WANDERING STARS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2523, 23 July 1902, Page 80

WANDERING STARS.

By k Bknker

Amongst the most noteworthy spectacles v;hich the present generation hap had the opportunity of witrcs«uig, the great comet of 1858 takes almo«t the first pl.ice. Tho°e who are old enough to lemember the brilliant wanderei can well recall to mind its marvellous beauty and magnificence. At tir=t but r< thm, scarce visible pencil of light, far away amongst the stars, it rapidly increased m size and Bpl«idcur, each night appearing larger and brighter as it approached nearer and yet nearer In the course of a few weeks the mighty errant orb, with its luminous train nearly two hundred million miles in length, ru-hing towards the earth at a r<tte approaching a million miles an hour, threatened to collide with ai.d overwhelm tnir little planet. But though it continued to wax brighter and still brighter it could be seen that now all danger of collision had passed away, and that its course was directed far outside the orbit of the e.irth.

And now, arrived at the zenith of it= beauty, the bright wandering «tar presented a spectacle of superb and gorgeous subhmrfv. Tho great brilliant nucleus shone with a. light somewhat resembling that of a full moon, whife the stupendous train, extending half-way across the western hemisphere, glowed with a strange refulgent luminosity; near the head, intense and lustrous, but gradually becoming more and more attenuated, so that it was difficult exactly to dehne its extrems limit.

Tho scene was now one of extreme giandcur and solemnity. Close to the nuclcu«, Artturu 1 -, that mighty sun, amongst the most bulhant in all this universe, shone in all his «plenclonr. Beneath, the more coy and beautiful Syica, m the constellation of the Virgin, around which to suuxs Eaat^ia myUis and legends have clos-

tered, scintillated -with less aggressive fire, while scattered about the star-spangled heavens sparkled in all their glory those resplendent, brighter orbs, as Vega and Atair, great Capella. ana marvellous, ever-varying Algol; in the midst of all, the mighty, threatening comet, head downwards, plunging into the blackness and darkness of space, faT away into the unfathomable depths of the vast abyss; perhaps in the course of the ages to penetrate within the domains of those other universes which the eagle eye of our telescopic cameras reveal i» us far outside the range of all our serried array of constellations, far away from any of the myriads of those burning suns which glitter in our midnight sky. Or perhaps, and more probably, the bright wanderer, after pursuing its arrow course straight into the depths, will once more own its allegiance and, acknowledging the influence of the Ruler of our system, will after many years of ranging in the ether return to delight us with its magnificence and its glory. But there are other wandering stars to whom, we are told, is reserved the blackness of darkness ; souls who have wandered away from the paths of rectitude and of righteousness. But if, before it is too late and He will not hear, these wanderers will lay their transgressions upon Him who died for them, and with His aid, and by the power of His Holy Spirit, will live a godly life, then even they shall shine as the stars m the Kingdom of everlasting glory.