Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-03-25
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE
BROOKLYN PREACHER.
C.,binnl. llIIi.ri..ia.. l.. L.. c,..... a
Subject: "Uivinity in the Stars.'

TEXT: "Seek Him that makeh the Seuen
Stars and Orion."-Amos ", 8.
A country farmer wrote this text-Amos
OF Tekoa. He plowed the earth and thrashed
the grain by new thrashing machine just
Invented, as formerly the cattle trod out the
| grain. He gathered the fruit of the syca-
more tree and scarifed it with an iron comb
| just before it was getting ripe, as it was
necessary and customary in that way TO take
| from it the bitterness. He was the son of a
| poor shepherd and suffered. but before the
| stammering rustic the Philistines and Syr-
ians and Phenicians and Moabites and Am
monites and Edomites ami lsraelites trem-
bed
Moses was a law giyer, Daniel was a
| prince, Isaiah a courtier and David king:
but Amos, the author OF my text, was a
peasant, and, as might be supposed, nearly
all his parallelisms are pastoral. his proph-
ecy ful OK the odor Of new moyn hay aud
the rattle of locusts, and the rumble OF carts
| with sheaves, and the roar Of wild beasts
| devouring the flock while the shepherd came
cut in their defense He watched the herds
| by day, and by night inha0its1 a booth
made out of bushes, so that throug these he
could see the stars all night long, and was
more familiar with them than we who have
tight roofs to our houses AMI hardly ever sea
the stars, except among the tall brick
chimneys OF the great towns. But at sea-
sons OF the years when the herds were in
special danger he would stay out 10 the open
| field all through the darkness his only
shelter the curtain OF the night heaven, with
the stellar embroiderieS aud silver tassels OF
lunar light
What a life of solitude, all alone with his
| herds! Poor Amos! And at II CLOCK at night
hark to the VOLTS bark, and the lions roar
and the bears growl, an the owls te-whit-
te-whO, and the serpents hiss. as he unwit-
| tingy steps too near while moving through
the thicketsl 50 Amos, like other herdsnen
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 ami setting with GER
tain seasons Of the year. II had poetic
nature, and he read night by night, and
month by month, ami year by year, the
poem Of the consultations, divinely
rhythmic. But two rosettes 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
Pieiades, 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
ary. The Peiales. or Seven Stars, con-
nected with all sweetness and joy; Orion,
the herald Of the tempest. The ancents
were the more apt to study the phySiognomy
and juxtaposition Of the heavenly bodies,
because they thought they had a special in
fiuence upon the earth, and perhaps they
were right. If the moon every few hours
hits and lets down the tides of the Atlantic
ocean. and the electric storms Of the sun, by
oil
not the stars have proportlOnate eifecty
And there are some things which make me-
think that it may not have been all super
stiton which connected the movements aud
appearance OF the heavenly bodies with |
great moral events on earth. Did not M
tsor run on eyangelistic errlnd on the first
Christmas night aud designate the rough |
cradle OF our Lordl Did not the stars in
their courses fight against Sisecag Was 1t |
merely coincidental that before the destruc-
tion OF Jerusalem the moon was ecipsed for |
twelve consecutive nights: Did it merely /
happen so that new star appeared in con |
stelation Cassiopeia, and then disappeared |
Just before King Charles TX Of France, who |
was responsible for the st. Bartholomew J
massacre diedg Was it without significance |
that in the days of the Roman emperor JUS
tinian war and famine were preceded by the |
dimness of the sun, which for nearly year
gave 10 more light than the moon, although |
there were no clouds to obscure it?
Astro!ogy, after all, may have been some
thing more than brilliant heathenisn. No |
wonder that Amos OF the text, having heari
these two anthems OF tine stars, put down
the stout rough staff Of the herisman an
took into his brown hand AMI cut AMI
bnotted fingers the pen OF prophet AMI
advised the recreant people OF his time t.
return to Col, saying, seek Him tha-
maSeth the the Seven Stars and Orion"
This command, which Amos gave 1sj years
B. c., is Just as a propriate for us, ~!
A. D.
In the first place, Amos saw, as We must
see that the God who made the PieIa1es
and Orion must be the God of order. It
was not so much star here and star
there hat impressed the inspired herdsman,
bur seven in one group and seven IN the
other group He saw that night after n'gh5
and season after season and decade after de-
cade they had kept step Of light, each one IN
its own place, and sisterhood never clashlns
and never contesting precedence From the
time Hesiol called tue Pieades the seven
daughters Of Atlas" and Virgil wrote in his
Eneii OF stormy Oron" until now, they
have observe the order established for their |
coming and going; order written not In man' !
uscript that may be pigeonholed, but with |
the hand of the Almighty on the come OF the |
sky, so that all nations may read It. Order.
Persistent order. Sublime order. Omnipo- |
tent order.
What a selative to you and me, to whom |
communities and nations sometimes scent |
going pellmell, ami world rulet by some |
fiend at haphazari and in all directions |
maladministration The Col who keeps |
seven worlds in right circuit for SIX thous- |
and years can certainly keep all the affairs |
Of s,,.lf ftto o11 / not
adjustment. We had not better fret much, |
for the peasants argument OK tine text Was |
right. Ii God can take care of the seven |
worlds Of the Pleaies and the four chief |
worlds of Orion, He can probably take care !
of the one world we inha5it.
So feel very much as my fathe: felt one |
day when we were going to the country mil |
to get grist ground, and ]. boy OF seven |
years, sat in the back part OF the wagon, an |
our YOKE of oxen ran away with US ami along |
a labyrnthine road through the woods, 50 |
that thought every moment we should oe
dashed to pieces, AMI male terrible ou-- |
cry Of fright, and my father turned to me |
with a face perfectly calm, aud said; 10 |
Witt. what are you crying about? 1 gu 5, |
we can ride as fast as the oxen can run.
And, my hearers, why should We. be aftrlghted |
and 10 our equllibr um in the swift move
ment of worldly events especially when we |
are assured that il is not yoke OF nnoroAen |
steers.t that are drawing us on, but that or
der and wise government are In the YOKE!
In your occupation, your mission, yonr |
sphere. do the best you can and then trust |
to God: and if all things are all mixed AMI |
disuuietiny AMI your brain is hot and your |
heart sick get some one 10 go out with you |
into the starlight and point o 1t TO you the |
Pleiades, or better than that, get into some |
observatory, and through the telescope see |
further than Amos with the naked eve could |
namely. two hundred stars in the Pieiades,
and that IN what is called the sword OF Orion |
there is a nebula computed TO be two trillioD,
two hundred thousand billions times larger |
than the sun. Oh, beat peace with the Col
who made all that and controls all that--the
wheel OF the consultations turning IN the
wheel Of galaxies for thousands OF years
without the breaking Of a cog OF the slipping
Of band or the snap of an axle. For your /
placidity 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 saw that God
was not satisfied with making one star or
three stars. but He makes seven; and having 4
finished that group of worlds makes another
group-group after group To the Pleades
He adds Orion. 10 seems that God likes light
50 well that He keeps making it, Only one
being in the universe knows the statistics OF
cnla cfo11ar t,,ata.,~fc at,I