The Portland daily press., 1892-12-24
THE DIVINE SCIENCE.
The Heavens Do Indeed Declare The
Glory Of God.

Z on the Lessons J2usshU ny Uue WoHuefs
of Nature-s'The Undevout Astronomer
Is Mad"
BROOKLYN, Dec. 19.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage 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, 1.-The Astronomy Of
the Bible, or God Among the Stars,
the text being from Amos *, 6, ut is
he that buildeth his stories in the
heaven" Preceding the sermon the
great congregation sang Isaac Watts
hymn:
! The heavens declare thy glory, Lord,
In every star thy wisdom shines.
That is first rate poetry from Amos
the herdsman. While guarding his fiocks
at night he got watching the heavens.
He saw stars above stars, and the uni
verse seemed to him like a great mansion
many stories high, silver room above
silver room, silver pillars beside silver
pillars, and windows of silver and doors
of silver, and turrets and domes of sill
yer rising into the immensities, and the
prophets sanctifed imagination walks
through that great silver palace of the
universe, through the first story, through
the second story, through the third
story, through the twentieth story,
through the hundredth story. through
the thousandth story, and realizing that
God is the architect and carpenter and
mason of all that upheaved splendor, he
cries out in the words of the text, SIT is
he that buildeth his stories in the
heaven
! THE ELEvATINd SCIENCES.
My hearers, it is time that we widened
out and heightened our religious
thoughts. In our pulpits and Sabbath
classes and Christian work of all sorts
we ring the changes on a few verses of
Scripture until they excite no interest.
Many Of the best parts Of the Bible have
never yet been preached from or indeed
even noticed. Hence today begin a Sc
ries Of sermons, not for consecutive Sab
bath mornings, but as often as think it
best for variety's sake, on the astronomy
of the Bible, or God among the stars; the
geology of the Bible, or God among the
rocks; the ornithology of the Bible, OF
God among the birds; the ichthyology
of the Bible, or God among the fishes; the
pomology of the Bible or God among
the orchards; she precious stones Of the
Bible, or God among the amethysts; the
conchology of the Bible, or God among
the shells; the botany of the Bible, or
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 to go up stairs or down
stairs in this mansion; down stairs and
in the cellar study the rocks, or up stairs
and see God in some of the higher sto-
ries and learn the meaning OF the text
when it says, ''It is he that buildeth his
stories in the heaven
Astronomy was born in Chaldea. Its
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 cara
vans journeyed chiefly at night, and that
gave travellers much opportunity of stel-
lar information. On the first page Of
the Bible the sun and moon and stars
roll in. The sun, body nearly three
million miles in circumference and more
than twelve thousand times as large as
our earth; the moon, 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 to tell of this stellar and
lunar manufacture. Yea, in three words
all the other worlds are thrown in. The
record says, 1.-THE stars also" 1t takes
whole pages for man to extol the max
ing of telescope or microscope, or a
magnetic telegraph or threshing ma
chine, or to describe a fine painting or
statue, but it 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
to rule the day and the lesser light to
rule the night. The stars alsor'
Astronomers have been trying to call
the roll Of them ever since, and they
have counted multitudes of them pass
ing in review before the observatories
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 in three words, "The stars
alsor That is Mars with it's more
than fifty-fiye million square miles, and
Venus with it's more than one hundred
and ninety-one million square miles,
and Saturn with its more than nine
teen billion square miles, and Jupi-
ter with its more than twenty-four bill
lion 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 handful
of sand compared with all the Rocky
mountains and all the Alps. "The stars
also" For brevity, for ponderosity, for
splendor, for uggestiveness, for sublim-
ity piled on subli1nity, these words excel
all that human speech ever uttered or
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