Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-12-24

1.-The Astronomy OF the Bible, or God
Among the Stars" the text being from
Amos, tx. @: st is He that buildeth
His stories in the heaven" Preceding
the sermon the congregation sang DR..
Waits hymn:
The heavens declare Thy glory, Lord
In every star Thy wisdom shines
DIR, Talmagc said:
That is first rate poetry from Amos,
the herdsman. While guarding his
AoclSs at night he watched the heavens.
He saw stars above stars and the uni
verse seemed to him like great man
sion many stories high, silver room
above silver room, silver pillars beside
silver pillars, and windows of silver and
doors of silver, and turrets and domes
of silver rising into the immensities,
and the prophets sanctified imagina-
ton walks through that great silver
palace of the universe, through the
first story, through the second story,
through the third story, through the
twentieth story, through the hundredth
story, through the thousandth story,
and realizing that God is the architect
uphcavcd splendor, he cried out in the
words of the text: 1T is He that
buildeth His stories in the heaven"
My hearers, it is time that we widened
out and heightened our religious
thoughts In our pulpits and Sabbath
classes and Christian work of all sorts
we ring the changes on few verses of
Scripture until they excite no interest.
Many of the best parts of the Bible
have never yet been preached from or
indeed even noticed. Hence ] to-day
begin series of sermons, not for con-
sccutive Sabbath mornings but rs often
as think it best for varicty's sake, on
the Astronomy of the Bible, or God
among the Stars; the Geology OF
the Bible, or God among the Rocks;
the Ornithology of the Bible, or
God among the Birds; the Ichthyology
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 Anne.
thysts; the Conchology of the Bible, or
God among tho 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 uni
verse. We need occasionally to go up.
stairs or downstairs in this mansion;
downstairs and in the cellar study the
rocks, or upstairs and see God in some
a L.. "a. ii Ia
meaning of the text when it says: ut
is He that buildeth His stories in the
heaven"
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 especial
Iy lustrous, got the habit of studying
the night heavens. In the hot seasons
caravans journeyed chiefly at night,
rand that gave travellers much oppor-
sEnnity of stellar information. On the
first page of the Bible the sun and
anoon and stars roll in. The sun, n
body nearly 100000 miles in circum-
ference and more than $4,000 times as
aarge as our earth; the moon, more
yhan 9, 900 miles in diameter. But God is
used to doing things on such an omuip-
otent scale that he takes only one verse
70 tell of this stellar and lunar manur
facture Yea, in three words all the
other worlds are thrown in. The rec
ord saws: "The stars also!" 1t takes
whole pages for man to eXtol the
making of telescope or microscope or
a magnetic telegraph or Il threshing
machine, or to describe fine painting
or statute, but it was so easy for God to
hang the celestial upholstery that the
story is compassed in one verse: "God
tnadc two great lights, the greater light
to rule the day and the lesser light to
rule the night The stars also!"
Read on in your Bibles, and after
awhile the Bible flashes with the aurora
borealis or northern lights, that strange
illumination, as mysterious and unde-
fined now as when, in the book OF job
it was written: ''Men see not the bright
light which is in the clouds. Fair
weather cometh out of the north"
While all the nations supposed that the
earth was built on foundation of some
sort, and many supposed that it stood
on huge turtle, or some great marine
creature, Job knew enough of astron-
omy to say it had no foundation, but was
suspended on the invisible arm of the
Almighty, declaring that "He hangeth
the earth upon nothing" While all ma
lions thought the earth was level the
sky spread over it like tent over
fat surface, Isaiah declared the world
to be globulnr, saying of God: "He sit
teth upon the circle of the earth"
While running your fingers through
the leaves of your Bible with the as
Economical thought in your mind you
see two worlds stop-the sun and the