Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1892-12-22

BEoOkLYN. Dec lS-Rev DIR. Talmage
iodav preached the first of the promised
1eries of sermons on God in the natural
world q disclosed in the Bible. The sub
sect chosen for the initial sermon was,
"Phe Astronomy of the Bible, or God
Among the Stars the text being from
Amos tx, G, 1T is he that buildeth his
stories ia the heaven" Preceding the
Watts hymn;
The heavens declare thy glory, Lord;
IN every star thy wisdom Shines
That is first rate poetry from Amos the
berdsman While guarding his focks at
night he got TO watching The heavens. He
saw stars above stars and the universe
seemed to him like great mansion many
stories high. silver room above silver room,
silver pillars beside silver pillars, and win
dows of silver and doors Of silver, and tur-
refs and domes of silver rising into the
immensities, and the prophets sanctified
Imagination walks through that great sill
yer palace Of the universe, through the
first story, through the second story,
through the third story, through the TWEEN
teth story, through the hundredth story,
through the thousandth story, and realiz-
ing that God is the architect and carpenter
and mason Of ali that upheaved splendor
he cries ont in the words Of the text, at is
he that buildeth his stories in the heaven. 4"
NV hearers, it is time that we widened
ont and heightened our religious thoughts.
In our pulpits and Sabbath classes and
Christian work Of all sorts we ring the
changes on a few verses of Scripture until
thew excite no interest. Many of the best
parts of the Bible have never yet been
preached from. or indeed even noticed.
Hence ] today begin series Of sermons,
not for consecutive Sabbath mornings, but
as often as ! think it best for variety's sake,
bp the astronomy of the Bible, or God
among the stars; the geology of the Bible,
Or God among the rocks; the ORTHODOXY of
HE Bible, or God among the birds; the ich-
thyology OF the Bible, or God among the
fishes; the pomology Of the Bible, or God
among the orchards; the precious stones of
The Bible or God among the amethysts; the
conchool5y OF the Bible, or God among the
shells; the botany of the Bible, or God
among the flowers; the chronology of
the Bible, or God among the centuries
The fact is that we have all spent too much
time on one story Of the great mansion of
Gods universe. We need occasionally TO
go up stairs or down stairs in this mansion;
down stairs and in the cellar study the
rocks. or up stairs and see God in some OF
the higher stories and learn the meaning
Of the text when it says ut is he that
buildeth his stories in the heaven.n
ORIGIN or THE SCIENCE.
Astronomy was born in Chaldea. It's
mother was astrology, or the science of
foretelling events by juxtaposition Of stars
The orientals, living much out Of doors
and in very clear atmosphere, through
which the stars shone especially lustrous.
got the habit Of studying the night heav
ems. In the hot seasons caravans jour
neyed chiefly at night, and that gave tray
eers much opportunity of stellar informa-
ton. On the first page Of the Bible the
sun and moon and stars roll in-the sun
body nearly three million miles in cir
conference and more than twelve thou
sand times as large as our earth; the moon
more than two Thousand miles in diameter.
But God Is used to doing things on such an
omnipotent scale that he takes only one
verse TO tell Of this stellar and lunar man
uiaeture Yea, in three words all the other
worlds are thrown Ia. The record says,
"The stars alsor'
1t takes whole pages for a man to extol
the making Of telescope or microscope,
or a magnetic telegraph or a thrashing
machine, or to describe a fins painting or
statue but it was so easy for God to hang
the celestial upholstery that the story is
compassed in one verse: God made two
great lights-the greater light to rule the
day and the lesser light TO rule the night. |
The stars also' Astronomers have been |
trying to call the roll of them ever since, |
and they have counted multitudes Of them |
passing in review before the observatories |
built at vast expense, and the size and |
humber Of those heavenly bodies have |
taxed TO the utmost the scientists of all I
ages. But God finishes all he has to say |
about them in three words, 1.-The stars |
also!'
That is Mars, with its more than fifty /
Ilve million square miles, and Venus, with /
pts more than one hundred and ninety-one
million square miles, and Saturn, with its
more than nineteen billion square miles,
and Jupiter, with its more than twenty
four billion square miles, and all the plan
cts Of our system of more than seventy
eight billion square miles, and these stars
Of our system, when compared with the
stars of the other systems, as a handful
OF SAND compared with all the Rocky noun
tains and all the Alps "The stars alsOr'
for breyity, for ponden0sity, for splendor,
for suggustiveness, for subimity piled on
subhmity these words excel all that hui
man speech ever uttered or human imagi-
nation ever scared after, 1.-The stars alsori
1t is put in as You write a postscript
something you thought of afterward as
hardly worth putting into the body Of a
letter. The stars alsoi"
SCIENCE Is THE BOOK OF JOB.
Read on in your Bibles, and after awhile
the Bible flashes with the aurora boreaiis,
or northern lights, that strange illumina-
ton as mysterious and underlined now as
when in the book Of job it was written:
Men see nos the bright light which is in
The clouds FAIR weather cometh out Of
The north" While all the nations sup
posed that the earth was built on a founda-
uon OF some sort. and many supposed that
It stood on a huge turtle or some great
marine creature, job knew enough OF
astronomy to say Il had no foundation. but
was sr1eu4 al -, t,a Invisible arm, - fla