Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-03-26
WARNING IN THE STARS.
Dr. Talmage Draws Lessons From
the Heavenly Bodies.
'ssseek Him That Makcth the Seven Stars
and Orion"-Trust All to God-Tho
Need OF storm ~ Well A.
Sunshine.

Amos " s: seek Him that Maketh
the Seven Stars and Orion" Follow
ing is the sermon:
A country farmer wrote this text
Amos of Tekoa. He plowed the earth
and threshed the grain by new
threshing machine just invented, as
formerly the cattle trod out the grain.
He gathered the fruit of the sycamore
tree, and scarified it with an iron comb
Just before it was getting ripe, as 1t
was necessary and customary in that
way to take from it the bitterness. He
was the son of poor shepherd,
and suffered; but before the stammer-
ing rustic the Philistines, and Syrians,
aud Ph@nicians, AMI Moabites, and
Ammonites, and Edomites, and Israeli
ties trembled.
Moses was 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
supposed, nearly all of his parallelisms
are pastoral, his prophecy full OF the
.odor of new mown hay. and the rattle
with sheaves, and 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 inha bited 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 tall brick 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 curtain of the night heaven, with
the stellar embroideries and silvered
tassels of lunar light.
What q life of solitude, all alone
with his herds! Poor Amos! And Mt
twelve o'clock at night, bark to the
VOLTS bark, and the lions roar, and
the bears growl, and the OWLS te-whit-
to-who, and the serpents hiss, as he
unwittingly steps too near while NOV
ing through the thickets! So Amos, like
other herdsmen, got the habit OF study
ing the map of the heavens because 1t
was so much of the time spread out be-
fore him. He noticed some stars advauc.
ing and others receding. He associated
their dawn and setting with certain
seasons of the year. He had a poetic
nature and he read night by night and
month by month, and year by year,
the poem of the consultations, divine
ly rhythmic. But two rosettes OF 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 first OF May.
The latter he associated with the win
ter, as it comes to the meridian in jan
uary. The Pleiades, 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 and juxtaposition OF
the heavenly bodies, because they
thought they had o 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, at
feet the earth, why not the stars have
'proportionate effectP
And there are some things which
snake me think that 1t may not have
been all superstition which connected
the movements and appearance Of the
heavenly bodies with great moral events
on earth. Did not q meteor run on
-evangeIistic errand on the first Christ
mas night and designate the rough
cradle of our Lord? Did not the stars
in their courses fight against SiseraP
Was Il merely coincidental that before
the destruction Of Jerusalem the moon
was eclipsed for twelve consecutive
nights? Did It merely happen so that
n new star appeared In constellation
Cassiopeia and then disappeared just
before King Charles TX, Of France,
who was responsible for St. Bartholo-
NEW massacre, died? Was 1t without
Significance that in the days OF the
Roman Emperor Justinian war and
famine were preceded by the dimness
of the sun. which for nearly q year
gave no more light than the moon, al
though there were no clouds to obscure
it?
In the first place. Amos saw, as we
must see, that the God who made the
Pleiades and Orion must be the God OF
order. Il was not 50 much a star here
and star there that impressed the In
spired herdsmen. but seven In one
group aud seven in the other group
He saw that night after night and
season after season and decade after
decade they had kept step of light each
one in its own place, a sisterhood never
clashing and never contesting prece.