THE MOON.



"Oh, what a beautiful moon! Look, papa!" said Frank Benton, as the full moon came out from behind a cloud and shone over the waters of New York Bay and the rowboat in which were seated Mr. Benton and his two children.

"Tell us about the 'man in the moon,' papa."

"Don't be so silly, Frank," said Gertie. "But tell us all about the moon, papa dear. Are there any people in it?"

"Well," said Mr. Benton, "how large does the moon look' to you?"

"As big as a bucket," said Frank.

"Yes; it looks small," said papa, "because it is so far away. It is really a large round world as large as North and South America together.

We might suppose it to be filled with people. But astronomers men who have studied all about the sun and moon and stars have found out that the moon has no atmosphere, or air, around it; that there are no clouds for the rain to come from, and there are no oceans, rivers or lakes not even little springs in the moon; and because there is no covering of clouds and air, there is nothing to keep off the heat of the sun, so that when it shines during the day, the moon is scorched and burnt, almost as if it were in a furnace; then, when the sun sets, it grows suddenly colder than it is at the North Pole; and these days and nights are fourteen times as long as our days and nights. So you see, with no air to breathe and no water to drink, and such dreadful heat and cold, the moon would not make a very comfortable home. Hence it is believed that there are no people living in it.

"Then the moon is covered with wild, rocky mountains, and has no trees or anything green upon it. All those bright places you see are mountains, and the dark spots are valleys.

When we go up to the city, I will show you how it looks through a telescope. Some of the mountains are five miles high, and some of the valleys are so deep that the sunlight can never reach the bottom of them. The entire surface presents a scene of the wildest desolation. In every direction are circular caverns or pits, many of them of enormous size. In the center, commonly rises a conical mountain. All this plainly points to a volcanic origin.

"Now, suppose you could fly through the air and should come to the moon, you would look around over the wild, bare rocks and say to yourself, 'I don't think the moon is of any use in the sky.' But suppose then you should light upon this earth, and the people should tell you what a great comfort and help the moon was to them, you would change your mind and think it was of a great deal of use in the sky.

"In the first chapter of the Bible we are told that God made the moon to give light upon the earth, and we know that the earth would not be nearly so beautiful without the lovely moonlight nights.

"There are other ways in which God commands the moon to be very useful to us. One is in causing the tides. The moon attracts the water of the ocean that is, it raises part of it higher than all the rest and so, wherever the moon goes, the water rises, and that is called the tide. The tides are very useful to man; they send the salt water of the ocean into the rivers and keep them pure and healthful; they also fill the rivers and make them deep and broad, so that large vessels can sail on them; and so the tides are a great help to the trade and business of the country.

"Then the moon is a very good friend to the sailors. They look to see where it is in the sky, and can tell from that just how far out on the ocean they are. It has saved many a ship from going in the wrong direction and being dashed to pieces on the rocks.

"When we think of all the help the moon is to us on this earth, it makes us understand how very good our Heavenly Father is to give it to us. Some one has said that 'the moon is one round of a ladder that leads to God.'  By this is meant that to learn about the moon and all the wonderful things that God has made makes us better children and better men and women, and so it is like climbing up a ladder and getting nearer to God. It makes us better because we think if God is so good as to make all these things for our happiness, we ought to do everything we can to show him how much we thank and love him for it.

"Well, here we are at the landing steps. We have drifted home, you see, without rowing, for we have been carried along by the tide that is following the moon in from the great ocean."




S. S. Visitor.