The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-04-01
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Useful. Everyday Lessons Drawn
From a Simple Source.
The Influence OF Heavenly Bodies Over
Earthly Eveuts-storm rs Necea-
sary az Sunshine 60 Pre-
serve Harmony.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered
the following discourse in the Brook
lvn tabernacle, taking for his text:
Seek Him that malreth the seven stars ana
Orion.-AmOs v. g.
county farmer wrote this text
Amos of rolooa- He pIowed the earth
and threshed the grain by a new thresh-
ing machine last invented, as formerly
the cattle trod out the grain. He gath
cred the fruit of the sycamore tree, and
Bacrifced.it with an iron comb just be-
fore it was getting ripe, as it was nee
essary and customary in that way to
take from Il the bitterness. He was
the son of a poor shepherd, and slut
tered; but before the stammeringt rus
tic the Philistines, and Syrians, and
Phenicians, and Moabites, and Ammon-
ties, and Edomites. and Israelites
trembled
Moses was a law -giver. Daniel was a
prince, Isaiah a courtier, and David a
king; but Amos, the author OF my text,
was peasant, and as might be sup
posed, nearly all bis parallelisms are pas
toral, his prophecy full of new-mown
hay, and the rattle of locusts, and
the rumble of carts with sheaves, and
the roar of wild beasts devourfng the
flock, while the shepherd came out in
their defense. lie watched the herd
by day, and by night inhabited booth
made out of bushes, so that through
these branches he could see the stars
all night long, 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
black 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 cur
tain of the night-heaven, with the stel-
lar EN- broideries and silvered tassels of
lunar light. mA mrw~ za.re VEw
What life of solitude, all alone with
his herds! Poor Almost And attwelve
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 unwitting-
" steps too near, while moving
through the thicketsi So Amos, like
other herdsmen, got the habit of study
ing the map OF the heavens, because it
was so much of the time spread out be-
fore him. He noticed some stars adj
vancing and others receding. He asso-
ciated their dawn and setting with GER
tain seasons of 7the year. He had a
poetic nature, and he read night by
night, and month by month, and year
by year, tile poem of the consultations,
80
stars especially attracted his attention
while seated on the ground or lying on
his back under the open scroll of the mid
night heavens-the Pleiades, or Seven
Stars, and Orion. The former group
this rustic prophet associated with the
spring, as it rises about the 1st of May.
The latter he associated with the win
ter, as it comes to the meridian in jan
uary. The Pieiades, 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 aud juxtaposition of
the heavenly bodies, because they
thought they had a special influence
upon the earth, and perhaps they were
right If the moon every few hours
lifts and lets down the tides of the At
lantic ocean,, and the electric storms
of the sun, by all scientific admission,
affect the earth. why not the stars
have proportionate effects? .p l1alr
And there are something's which
make me think that it may not have
been all superstition which connected
the movements and appearance of the
heavenly bodies with great moral
"a
on evangelistic. errandi on the first
Christmas night, and designate the
rough cradle of our Lord? Did not the
stars in their courses fight against
Sisera? Was it merely coincidental,
that before the destruction of Jeru-
salem, the moon was collapsed for
twelve consecutive nights? Did it
merely happen so that a new star APP
peared in constellation Cassiopeia, and
then disappeared just before King
Charles TX. of France, who was respon-
sible for St. Bartholomew Emassacre,
died? Was it without significance that
in the days of the Roman Emperor.
Justinian, war and famine were pre-
coded 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? IS tf -s.e-, ~
Astrology, after all, may have been
something more than a brilliant heath
enism. 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 cut4 and knotted
fingers the pen of n prophet, and adj
vised the recreant people of his time to
return TO God, saying: Seek Him that
maleth the Seven Stars and Orion"
This command which Amos gave. seven
hundred and eighty4five years b. c., is
just as appropriate for 1892, A. d..
In the first place, Amos saw, as we
must see, that the God EVho'made the
Pleiades and Orion is the God of order
1t was not so much star here and
star there that impressed the inspired
herdsman, but seven in one group and
seven in the other group. He saw that
night after night, and season after. sea.
son. and decade after decade, they had
kept step of light, each one in it's own
place, a sisterhood never clashing and
never contesting precedence. From
the time Hesiod called the Pleiades the
seven daughters of Atlass," and Vir-
gil wrote in his Eneid of stormy
Orion" until now they have observed
the order established for their coming
and going; order written not in manu-
script that NAV be pigeon holed, 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. Omnipotent order.