AURORA IN AUSTRALIA IN 1900 AND 1909

Near the first of October, 1900, in South New Zealand and Australia there was an exhibition of this phenomenon, and the people declared that it was “the first of the kind ever known in that country.” The Public Journal at the time said it must be that “the northern lights were coming down in the southern climate,” or words to that effect.LDT 31.1

Again, I learn by a communication from Box Hill, Victoria, Australia, that in the month of September, 1909, there was on one night, from 10 P. M. to 3 A. M., “a fiery aurora that covered the whole heavens, for all this period, and that the heavens were entirely free from clouds.”LDT 31.2

One of the most wonderful of these appearances is that seen in McMurdo Sound, by those on the steamer Nimrod in its south pole expedition, under the command of Lieutenant Shackelton, in the year 1909. Of this we give a cut, as drawn by Mr. W. E. A. Wilson, the artist who accompanied the Nimrod. This picture was drawn by this artist on the spot, and a facsimile of it was placed in an album of the Royal Society of Great Britain. The copy here given I obtained at Hobart, Tasmania, from a weekly paper entitled Every Saturday, in its issue of March 13, 1909. That paper entitled it “a marvel of the Antarctic;” and in a subhead, “auroral curtains.” The editor says of this scene that they call it auroral curtains “because of their resemblance to great folds of drapery in the sky.” Their appearance can hardly fail to call to mind that verse in the Psalm 104 “O Lord, .... Thou art clothed with honor and majesty. Who coverest Thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain.” And in Isaiah, again, “It is He ... that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.” Isaiah 40:22.LDT 31.3

Of this and other such appearances in the heavens, this writer frankly admits that “no completely satisfactory explanation of the auroral lights, or of any such phenomena, has yet been offered.”LDT 32.1

Various indeed have been human speculations as to the cause of the aurora, or northern lights. After advancing different theories, like the above writer all are obliged to admit, “The cause is unknown.” In the face of this, the student of the prophetic word declares, “This phenomenon is produced by the direct power of the Lord, in fulfilment of His prediction made through the prophet Joel (Joel 2:30), and is a sure token that we are nearing ‘the great and terrible day of the Lord.’”LDT 32.2

PICTURE-AURORAL CURTAINS, McMURDO SOUND

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