THE ATMOSPHERE.
"And God said, Let there be an expanse between the waters;
and let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made
the expanse, and separated the waters which are under the
expanse from the waters which are over the expanse: and it
was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And the evening
and the morning were the second day."--Genesis i. 6-8.
At the opening of the period to which we are now introduced the earth
was covered by the waters, and these were in such a condition that
there was no distinction between the seas and the clouds. No
atmosphere separated them, or, in other words, dense fogs and mists
everywhere rested on the surface of the primeval ocean. To understand
as far as possible the precise condition of the earth's surface at
this period, it will be necessary to notice the present constitution
of the atmosphere, especially in its relations to aqueous vapor.
The regular and constant constituents of the atmosphere are the
elements oxygen and nitrogen, which, at the temperature and pressure
existing on the surface of our globe, are permanently aeriform or
gaseous. Beside these gases, the air always contains a quantity of the
vapor of water in a perfectly aeriform and transparent condition. This
vapor is not, however, permanently gaseous. At all temperatures below
212 degrees it tends to the liquid state; and its elastic force, which
preserves its particles in the separated state of vapor, increases or
diminishes at a more rapid rate than the increase or diminution of
temperature. Hence the quantity of vapor that can be suspended in
clear air depends on the temperature of the air itself. As the
temperature of the air rises, its power of sustaining vapor increases
more rapidly than its temperature; and as the temperature of the air
falls, the elastic force of its contained vapor diminishes in a
greater ratio, until it can exist as an invisible vapor no longer, but
becomes condensed into minute bubbles or globules, forming cloud,
mist, or rain. Two other circumstances operate along with these
properties of air and vapor. The heat radiated from the earth's
surface causes the lower strata of air to be, in ordinary
circumstances, warmer than the higher; and, on the other hand, warm
air, being lighter than that which is colder, the warm layer of air at
the surface continually tends to rise through and above the colder
currents immediately over it. Let us consider the operation of the
causes thus roughly sketched in a column of calm air. The lower
portion becomes warmed, and if in contact with water takes up a
quantity of its vapor proportioned to the temperature, or in ordinary
circumstances somewhat less than this proportion. It then tends to
ascend, and as it rises and becomes mixed with colder air it gradually
loses its power of sustaining moisture, and at a height proportioned
to the diminution of temperature and the quantity of vapor originally
contained in the air, it begins to part with water, which becomes
condensed in the form of mist or cloud; and the surface at which this
precipitation takes place is often still more distinctly marked when
two masses or layers of air at different temperatures become
intermixed; in which case, on the principle already stated, the mean
temperature produced is unable to sustain the vapor proper to the two
extremes, and moisture is precipitated. It thus happens that layers
of cloud accumulate in the atmosphere, while between them and the
surface there is a stratum of clear air. Fogs and mists are in the
present state of nature exceptional appearances, depending generally
on local causes, and showing what the world might be but for that
balancing of temperature and the elastic force of vapor which
constitutes the atmospheric firmament.[68]
The quantity of water thus suspended over the earth is enormous. "When
we see a cloud resolve itself into rain, and pour out thousands of
gallons of water, we can not comprehend how it can float in the
atmosphere."[69] The explanation is--1st, the extreme levity of the
minute globules, which causes them to fall very slowly; 2d, they are
supported by currents of air, especially by the ascending currents
developed both in still air and in storms; 3dly, clouds are often
dissolving on one side and forming on another. A cloud gradually
descending may be dissolving away by evaporation at the base as fast
as new matter is being added above. On the other hand, an ascending
warm current of air may be constantly depositing moisture at the base
of the cloud, and this may be evaporating under the solar rays above.
In this case a cloud is "merely the visible form of an aerial space,
in which certain processes are at the moment in equilibrium, and all
the particles in a state of upward movement."[70] But so soon as
condensation markedly exceeds evaporation, rain falls, and the
atmosphere discharges its vast load of water--how vast we may gather
from the fact that the waters of all the rivers are but a part of the
overflowings of the great atmospheric reservoir. "God binds up the
waters in his thick cloud, and the cloud is not rent under them." It
is thus that the terrestrial waters are divided into those above and
those below that expanse of clear air in which we live and move,
exempt from the dense, dark mists of the earth's earlier state, yet
enjoying the benefits of the cloudy curtain that veils the burning
sun, and of the cloudy reservoirs that drop down rain to nourish every
green thing.
