Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-03-21

THE ASTRONOMY OF THE BIBLE.
Oh, what a mercy it is that in the
text and all up and down the Bible
God induces us to look out toward
other words Bible astronomy in
Genesis, in Joshua, in Job, in the
Psalms, in the prophets, major and
minor; in ST. Johns Apocalypse,
practically saying: Worlds worlds.
worldsl Get ready for them!" We
have a nice little world here that we
stick to, as though losing that we
lose all We are afraid of falling off
this little raft of a world. We are
afraid that some meteoric iconoclast
will some night smash it, and we want
everything to revOlve around it, and
are disappointed when we find that
it revOlveS around the sun instead of
the sun revolving around it. What
fuss we make about this little bit
of q world, it's existence only short
time between two spasms the par
oxysm by which it was hurled from
chaos into order, and the paroxysm
of it's demolition
And / am glad that so many texts
call us to look off to other worlds,
many of them larger and grander
and more respondent. Look there"
says Job, sat Nazareth and Arcturus
and his sons - Look there says
ST. John, Eat the moon under Christ's
feetr' ''Look there" says Joshua,
Eat the sun standing still above
Gibeonr' Look there" says Moses,
cat the sparkling armament" Look
there" says Amos, the herdsman,
"at the Seven Stars and Orion!'' Don't
let us be sad about those who shove
off from this world under Christly
! pilotage Don't let us be so agitated
about our own going off this little
barge or SlOOp or canal boat of
world to get on some Great Eastern
of the heavens Don't let us per-
sist in wanting to stay in this barn,
this shed, this clubhouse of a world,
when all the kings palaces, already
occupied by many of our best friends,
are swinging wide open their gates
to let us IN
THE HEAVENLY MANSIONS.
When | read, I'm my Fathers
house are many mansions" do not
know but that each world is room,
and as many rooms as there are
worlds, stellar stairs, stellar CALLER
les, stellar Railways, stellar windows,
stellar domes. How our departed
friends must pity us shut up in these
cramped apartments, tired if we
walk fifteen miles, when they some
morning, by one stroke of wing, can
make circuit of the whole stellar sys-
tenn and be back in time for mathis!
Perhaps yonder twinkling constella.
ton is the residence of the martyrs;
that group of twelve luminaries is
the celestial home of the Apostles.
Perhaps that steep of light is the
dwelling place of angels cherubic
seraphic archangelic. A mansion
with as many rooms as worlds, and
~all their windows illuminated for fes-
tivity.
Oh how this widens and lifts and
stimulates our expectation How little
it makes the present, and how stu
pendous it makes the future! How
it consoles us about our piOus dead,
who, instead of being boxed up and
under the ground, have the range of
as many rooms as there are worlds,
and welcome everywhere, for it is
the Fathers house, in which there
are many mansions O Lord GOD
of the Seven Stars and Orion, how
can I endure the transport, the &C.
stacy, of such a vision! | must obey |
my text and seek him. | will seek |
him. | seek him now, for / call to |
mind that it is not the material uni
verse that is most valuable, but the |
spiritual, and that each of us has a |
soul worth more than all the worlds /
which the inspired herdsman saw
from his booth on the hills of Tekoa
had studied it before, but the ca
thedral of Cologne, Germany, never
impressed me as it did the last timeI
saw it. 1t is admittedly the grandest
Gothic structure in the world; it's
foundation laid in 124S, only eight or
nine years ago completed. More than
six hundred years in building. All
Europe taxed for it's construction. It's
chapel of tho Magi with precious
stones enough to purchase king
dom. It's chapel of ST. Agnes with
masterpieces of painting. Its spire
springing five hundred and eleven
feet into the heavens It's stained
glass the chorus of all rich colors
Statues encircling the pillars and en-
circling ALL Statues above statues
until sculpture can do no more, but
faints and falls back against carved
stalls and down on pavements over
which the kings and queens of the
earth have walked to confession.
Nave and aisles and transept and
portals combining the splendors of
sunrise. Interlaced, interfoliated