The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-03-25

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pressed the inspired herdsman, but
seven in one group and seven in the
other group He saw that night af
ter night and season after season
and decade after decade they had
kept step of light, each one in its
own place, a sisterhood never clash
ing and never contesting precedence,
from the time Hesiod called the
Pleiades the seven daughters Of At
las, and Virgil wrote in his A1neid
Of Stormy Orion until now, they
have observed the order established
for their coming and going; order
written not in manuscript that may
be pigeonholed, but with the hand
Almighty on the dome of the sky, so
that all nations may read it. Order
Persistent order. Sublime order
Omnipotent order.
What a sedative to you and me, to
whom communities and nations some
times seem going pellmell, and world
ruled by some tiend at haphazard,
and in all directions maladminstra-
ton The God who keeps seven
worlds in right circuit for six thou
sand years can certainly keep all the
affairs of individuals and nations
and continents in adjustment We
had not better fret much, for the
peasants argument of the text was
right. If God can take care of the
seven worlds of the Pleiades and the
four chief worlds of Orion, he can
probably take care of the one world
we inhabit
So j feel very much as my father
felt one day when we were going to
the country mill to get the grist
ground, and I, boy Of seven years
sat in the back part of the wagon,
and our yoke of oxen ran away with
us and along a labyrinthine road
through the woods so that thought
every moment we would be dashed
to pieces, and made terrible out
cry of fright, and my father turned
to me with a face perfectly calm and
said DE Witt, what are you crying
about? guess we can ride as fast
as the oxen can run" And, my
hearers, why should we be affrighted
and lose our equilibrium in the swift
movement of worldly events, espe-
cially when we are assured that it is
not a yoke of unbroken steers that
are drawing us on, but that order
and wise government are in the yoke2
GODS INFINITE ORDER.
In your occupation, your mission,
your sphere, do the best you can and
then trust to God, and if things are
all mixed and disquieting, and your
brain is hot and your heart sick, get
some one to go out with you into the
starlight and point out to you the
Pleiades, or, better than that, get into
some observatory and through the
Telescope see further than Amos with
the naked eye could-namely, two
hundred stars in the Pleiades, and
that in what is called the sword of
Orion there is nebula computed to
be two trillion two hundred thousand |
billions times larger than the sun.
Oh, be at peace with God who made |
Ill that and controls all that-the |
wheel of the consultations turning
n the wheel of galaxies for thou
sands of years without the breaking
IF cog or the slipping of band or
lhe snap of an axle. For your pla
;idity and comfort through the Lord
Jesus Christ | charge you, Seek him
hat maketh the Seven Stars and
Orion.
Again, Amos saw as we must see,
hat the God who made these two
groups of the text was the God of
light Amos saw that God was not
with making one star, or two
u three stars, but he makes seven;
md having finished that group of
worlds, makes another group-group
after group. TO the Pleiades he adds
Orion. 1t seems that God likes light
10 well that he keeps making it. Only
one being in the universe knows the
statistics of solar, lunar, stellar, me-
,eoric creations, and that is the Crea-
or himself. And they have all been
ovingly clTistened, each one a name
Is distinct as the names of your chill
lren. He telleth the number of the
stars; he calleth them all by their
The seven Pleiades had
names given to them, and they are
Alcyone, Merope, Celano, Electra,
Sterope, Taygete and Maia.
But think of the billions and tril-
ions of daughters of starry light that
Tod calls by name as they sweep by
linn with beaming brow and lustrous
obe So fond is God of hght-natu-
al light, moral light, spiritual light
again and again is light harnessed
or symbolization-Christ, the bright
nd morning star; evangelization,
he daybreak; the redemption of ma
ions, Sun of Righteousness rising
With healing in his wings. o men
nd women, with so many sorrows
nd sins and perplexities, if you want
ght of comfort, light of pardon,
ght of goodness, in earnest prayer
trough Christ, Seek him that
laketh the Seven Stars and Orion"
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