The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-04-06

and fields" Orion, coming in winter
warned them to prepare for tempest
All navigation was regulated by these
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, or put into harbor, for the hurri-
canes are getting their wings out" AS
the Pleiades were the sweet evangels of
the spring, Orion was the warning
prophet of the winter.
o, now | 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, SO indul-
gent, so lenient, so imbecile that men
may do what they will against Him,
and fracture His every law and put the
pry of their impertinence and rebellion
under His throne, and while they are
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 tho kingdom
of Heaven" The other kind of sermon
| never want to preach is the one that
represents God as all fire and torture
and thunder cloud, and with red-hot
pitchfork tossing the human race into
paroxysms of infinite agony. The SER
mon that l am now preaching believes
in God of loving kindly warning, the
God of spring and winter, the God Of
the Pleiades and Orion.
You must remember that the winter
is just as important as 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 fat graveyard" was the
old proverb. Storms to purify the air
Thermometer at ten degrees above zero
to tone up the system. December and
January just as important as May and
June. I tell you we need the storms of
life as much as we do the sunshine
There are more men ruined by pros
petty than by adversely. If we had our
own way in life, before this we would
have been impersonations of selfish
ness, and worldliness, and disgusting
sin, and pulled up until we would have
been like Julius Cesar, 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 sw iftest transatlantic voy-
ages made last summer by our swiftest
steamer was because she had stormy
wind abaft chasing her from New York
to Liverpool. But to those going in
the opposite direction the storm was g
buffeting and hindrance. 1t is bao
thing to have storm ahead, pushing
us back; but Il we be Gods children
and aiming toward Heaven the storm OF
life will only chase us the sooner into
the harbor | am so glad to believe
that the monsoons, and typhoons
and mistrals, and siroccos of the lane
| and sea are not unclaimed maniacs
let loose upon the earth, but are
: under divine supervision. | am sc
glad that the God of the Seven Stars is
also the God of Orion 1t was out OF
Danes suffering came the sublime
"Divina Commedia," and out of Johr
Millions blindness came paradise
5 Lost, and out of miserable infidel at
| tack came the "Bridgewater Treatise
/ in favor of Christianity, and out Of
! David's exile came the songs of con
ISOLATION, ind out of Christ's sutfering'
| came the possibility of the worlds re
: demption, and out of your bereavement
: your persecution, your poverties, YOU
; misfortunes, may yet ceme an eterna
Heaven.
0, what mercy it is that in the tex
and all up down the Bible God induces
l us to look out toward other worlds
, Bible astronomy in Genesis, il Joshua
r in Job, in the Psalms, in the prophets
1 major and minor, in st. Johns Apoca
lypse, practically saying, Worlds
, worlds! worlds! Get ready for them!'
We have a nice little world here tina
: we stick to. as though losing that WI
1 lose all. We are afraid of falling
E. off this little raft of world
= We are afraid that some me
! teoric iconoclast will some night smasl
1 it, and we want everything to revolv
: around it, and are disappointed whel
G we find that it revolves around the SUI
e | instead of the sun revolving around 1t
e What fuss we make about this littl
g bit # world, its existence only Shor
e tins between two spasms, the par
e oxysra by which it was hurled from
: chaos into order, and the paroxysm o
D its demolition.
e And am glad that so many texts cal
4 us to look off to other worlds, many o
D them lager, and grander and more re
0 splendent. Look there" says Job, "a
L | Mazarotl, and Arcturus and his sons.
4 "Loox there" says St John, lat tn
e moon UNDER Christs feet!' LOCI
4 there. says Joshua, 'at the sun STANDING
V still above d;beonw Look there, say
e Moses, TAT the sparkling armament.
Look there , says Amos, the herds
e man. lat the Seven Stars and Orion!
: Don't let us be so sad about those VIII
e shove off from tits world under Christ
t ly pilotage. Don't let us be so agitate
d about our own going off this little barg
= or sloop or canal boat of a world to ge
J on some Great Eastern of the heavens
: Don't let us persist in wanting to sta
s in this barn, this she'd this clubhouse O
II world, when all the Kings palaces al
l. ready occupied by many of our hes
: friends are swinging wide open thei
= gates to let us in.
# When l read, TN my Fathers hous
f are many mansions" do not kno,
-. aool &c , ,.,D,,, ,,,l =,