Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-03-31
AT THE TABERNACLE.
THE DIVINE ASTRONOMY AS DE-
scRIBED BY THE PROPHETS.

In the Unehanglng Volume Of the Skies
1t Is Written That God Is a God oi
Infinite Order and without Variable.
ness or Shadow OF Turning.
BRooKLYE. March 20.-In this sermon
Dr. Talmage traverses wild realms oi
thought to teach useful everyday lessons
based on the text, Amos v, s, seek him
that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion..n
A. country farmer wrote this text-Amos
Of Tekoa. He plowed the earth and
thrashed the grain by a new thrashing
machine just invented, as formerly the cat
tle trod out the grain. He gathered the
fruit of the sycamore tree and scarified il
with an iron comb just before it was get
ting ripe, as 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
Phenicians and Moabites and Ammonites
and Edomites and Israelites trembled.
Moses was a lawgiver, Daniel was a
prince, Isaiah courtier and David king;
but Amos, the author of my text, was
peasant, and, as might be supposed, nearly
all his parallelisms are pastoral, his proph-
ecy full of the odor of new mown hay, and
the rattle of locusts, and the rumble of carts
with sheaves, and the roar of wild beasts
devouring 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 through these
he could see the stars all night lRng, and
was more familiar 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 embroideries and silvered
tassels of lunar light.
What life of solitude, all alone with
his herisl Poor Amosl And at 12 O'Clock
at night bark to the VOLTS bark, and the
lions roar, and the bears growl, and the
OWLS te-whit-te-who, and the serpent's
hiss as he unwittingly steps too near
while moving through the thicketsl So
Amos, like other herdsmen, got the habit
of studying the map of the heavens, be-
cause 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 poetic nature
and he read night by night, and month by
month, and year by year, the poem of the
consultations, divinely 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 it rises about the first of May.
The latter he associated with the winter
as it comes to the meridian 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 Ipoon every few hours
lifts and let's down the tides of the Atlantic
ocean, and the electric storms of the sun,
by all scientific admission affect the
earth, why not the stars have proportionate
effect?
WAS IT ALL sUPERsTITIoNf
And there are some things which make
me think that it may not have been all SUI
perstition which connected the movements
and appearance of the heavenly bodies
with great moral events on earth. Did not
meteor run on evangelistic errand on the
first Christmas night and designate the
rough cradle of our LordP Did not the
stars in their courses fight against Siseral
Was it merely coincidental that before the
Plestruction of Jerusalem the moon was
eclipsed for twelve consecutive nights?
Did it merely happen so that new star
appeared in constellation Cassiopeia, and
then disappeared just before King Charles
TX of France, who was responsible for the
st. Bartholomew massacre, died? Was it
without significance that in the days of
the Roman emperor Justinian war and
famine were preceded by the dimness of
the sun, which for nearly year gave no
more light than the moon although there
were no clouds to obscure it?
Astrology, after all, may have been
something more than brilliant heather.
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 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 nLaketh the Seven Stars
and Orion" This command, which Amos
gave 1S5 years B. c., is just as appropriate
for us, 1892 A. d.
In the first place, Amos saw, as we must
zee, that the God who made the Pleades
and Orion must be the God of order 1t
was not so much star here and a 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 it's own place, sisterhood
never clashing and never contesting prec.
edence. From the time Hesiod called the
Pleiades the seven daughtes of Atlas"
and Virgil wrote in HIS Eneid of "Stormy
Orion" until now, they have observed the
order established for their coming and
going; order written not in manuscript
that may be pigeonholed, 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. Om-
nipotent order
THE CONSOLATION IN NATURE.
What sedative to you and me, to whom
communities and nations sometimes seem
going pellmell, and world ruled by some
fiend at haphazard and in all directions
maladministration! The God who keeps
seven worlds in right circuit for six thous-
id years can certainly keep all the affairs
Of individuals and nations and continents
in adjustment. We had not better fret
much, for the PEASANTS argument of tho
text was right. If God can take care of
the seven worlds Of the Pleiades and the
four chief worlds Of Orion, he can probably
take care OF the one world we inhabit.
So feel very much as my father felt
one day when we were going to the country |
mill to get a grist ground, and l, boy Of |
eaUap uoopc in fhn hal, s.-.L