Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-12-04
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
An Imaginative Discourse On the
Heavenly Consultations.
The Divine Nature as Illustrated by ..r;,c
fleiades and ~Orion"--Each World a
Room In the "Many Mansions"
Provided for the Redeemed,

Inc subject of the following sermon. ra.
Gently delivered in the BROOKLYN Taber.
nacie by Rev. T.. Dewitt Talmaee. was
THE Pleiades of Orion,' the text being.
Seek Him that maleth the seven stare and
circumstances, VS..
"A country farmer wrote this text-Amos.
" Iekoa. He plowed the earth and
'nresned the grain by q new threshinp-
naenine just invented, as formerly the cat
se eroa out the grain. He gathered the
run VI the sycamore tree and sacrificed r.
WIZ an no comb just before it was
ge''lns ripe, as it was necessary in TINT
way TO take from it the bitterness, He was
son OF poor shepherd and suffered. Int
before the stammering rustic the Phi,l;s-
tines and Syrians and Phnnicians and
Moabltes and Ammonites and Edomites
ana lsraelltes trembled. Moses was n LAW.
glVer, Daniel was a prince, Isaiah n conr.
tier ard David a King; but Amos, the
auV1or Oh my text, was a peasant, and as
1nlsn6 De supposed, nearly all his parallel
lsins are pastoral, his prophecy full
OF the odor of new-mown hay, and
the rattle of locusts and the rumble of
carts with s%heaves, and the roar of
wild beasts devouring the flock while
the shepherd came out in their defense No
watched the herds by day and night, in
hablted a booth made out of bushes, SO that
through these branches he could see the
stars all nlghtlong, and was more familiar
whit hem 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 dan
ger, he would stay out in the open field all
through the darkness, his only shelter the
curtain Of the night, heaven with the stel-
aar embroideries and silvered tassels of
lunar light. What a life of solitude, all
alone with his herds. Poor Amos! and at
twelve O'Clock at night, bark to the VOLTS
bark ana the lions roar n the bears growl
and the OWLS e-whit-te-whos, and the SER
pent's hiss as he unwitt;ngly 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 asso-
ciated 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, divinelv rhythmic. 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 heavens-the Pleiades, or
seven stars, and Orion. The former group
this rustic prophet associated with the
spring, as 1t rises about the first of Nav.
The latter he associated with the winter, as
it comes to the meridian in January. The
Plelades, 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 juxtaposi-
ton of the heavenly bodies, because they
thought they had a special influence upon
the earth, and perhaps they were right.
Ii the moon every few 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 nave 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 heavenly bodies with great moral
events of earth. Did not a meteor run OH
evangelist errand on the first Christmas
night and designate the rough cradle of
our Lord? Did not the stars in their course
fight against Sisera? Was it merely COIN
cidental that before the destruction of
Jerusalem the moon was eclipsed for
twelve consecutive nights: Did it merely
happen so that a new star appeared in con-
stellation Cassiopia'and then disappeared
just before King Charles IN. of France,
who was responsible for the st. Bartholo-
NEW massacre, died? Was it without sig
niicance that in the days Of the Roman
Emperor Justinian war II famine were
preceded by the dimIess Of the syn, which
for nearly a year gave no more light than
the moon, although there We're no clouds
to obscure it? Astrology after oil may
have been something more than a brilliant
heathenism. No wonder that Amos OF the
text, having heard these two anthems OF
the stars, put down the stout, rough statt
OF the herdsman and took into his brown
hand and cut and knotted fingers the pen
of a prophet, and advised the recreant peo-
pie of his time to return to God, saying:
'Seek him that maketh the seven stars and
Orion"
This command, which Amos gave 'oo
Years before Christ, is just as appropriate
tor us, A. D. 1885.
In the first place Amos saw, as we must
see, that the God who made the Plelades
and Orion must be the God OF order. 1t
was not so much a star here and a star
there that impressed the inspired herds-
man, but seven in one group ana tour III
the other group. He saw that night attef
night and season after season and decaue
after decade they had kept step OF light,
each one in it's own place, a slsterhooo
never clashing and never contestlng pre-
cedence. From the time Hesiod called the
Pleiades the "seven daughters OF Atlas,"
and Virgil wrote in his IEneid of STORMY
Orion" until now, they have observed inc
order established for their coming anu
going; order written not III MANUSCRIPT
that may be p~igeon-holed, but WIN .ne
hand of the Almighty on the dome OF 'no
Sky, so that all nations may reao IL. oiue
Persistent order. Sublime order. O"h'P,
otent order. What a sedatlve 10 you anu
me, to whom communities and natiohs
Snuot;,o, oojpr pell-mell anu tue