The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-09

through the telescope see further than Amos
with the naked eye could namely, two hundred
stars IN the Pleiades and that in what is called
the sword of Orion there is nebula computed
TO be two trillion two hundred thousand billions
or times larger than the sun. Oh, be at peace
with the God who made all that and controls all
that.-the wheel OK the consultations turning In
the wheel of galaxies for thousands of years
without the breaking of cog, or the slipping OF
band, Or the snap of an axle. For your placid
1ty and comfort through the Lord Jesus Christ,
charge you, Seek Him that maketh the Seven
| Stars and Orion"
| Again Amos saw. as we must see, that the God
| who made these two groups Of the text was the
God OF light. Amos that God was not salts
ned with making ore STAR or two or three stars,
but he makes seven and having finished that
| group of worlds. makes another group-group
after group. To the Pleades He adds Orion 1t
seems that God likes light SO well that He keeps
making it. Only one Being in the universe knows
the statistics of the solar lunar, stellar, meteor
&c cereatlons. and that is the Creator himself.
And they have all been lovingly christened, each
one name as distinct as the names OF your
children. HE telleth the number of the stars:
| He calleth them all by their Names" The seven
| Pleiades had names given to them; and they
| Alcyone. Merope. CalBno Electra, Sterope. Tay-
| gete and Maia But think of the billions and
| trlllons of daughters of starry light that God
| calls by name as they sweep by Him with beam
| ing brow and lustrous robe. So fond is God of
light, natural light. moral light, spiritual light.
Again and again is light harnessed for symbol
zaton-Christ, the bright and morning STAR
CHARACTERIZATION, the daybreak; the redempton of
| nations, Sun of Righteousness rising with heal
| ing IN His wings 0 men and women with so
many SORROWS and SINS and perplexities, if you
! want light of comfort light of pardon, light of
| goodness in earnest prayer through Christ.
! seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and
| Orion"
Again Amos saw as we must see, that the
| GOD who made these two archipelagoes of stars
must be an unchangng God. There had been no
change In the stellar appearance in this herds
| mans lifetime, and his father, shepherd. re-
ported to him that there had been no change in
| MS lifetime. And these two clusters hang over
the celestial arbor now just as they were the
hrst night that they shone on Edeuic bowers, the
| same as when the Egyptians built the Pyramids,
from the top of which to watch them. the
| same AS when the Chaldeans' calculated the
eclpses the same as when Eiihu, according to
| the book of Job, went out to study the aurora
| borealis, the same under Ptolemaic system and
| Copernican SYSTEM the same from Casthenes
to Pythagoras, and from Pythagoras to Her
schel Surely changeess God must have
| fashioned the Pleiades and Orion. o. what
| anodyne amid the ups and downs of life, and
the flux and refux Of the tides of prosperity, to
| know that we have a changeless God, the same
| yesterday, to-day and. forever! XerXes garland
ed and knighted the sherman of his boat in the
| morning and hanged him the evening of the
| same day. Fifty thousand people stood around
| the columns of the national Capitol shouting
themselves hoarse at the presidential inaugural,
and In four months so great were the antipa-
| tines, that a ruffans pistol in Washington depot
| expressed the sentiment of great multitude.
| The world sits in its chariot and drives tandem,
| and the horse ahead is HuzZa and the horse be-
| hind IS Anathema. Lord Gotham. in King
| Jamess time, was appauded and had $50 900
| year. but was afterwards execrated and lived on
scraps stolen from the royal kitchen Alexan-
| der the Great after death remained unbured
| for thirty days because one would do the hon
or of shoveling him under. The Duke of Wei
| lngton refused to have his iron fence mended
because it had been broken by an Infatuated pCp-
ulace in some hour OF political excitement and
he left it in ruins that men might learn what
tickle thing is human favor. But the mercy
of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to
them that fear Him, and his righteousness unto
the chlldren's children of sucn keep His cove
nant and TO those who remember His command
ments to do them" This moment Seek Him that
maketh the Seven Stars and Orion"
A GOD OF LOVE AND KINDLY WARNING.
Again: Amos saw, we must see. that the
God who made these two beacons of the Oriental
night sky must be God Of love and kindly
warning. The Pleiades rising in mid-sky said
| to all the herdsmen and shepherds and husband
men: "Come out and enjoy the mild weather
and cultivate your gardens and fields" Orion
| coming in winter warned them to prepare for
two consultations. The one said to shipmaster
and crew: Hoist sail for the sea and gather
merchandise from other lands" But Orion was
the storm-signal, and said: Reef sail, make
things snug put into harbor. for the hurri-
canes are getting their wings out" AS the Plei-
AIDES were the sweet evangels of the spring. Orion
was the warning prophet of the winter. O. now
l get the best view of God | ever had! There
are two kinds of sermons | never want to preach
the one that presents God so kind. indulg-
ent, so lenient, imbecile that men may do
what they will against him, and fracture his
every law, and put the cry of their impertinence
and rebellion under His throne, and while they
splitting in His face and stabbing at His heart
He takes them up in His arms and kisses their
Infatuated brow and cheek saying, "Of such is
the kingdom of heaven The other kind of SER
mon never want to preach is the one that repre-
sents God all fire and torture and thunder
cloud, and with red-hot pitchfork tossing the
human race into paroXysms of infinite agony
The sermon that am now preaching believes in
a God of loving kindly warning the God of
spring and winter, the God of the Pleiades and
Orion. OH must remember that the winter is
just as important the spring. Let one winter
pass without frost to kill vegetation and ice to
bind the rivers and snow to enrich our fields
and then you will have to enlarge your
hospitals and your cemeteries. "a green Christ
mas makes a fat graveyard" was the old prov
erb. Storms to purify the air. Thermometer
at III degrees above zero to tone up the system
December and January just as important as May
and June tell you we need the storms of life
as much as we do the sunshine. There are more
men ruined by prosperity than by adversely. If
we had our own way in life, before this we would
have been representations of selishness and
worldliness, and disgusting sin. and puffed up
until we would have been like julius Caesar. who
was made by sycophants to believe that he was
divine, and the freckles on his face were as the
stars of the armament One of the swlftest
| transatlantic voyages made last summer by the
Etruria was because she had stormy wind
abaft, chasing her from New York to Liver
pool But TO those going in opposite direction
the storm was buffeting and hindrance 1t
is a bad thing to have a storm ahead pushing us
back. but if we are Gods children and aiming
toward heaven, the storms of life will only chase
US the sooner into the harbor / am so glad to
believe that the monsoons, and typhoons. and
mlstrals, and siroccoS of land and sea are not