The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1892-03-23

men: 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 regulated 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, make things
snug, or put into harbor, for the hurri-
canes are getting their wings out" AS
the Pleiades were the sweet evangels OF
the spring, Orion was the warning
prophet of the winter.
o, now get the best view OF God
| ever hadl There are two kinds OF
sermons never want to preach-the
one that presents God so kind, so indul-
gent, 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 stabbing at His
heart, He takes them up in His arms
and kisses their infuriated brow and
cheek, saying, "Of such is tho kingdom
of Heaven" The other kind of sermon
l never want to preach is the one that
represents God as all fire and torture
and thunder cloud, and with red-hot
pitchforlS tossing the human race into
paroxysms of infinite agony. The ser
mon that am now preaching believes
in 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 Christ
mas makes fat graveyard" was the
old prpverb. Storms to purify the air.
Thermometer at ten degrees above zero
to tone up the system. December and
January just as important rs May and
June. tell you we need the storms OF
| life as much us we do the sunshine.
There are more men ruined by pros
perity than by adversely If we had our
own way in life, before this we would
have bren impersonations of selfish
ness, and worldliness, and disgusting
sin, and puffed up until we would have
been like Julius C@sar who was made
by sycophants to believe that he was
divine, and the freckles on his face were
as the stars Of the armament
One OF the swiftest Transatlantic voy-
ages made last summer by our swiftest
steamer was because she had stormy
wind abaft chasing her from New York
to Liverpool. But to those going in
the opposite direction the storm was Il
buffeting and hindrance. 1t is II bad
thing to have storm ahead, pushing
us back; but IL we be Gods children
and aiming toward Heaven the storm of
life will only chase us the sooner into
the harbor. am so glad to believe
that the monsoons, and typhoons,
and mistrals, and siroccos Of the land
and sea are not unclaimed maniacs
let loose upon the earth, but are
under divine supervision. / am so
glad that the God of the Seven Stars is
also the God of orionl 1t was out Of
Danes suffering came the sublime
"Divina Commedia," and out OF John
Milton's blindness came Paradise
Lost" and out of miserable infdel at
tack came the "Bridgowater Treatise"
in favor of Christianity, and out Of
Davids exile came the songs OF con-
ISOLATION, and out of Christs suiferings
came the possibility Of the worlds re-
demption, and out OF your bereavement,
your persecution, your poverties, your
misfortunes, may yet come an eternal
Heaven.
o, what mercy IT is that in the text
and all up down the Bible God induces
us to look out toward other worlds
Bible astronomy in Genesis, In Joshua,
in Job, IN the Psalms, in the prophets
major and minor, in St Johns Apoca'
lypse, practically saying, Worlds!
worldsl worlds! Get ready for theml"
We have a nice little world here that
we stick TO, as though losing that we
lose all. We are afraid of falling
off this little raft OF q world
| We are afraid that some me-
teoric iconoclast will some night smash
it. and we want everything to revolve
around IL, and are disappointed when
we find that IL revolves around the sun
instead of the sun revolving around IL.
| What fuss we make about this little
bit of world, its existence only short
time between two spaslns, the par
oxysm by which il was hurled from
chaos into order, and the paroxysm Of
its demolition.
And am glad that so many texts call
us 10 look Off TO other worlds, many OF
them larger, and grander and more re-
splendenL Look there, says job, lat
Mazaroth and Arcturus and his sonsl"
"Looit there" says st John, ''at the
moon under Christs teet" Look
there" saws Joshua, "at the sun standing
still above Gibeon" Look there, says
Moses lat the sparkling firmamentP
"Lools there, says Amos, the herds
man, "at the Seven Stars and orionp
Don't let us be so sad about those who
shove off from this world under Christ
ly pilotage. Don't let us be so agitated
about our own going off this little barge
or sloop or canal boat Of a world to get
on some Great Eastern Of the heavens
Don't let us persist in wanting TO stay
in this barn, this shed, this outhouse OF
n world, when all the Kings palaces al
ready occupied by many of our best