The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1892-03-22


In this sermon DR.. Talmage traverses wide
realms of thought TO teach useful every
day lessons, based on the text, Amos VS.:
Seek him that maketh the seven stars AID
Orion"
A country farmer wrote this text-Amos
of Tekoa. He plowed the earth and
threshed the grain By a new threshing ma
chine. just invented, as formerly the cat
tie trod out the grain. He gathered the
fruit of the sycamore tree, and scarfied 1t
with an iron comb just before it was set
ting ripe, rs it was necessary and custom
airy in that way to take from it the bitter
ness. He was the son of poor shepherd,
and suffered; but before the stammering
rustic the Philistines, and Syrians, and
Ihcenicians. and Moabitcs, and Ammon
ties. and Edomtes, and Israelites trembled.
Moses was a laWgiver, Daniel Il
prince, isaiah cOurtcr, and David q king;
but Amos, the author of my text, was a
peasant, and, as might be supposed, nearly
all his paralelsms are pastoral, his proph-
ecy full of the door of new-mown hay, ana
the rattle of locrsts, and the rumble of
carts with shcayes, and the roar of wild
beasts dcvouring the flock while the shep-
herd came out in their defense. He
watched the herds by day, and by night
inhabited q booth made of bushes. so that
through these branches he could see the
stars all night long, and was more familiar
with them than we who have tight roofs to
our houses. and hardly ever see the star ex-
ccpt 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 en-
brOiderics and silyered tasscls Of lunar light
What q life of solitude, all aloHa With
his herds! Poor Amecss. and at II O'Clock
at night bark to the VOLTS bark, and the
lions roar, and the bears growl and the
owls te-whit-tc-who, and the serpents hiss,
as he unwittingly steps too near while
moving through the thickcts! So Amos,
like other herdsmen, got the habit OF study
ing the map of the heavens, because 1t was
so much of the time spread out before him:
He noticed some stars advancing and
others recedng. He associated their dawn
and setting with certain seasons of the
year He had poetic nature, and he read
night by night, and month by month, and
year by year, the poem of the constela-
tons. diviney rhythmic. But two rosettes
of stars especially attracted bis 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 it
rises about the list of May. The latter he
associated with the winter. as It comes to
the meridian in January. The Flelades, or
and joy; Orion, the herald of the tempest.
The ancients were the more apt to study
the physiognomy and iuxtaposition of the
heavenly bodies. Because they thought they
had special influence upon the earth; ana
perhaps they were right. If the moon
every few hours lifts and lets down the
tides of the Atlantic ocean, and the cleo
trio storms of the sun, by all SCIENTIFIC adj
mission. affect the earth, why not the stars
have proportionate effect?
And there are some things which make
me think that it may not have been all SUI
perstistiti0n with connected the movements
and appearance Of the heavenly, pol
les with great moral events on earth. Ilu
not a meteor run on evangellstlc errand ON
The first Christmas night and designate the
rough cradle Of our Lord? Did not the
stars in their courses fight against SiSera
Was il merely c0incidental that before the
destruction of Jerusalem the moon was
eclipscd for twelve consecutive nights
Did II merely happen so that new star
appeared in Cassiopeia, and then d1Sapc
ncared lust before King Charles IN of
France, who was responsible for ~
Bartholomew massacre, dlCu! WAS 1t
without significance that in the days or me
Roman empire IuStinian war and famine
were preceded by the dlmness OF the sun,
which for nearly year gave no more light
than the moon, although there was no
clouds TO obscure 1t!
Astrology, after all, may have been some
thing more than brilliant hcathcnism.
No wonder that Amos Of the text, having
heard these two anthems Of the stars, put
down the stout rough staff OF the herds
man and tool, into his brown hand, and cut
and knOttcd fingers the pen of a prophet,
and advised the rccreant people of his time
to return to God saying: Seek IiIn that
maketb the seven stars of Orion This
command which Amos gave 7S5 years L;
G.. is just as appropriate for us, 1S}2
A. d.
In the first place Amos saw as we must
Soc that the God who made the Pleiadcs
aud Orion must be the god Of order. 1t
was not 50 much a star here and star
there that impressed the inspired herds
man, but seven in one group. and seven in
the other group. He saw that night after
night and season after season and decade
after decade, they had kept step Of light
each one in its own place, a sisterhoOd
never ella hing and never cOntcSting preco-
deuce From the time Ilesiod called ne
pipiadcS the "Seven daughters of Atlas
and Ncrgil wrote in his Acneid Of stormy
Orion until now they have observed the Or
der established for coming and going;
order writtcn not in manuscript that may
BE- rigeon-holed, but with the hand of the
Almighty on the dome of the sky, so that
all nations may read it. Order. Persistent
order. Sublime order. Omnipotent or
der.
What Il scdative to You and me, to whom
communities and nations sometimes seem
gong pcl-mell, and world ruled by some
fiend at hap-hazard, and in all directions
nialadmnistrationi The God who keeps
sever WORLDS IN llgnC circuit Tor SIN 1lOu-
sand years can certainly keep all the af-
fairs of individuals and nations and CONT
ncnts in adjustment. We had better not
fret much, for the peasants argument of
the text was right If God can take care
of IT,, seven worlds of the plcades and the
four chief worlds Of Orion, He can proba
blv take care OF the one world we inhabit.
So | feel very much as my father felt one
dav when we were going to the country
mil to get a erist ground, and l. a boy of
seven years. sat in the back part of the
waEon. and our yoke of oxen ran away
with us and along a labarynthine road
through the woods, so that | thought every
moment we would be dashed to pieces, and
| made It terrible cutlery of fright and my
father turned to me with a face perfectly
calm and said: Dewitt, what are You
CRYING about? ] guess we can ride about
as fast as the oxen can run And, my
hearers. why should we be affrighted and
lose our equilibrium in the swift movement
oc worldly Caeuts, especially when we are
assured that il is not q yoke OF Inbrol2n
steers that are drawing us on, but that
order aud vjsf government are in the yoke
In your occupation, Your mission, your
sDhpre do the best you can. ana lhen ifuSt
to God: and if things are all mixed and dls-
quoting. and your brain is hot and YOU
Heart sick, get some one to go out with TGI
into the starlight and point out to you the
Il, al .rNt ~.