The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-12-19
ASTRONOMY OFTHE BIBLE
TALMAGE PREACHEs ON GOD
AMONG THE STARS.

tEOuOLuy bOrn IN OnalQoa-lCS ROt0er
Astrolosy-An the Worlds Inhab-
tied.
BROOKLYN, Dec. 1s.-kev. DIR. TaImags
to-day preached the first Of the promised
series Of sermons on God in the natural
world as disclosed In the Bible. The subject
chosen for the initial sermon was, 'The AS
tronomy OF the Bible; or God Among the
Stars" the text being from Amos tx, 6: "Is
is he that buildeth his stories in the heavens.n
Preceding the sermon the great congrsga-
tion sang Isaac Watts hymn:
The heavens declare thy glory. Lord,
In every star thy wisdom Shines
That is first-rate poetry from Amos, the
herosman. While guarding his focks as
night he got watching the heavens. He
saw stars above stars, and the universe
seemed to him like great mansion many
stories high, silver room above silver room,
silver pillars beside silver pillars and win.
dows OF silver and doors OF silver, and tur.
rets and domes Of silver rising into the Inn
mensities, aud the prophets sanctified
imagination walks through the great silver
palace OF the universe, through the frat
story, through the second story, through
the third story, through the twentieth story,
through the hundredth story, through the
che architect and carpenter and mason ok
all that upheaved splendor, he cries out In
the words of the text: cit is he that
bnildeth his stories IN the heavens."
Ny hearers, IL is time that we widened out
and hightened our religious thoughts In
our pulpits and Sabbath classes and Chris
tiAu work of all sorts we ring the changes
on a few verses of scripture until they ex-
cite no interest. Many Of the best parts OF
the Bible have never yet been preached from
or indeed noticed. Hence to-day begin a
series OF sermons, not for consecutive Sab
bath mornings, but as often as / think 10
best for variety's sake, on the Astronomy OF
the Bible or God among the Stars, the Geol.
ogy OF the Bible or God among the Rocks,
che Ornithology Of the Bible or God among
the Birds, the lchthyology Of the Bible or
God among the Fishes. the Pomoiogy
OF the Bible or God among the Or-
chards, the Precious Stones OF the
Bible or God among tina Amethysts, the
Conchology of the Bible or God among the
Shells, the Botany OF the Bible cd God
among the Flowers. the Chronology Of the
Bible or God among the Centuries. The
fact Is that we have all spent too much
time on one story of the great mansion Of
Gods universe. We need occasionally 90
90 upstairs or dowstairs In this mansion;
downstairs sand INF the cellar study the
rocks, or upstairs and see God In some Of
the text when 1t says: 1T is he that build
eth his stories In the heaven"
Astronomy was born In Chaldea. It's
mother was astrology or the science Of
foretelling events by juxtaposition of stars.
The Orientals, living much out of doors and
In very clear atmosphere, through which
the stars shone especially lustrous, got the
habit Of studying the night heavens. In the
hot seasons caravans journeyed chiefly at
night, and that gave travellers much oppor-
tunity OF stellar information. On the first
page of the Bible the sun and moon and
stars roll In. The sun, nearly three million
miles In circumference and more than
twelve thousand times as large as our
earth; the moor, more than two
thousand miles in diameter. But God
is used to doing things on such an
omnipotent scale that he takes only one
verse 10 tell of this stellar and lunar manu-
faoture. Yea, In three words all the other
worlds are thrown in, The record says.
"The stars alsol" It takes whole pages fer
man to extol the making OF a telescope or
microscope or magnetic telegraph or q
threshing machine, or to describe fine
painting or statue, but 1t was so easy for
God to hang the celestial upholstery that
the story is compassed in one verse: "God
made two great lights, the greater light 20
rule the day and the lesser light TO rule the
night The stars alsor' Astronomers have
Dbou tEyluK LO Gull buo fOlL Vi JQbm ever
since, and they have counted multitudes OF
them passing 10 review before the observa--
tories built at vast expense, and the size
and number of those heavenly bodies have
taxed TO the utmost the scientists Of
all ages But God finishes all he has to
say about them Ia three words, "The stars
alsol" That is Mars. with It's more than
fifty five million square miles, and Venus,
with its more than one hundred and
ninty-one million square miles,
and Saturn, with its more than nineteen
billion square miles, and Jupiter, with its
more than twenty-four billion square miles.
and all the planets of our system of more
than seventy-eight billion square miles, and
these stars of our system, when compared
with the stars Of the other systems, as a
handful Of sand compared with all the
Rocky mountains and all the Alps. "The
stars also" For brevity, for ponderosity, for
spiendor, for suggestiveness, for sublimfty
piled on sublimity. these words excel all that
human speech ever uttered or human imagi-
nation ever scared after: "The stars aisOis
IL is put In as you write postcript-so
thing you thought Of afterward-as hardly
worth putting into the body Of a letter.
"The stars also.n
Read on in your Bibles, and after awhile
the Bible flashes with the Aurora Borealis
OF Northern lights, that strange fllumina-
ton, as mysterious and underlined now as
when, In the book Of Job 10 was written:
"Men see not the bright light which is In
the clouds. Fair weather cometh out OF
the north" While all the nations supposed
that the earth was built on foundation Of
some sort, and many supposed that 10 stood
on a huge turtle, or some great marine
creature, Job knew enough of astronomy to
say 10 had no foundation but was suspended
on the invisible arm OF the Almighty, de-
claring that "he hangeth the earth upon
nothing" While all nations thought the
earth was level. the sky spread over 10
like a tent over a fiat surface. Isaiah
declared the world to be globular, circular,
saying OF God: "He sitteth upon the circle
OF the earth" See them glitter in the
scriptural sky-Aroturus, Orion, the
Pleiades. and the bear with her young"
While running your fingers among the
leaves OF your Bible with the astronomical
thought In your mind you see two worlds
stop-the sun and the moon. But what
does that Christian know about that miracle
who does not understand something of
those two luminariesl Unless you watch
modern astronomy put those two worlds
in its steelyards and weigh them you are
az ignorant as a Hottentot about the stu
pendousness Of that scene In the life OF
Joshua. The sun over three hundred
thousand times as heavy as our earth
and going thousands of miles the hour.
Think of stopping that and starting II again
without the shipwreck OF the universal