The miracle of the sun and the moon standing still in the days of Joshua
is urged as contrary to the philosophy of nature, and therefore untrue.
That which is simply above the ordinary is not necessarily contrary to the
ordinary. The objection is without value until it be proven that there is
no God; for it is in his power to control the planets. Otherwise he is not
omnipotent. On this very account, it is true, that there is no consistent
ground between Christianity and atheism; for the moment we admit the
existence of God, that moment we concede the existence of the power
adequate to the accomplishment of all the miracles of the Bible. Joshua
went to the aid of the Gibeonites against the confederate kings; went up
to Gilgal _all night_, and came instantaneously upon the enemy; having
thrown them into confusion with great slaughter, and chased them from
Gibeon to Beth-horon, in a westerly direction, the Lord co-operating in
their destruction by a great hail-storm, which slew more than the swords
of the Israelites, but touched not the Israelites. In this situation of
things the sun appears over Gibeon eastward and the moon over Ajalon
westward. When Joshua saw it, moved by a grand impulse, he said: “_Sun_,
stand thou still over Gibeon; and thou, moon, over the valley of Ajalon.”
See Joshua 10: 1 to 28.
The entire machinery of nature is no more in the hands of an Omnipotent
God than a clock or watch in the hands of a man. How absurd it is for a
man, who believes in God’s existence, to be emptying out his wicked
ridicule, the result of his ignorance or otherwise, of his dishonesty,
upon this miracle? Is not God above his laws? Can not he manipulate, take
hold of and handle the laws of nature?
It is claimed that the miracle was contrary to the philosophy of nature.
_God out_, it would be true, but _God in_, it is not. It is conceded by
the best of minds that the Bible is in perfect accord with the Newtonian
system; that the sun is the center of the solar system; and the earth, and
all other planets, move round the sun in certain periodical times; that
the sun revolves around his own axis, and round the common center of
gravity included in his own surface; that the solar influence is the
_cause_ of the annual and diurnal motions of the earth, and that the
motions of the earth must continue while the solar influence continues to
act upon it; that no power but that of Jehovah can change this solar
influence; that he can suspend the operation of this influence; that he
can and does manipulate—handle the laws which he has established—whenever
his wisdom sees proper. It would be degrading to allow that the Almighty
One threw this universe of his under laws over which he has no controlling
power.
The miracle wrought upon this occasion was altogether worthy of God.
Joshua spoke as if he knew all about the effect of the solar influence
upon our planet; it is this influence that gives to our earth its diurnal
motion, and the arresting of this influence would arrest the motion of the
earth and the day would be lengthened out.
It is objected that if the sun should stand still one moment everything
upon the earth would be swept from existence. It is the objection that is
at fault, for there is no evidence that it was an instantaneous miracle. A
few seconds is all that is necessary when a carriage is in rapid motion to
enable its occupants to light out with perfect safety when an
instantaneous pause would hurl them over the dash. At the equator the
rotation of the earth is at the rate of fourteen hundred and twenty-six
feet per second; twelve hundred and twelve feet at Jerusalem. It is the
speed of a ball at the moment of leaving a cannon’s mouth, discharged by
one-fifth of its own weight of powder. This power is allowed to be
sufficient to elevate its ball to the height of twenty-four thousand feet,
deducting the effect of atmospheric resistance. Yet a child of six summers
could destroy all this force by the elastic and continued action of its
fingers inside of two-thirds of a minute. This last objection is entirely
worthless until it be shown that the miracle under consideration was
instantaneous, for eighteen minutes is time enough to stop, gradually, our
planet in its motion, so effectually that you would not feel that anything
had happened. “The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.”