We have no reason to suppose that the laws which regulate mixtures of
gases and vapors did not prevail in the period in question. It is
probable that these laws are as old as the creation of matter; but the
condition of our earth up to the second day must have been such as
prevented them from operating as at present. Such a condition might
possibly be the result of an excessive evaporation occasioned by
internal heat. The interior of the earth still remains in a heated
state, and includes large subterranean reservoirs of melted rock, as
is proved by the increase of temperature in deep mines and borings,
and by the widely extended phenomena of hot springs and volcanic
action. At the period in question the internal temperature of the
earth was probably vastly greater than at present, and perhaps the
whole interior of the globe may have been in a state of igneous
fluidity. At the same time the external solid crust may have been
thin, and it was not fractured and thickened in places by the upheaval
of mountain chains or the deposition of great and unequal sheets of
sediment; for, as I may again remind the reader, the primitive chaos
did not consist of a confused accumulation of rocky masses, but the
earth's crust must then have been more smooth and unbroken than at any
subsequent period. This being the internal condition of the earth, it
is quite conceivable, without any violation of the existing laws of
nature, that the waters of the ocean, warmed by internal heat, may
have sent up a sufficient quantity of vapor to keep the lower strata
of air in a constant state of saturation, and to occasion an equally
constant precipitation of moisture from the colder strata above. This
would merely be the universal operation of a cause similar to that
which now produces fogs at the northern limit of the Atlantic Gulf
Stream, and in other localities where currents of warm water flow
under or near to cooler air. Such a state of things is more
conceivable in a globe covered with water, and consequently destitute
of the dry and powerfully radiating surfaces which land presents, and
receiving from without the rays, not of a solar orb, but of a
comparatively feeble and diffused luminous ether. The continued action
of these causes would gradually cool the earth's crust and its
incumbent waters, until the heat from without preponderated over that
from within, when the result stated in the text would be effected.
The statements of our primitive authority for this condition of the
earth might also be accounted for on the supposition that the
permanently gaseous part of the atmosphere did not at the period in
question exist in its present state, but that it was on the second day
actually elaborated and caused to take its place in separating the
atmospheric from the oceanic waters. The first is by far the more
probable view; but we may still apply to such speculations the words
of Elihu, the friend of Job:
"Stand still and consider the wonderful works of God.
Dost thou know when God disposes them,
And the lightning of his cloud shines forth?
Dost thou know the poising of the dark clouds,
The wonderful works of the Perfect in knowledge?"
We may now consider the words in which this great improvement in the
condition of the earth is recorded. The Hebrew term for the atmosphere
is _Rakiah_, literally, something expanded or beaten out--an expanse.
It is rendered in our version "firmament," a word conveying the notion
of support and fixity, and in the Septuagint "_Stereoma_," a word
having a similar meaning. The idea conveyed by the Hebrew word is not,
however, that of _strength_, but of _extent_; or as Milton--the most
accurate of expositors of these words--has it:
"The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure,
Transparent, elemental air, diffused
In circuit to the uttermost convex
Of this great round."
That this was really the way in which this word was understood by the
Hebrews appears from several passages of the Bible. Job says of God,
"Who alone _spreadeth_ out the heavens."[71] David, in the 104th
Psalm, which is a poetical paraphrase of the history of creation,
speaks of the Creator as "_stretching_ out the heavens as a curtain."
In later writers, as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, similar expressions
occur. The notion of a solid or arched firmament was probably
altogether remote from the minds of these writers. Such beliefs may
have prevailed at the time when the Septuagint translation was made,
but I have no hesitation in affirming that no trace of them can be
found in the Old Testament. In proof of this, I may refer to some of
the passages which have been cited as affording the strongest
instances of this kind of "accommodation." In Exodus xxiv., 10, we
are told, "And they saw the God of Israel, and under his feet as it
were a paved work of sapphire, and as it were the heaven itself in its
clearness." This is evidently a comparison of the pavement seen under
the feet of Jehovah to a sapphire in its color, and to the heavens in
its transparency. The intention of the writer is not to give
information respecting the heavens, or to liken them either to a
pavement or a sapphire; all that we can infer is that he believed the
heavens to be clear or transparent. Job mentions the "pillars of
heaven," but the connection shows that this is merely a poetical
expression for lofty mountains. The earthquake causes these pillars of
heaven to "tremble." We are informed in the book of Job that God "ties
up his waters in his thick cloud, and the cloud is not rent under
them." We are also told of the "treasures of snow and the treasures of
hail," and rain is called the "bottles of heaven," and is said to be
poured out of the "lattices of heaven." I recognize in all these mere
poetical figures, not intended to be literally understood. Some
learned writers wish us to believe that the intention of the Bible in
these places is actually to teach that the clouds are contained in
skin bottles, or something similar, and that they are emptied through
hatches in a solid firmament. To found such a belief, however, on a
few figurative statements, seems ridiculous, especially when we
consider that the writers of the Scriptures show themselves to be well
acquainted with nature, and would not be likely on any account to
deviate so far from the ordinary testimony of the senses; more
especially as by doing so they would enable every unlettered man who
has seen a cloud gather on a mountain's brow or dissolve away before
increasing heat to oppose the evidence of his senses to their
statements, and perhaps to reject them with scorn as a barefaced
imposture. But, lastly, we are triumphantly directed to the question
of Elihu in his address to Job:
"Hast thou with him stretched out the sky,
Which is firm and like a molten mirror?"
