Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-03-24
AT THE TABERNACLE.
THE DIVINE ASTRONOMY As DE-
/ SCRl5EO BY THE PROPHETS,

Infinite Order and without Variable
ness or shadow of Turning.
BROOKLYN, March 20.--In this sermon
DIR. Talmage traverscs wild realms of
thought to teach useful everyday lessons,
based on the text. Amos V, s, seek him
that lhaketh the Seven Stars and Orion"
A country farmer wrote this tcXt-Amos
Of Tekoa. He plowed the earth and
thrashed the grain by Il new thrashing
machine Just invented, as formerly the cat
tie trod out the grain. He gathered the
fruit of the sycamore tree and scarilied it
with an iron comb just before it was get
ting ripe, us 1t 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 stammerinE
rustic the Philistines and Syrians and
Phnnicians and Moabites and Ammonites
and Edomites and lsraelites trembled.
Moses was lawgiver, Daniel was a
prince, Isaiah a courier and David king;
but Amos, the author of my text, was "A
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 loGusts, and the rumble OF carts
with sheayes, and the roar of wild beasts
devouring the flock while the shepherd
came out in their defense. lie watched the
herds by day, and by night inhabited Il booth
made out OF bushes, so that through these
he could see the stars all night long, and
was more familiar with them than wewho
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 he herds We're in
special danger, he would stay out in the
open field III through the darkness, his
only sheltebthe curtain of the night heaven,
with the stellar embrodcres and silvered
tassels of lunar light
What a life of solitude, all alone with
his herds! Poor Amos! And ut - o'clock
at night bark to the VOLTS bark, and the
lions roar, and the bears growl, and the
OWLS te-w hit-te-whO, and the serpent's
hiss, as he unwittingly steps too near
while moving through the thickets! So
Amos like other heldsmen, got the habit
of studying the map of the heavens, be-
cause it was 80 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 appetite nature,
and he read night by night, and month by
month, and year by year, the poem of the
consultations, divinc!y rhythmic. But
two rosettes Of stars especially attracted
his attention while seated ON the ground
or 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,
A hp Il
The Pleiades, or Seven Stars, connected
with all sweetness and JOY; Orion, the
herald of the tempest. The ancicnts were
the more apt to study the physiognomy
hnd juXtaposition 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 sum-
by all scientific admission, affect the
earth why not the stars have proportionate
effect?
WAS 1T ALL sUPERsTlTIONs
And there are some things which make
me think that it may not have been all SUI
perstition which connected the movements
and appearance OF the heavenly bodies
with great moral events on earth. Did not
meteor run on evangelistic errand on the
first Christmas night and designate the
rough cradle of our Lord? Did not the
stars in their courses fight against Siseraf
Was it merely coincidental that before the
destruction of Jerusalem the moon WAS
eclipsed for twelve consecutive nights ?
Did it merely happen so that new star
appeared in constellation Cassiopeia, and
then disappeared just before King Charles
TX of France, who was responsible for the
St. bartholomew massacre, died? Was it
without significance that in the days Of
the Roman emperor Justinian war and
famine We're preceded by the dimness of
the sun, which for nearly year gave no
more light than the moon, although there
were no clouds TO obscurcit
Astrology, after all, may have been
something more than a brilliant heathcn-
ism. No wonder that Amos of the text,
having he@rd these two anthems of the
stars, put down the stout rough staff of
the herJaman and took into his brown
hand and cut and knotted fingers the pen
OF a prophet and advised the rccreant peu-
pie of his time to return to God, saving,
Seek him that maketh the Seven Stars
and Orion" This command, which Amos
gave ;e5 years 3. c., is just as appropriate
for us, 1852 A. d.
In the first place, Amos saw, as we must
see, tnat the OOd VINO mace ire GIelaQeA
and Orion must be the God Of order 1t
was not 80 much Ii 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,
each one in its own place, sisterhood
never clashing and never contestiug prcc.
edence. From the time Hesiod called the
Pleiades the seven daughtes of Atlas, u
and Virgil wrote in his Alnaid of "Stormy
Orion" until now, they have observed the
order established for their coming aud
going order written hot in manuscript
that may be pigeonholed but with the
hand of the Almighty on the dome of the
sky. SO that all nations may read it. Order
Persistent order Sublime order ON
nipOtent order.
THE CONSOLATION IN NATURE.
What a sedative to you and me, to whom
communities and nations sometimes seen
going pellmell, and world ruled by som,
fend at haphaZard and in all directions
maladmlnistra tion! The God who keeps
seven worlds in right circuit for six thous
npd vaa,.u I.op rn,.t oinlv l-aar nil tba 70 Ia,