The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-03-21
THE GOD OF THE STARS.
SEEK HIM THAT MAKETH TEE
sEvRN STARS AND ORION"

Country Farmer-His Life Of Solitude
BROOKLYN, N. Y, March 20.-Tn this
sermon DIR. Talmage traverSes wide realms
of thought to teach useful every day lessons.
based on the text Amos v. s: "Seek him
that maketh the seven stars and Orion"
A country farmer wrote this text-Amoa
and Tekoa. He plowed the earth and
threshed the grain by new threshing
machine just invented. as formerly the cat-
tie trod out the grain. He gathered the
fruit OF the sycamore tree. and scarihed 10
with an iron comb just before it was get
ting ripe, as IL was necessary and customary
in that way to take from it the bitterness.
He was the son Of a poor shepherd. and
suffered, but before the stsmmering rnstio
the Philistines, and Syrians. and Phoni-
clans, and Moabites, and Ammonites, and
Edomites, and Israelites trembled.
Moses was a lawgiver, Daniel was a
prince. Isaiah a oourtier and David king;
but Amos, the author Of my text, Was a
peasant, aud. as might be supposed, nearly
all his parallelisms are pastoral, his
prophecy full Of the odor of now mown hay,
and the rattle Of locusts, and the rumble OF
carts with sheaves. and the roar Of wild
beasts devouring the flock while the shsp.
herd oame out In their defense. He watched
the herds by day, and by night inhabited a
booth made out of bushes, so that through
these branches he could SEQ the stars all
night long, and was more familiar with
them than we who have tight roofs TO our
houses, ana hardly ever see tho stars except
among the tall brick chimneys OF the great
towns. But at seasons of the year whom the
herds we're in special danger be would stay
out 10 tho open field all through the dark-
ness his only shelter the curtain Of the
night heaven, with the steller embroideries
and silvered tassels of lunar light.
What a life of solitude, all alone with
his herdsl Poor Amos And at twelve
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
serpents hiss, as he unwittingly steps too
near while moving through the thicRets
SO Amos, like other herdsmen, got the
habit OF studying the map Of the heavens,
because it was so much Of the time spread
out before him. He noticed some stars
advancing and others recedng. He as
sociated their dawn and setting with cer-
tain seasons OF the year. He had poetic
nature, aud he read night by night, and
month by month, and year by year,
the poem of the constellation, diviuely
rhyth mic. But two TO osettss 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
il rises about tue first of MAY. The latter
be associated with the winter as it comes to
the meridian in January. The Pleiades, or
Seven Stars. connected with all sweetness
aud joy; Orion, the herald of the tempest
The ancients were the more apt to study
the physiogomy and juxtaposition OF tho
heavenly bodies, because they thought they
had special influence upon the earth; aud
perhaps they were right Ii the moon every
few hours lifts and lets down the tides Of
the Atlantic ocean, and the electric storms
Of the sun, by all scientific admission, affect
the earth, why not the stars have proper.
tionate effects
And there are some things which make
me think that IL may not have been all
superstition which connected the move
ments and appearance of the heavenly
bodies with great moral events on earth,
Did not "a meteor run on evangelistic errand
on the first Christmas night and designate
the rough cradle OF onr Lords Did not the
stars in their courses fight against Sisera1
Was 1t merely coincidental that before the
destruction of Jsrus lem the moon was
eclipsed for twelve consecutive ights? Did
1t merely happen so that q new star ap-
peared in constellation Cassiopeia, and then
disappeared just before King Charles TX OF
France. who was responsible for st.
"
out Significance that In the days Of tie
Roman Emperor Justinian war and famine
were preceded by the dimness OF the snn,
which for nearly year gave no more
light than the moon, although there were
no clouds to obscure it,
Astrology, after all. may have been some-
thing more than q brilliant heathenisn. No
woLder that Amos Of the text, having heard
those 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, aud
advised the recreant people Of his time to
return TO God saying: Seek him that
maksths the seven stars and Orion"
This command, which Amos gave 7S5 B. c..
is just as appropriate for US, 1892 A d.
In the hrst 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 inspired herdsman. but
seven In one group, AID seven in the other
group. He saw that night after night and
season after season aud decade after decade
they had kept step Of light, each one in its
own place, sisterhood never clashing and
never contssting precedence. From the
time Hesiod called the Pleiades the 'seven
daughters Of Atlas" and Virgil wrote in
his Aneid of "Stormy Orionn until
now, they have observed the order
established for their coming and going:
order written not in manuscript that may
be pigeon-hole but with the hand of tue
Almighty on the dome of the sky, 50 that
all nations may read it. Order. Persistent
order. Sublime order. Omnipotent order.
What q sedative to you and me, to whom
communities and nations sometimes seem
going pell-mell, and world ruled bv
some fend at haphazard, and in
all directions malad nnissration The
God who keeps seven worlds in
right circuit for six thousand years can
certainly keep all the affairs OF individuals
and nations and continents in adjustment.
We had not better fret much, for the peas
ants argument OF the text was right II
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.
80 feel very much as my father felt one
day when we were going to the country
mill TO get grist ground, and /, boy OF
seven years, sat In the back part OF TIE
wagon, and our yoke Of oxen ran away with
US and along labyrinthine road through
the woods, so that thought every moment
we would be dashed 70 pieces, and made a
terrible outory of fright. and my father
turned 10 me With face perfectly calm,
aud said; ''De Witt what are you crying
aboutf guess we can ride as fast as the
oxen can run" And, my hearers, why
should Ne be affrighted aud lose our equilib-
rum in the swift movement Of worldly