But the word translated sky here is not "_rakiah_," or "_shamayim_,"
but another signifying the _clouds_, so that we should regard Elihu as
speaking of the apparent firmness or stability, and the beautiful
reflected tints of the clouds. His words may be paraphrased thus:
"Hast thou aided Him in spreading out those clouds, which appear so
stable and self-sustaining, and so beautifully reflect the
sunlight?"[72] The above passages form the only authority which I can
find in the Scriptures for the doctrine of a solid firmament, which
may therefore be characterized as a modern figment of men more learned
in books but less acquainted with nature than the Scripture writers.
As a contrast to all such doctrines I may quote the sublime opening of
the poetical account of creation in Psalm civ., which we may also take
here as elsewhere as the oldest and most authoritative commentary on
the first chapter of Genesis:
"Bless the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord, my God, thou art very great:
Thou art clothed with honor and majesty,
Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment,
Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain (of a tent),
_Who layest the beams of thy chambers in the waters,
Who makest the clouds thy chariots,
Who walkest upon the wings of the wind_."
The waters here are those above the firmament, the whole of this part
of the Psalm being occupied with the heavens; and there is no place
left for the solid firmament, of which the writer evidently knew
nothing. He represents God as laying his chambers on the waters,
instead of on the supposed firmament, and as careering in cloudy
chariots on the wings of the wind, instead of over a solid arch. For
all the above reasons, we conclude that the "expanse" of the verses
under consideration was understood by the writers of the book of God
to be _aerial_, not _solid_; and the "establishment of the clouds
above," as it is finely called in Proverbs, is the effect of those
meteorological laws to which I have already referred, and which were
now for the first time brought into operation by the divine
Legislator. The Hebrew theology was not of a kind to require such
expedients as that of solid heavenly arches; it recurred at once to
the will--the decree--of Jehovah; and was content to believe that
through this efficient cause the "rivers run into the sea, yet the sea
is not full," for "to the place whence the rivers came, thither they
return again," through the agency of those floating clouds, "the
waters above the heavens," which "pour down rain according to the
vapor thereof."
God called the expanse "Heaven." In former chapters we have noticed
that heaven in the popular speech of the Hebrews, as in our own, had
different meanings, applying alike to the cloudy, the astral, and the
spiritual heavens. The Creator here sanctions its application to the
aerial expanse; and accordingly throughout the Scriptures it is used
in this way; _rakiah_ occurs very rarely, as if it had become nearly
obsolete, or was perhaps regarded as a merely technical or descriptive
term. The divine sanction for the use of the term heaven for the
atmosphere is, as already explained, to indicate that this popular
use is not to interfere with its application to the whole universe
beyond our earth in verse 1st.
The poetical parts of the Bible, and especially the book of Job, which
is probably the most ancient of the whole, abound in references to the
atmosphere and its phenomena. I may quote a few of these passages, to
enable us to understand the views of these subjects given in the
Bible, and the meaning attached to the creation of the atmosphere, in
very ancient periods. In Job, 38th chapter, we have the following:
"In what way is the lightning distributed,
And how is the east wind spread abroad over the earth?
Who hath opened a channel for the pouring rain,
Or a way for the thunder-flash?
To cause it to rain on the land where no man is,
In the desert where no one dwells;
To saturate the desolate and waste ground,
And to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth."
Here we have the unequal and unforeseen distribution of
thunder-storms, beyond the knowledge and power of man, but under the
absolute control of God, and designed by him for beneficent purposes.
Equally fine are some of the following lines:
"Dost thou lift up thy voice to the clouds,
That abundance of waters may cover thee?
Dost thou send forth the lightnings, and they go,
And say unto thee, Here are we?
Who can number the clouds by wisdom,
Or cause the bottles of heaven to empty themselves?
When the dust groweth into mire,
And the clods cleave fast together?"
