A Total Eclipse
NE of the most sublime and awe-inspiring sights I ever witnessed — and yet one of the most difficult to describe — was the total eclipse of the sun, as we beheld it here on Saturday afternoon. Others will tell the story scientifically, let me jot down a few impressions of a scene that affected me as it did the children that stood beside me. Augusta — a thrifty village of this abounding region — was almost undr the centre of the total obscuration. “You could not have a better place to see it,” said the astronomer of Princeton College to me a week ago. And not to see the eclipse in its totality is about equal to being half-married or half-converted.
At four o’clock we stood in the door-yard of my friend, with smoked glass in hand; and, as one of us was watching the blazing sun, he exclaimed, “There she comes!” When a boy, I had read of this very eclipse, and of the moment it should begin. It did begin at the precise second predicted forty years ago! Such is the punctuality of the truth-keeping God. And will He not be equally faithful in keeping His spiritual promises? *’ Wheiefoi
The shadow came over the sun gradually — even as I have seen the shadow of a growing sin creep over a bright Christian character. The landscape around us began to look yellowish and ghastly. The grass seemed to be getting sick. Over the trees played a weird, lurid light, and every leaf hung perfectly motionless.” Oh! see how queer those flowers look! And those currant-bushes! It looks as if nature was getting the jaundice I An odd thought; and yet I do not know of any other idea that would more truly describe Nature’s ghastly hue.
“See who’ll catch the first star,” said one of our group. The shadow deepened. The devouring moon pushed on, until the helpless sun was nearly smothered. “There — look! look! See — see — it is almost gone!” Only a minute more, and it is total! “Yonder is a star!” exclaimed one of our company. It was Regulus, blazing away close by the bed of the dying sun. (But Venus had been shining for full five minutes, without our discovering her golden locks.) “Only a few seconds more.” But, ah! what a transfprmation do those few seconds work! Even as in a human history, the deed of a moment suffices to darken a destiny for life; and, still worse, it flings its total eclipse over eternity!
“Total!” we all exclaimed together. In an
instant, in the twinkling of an eye, came down an
awful shadow, as of a black wing, filling the whole
heavens. It was ineffably frightful. Coleridge’s lines
hashed into my mind in a rnomenX..
“The sun’s rim dips; the stars rush out; With one stride comes the dark,”
To the north the horizon was dyed with a rich orange hue. But above us and around us the air seemed to be filled with fine black particles. It was so dark that I could not recognise a countenance a hundred yards off; and yet it was not the darkness of an ordinary evening. It was the darkness of death! Above a group of trees, before us a flock of birds flew wildly to and fro, as if panic-stricken. A couple of cows went lowing past the gate — the only sound in the awful stillness. Just over the fence, a half-dozen chickens had composed themselves to roost in a cherry-tree. A dozen stars were twinkling in various parts of the heavens. The air was chill as midnight.
The best description I can give of the sun when in total obscuration is that it looked as if a circular shield of sheet-iron had been riveted over it; and just at the lower edge glittered a bright, rosy clasp or nut, as if it was the head of the screw which attached the black shield to the sun. All around that shield flashed out the white rays of the corona. This corona had a shimmering, shivering brightness, and was fearfully and wonderfully beautiful. Its edges were not smooth but scalloped; and firom every point small beads of light seemed to float off* into the sky.
The mighty pall of darkness hung over us for almost three minutes! During that time every one in our group had a death-like hue. So might have looked the face oiiht universe to lYve a“^o?»>ilfe^OKDLlx^<^SNR.^ his apocalyptic visions. At two minutes after five, as we stood gazing at the black orb, with its magnificent corona, a sudden flash of golden light burst forth firom the northern fimb. It was the most thrilling instant I ever knew, and the most splendid spectacle I ever witnessed. As if God said, “Z^ there be light /’^ z, sheaf of dazzling rays burst forth in a twinkling! The whole sky lightened instantaneously. Methought that the “sons of God” must have seen something like this when on Creation’s mom the first flood of radiance broke on black chaos at the almighty Voice. He spake, and it was done! “Thou makest darkness, an4 it is night!’’ “Thou coverest thyself with light as with a garment!”
And so, as we watched the blessed light burst forth, and, swift as an archangel, wing its bright way through the whole heavens and over all the earth, it was to us the most perfect of all images of the ineffable Lord Jesus: the Christ of Calvary breaking in on the midnight of a world lying in wickedness! Christ’s sweet gracious word chasing away the darkness of doubt and unbelief from a depraved heart! Christ’s overpowering love turning the night of impenitence into a rosy mom of faith and joy! Christ, the comforter scattering the gloom which shrouds the chamber of sorrow! All these visions of our divine Lord were borne to us on wings of that first excelling sunlight. We saw the Sun of righteousness with healing in His beams. We saw, as if pictured on the sky, that glorious miracle of grace when “old things become new” and spiritual death is 2d into spiritual life j and in that wondrous transation “the Lamb is the Light thereof.” Hencei I shall never point a poor sinner to the Saviour out recalling the delicious thrill of last Saturday’s )urst. And so on my own failing vision in the g hour — when this world goes under eclipse — the first glimpse of heaven break in ecstasy, and Lamb be the Light thereof for ever!