The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-11-19
What the Stars Teach Us.
TALMAGE READS GODS WILL AS RE-
vEALED IN THE HEAVENS.

At the brooklyn Tabernacle last Sun
day week Rev. Dewitt Talmage preached
the following sermon. The opening hymn
was
'fSun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear,
1t is not night if Thou art near
Tie subject of the sermon was 1.-The
Pleiades and Orion,' and the text was
from Amos ", g: Seek Him That Max
eth the Seven Stars and Orion" Follow
ing is DR.. Talmage S sermon in full:
A country farmer wrote this text
Amos of Tekoa. He ploughed the earth
and threshed the grain by new thresh-
ing machine just invented, as formerly the
cattle trod out the grain. He gathered
the fruit of sycamore tree and scari6ed it
with an iron comb just before it was get
ting ripe, as it was necessary and Gus
tOmary in that way to take from it the
bitterness. lie was the son of a poor
shepherd and suffered, but before the
stammering rustic the Philistines and
Syr ians and Ph@nicians and Moabites aud
Ammonites and Edomites and Israelites
trembled. Moses was a law-giyer, Daniel
was prince, Isaiah courtier and David
a king but Amos, the author of my text,
was peasant, and, as might be supposed.
nearly all his paIallelisms are pastoral,
his prophecy full of the odor of new-mown
hay and the rattle of locusts and the rum
Die of carts with sheayes, and the roar of
wild beasts devouTing the flock while the
shepherd came out in their defense. He
watched the herds by day and by night,
Inhabited booth made out of bushes, so
that Thu ough these, branches he could see
the stars all night long, and was more
familiar with themss 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 sea-
sons of the year when 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 embroileries and silyered tas-
sells of lunar light. What life of soll-
tude, all alone with his herds Poor
Amos And at II o'clock at night bark to
thewolf's bark and the lions roar and the
bears growl and the OWLS te-whit-te-whos
and the serpent's hiss as he unwittingly
steps too near while moving through the
thickets! So Amos, like other herdsmen,
got the habit of studying the map of the
heavens, because it was so much of the
time spread out before him. He noticed
some stars advancing and others receding.
He associated their dawn and setting with
certain seasons of the years. He had a
poetic nature, and he read night by night
and month by month and year by year the
poem of the consultations, divinely rhyth-
mic. But two roseasettes of stars espe-
cially attracted his attention while seated
on the ground or lying on his back under
the open SCROLL of the midnight heavens
the Pleiades, or Seven Stars. and Orion.
The former group this rustic prophet as
ISOLATED with the spring, as it rises about
the lst of May. The latter he associated
with the winter, as it comes to the NERD
ian in January. The Pleiades, or Seven
Stars. connected with all sweetness and
joy Orion, the herald Of the tempest.
The ancients were the more apt to study
the physiognomy and juxtaposition of the
heavenly bodies, because they thought
they had special influence upon the
earth: and perhaps they were right. If
the moon every few hours lifts and lets
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 proportion.
ate effect And there are some things
which make me think that it may not have
been all superstition which connected the
movements and appearance of the heaven
| ly bodies with great moral events on earth
| Did not q meteor run on eyangelistit
errand on the first Christmas night ant
| Was it merely coincidental that before
the destruction Of Jerusalem the moon was
eclipsed for ~ consecutive nights? Die
it merely happen SO that a new star ap
peared in constellation Cassiopels and ther
disappeared just before King Charles TX
of France, who was responsible for the st
Bartholomew massacre, died? Was il
withouG significance that in the days Of
the Roman Emperor Justinian war ant
famine were preceded by the dimness Of
the sun. which for nearly year gave nj
more light than the moon, although ther,
were no clouds to obscure it ? Astrology
after all, may have been something more
| than brilliant heathenism. No wondel
that Amos of the text, having heard thes,
two anthems of the stars, put down thu
stout, rough staff of the herdsmen ant
/ took into his brown hand and cut ant
knotted fingers the pen of a prophet ant
advised the recreant people of his time t.
return to God, saying: Seek Him tina
maketh the Seven Stars and Orion;
This command, which Amos gave rs
years B. G., is just as appropriate for us
1885 A. d.
In the first place Amos saw, as we mus
see, that the God who made the pleiade
anu Nj lOll lAuDU U0 tLO 0Utl VI L
was not SO much a star here and sta
there that impressed the inspired herds
man. but seven in one group and four il
the other group. He saw that night afte
night and season after season and decad
after decade they had kept step Of light
each one in it's own place, a sisterhoo
i never clashing and never contesting pre-
cedence. From the time Hesiod Gale,
the Pleiades the seven daughters of AT
las and Virgil wrote in his Eneid Q
STORMY Orion, until now they have Oh
served the order established for their com
ing and going /; order written not in man
uscript that they may be pigeon-holeG
but with the hand of the Almighty on tb
dome of the sky, SO that all nations ma
read it. Order, persistent order On
nipotent order What i sedative to yo