In the 36th and 37th chapters of the same book we have a grand
description of atmospheric changes in their relation to man and his
works. The speaker is Elihu, who in this ancient book most favorably
represents the knowledge of nature that existed at a time probably
anterior to the age of Moses--a knowledge far superior to that which
we find in the works of many modern poets and expositors, and
accompanied by an intense appreciation of the grandeur and beauty of
natural objects:
"For he draweth up the drops of water,
Rain is condensed[73] from his vapor,
Which the clouds do drop,
And distill upon man abundantly.
Yea, can any understand the distribution of the clouds
Or the thundering of his tabernacle.[74]
Behold he spreadeth his lightning upon it,
He covereth it as with the depths of the sea.[75]
By these he executes judgment on the people,
By these also he giveth food in abundance;
His hands he covers with the lightning,
And commands it (against the enemy) in its striking;
He uttereth to it his decree,[76]
Concerning the herd as well as proud man.
At this also my heart trembles,
And bounds out of its place;
Hear attentively the thunder of his voice,
And the loud sound that goes from his mouth.
He directs it under the whole heavens,
And his lightning to the ends of the earth.
After it his voice roareth,
He thundereth with the voice of his majesty;
And delays not (the tempest) when his voice is heard.
God thundereth marvellously with his voice,
He doeth wonders which we can not comprehend;
For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth.
Also to the pouring rain, even the great rain of his might.
He sealeth up the hand of every man,
That all men may know his work.
Then the beasts go to their dens,
And remain in their caverns.
Out of the south cometh the whirlwind
And cold out of the north,
By the breath of God the frost is produced
And the breadth of waters becomes bound;
With moisture he loads the thick cloud,
He spreads the cloud of his lightning,
And it is turned about by his direction,
To execute his pleasure on the face of the world;
Whether for correction, for his land, or for mercy,
He causeth it to come.
Hearken unto this, O Job,
Stand still and consider the wonderful works of God.
Dost thou know when God disposes these things,
And the lightning of his cloud flashes forth?
Dost thou know the poising of the clouds,
The wonderful work of the Perfect in knowledge?
When thy garments become warm
When he quieteth the earth by the south wind;
Hast thou with him spread out the clouds
Firm and like a molten mirror?"[77]
It would not be easy to find, in the poetry of any nation or time, a
description of so many natural phenomena, so fine in feeling or
truthful in delineation. It should go far to dispel the too prevalent
ideas of early Oriental ignorance, and should lead to a more full
appreciation of these noble pictures of nature, unsurpassed in the
literature of any people or time. I trust that the previous
illustrations are sufficient to show, not only that the _stereoma_, or
solid firmament of the Septuagint, is not to be found in Scripture,
but that the positive doctrine of the Bible on the subject is of a
very different character. For instance, in the above extract from the
book of Job, Elihu speaks of the poising or suspension of the clouds
as inscrutable, and tells us that God draws up water into the clouds,
and pours down rain according to the vapor thereof; he also speaks of
the clouds as being scattered before the brightness of the sun; and
notices, in truthful as well as exalted language, the nature and
succession of the lightning's flash, the thunder, and the
precipitation of rain that follows. Solomon also informs us that the
"establishment of the clouds above" is due to the law or will of
Jehovah. Finally, in this connection, the divine sanction given to the
use of the term heaven for the atmosphere may in itself be regarded as
an intimation that no definite barrier separates our film of
atmosphere from the boundless abyss of heaven without.
Of this period natural science gives us no intimation. In the earliest
geological epochs organic life, dry land, and an atmosphere already
existed. At the period now under consideration the two former had not
been called into existence, and the latter was in process of
elaboration from the materials of the primeval deep. If the formation
of the atmosphere in its existing conditions was, as already hinted, a
result of the gradual cooling of the earth, then this period must have
been of great length, and the action of the heated waters on the crust
of the globe may have produced thick layers of detrital matter
destined to form the first soils of the succeeding aeon. We know
nothing, however, of these primitive strata, and most of them must
have been removed by denuding agencies in succeeding periods, or
restored by subterranean heat to the crystalline state. The events and
results of this day may be summed up as follows:
"At the commencement of the period the earth was enveloped by a misty
or vaporous mantle. In its progress those relations of air and vapor
which cause the separation of the clouds from the earth by a layer of
clear air, and the varied alternations of sunshine and rain, were
established. At the close of the period the newly formed atmosphere
covered a universal ocean; and there was probably a very regular and
uniform condition of the atmospheric currents, and of the processes of
evaporation and condensation."
