The Heavens Declare the Glory of God

​I was excited when a missing link in the fascinating story of Australia’s homegrown astronomer John Tebbutt surfaced this week. It’s an extraordinary lecture delivered to an audience of men at the YMCA in Windsor in 1878, where this world-renowned scientist detailed his conviction that the starry skies above our Great South Land shout the wisdom and genius of the Creator every night. It  was the product of fifty years close observation.
 
John Tebbutt was known for being meticulous in his search for truth and on that Monday night in July, nearly 150 years ago, he declared to an audience of young Australians in ringing tones, that the Author of the universe had visited our planet in none other than the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who had once majestically commanded the waves of Lake Galilee to be still.
 
I think 21st Century generations need to hear this brilliant scientist’s voice again. Click  Read More  to find the link to  my  original blog on John Tebbutt and also a selection of quotes from his lecture in 1878.

For more information about John Tebbutt, go to my original blog.
https://www.theoutbackhistorian.com.au/stories/the-aussie-boy-who-reached-for-the-stars

Hawkesbury Council - Tebbutt's Observatory Virtual Tour
 https://simply360.com.au/blog/portfolio/hawkesbury-council-tebbutts-observatory-virtual-tour/

The following  quotes are from John Tebbutt's  lecture in 1878.
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THE TESTIMONY WHICH ASTRONOMY FURNISHES TO THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE CREATOR. 
Lecture by John Tebbutt, ESQ, F.R.A.S. of the Windsor Observatory, delivered to the Young Mens Christian Association on July 15, 1878.

Page 3
​“The Great Father of the Universe has revealed himself to his creature man by a grand and noble book. That book consists of two volumes. ... The first first volume of God's great book of revelation is the volume of Nature, and the second that commonly known as the Bible.“
 
Page 5
“And this Heavenly Father has written His character in the sky above and in the earth beneath, so that we are left without excuse if we do not have faith in Him.” 
 
​Page 12
"The mind is struck with the marvellous adaptation of the great to the small, and the small to the great, in the comprehensive scheme of creation". 
 
​Page 14
"I allude to the rainbow - that  beautiful symbol of God's  condescension and love to man.     What can be more magnificent and at the same time more beautiful in colours than this specimen of Divine handiwork. If we are not struck with admiration at the sight of it, it is because we are so familiar with it. Look again at the exquisitely beautiful tints with which the summer sun frequently paints the western clouds.  
 
Page 20
"Of the dizzy height to which future generations of astronomers shall rear the scientific scaffold we have no conception, but this we do know, that when the great temple shall be completed, it will have inscribed over its mighty portals the beautiful words of the Shepherd King and Astronomer,   ... "
‘THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD AND THE SKIES PROCLAIM THE WORK OF HIS HANDS.'   (PSALMS 19:1)
 
Page 21
   "As the wise men from the  east  were guided to the adoration of the Infant Saviour by the leading of  a star, so let the starry heavens which we have contemplated this evening lead us to crown Jesus as the Saviour and the Lord of All."

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