Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1892-04-01
REV. Or. TAlMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT, DIVINITY IN THE STARS"

TEXT: Seek HIM that mdketh the Screen
Stars and rion."-Amos ", 8.
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 cattle trod out the
grain. He gathered the fruit of the syca-
more tree and scarified it with an iron comb
Just before 1t was getting ripe, as 1t was
necessary and customary in that way TO take
from 1t the bitterness. He was the son of a
! poor shepherd and suffered but before the
Stammering rustic the Phlistines and Syr.
ians and Pbenicians and Moabites and Am.
monites and Edomites and lsraelites trem.
/ bed.
Moses was law giver Daniel was
! prince, Isaiah a courtier aud David a king;
| but Amos the author of my text was a
! peasant, and, as might be supposed, nearly
/ all his parallellsms are pastoral. his proph.
ecy iull of the odor of new mown hay, and
the rattle Of locustS, and the rumble OF carts
with sheavcs, aud 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, 50 that throuy yh 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 SEQ
the stars, except among the tall brick
! Chlmneys OF the great towns. But at sea-
| sons OF the years 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 silver tassels OF
lunar light.
What life of solitude all alone with his
herds! Poor Amos And at IL o'clock at night
bark 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 uuwit-
tlngly steps too near while moving through
the thickets! So Amos, like other herdsnen,
got the habit OF studying the map of the
| heavens because it was Sc much OF the time
spread out before HIM, He noticei some
stars Advancing and others recediny. He
associated their dawn AMI setting with GER
tam seasons of tho year. IL had poetic
| nature, and he read night by night ami
month by month, AMI year by year. the
| poem OF the consultations dlvinely
rhythmic. But two rOsettes OF stars espe-
tally attracted his attention while seated on
he ground or lying on his back under the
pen scroll Of the mi1night heavens-the
P!eiades, or Seven Stars, and Orion. The
urner group this rus. .ic prophet associated
With the spring, as 1t rises about the first OF
Nay. The latter he associated with tho
winter, as It comes TO the meridian III Janu-
lry. The P.elales, or Seven Stars, con-
neced with all sweetness aud JOY; Orion,
the herald OF the tempest. The anclents
were the more apt to study the physosnomy
/ and juXtapositinu OF the heavenly bodies,
because they tho. ut they had a special IN
huence upon tho earth, and perhaps they
were right. If the moon every few hours
hits 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 prop1rtionate eifectI
And there are some things which make me
think that it may not have been all super.
stition which connected the movements and
appearance Of tue heavenly bodies with
great moral events on earth. Did not a me-
tCor run on evanCelisiC crrlni on the first
Christmas ght and dcsi Enate tie rough
cradle of our Lordi Did not the stars in
their curses fight against Si-ecal Was it
merely colncidental that Lefore the dCstruc-
ton OF Jerusalem the moon was &c ipsed Tor
twelve consecutive nlghtsi Dill IL merely
happen so that new star appeared i'll con-
stelation Cassopea, and then disappeared
just before King Charles lN Of France, who
was responsible for the st. Bartholomew
massacre, diedi Was it without significance
that in the days of the Roman emperor JUS
tinau war and famine were preceded by the
dlmneSS OF the sun, which for nearly Il year
gave TO more light than the moon, although
there were no clouds TO obscure II;
Astroogy, alter all, may have been some.
thing more than brilliant heatnensn. No
these two anthems OF the stars, put down
the stout rough staff of the hsrdsman and
took into his brown hand AM cut AMI
knotted fingers the pen OF a prophet and
advised the recreant peop'e OF his time TO
return to God, saying, Seek Him that
maketh the the Seven S.ars and Orion"
This command, which Amos gave 1S5 years
b. C., is just as appropriate for us, lsS!
A. d.
In the first place Amos saw, as we must
see that the God VINO made the Pleiades
and Orion must be the God OF order. IL
was not so much a star here and star
there that impressed the inspired herd 'man,
but seven in one group and seven in the
other group. lie saw that night after night
and season after season and decade after de-
cade they had kept step Of light, each one in
its own place, and sisterhood nevd clashing
and never contesting precedence. From the
time Hesiod called the Pleiades the seven
daughters 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 man
uscript that may be pigeonhoed, but with
the hand of the Almighty on the dome OF the
sky, so that all nations may read 1t. Order.
Persistent order Sublime order. Omnlpo-
tent order.
What sedative to you and me, to whom
communities and nations sometimes seem
going pellmell, and world ruled by some
dend at haphazard and in all directions
maladministration The God who keeps
seven worlds in right circuit for six thous-
and years can certainly keep all tho affairs
of individuals an nations and continents IN
adjustment We had not better fret much,
for the peasants argument or the text was
right. II God can take care OF the seven
worlds Of the Pleiades and the four chief
worlds of Orion, lie can probably take care
of the one world we inhablt
So feel very much as my father felt one
day when we were going to the country mill
to get n grst ground, and /. boy OF seven
years sat in the back part OF the wagon, anu
our yoke OF oxen ran away with us and along
a labyrlnthine road through the woods SO
that thought every moment we should be
dashed to pieces and made terrible out
cry Of fright, and my father turned to me
with face perfectly calm, and said; DE
Witt, what are you crying abouH 1 guess
we can ride as fast as the oxen can run"
And.m hearers why should we be aifrghted
and lo.e our eQulibr ,um in the swift move
ment of worldly events especially when we
are assured that 1t is not yoke OF unbroken
steers that are drawing us on, but that Or
der and wise government are In the yokef
In your occupation, your mission, your
sphere, do the best you can anu then trust
To God: and il all things are all mixed ami
disuuieting, ami your brain Is hot ana your
heart sick, get some one 10 go out with you
into the starlight and point out to you the
Pleiades, or better than tnat, get into some
observatory, and through the telescope see
further than Amos with the naked eye could
namely. two hundret stars in the Pielades,
and that IN what is called the sword OF Orion
there is u nebula computed to be two trllIion,
two hundred thousand billions times larger
than the sun Oh, beat peace with the Goc
who made all that and controls all that-tht
wheel of the consultations turning in the
wheel of galaxles for thousands OF years
without the breaking Of u cog or the slipping
Of band or the snap OF an axle FOR YOU
placidity and comfort through the Lore
| 1nrns Ghrist | chnrpn YOu ''SpCk nlm lnhl