The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1892-03-30
AT THE TABERNACLE.
THE DIVINE ASTRONOMY AS DE-
SCRIBEO BY THE PROPHETS.

Infinite Order and without Variable
ness or shadow of Turning.
BROOKLYN. March Coin this sermon
DR.. Talmaye traverses wild realms of
thought to teach useful everyday lessons,
based on the text, Amos V, S, Seek him
that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion"
a country farmer wrote this text-Amos
Of Tekoa He plowed the earth and
shrashed the grain by a new thrashirg
machine just invented. as formerly the cat
he trod out the grain. He gathered the
truit of the sycamore tree and scarified it
with an iron comb just before it was get
ling ripe, as it was necessary and custom
airy in that way TO take from it the bitter
ness. He was the son of a poor shepherd
and suffered, but before the stammering
rustic the Philistines and Syrians and
Phoenicians and Moabites and Ammonites
aud Edomites and Israelites trembled.
Moses was a lawgiyer. Daniel was a
prince, Isaiah a eourtier and David king;
but Amos, tie author of my text, was
peasant, and, as might be supposed. nearly
all his parallelisms are pastoral, his proph-
ecy full Of the odOr of new 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 shepherd
came out in their defense. He watched the
bertis By day, and by night inhabited booth
made out Of bushes, so that through these
he could see the stars all night long, and
was more familiar with them than we who 3
have tight roofs to our houses and hardly
ever see the stars, except among the tall
brick chimneys of the great towns. But at
seasons of the year when the herds were in
sraqfuI he crr1H cfa in he
open field all through the darkness, his
only shelter the curtain of the night heaven,
with the stellar en- broideries and silvered
tassels of lunar light
What a life Of solitude, all alone with
his herds Poor Amosi And at L 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 serpent's
hiss. as he unwittingly steps too near
while moving through the thickets So
Amos, ike other herdsmeA. got the habit
OF studying the map of the heavens, be-
cause 1t was so much Of the time spread
out before him. He noticed some stars
advancing and others receding. He assO-
ciated their dawn and setting with certain
seasons of the year. He had poetic nature,
and he read night by night, and month by
month, and year by year, the poem of the
consultations, divinely rhythmic. But
two rosettes Of stars especially attracted
bis attention while seated on the ground
Dr lying on his back under the open scroll
Of the midnight heavens-the Pleiades, or
Seven Stars, and Orion. The former group
this rustic prophet associated with the
spring, as it rises about the first of May
The latter he associated with the winter,
rs it comes TO the meridian in January
The Pleiades, or Seven Stars, connected
with all sweetness and JOY; Orion, the
herald of the tempest. The ancienJs were
the more apt to study the physiognomy
and iuxtapositiOn of the heavenly bodies,
because they thought they had a special
influence upon the earth, and perhaps they
we're right. If 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 proportio2ate
effect?
WAS IT ALL SCPERSTITION2
And there are some things which make
me think that il may not have been all su-
peTstition which connected the movements
and appearance of the heavenly bodies
with great moral events on earth. Did not
a meteor run on evangelstic errand on the
first Christmas night and designate the
rough cradle of our Lord2 Did not the
stars in their courses fight against Siserae
Was it merely coincidental that before the
destruction of Jerusalem the moon was
eclipsed for twelve consecutive nights?
Did 1t merely happen so that new star
appeared in constellation Cassiopeia, and
then disappeared just before King Charles
* OF France, who was responsible for the
st. Bartholomew massacre, died2 Was it
without significance that in the days Of
the Roman emperor Justinian war and
famine were preceded By the dimness of
the sun, which for nearly a year gave no
more light than the moon, although there
were no clouds to obscure it?
AstrolOgy, after all, may have been
something more than a brilliant heather
ism No wonder that Amos Of the text,
having heard these two anthems Of the
stars, pat down the stout rough staff Of
the herslsman and took into his brown
hand and cut and knotted fingers the pen
OF u prophet and advised the recreant peo-
pie u his time to return 10 God, saying,
seek him that maketh the Seven stars
and Orion" This command. which Amos
gave 80 years 3. c.. IS just as appropriate
Tor Us. 1892 !. d.
II the first place, Amos saw, as we must
see. that the God who made the Pleades
and Orion must be the God OF order 1t
was not 50 much a star here and a star
there that impressed the inspired herds
man. but seven IN one group and seven in
the other group He saw that night after
night and season after season and decade
after decade they had kept step Of light,s
each che IN its own place a sisterhoOd
never clashing and never cOntesting prec-
edence. From the time Hesiod called the
Pleiades the seven daug htes Of Atlas"
AID Virgil wrote in his lE.neid Of stormy
Orion" until now, they have observed the
order established for their coming and
going. order written not in manuscript
that may be pigeOuhOled, but with the
hand Of the Almighty on the dome of the
sky 50 that all nations may read it. Order.
Persistent order. Sublime order Om-
nIpoteat order.
TIE CONSOLATION n NATURE.
What q scdatiYe TO you and me, to whom
communities and nations sometimes seem
going pellmell. and world ruled by some
fend at haphazard and in all directions
maladministratiOn. The God who keeps
seven worlds in right circuit for six thous-
and years can certainly keep all the affairs
Of individuals and nations and continents
II adjustment. We had not better fret
much, for the peasants 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
So feel very much as my father felt
n