The Dickinson press., 1892-04-02
GOD OF THE STARS.
Seek Him That Maketh the Seven
Stars and Orion" the Command
of Amos, the Peasant.

DR.. Talmage Takes This for His
Text, Which He Says Is as APP
propriate Now as Then
BROOKLYN, N. Y, Especial. lin
this sermon DIR. Talmage ira
verses wide realms of thought to
teach useful everyday lessons, based
on the text, Amos v:S: "Seek him
that maketh the seven stars and Or
ion"
A country farmer wrote this text
Amos of Tekoa. He plowed the earth
and thrashed the grain by a new
t%hrashing machine just invented, as
formerly the cattle trod out tho
grain. He gathered the fruit of the
sycamore tree, and sacrificed it with
an iron comb just beforeit was getting
ripe, as it was necessary and custom
airy i'll that way to take from it the
bitterness. He was the son of a poor
shepherd, and suffered; but before
the stammering rustic Philistines and
Syrians and PheGnicians and Mobites
and Ammonites 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 a peasant, and, as might be
supposed, nearly all his parallelisms
are pastoral, his prophecy full of the
odor OF new-mown hay, and therattle
OF locust, and the rumble ofcarts with
sheaves, and the roar of wild beasts
devouring the flock while the shepherd
came out in their defense. He watch
ed the herd by day, and by night in
habited a 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 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 en-
broideries and silvered tassels oflunar
light.
What a life of solitude, all alone
with his herds! Poor Amos! and at
- 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 UNI
Willingly steps too near while moving
through the thickets! So Amos, like
other herlsmen, got the habit of
studying the map OF the heavens, be-
cause it was SO much of the time
spread out before him. He noticed
some stars advancing and others re.
ceding. He associated their dawn and
setting with certain seasons of the
year. He had poetic nature, and
he read night by night, and month by
Of the consultations divineiyrythmic.
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 midnight
heavens-the Pleiades, or Seven
Stars. and-Orion. The for
mer group this rustic, proph-
ct associated with the spring,
as it rises about the first OF May. The
latter he associated with the winter,
as it comes to the meridian in Janu-
airy. The Pleiadea or Seven Stars,
connected with all sweetness and 10Y;
Orion, the herald of the tempest.
The ancients were the more apt to
study the physiognomy and juxtapo-
sition of the heavenly bodies, because
they thought they had a special inhu-
nee upon the earth; and perhaps they
were right. If the moon every few
hours lifts and let's down the tides of
the Atlantic Ocean, and the electric
storms OF the sun, by all scientific adj
mission, effect the earth, why not the
stars have proportionate effect.
And there are some things which
make me think that it may not have
been all superstition which connected
the movements and appearance ofthe
heavenly bodies with
GREAT MORAL EVENTS ON EARTH.
Did not a meteor run on evapgel-
istic errand on the first Christmas
night, and designate the rough cradle
of our Lord? Did not the stars in
their curse fight against SiseraY
Was it merely c%oincidental that
before the destruction of Jerusa.
lem the moon was eclipsed for
twelve consecutive nights? Did
it merely happen so that a new star
appeared in constellation Cassiopeia,
and then disappeared just before King
Charles TX. OF France, who was re-
sponsible for st. Bartholomew massa.
ere, died? Was it without significance
that in the days OF the Roman Empe-
ror Justinian war and famine were
preceded by the dimness of the sun,
which for nearly a year gave no more
light than the moon, although there
were no clouds to obscure it?
Astrology, after all, may have been
something more than a brilliant
heathenism. 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
cut and knotted fingers the pen of a
prophet. and. advised tba recreant
people OF his time to return to God,
saying: "Seek Him that maketh the
Seven Stars and Orion" This COM
mand which Amos gave 1856 years B.
c., is just as appropriate for us, 1892
A. d.
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.
1t was not so much a star here and
a star there that impressed the in
spired herdsman, but seven in one
group, and seven in the other group.
He saw that night after night and