of another star. Light from incandescent metallic vapors gives bright lines across the spectrum. Each metal has its own number, position, grouping, and color of these spectral lines. By comparing the solar spectrum with the sp

ether the earth receives he

nnot,

Hume, to have you instr

ffect. By means of the electroscope or galvanometer, it is said, however, that the moon's heat has been detected. At a late scientific convention held in Chicago, Prof. Elias Loomis read a paper, in which he stated that Mr. Harrison of England, by a comparison of observations made for sixteen years at Greenwich, nine years at Oxford, and sixteen years at Berlin, has discovered that the moon exerts a sensible influence upon the temperature of the earth, the highest temperature occurring from six to nine days after the new moon and the lowest about four days after the full moon. The conclusion, the opposite of what we should naturally expect-the higher temperature occurring when the enlightened face of the moon is turned from the earth-was expl

rstitions which refer sickness and health, and every kind of good or evil fortune, to the benign or malignan

e enormous amount of wood and coal burned amounts to something, but

remains the same throughout the year. Below the point of constant temperature the heat of the earth is found to increase regularly and constantly. The rate of increase varies in different regions, but the average rate is about one degree of temperature for each fifty or sixty feet of descent. From this rate of increase it is easy to calculate the temperature at any given depth. At a depth of less than two miles water would boil. At twelve miles in depth the rock becomes incandescent. At twenty-two miles silver melts, at twenty-four miles gold melts, and at thirty-five miles cast iron becomes liquid. Volcanic eruptions also demonstrate the existence of immense masses

ow this internal heat came to e

hich the earth is composed were created separate and uncombined, and were suffered afterward to unite by their chemical affinities. This chemical combination would be nothing else than a tremendous conflagration, and the result would be the most intense heat of which we can form a conception. Others have dreamed of a 'fire-m

t natural source of hea

on, or force tra

please exp

tion of air and of water, in the dashing of matter against matter and force against force, motion and force seem to be lost, heat is produced. The water of the sea after long storms is said to be sensibly warmed. We can appreciate the amount of heat generated in this manner only by considering in how

illustrations of God's economy in the management of heat. Nothing is wasted. The voices

What is the chief form of this which is used

on, I thi

This is that storehouse of heat which God has placed in man's keeping. Without this the larger part of the earth's surface would be uninhabitable. This renders culture and civilization possible. Without it the arts could have no existence. The key of this storehouse of heat God has given to man, so that h

ted into heat. An electric current sent through an insufficient or poor conductor heats it, and, if the curr

d other heavenly bodies; 2, the internal heat of the earth; 3,

the sun heat sufficient to boil three hundred cubic miles of ice water per hour, and the whole sum of the sun's heat would boil 700,000,000,000 cubic mi

rison with the fuel stored up in coal-beds below the surface of the earth. Mr. Mitchel estimated the extent of the coal-beds of a portion of Europe as follows: Great Britain, 12,000 square

the United States, also, new coal-fields are constantly discovered. The supply of carbon for fuel seems exhaustless. In the British islands about 100,00

e coal-fields are an exhaustless storehouse of heat and power. They warm the dwellings o

ovided without stint or limit. The general heating of the globe he accomplishes by his own power. He has provided for human culture, development, and happiness by placing stores of heat

istribution of heat, some of the primary elements and arra