The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-04-06

Christ, seek Him that maketh the Seven
Stars and Orion"
Again, Amos saw. as we must see. that
the God who made these two archipelagoes
OF stars must be an uuchanging God. There
had been no change in the stellar appear
ance in this herdsman's lifetime. and his
father, shepherd, reported to him that
there had been no change in his lifetime.
And these two clusters hang over the celes-
tial arbor now just as they were the first
night that thev shone on the Edenic bowers;
the same aswhen the Egyptians built the
pyramids, from the top Of which to watch
them; the same as when the Chaldeans cal
culated the eclipses: the same as when
Elihu, according to the book Of Job, went
out to study the aurora borealis; the same
under Ptelemaic system and Copernican sys-
tem; the same from Calisthenes to Pythag-
oras, and from Pythagoras to Herschel.
Surely, changeless God must have fash
lcned the Pleiades and Orion! Oh what an
anodyne amid the ups and downs Of life, AMI
the dux and rehux of the tides Of prosperity,
TO know that we have changeless God, ths
same yesterday, to-day and forever"
Xer1es garlanded and knighted the steers
man of his boat in the morning AMI hanged
him in the evening Of the same day. The
world sits in its chariot and drives tandem,
and the horse ahead is Huzza and the horse
King Jamess time, was applauded, and had
thirty-flve thousand dollars year. but was
atterward execrated and lived on scraps
stolen from the royal kitchen. Alexander
the Great after death remained unburied for
thirty days, because no one would do the
honor Of shoveling him under. The Duke OF
Wellington refused to have his iron fence
mended because it had been broken by an
infuriated populace in some hour Of political
excitement and he left it in ruins that men
might learn what a tickle thing is human
favor. "But the mercy Of tho Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting to them that fear
Him, and His Righteousness unto the chill
dren's children OF such as keep His covenant,
and to those who remember His command
ments to do them" This moment 'Seek
Him that maketh the Seven Stars and
Orion"
Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that
the God who made these two beacons Of the
oriental night sky must bs God of 1--we and
kindly warning. The Pleiades rising in
midsky said to all the herdsmen and shep-
herds and husbandmen, "Come out and en-
Joy the mild weather and cultivate your
gardens and fields" Orion, coming in win
ter, 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
make things snug OF put into harbor, for the
hurricanes ara getting their wings out" As
the Pleiades were the sweet evangels Of tho
spring, Orion was the warning prophet OF
the winter.
Oh, now get the best view Of Col ever
had! There are two kinds Of sermons I
never want to preach-the one tha. presents
God so kind, 80 indulge1t, so lenient, so i'm
beetle that men may do what they will
against Him and fracture His every law and
put the pry Of their impsrtinenca and re-
bellion 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, say
ing, ''Of such is the kingdom of'heaven."
The other kind Of sermon I never want to
preach is the one that represents Goo as all
tire and torture and thuudercloud, and with
red hot pitchfork tossing the human race
into paroxysms Of infinite agony. The SER
mon that I am now preaching believes in a
God Of loving, kindly warning, the God Of
spring and winter, the God OF 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 csmetaries. "a
green Christmas makes a fat graveyard"
was the old proverb. Storms to purify the
air. Thermometer at ten degrees above zsro
to tone up the system. December and Jan.
uary just as important as May and June. I
tell you We need the storms Of life just as
much as we do the sunshine. There are more
men ruined by prosperity than by adversely.
II we had our own way in life before this we
would have been impersonations Of selfish
ness and worldliness and disgusting sin, and
puffed up until we would have been like
TO believe that he was divine, and that the
freckles on his face were as stars Of the firm.
ament.
One of the swiftest transatlantic voyages
made last summer by our swiftest steamer
was because she had a stormy wind abaft
chasing her from New York to Liverpool.
But to those going in the opposite direction
the storm was butfeting and a hindrance.
1t Is bad thing to have q storm ahead,
pushing us back; but ie we be Gods children
and aiming toward heaven the storms Of
life will only chase us the sooner into the
harbor. I am so glad to believe that the
monsoons and typhoons and mistrals and
siroccos Of the land and sea are not un-
chained maniacs let loose upon the earth,
but are under divine supervision! I am so
glad that the God of the Seven Stars is also
the God Of Orion! 1t was out Of Dante's
suffering came the sublime "Divina Com
media" and out of John Milton's blindness
came paradise Lost" and out Of miserable
iufidel attack came the "Bridgewater
Treatise" in favor Of Christianity, and out
Of David's exile came the songs Of consola-
ton, and out Of the suffer1ngs OF Christ
come the possibility Of the worlds redemp-
tion, and out OF your bereavement, your
persecution, your poverties, your mistor.
tunes may YET come an eternal heaven.
Oh what mercy it is that in the text and
all up and down the Bible God induces as to
look out toward other worlds! Bible astron-
omy in Genesis, in Joshua, in Job. in the
Psalms. in the prophets major and minor,
in st. Johns Apocalypse, practically saying:
"World's! worlds! worlds! Get ready for
themp We have q nice little world here
that we stick to, as though losing thst we
lose all. We are afraid Of falling off this
little raft OF world. We are afraid that
some meteoric iconoclast will some night
smash it, and we want everything to revolve
around it, and are disappointed when we
find that it revolves around the sun instead
of the sun revolving around it. What q
fuss We make about this little bit Of world,
its existence only short time between two
spasms, the paroxysm by whichit was hurled
from chaos into order, and the paroxySm OF
its demolition.
And am glad that so many texts call us
to look off to other worlds, many Of them
larger and grander and more resplendent.
I'll kk-A