THE SUN REVOLVES ROUND THE EARTH.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 341, 24 July 1878, Page 2

THE SUN REVOLVES ROUND THE EARTH.

1 A A i_J J-J i-X J.V J -*-a ■ The Rev John Jasper, pastor of the largest colored Baptist Church at Richmond, Virginia, in a sermon which has attracted attention throughout the United States, proved to his own satisfaction, and apparently to that of his congregation (says the Pall Mall Gazette), that the philosophers arc entirely mistaken in their theory that the earth revolves round the sun, “ If,” said the reverend gentleman. “ he did not prove by Bible autority that the snn moves, he would never preach again.” The earth, he maintained, is motionless ; for, as he pointed out, it the earth turned round, “ the ocean would be spilled over the land.” His chief argument in favor of the motion of the sun is the fact that Joshua told the sun to stand still; which would have been a ridiculous superfluity if the sun had really never moved. At the close of his eloquent discourse he called on those of his audience who believed that the sun moved round the earth to hold up their right hands ; and, in answer to the invitation, every hand in the church was uplifted. The Nation, speaking of this sermon, observes that it is impossible not to regard it as part of the great movement now spreading over the United States to give the poor and ignorant a fair chance in the solution of the leading problems of the day. A good many branches of knowledge have been kept until now in the hands of persons who have had leisure amt money enough to study them, until the arrogance of this class has become intolerable. The people are, however, goingto take the astronomy question into their own hands, as they have taken the money question, and the word of the honest working man, no matter of what color, will soon go as far with regard to the motions of the planets as that of the bloated astronomer in his luxurious observatory with his costly instruments, which would never have existed but for the toil of the industrious mechanic.