Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-11-09
MAKER OF THE STARS.
TALNIAGE SPEAKS ON 1.-THE
PLEIADES AND ORION"

/
How the Two Groups Attracted the at
tention of Amos OF Tekoa-The Deduc-
tiOns Made from the Scene "A God of
Love and Kindly Warning.
BROOKLYN, n. Y, Nov. S.-.The music
at the Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning,
/ by Prof. Henry Eyre Brown. was more
! than usually excellent. 1t consisted of
/ the organ solo Satz No. l, in minor, by
| Thiele. The Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, ID.
| D., eXpounded the twentieth chapter of
/ the First Book OF Samuel. where IL is told
| how David's wife deceived her husbands s
enemies by an efligy. The preacher
! showed that the poorest way to get out of
| trouble was to lie out. The opening hymn
| was:
"sun Of my soul, thou Saviour dear,
''It is not night If thou art near"
The subject OF the sermon was: "The
/ Pleiades and Orion,o and the text was
| from Amos v. 8: "Seek Him that maketh
the Seven Stars and Orion" Following
| is DIR. Talmage's sermon in full;
| A country farmer wrote this text-Amos
/ OF Tekoa. He plowed the earth and
| threshed the grain by new threshing
machine just invented, as formerly the
cattle trod out the grain. lie gathered
the fruit of the sycamore tree and scarf
| fed it with an iron comb just befOrei was
| getting ripe, as it was necessary and GUS
| tomary in that way to take from 1t the
| bitterness. He was the son OF a poor
| shepherd and suffered, but before the
stammering rustic the Phillstines and
! Syrians and Phnnicians and Moabites
and Ammonites and Edomites and Israel
ties trembled. Moses was q aw-giver,
Daniel was prince, Isaiah a courtler.
and David king; but Amos, the author
| OF my text, was a peasant, and, as might
| be supposed, nearly all OF his parallelisms
are pastoral, his prophecy full of the OdOr
of new-mown hay, and the rattle OF To-
Gusts and the rumble of carts with
sheaves, and the roar of Wild beats de-
vOuring the flock, while the shepherd
came out in their defense. He watched
the herds by day and by night, Inhabited
a booth made out Of bushes, so that
J through these branches he could see the
I stars all night long, and was more famil-
| lar with them than we who have tight
| roofs to our houses and hardly ever see
| the stars, except among the tall brick
chimneys of the great towns. But at
seasons Of the year when the herds were
in special danger he would stay out in
the open field all through the darkness,
| his only shelter the curtain OF the night
heaven, with the stellar embr0ideries and
| silvered tassels OF lunar light. What a
| life Of solitude, all alone with his herdsl
| Poor Amosl And at u O'clock
at night, hark to the VOLTS
bark and the lions roar and the
| BEARS growl and the OWLS te-whit-te-
who's, and the serpenps his4s.as he unwit-
| tingly steps too near while moving through
the thicketsl So Amos, like other herds
men, got the habit of studying the'map of
the heavens, because 1t was so much of
the time spread out before him. He no
noticed some stars advancing and others
| receding. He associated their dawn and
| setting with certain seasons of the year.
| He had a poetic nature and he read night
| by night, and month by month, and year
| by year, the poem of the consultations d.
| VinelY rythmic. But two rosettes Of stars
| especially attracted his attention while
| seated on the ground, or lying on his back
under the open scroll of the midnight
/ heaYens-the Pleiades or Seven Stars, and
| Orion. The former group this rustic pro-
| phet associated with the spring, as II
| rises about the first of May. The
latter he associated with the winter, as il
| comes to the meridian in January. The
! Pleiades, or Seven Stars, connected with
all sweetness and joy; Orion the herald Of
| the tempest. The ancents were the m ore
| apt to study the physiOgnomy and juxta-
| position of the heavenly bodies, because
! they thought they had a special influence
upon the earth, and perhaps they were
/ right If the moon every lew hours lifts
and let's down the tides Of the Atlantic
! ocean, and the electric storms of last year
in the sun, by all scientific admission,
affected the earth, why not the stars have
| prOp0rtionate effect? And there are some
things which make me think that 1t may
not have been all superstition which con-
nected the movements and appearance Of
the heavenly bodies with great moral
events on earth. Did not a meteor run on
an evangelistic errand on the first Christ
mas night and designate the rough
cradle OF our Lord? Did not the stars
in their courses fight against
Siseras Was it merely coincidental that
before the destruction Of Jerusalem the
moon was eclipsed for twelve consecu-
| tive nights? Did il merely happen so that
new star appeared in constellation cas-
siopeia and tnen disapT Feared just before
King Charles TX. OF France, who was re-
! spOnsible for st. BarthOlOmew's massacre
diedY Was IL without significance that
| in the days Of the Roman Emperor Justi-
nian war and famine were preceded by
/ the dlmness OF the sun, which for nearly
year gave no more light than the moon,
although there were no clouds 10 obscure
| IT,? AstrOlOgy after all may have been
something more than brilliant heathen-
ism. No wonder that Amos OF the text,
| having heard these two anthems Of the
stars, put down the stout, rough staff Of
The herdsman and took into his brown
hand and cut aud knOtted fingers the pen
OF prophet, and advised the recreant
| people OF his time 10 return % God, say
! ing: "Seek Himthat maketh the Seven
stars and Orion"
This command, which Amos gave 1856
years b. g., is just as appropriate for US,
1855 A. ID.
In the first place Amos saw. as we must
see, that the God who made the Pleiades
and Orion must DO the God OF order. IL
was not 50 much a star here and "A star
there that impressed the inspired herds
man, but seven in one group and four In
the other group. He saw that night after
night, and season after season, and de-
cade alter decade, they had kept step Of
light, each one In its own place, a sister,
hood, never clashng and never cOntesting
precedence. From the time HesiOd called
the Pleiades the - Seven daughters Of
Atlas" and Virgil wrote In his Enid Of
stormy Orion" until now, they have
observed the order established for their
coming and goingi order written
not IN manuscript that may be
pige0n.hOled, but with the hand
or tae Almighty on the dome OF
the sky. so that all nations may read II.
Order, persistent order; order, sublime
order; omnipOtent orderi What a seda-
tive 10 you and me, 10 whom communities
and nations sometimes seem going pell-
nell and the world ruled by some hend at
a