The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1892-04-02
GOD OF THE STARS.
Seek Him That Maketh the Seven
Stars and Orion" the Command
Of Amos, the Peasant.

s#- Va ANUS, Cnp 1 cdS1llLs
DR.. Talmage Takes This for His
Text, Which He Says Is as Ap-s
propriate Now as Then
BROOKLYN, N. Y, Especial. I'm
this sermon DR.. Talmage tra-
verses wide realms Of thought to
teach useful everyday lessons, based
on the text, Amos v:S: "Seek him
that makerli the seven stars and Or
ion." ~"
A country farmer wrote this text
Amos of Tekoa. He plowed the earth
and thrashed the grain by a new
thrashing machine just invented, as
formerly the cattle trod out the
grain. He gathered the fruit of the
sycamore tree, and sacrificed it with
an iron comb just beforeit was getting
ripe, as it was necessary and custom
airy in that way to take from it the
bitterness. He was the son of a poor
shepherd, and suffered; but before
the stammering rustic Philistines and
Syrians and Pheonicians and Mobiles
and Ammonites and Edomites and
Israelites 'trembled.
Moses was a law-giver, Daniel was
a prince, Isaiah a courtier, and David
a king; but Amos, the author of my
text, was a peasant, and, as might be
supposed, nearly all his parallelisms
are pastoral, his prophecy full of the
odol OF new-mown hay, and the rattle
of locust, and the rumble ofcarts with
sheaves, and the roarof wild beasts
devouring the flock while the shepherd
came out in their defense. He watch
ed the herd by day, and by night in
habited booth made out of bushes,
SO that through these branches he
could see the stars all night long, and
was more familiar with them than we
who have tight roofs to our houses,
and hardly ever see the stars except
AMONG THE TALL BRICK cHIMNEYsa
of the great towns. But at seasons
of the year when the herds were in
special danger, he would stay out in
the open field all through the darkness,
his only shelter the curtain OF the
night heaven, with the stellar en-
broideries and silvered tassels oflunar
light. q
What a life of solitude, all alone
with his herds! Poor Amos! and at
IL 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 un-
Willingly steps too near while moving
through the thickets! So Amos, like
other herdsmen, got the habit of
studying the map Of the heavens, be-
cause it was SO much of the time
spread out before him. He noticed
some stars advancing and others re-
ceding. He associated 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 divinelyrythmic.
But two rosettes of stars especially
attracted his attention while seated
on the ground, or lying on his back
unders the open scroll of the midnight
heavens-the Pleiades, or Seven
Stars. and orion. The for
mer group this rustic, proph-
ct associated with the spring,
as it rises about the first of May. The
latter he associated with the winter,
as it comes to the meridian in Janu-
airy. The Pleiadea or Seven Stars,
connected with all sweetness and Joy;
Orion, the herald of the tempest.
The ancients were the more apt to
study the physiognomy and juxtapo-
sition of the heavenly bodies, because
they thought they had a special mfu-
ence upon the earth; and perhaps they
were right. If the moon every few
hours lifts and let's down the tides of
the Atlantic Ocean, and the electric
storms of the sun, by all scientific ad-
mission, effect the eGrth, why not the
stars have proportionate effect.
And there are some things which
make me think that it may not have
been all superstition which connected
the movements and appearance ofthe
heavenly bodies With az
4 GREAT NJ sAL,EN B ON Earth.
Did not a~llbteor run on evapgel-
istic errand olsdthe first Christmas
night, and designate the rough cradle
of our Lord? Did not the stars in
their course fight against Siseraf
Was it merely CONFIDENTIAL that
before the destruction of Jerusa.
lem the moon was eclipsed for
twelve consecutive nights? Did
it merely happen SO that Q new star
appeared in constellation Cassiopeia,
and then disappeared just before King
CharlessIX. Of France, who was re-
sponsibls for st. Bartholomew massa-
ere, died? Was it without significance
that in the days Of the Roman Empe-
ror Justinian war and famine were
preceded by the dimness OF the sun,
which for nearly q year gave no more
light then the moon, although there
were mo- clouds to obscure it?
AstrolOgy, after all, may have heen
something mor than a brilliant
heathenism. No wonder that Amos
Of the text, having heard these two
" -kl~-o.G~e 49, ~Ao - x ~1,A = ,~N L.