Lectures to my students - Spurgeon - XXXI - Chapter 7 (The sciences as sources of illustration) commenced

Required reading
Lectures to my students by Charles Spurgeon (Available from Amazon or free here) - Commence Chapter 7 (The sciences as sources of illustration) by reading up to the paragraph beginning with 'The nearest planet that revolves around the sun is MERCURY, which is about 37,000,000 miles from the great luminary.'

My summary
Today Spurgeon teaches us how to use the facts of science for sermon illustrations.

From the field of astronomy, Spurgeon gives sermon illustrations from our understanding of the:
(i) telescope itself;
(ii) sun.

What grabbed me
I did like this illustration taken from the eclipse of the sun: 'I met with a very pretty story concerning an eclipse, which you will probably like to hear. A poor little girl, belonging to the commune of Sieyes, in the Lower Alps, was tending her flock on the mountain-side at six o'clock on a bright summer morning. The sun had risen, and was dissipating the vapors of the night, and every one thought that there would be a glorious, unclouded-day ; but gradually the light darkened until the sun had wholly disappeared, and a black orb took the place of the glowing disk, while the air became chill, and a mysterious gloom pervaded the whole region. The little child was so terrified by the circumstance, which was certainly unusual, that she began to weep, and cried out loudly for help. Her parents, and other friends, who came at her call, did not know anything about an eclipse, so they were also astounded and alarmed; but they tried to comfort her as best they could. After a short time, the darkness passed away from the face of the sun, and it shone out as before, and then the little girl cried aloud, in the patois of the district, " O beautiful sun ! " and well she might. When I read the story, I thought that, when my heart had suffered eclipse, and the presence of Christ had gone for a while, and then had come back again, how beautiful the Sun seemed to me, even more bright and fair than before the temporary darkness. Jesus seemed to shine on me with a brighter light than ever before, and my soul cried out in an ecstasy of delight, " O beautiful Sun of Righteousness!'

Next week's reading
Conclude Chapter 7 (The sciences as sources of illustration).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.