in it the floodlight of our glorious sun gets weaker and weaker, and its bright disk wastes away by distance, until it shines only as a twinkling star.and the strong chain of its attraction which held with firm grasp the planets in their orbits, after dwindling by fixed degrees into a force that would not break a gossamer, is finally dissipated and lost.now we ask, is it likely that those vast orbswith masses and densities so wonderfully modified and adjusted in accordance with what we perceive to be the requirements of living creatureswith years and months, days and nights, seasons and climateswith atmosphere and twilights, tradewinds and currentswith clouds and rains, continents and seas, mountains and polar snowswith sun, moon, and stars, and, in short, with all the elements that make up the conditions of a habitable globeis it likely that those glorious works of the creator should have been formed to lie waste, sterile, and unprofitable? or even if we could bring ourselves to think that those masses, whose united bulk dwarfs our earth into insignificance, had been solely created as makeweights to keep this little atom of earth in its place, why should they have been provided with complicated systems of moons revolving round them to give them auxiliary light? the suns light they share in common with ourselves; but for what conceivable purpose should deserts void of life have been supplied with those wonderful lamps to light them up in the absence of the sun? conditions that might be incompatible with our organization, may be by adjustment of creative wisdom exactly suited to the beings placed to inhabit them.all life, even if it be essentially the same in principle, may not everywhere assume the same phase of outward existence, nor need we attempt to set limits in this respect to the lord of life.the spaces lie there furnished readythe word was only required to people them with life.such inquiries have an interest which goes beyond their mere astronomical import, for they touch our conceptions of gods greatness, wisdom, and power.is there one who does not long to be able reasonably to cherish the thought that, far away from this _tiny_ speck of earth, in the remote realms of space, we behold worlds inhabited by beings who, it may be, are privileged to know their creator, and to bless, praise, and magnify him forever.we have seen that all leading astronomers agree in the fact of a _plurality of suns_, and a _plurality of worlds_, and their numbers so vast that they are beyond our computation.now we hold that in all this vast creation, there is a controlling element, and that this element is necessarily manifest in all things, and so predominates that percipient intelligences should, and we believe canto a certain extentcomprehend it.do you ask, what is this element? we answer _fire_! we have presented to your mindas far as we are able to comprehendthe infinity of gods wisdom and power, as manifested in his wonderful creations; not only in creating this earth on which we live, and all pertaining thereunto, but of heavens, suns, planets and worlds, whose numbers are _millions_, as they are seen standing out and peopling the realms of boundless space, and yet we know that so vast is the infinity of his wonderful creations, that we have given to the mind only a birdseye view within the borders of his boundless empire.we are aware that the idea we advancethat the vast globe, encircled by the photosphoric, ethereal flame (that which we denominate the sun), _is our heaven_, as also the heaven for intelligences of the other planets of our solar system, and that there are numerous other suns of similar import which may also be heavens for created intelligences inhabiting their surrounding planetsis new to the mind of man, and that at first thought some may be incredulous; thus, as we said in the beginning, it has ever been with all important discoveries, and especially so of discoveries through the lights and science of astronomy.nevertheless, the wondrous works of the creator, as we have surveyed and contemplated themwe thinkwill justify our hypothesis.but to all the foregoing we shall still add stronger, and we think, more convincing evidences, when we come to contemplate the elements of the sunfire, heat, and lightin connection with gods intercourse by his spirit, and his dealings with man._gods throne shall endure forever; so also shall the sun.conclusive scriptural evidence for all that we claim._ god hath sworn by his holiness, that the seed of david (the messiah), should endure forever, and his throne as the sun before him.the psalmist, referring to the messiah says, his name shall endure forever.his name shall be continued as long as the sun, and all nations shall call him blessed.here we have the assurance of the eternal duration of the sun; even as the throne of god which is to endure forever and ever.the promise is, that his seed also will i make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.thy throne o god is forever and ever.thus, we see that the sun and the heaven are to endure as long as the throne of god, and his throne is to endure forever and ever.now to us, to all, while dwelling in mortality, the sun dispenses its blessings alike.he maketh the sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and sendeth the rain on the just, and on the unjust.thus, we see that the sun is the active agency for the dispensing of his blessings to man and all animation on this earth.its rays of light and heat penetrate the bosoms of oceans and seas, and draw up from the fountains of the deep the liquid element in ascending vapor, and condensing it into clouds, scatter and return it in rains, and gentle showers, to water and replenish the earth and make it bring forth for sustenance of man and beast, and renew the verdure of nature.now do we not see in all this, as in all things else, that the sunits heat and lightare gods agencies in sustaining all things? we have told you that we could comprehend that it _was_ an agency pervading and controlling all things.but you have doubtless noticed the fact that as we have followed up and grasped the revelations made by philosophers and astronomers, that the ablest of them have failed to comprehend the _nature_ of the eternal source of fire.all agree in the one fact, however, that it is derived from the sun.no finite mind ever has comprehended, nor, it may be, ever will be able to fully comprehend it.we know that it exists.we apply to it properties and principles, or components which form the element.beyond this we cannot go, only we know that god himself is its author; that it is an element intimately connected with himselfnay more, that he has even revealed to us that _his spirit is fire_! and when we contemplate the fact that it is the only completely destructive, or _annihilating_ element, and yet one that can _never be destroyed_; one that is to purify the righteous, and yet punish the wicked, we are led to the inevitable conclusion that it is an _attribute_ of the great jehovah.we believe it an element of creative agency, one that has existedpossiblyfrom all eternity, and will continue through all eternity to come.we are told that god, by his spirit, is manifest in all his works.now, what else than _light_, and _heat_, is thus manifest to us? it is positively _the source of all light_, and st.paul tells us that all things are made manifest by light; while the psalmist declares his going forth is from the _end of the heaven_, and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the _heat_ thereof.now we see that this declaration establishes our hypothesis of the location of heaven.his going forth from the _end of the heaven_from the sunand nothing is hid from the heat thereofthe sun being the source of heatis conclusive evidence that the _sun_ is neareven at the _ends_ of the heaven.in the further contemplation of the hypothesis, that the spirit of god is _as_ fire, you will remember that we have stated that some of the constituent elements of fire pervades all things, and also that god_by his spirit_is everywhere, and in all his works.hear the psalmist, on this subject: whither shall i go from thy _spirit_? whither shall i flee from thy presence? if i ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if i make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.if i take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.if i say, surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.yea, the darkness hideth not from thee: but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.mark well this testimony, that while the spirit of god is everywhere, so, also, is that spirit _light_, and there is no darkness, save to those vailed in humanity.when spirit is free from mortality; is accepted of god, and clothed upon with immortality; _as spirit_, it partakes of his own nature, and will, henceforth, dwell forever in eternal light.now what the sun is to this earth and its inhabitants, so also we believe it to be to the inhabitants of all the other planets belonging to its system; all of which worlds it controls, even as it does this.and here the mind goes out in the contemplation of the hypothesis, that all those other suns, standing far out in sidereal regionseach governing and controlling its own system of planets, or worldsare also _heavens_ for created intelligences inhabiting such planets.god is infinite, as well as omnipresent.infinite in wisdom, and in his creative power