Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Astronomy, Biblical Authority, Piety, Education

    Robert Westbrook, who is on a visit to his uncle's house, awakes at 5 am on the first day, and looks out of the window. It is dark, and he returns to bed to think. The church bells are ringing in the new year, and he finds that they are ringing the tune he was just thinking of: 'The stars that in their courses roll, / Have much instruction given, / But Thy good word instructs the soul / How it may rise to heaven!' (8). Robert has been taught to think, and his glance out of the window furnishes him with materials for meditation. 'Thousands and tens of thousands of his own age had seen the stars, but scarcely one out of a hundred had set a proper value upon the spectacle'. To Robert they are connected 'not only with many pleasurable circumstances, but with the "exceeding great and precious promises" of the word of God'. (9) In his meditation he associates them with the Psalms, with the book of Job, and with other portions of the Bible.