The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-03-31

4 q 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
season ALTER season and decade after
decade, they had kept step OF light,
each one IN it's own place, a sisterhood
never clashlng and never contesting
precedence. From the time Hesoid
called the Pleiades the "seven daugh-
tiers OF Atlas and Virgil wrote in his
Tneld OF STORMY Orion" until now,
they have observed the order estab-
llshed Tor their coming and going:
order written not in manuscript that
may De pigeon-hoed, but with the
hand OF the Almighty on the dome of
the sky, SO that all nations may read
it. Order. Persistent order Sub
lime order. Omnipotent order.
What a sedative to you and me, to
whom communities and nations some
times seem going pell-mell, and world
ruled by some fiend at hap-hazard,
and IN all directions maladn1inistra-
tlon! The God who keeps seven worlds
IN right circuit for six thousand wears
can certainly keep all the affairs of
individuals and nations and con-
tlnents IN adjustment. Oh, be at peace
with the God who made all that and
controls all that--the wheel of the
constellatlons turning in the wheel of
galaxles for thousands OF years with
out the breaking of a cog or the slip
ping OF a hand or tho snap of all axel,
For your placidity and comfort
through the Lord Jesus Christ charge
you, "Seek him that maketh the Sew
en- Stars and Orion"
Again, Amos saw, as we must see,
that the God who made these two
archlpelagoes OF stars
MUST BE AN UNCHANG1NG GOD.
'There has been no change in the
stellar appearance in this herdman's
lifetime, and his father, a shep-
herd, reported to him that there
had been no change in his life
time. And these two clusters hang
over the celestial arbor now lust as
they were. the first night that they
shone on the Edenic bowers, the same
as when the Egyptians build the Pyra-
mlds from the top OF which to watch
them, the same as when the Chaldeans
calculated the eclipse, the same as
when Elihu, according to the Book of
JOB, went out to study the aurora
borealls, the same under Ptolemaic
system and Copernichn system, the
same from Calisthenes to Pythagoras
and from Pythagoras to Herschel.
surely, a changeless God must have
fashioned the Pleiades and Orion!
On, what an anodyne amid the ups
and downs OF life, and the flax and re-
t1ux OF the tides of prosperity, to
know that we have a changeless God,
the same yesterday, today and for
Again, Amos saw, as we must see,
that the God who made these two
beacons of the Oriental night skv must
be God of love and kindly warning.
The Pleiades rising in mid-sky said to
all the herdsmen and shepherds and
husbandmen: "Come out and enjoy
the mild weather, and cultivate your
gardens and fields" Orion, coming in
winter, warned them to prepare for
tempest. All navigation was regulat-
ed by these two consultations. The
one, said to shipmaster and crew:
'Hoist sail for the sea and gather
merchandise from other lands" But
Orion was the storm-signal, and said:
"Reef sail, ma Ike things snug, or put
into har Dor, for the hurricanes are
getting their wings OUT AS the
Plelades were the sweet evangels of
the spring, Orion was the warming
prophet OF the winter.
Oh, now get the best view of God I
ever had! There are two kinds Of
sermons [ never want to preach-the
one that presents God so kind, so in
dulgent, so lenient, so imbecile that
men may do what they will against
him, and fracture his every law, and
put the pry of their impertinence and
rebellion under his throne, and while
they are splitting in his face and stab
bling at his heart, he takes them up in
his arms and kisses their infuriated
brow and cheek, saying, "Of such is
the kingdom OF heaven" The other
kind OF sermon Inever want to preach
is the one that represents God as all
FIRE AND TORTURE AND THUNDER CLOUD
and with red hot pitch forks tossing
the humun race into paroxysms Of
infinite agony. The sermon that am
now preaching believes in a God of
loving, kindly warning, the God Of
spring and winter, the God of the
Pleiades and Orion
You must remember that the winter
is just as important as the spring.
Let one winter pass without frost to
kill vegetation and ice to bind the
rivers and snow to enrich our fields,
and then you will have to enlarge
your hospitals and your cemeteries.
"A green Christmas makes a fat
graveyard" was the old proverb.
Storms to purify the air. Thermon-
eter at 10 degrees above zero to tone
up the system. December and Jan
uary just as important as May and
June. 1 tell you we need the storms
of life as much as we do the sunshine.
There are more men ruined by pros
perity than by adversely. If we had
our way in life, before
this we would have been
representations OF selfishness
and worldliness and disgusting
sin, and pulled up until we would have
been the like of julius Caesar, who
was made by sycophants to believe
that he was divine, and that the
freckles on his face were as the stars OF
the firm a mani t..-. .-.-s