Milford chronicle., 1892-12-23
AT THE TABERNACLE 3
DR.. TALMAeE BEGINS A SERIES OF
SERMONS ON DIVINE SCIENCE.

SERMONS ON DlNlNE OS'GNSI'
God in the Natural wOrld-The Heavens
Declare His Glory and the Earth shows
His Handiwork-It Was Only Necessary
That Christ should Die in This world.
RRoOKLYN. Dec. 1s.-Rev. DR.. Talmage
TO-DAY preached the first Of the promised /
series Of sermons on God IN the natural
world as disclosed in the Bible. The sub
iect chosen for the initial sermon was,
tThe Astronomy Of the Bible, or God
Among the Stars" the text being from
Amos *, 6, ut is he that buildeth his
stories in the heaven" Preceding the
sermon the great congregation sang Isaac
Watts hymn:
The heavens declare thy glory, Lord;
In every star thy wisdom shines
That is first rate poetry from Amos the
herdsman. While guarding his fiocks at
night he got to watching the heavens. lie ,
saw stars above stars, and the universe
seemed to him like great mansion many I
stories high. silver room abovesi'yer room' |
silver pillars beside silver pillars, and win /
doyys Of silver and doors Of silver, and tur-
rets and domes of silver rising into the I
immensities, and the prophets sanctihed /
imagination walks through that great sll- |
yer palace of the universe, through the
first story, through the second story, 1
through the third story, through the tWen- |
tieth story, through the hundredth story !
through the thOusandth story, and reall]-
ing that God is the a hitect and carpenter
and mason Of all that upheaved splendor
he cries out in the words Of the text, 1T IS
he that buildeth his stories in the heaven"
NV hearers. it is time that we widened
ont and heightened our religious thoughts.
In our pulpits and Sabbath classes and
Christian work Of all sorts we ring the
changes on a few verses Of Scripture until
thev excite no interest. Many Of the best
parts of the Bible have never yet been
preached from, or indeed even noticed.
Hence l today begin series Of sermons,
| not for consecutive Sabbath mornings, but
as often as think it best for variety's sake,
on the astronomy Of the Bible, or God
among the starss the geology of the Bible,
| or God among the rocks; the ornitholOgy Of
| the Rible. or God among the birds; the ich
| tbvologv of the Bible, or God among the
! fishes: the pomology of the Bible, or God
| among the orchards; the precious stones OF
| the Bible, OF God among the amethysts; the
| conchology Of the Bible, or God among tn
shells; the botany of the Bible, or Col
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 universe. We need occasionally 10
co nm stairs or down stairs in this mansion;
down stairs and in the cellar study the
rocks. or up stairs and see God in some Of
the higher stories and learn the meaning
of the text when it says, ut is he that
/ bio ctoriae in fhp heaven
ORIGIN OF THE SCIENCE.
Astronomy was born in Chaldea. Its
mother was astrOlogy, or the science OF
foretelling events by juxtaposition OF stars
The orientals living much out Of doors
and in a very clear atmosphere, through
which the stars shone especially lustrous,
got the habit of studying the night heav-
ems. In the hot seasons caravans jour
neyed chiefly at night and that gave trav-
eIers much opportunity of stellar informa-
ton. On the first page of the Bible the
sun and moon and stars roll in-the sun
II body nearly three million miles in cir
cumference aud more than twelve thou
sand times as large rs our earth; the moon
more than two thousand miles in diameter.
But God is used to doing things on such an
omnipotent scale that he takes only one
verse to tell of this stellar and lunar man
ufacture. Yea, in three words all the Other
worlds are thrown in. The record says
1.-THE stars alsoW
t 1t takes whole pages for man to eXto
5 the making of telescope or microscope
or a magnetic telegraph, or a thrashing
machine, or to describe fine painting ol
ststue. but it was so easy for God to hang
the celestial upholstery that the story Il
compassed in one verse: God made two
s great lights-the greater light to rule thu
dav and the lesser light to rule the night
The stars also!' Astronomers have beer
irving to call the roll of them ever since
and they have counted multitudes Of then
passing in review before the Observator1ei
built at vast expense, and the size ant
number of those heavenly bodies hav'
taxed to the utmost the scientists OF al
ages. But God finishes all he has to sa.
/ about them in three words, "The star
j. alsOr'
: That is Mars, with its more than fifty
j five million square miles, and Venus, will
its more than one hundred and ninety-on
million square miles, and Saturn, with it
more than nineteen billion square miles
and Jupiter, with its more than twenty
. | four billion square miles, and all the plan
cts of our system Of more than seventy
u eight billion square miles, and these star
L of our system, when compared with Tn
:, stars of the other systems, as handtu
of sand compared with all the Rocky mou1
e tains and all the Alps "The stars also!
d For brevity, for ponderosity, for spiendol
for sup0estiveness, for sublimity piled o
; sublimitv. these words excel all that hU
man speech ever uttered or human imag
nation ever SCARED after, "The stars alsol
It is put in as you write postscript
something you thought of afterward a
> hardly worth putting into the body OF
letter. 1.-The stars also"
SCIENCE IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
Read on in your Bibles, and after awnll
b. the Bible flashes with the aurora boreali
to or northern lights, that strange illumini
lg tioa as mysterious and underlined now q
y when in the book of Job it was writer
s'Nen see not the bright light which is
the clouds. Fair weather cOmeth out {
= the north.U While all the nations SUI
! nosed that the earth was built on foundi
tion Of some sort, and many supposed thi
/. Il stood on huge turtle or some grei
marine creature, Job knew enough
astronomy to say it had no foundation, ot
Z was suspended on the invisible arm OF q
q | Almighty, declaring that ne hanSeth u
= Earth upon nothing" While all hauloi
= tboupbt the earth was level, the sky sprea
II over it like tent over fiat surfac
isaiah declared the world to be globula
Z circular, saying Of God, HE sitteth upc
4 the circle Of the earth" See them glitt
in the Scriptural sky-Arcturus, orio
the Pleiades and the 'bear with h
young" =,
While running your fingers among u
( leaves Of your Bible with the astronomic
thought in your mind you see two wori'
- stop-the sun and the moon. But VIII
d does that Christian know about that mi
> acle who does not understand somethiI
81 Of those two luniinariesf Unless y
watch modern astronomy put those "
worlds in its steelyards and weigh the
YOU are as ignorant as Hottentot ano
the stupendousness OF that scene IN the Il
of Joshua. The sun, over three hundr
Il tbousand times as heavy as our earth al