But while we must affirm that no idea of a solid atmospheric vault can
be detected in the Bible, and while we may also affirm that such an idea
would have been altogether foreign to its tone, which invariably refers
all things not to secondary machinery, but to the will and fiat of the
Supreme, we must not forget that a most important moral purpose was to
be served by the assertion of the establishment of the atmospheric
expanse. Among all nations the phenomena of the atmosphere have had
important theological and mythological relations. The ever-changing and
apparently capricious aspects of the atmosphere and its clouds, the
terrible effects of storms, and the balmy influence of sunshine and
calm, deeply impress the minds of simple and superstitious men, and
this all the more that in their daily life and expeditions they are
constantly subjected to the effects of atmospheric vicissitudes. Hence
the greatest gods of all the ancient nations are weather-gods--rulers of
the atmospheric heavens--displaying their anger in the thunder-storm and
tornado. It is likely that in most cases, as in many barbarous tribes of
modern times, these weather-gods were malevolent beings contending
against the genial influences of the heavenly Sun-god; but in nearly
every case their supposed practical importance has elevated them, as in
the case of the Olympian Zeus, the Scandinavian Thor, and the American
Hurakon, to the place of supreme divinity. This was one of the
superstitions which the Hebrew monotheism had to overcome. Hence the
atmosphere is affirmed to be under Jehovah's law, and all its phenomena
are attributed to his power. The value of this as cutting at the root of
the most widespread superstitions it is easy to understand, and it has a
farther value in teaching that even the apparently unstable and
capricious air is a thing established from the first and amenable to the
ordinance of God. How difficult it has been to eradicate superstitious
views of the atmosphere may be learned from the fact that St. Paul, in
writing to the enlightened citizens of Ephesus, could speak of the power
which the heathen worshipped as the "Prince of the powers of the air,"
and it is also evidenced by the abundant notions of this kind which have
survived from the Middle Ages among the more ignorant part of the people
even in lands called Christian.
While, however, the Bible affirms the atmosphere to be subject to law,
it does not carry this into the domain of physical necessity, and
affirm with some modern materialistic philosophers that it is useless
to pray for rain. It is God who gives rain from heaven and fruitful
seasons, and what he gives he can withhold. Perhaps no part of our
subject can better than this illustrate the rational distinction
between a mere physical fatalism, or a mere superstitious fear of
capricious nature, and that belief in a divine Lawgiver which lies
between these extremes. Modern science may smile at the poor Indian,
who in his fear invokes Hurakon or Tlaloc or the terrible
Thunder-bird, and may even despise that nobler worship of the great
Phoenician Sun-god, the source and fountain of all light and life;
against which, though it was the grandest of all the old idolatries,
Elijah waged war to the death. But may it not equally deride the faith
of Elijah himself, when, after three years of drought, he prayed in
the sight of assembled Israel for rain? It may do so if physical law
amounts to an invariable necessity, and if there is no supreme Will
behind it. But if natural laws are the expression of the divine will,
if these laws are multiform and complicated in their relations, and
regulate vastly varied causes interacting with each other, and if the
action and welfare of man come within the scope of these laws, then
there is nothing irrational in the supposition that God, without any
capricious or miraculous intervention, may have so correlated the
myriad adjustments of his creation as that, while it is his usual rule
that rain falls alike on the evil and on the good, he may make its
descent at particular times and places to depend on the needs and
requests of his own children. In truth the belief in law is essential
to the philosophical conception of prayer. If the universe were a mere
chaos of chances, or if it were a result of absolute necessity, there
would be no place for intelligent prayer; but if it is under the
control of a Lawgiver, wise and merciful, not a mere manager of
material machinery, but a true Father of all, then we can go to such
a being with our requests, not in the belief that we can change his
great plans, or that any advantage could result from this if it were
possible, but that these plans may be made in his boundless wisdom and
love to meet our necessities. There is also in the Bible the farther
promise that, if we are truly the children of God, regulating our
conduct by his will and enlightened by his spirit, we shall know how
to pray for what is in accordance with his divine purpose, and how to
receive with gladness whatever he sees fit to give. While, therefore,
the Biblical doctrine as to natural law emancipates us from fears of
angry storm-demons, it draws us near to a heavenly Father, whose power
is above all the tempests of earth, and who, while ruling by law, has
regulated all things in conformity with the higher law of love. When
God had made the atmosphere, he saw that it was good, and the highest
significance is given to this by the consideration that God is love.
The position of the Bible is thus the true mean between superstitions
at once unhappy and debasing, and a materialistic infidelity that
would reduce the universe to a dead, remorseless machine, in which we
must struggle for a precarious existence till we are crushed between
its wheels.