The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1892-03-22


| charge yon, Seek him that maketh the
Seven Stars and Orion
Again. Amos saw as we must Sec that
the God who made these two groups OF
the text was the God of light. Amos saw
that God was not satisfied with making
one star, or two Or three stars, but he makes
seven and having finished that group of
worlds, makes another group-group after
group. TO the pleiades he adds Orion
1t seems that God likes light so well that
he keeps making it. Only one thing in the
universe knows the statistics of solar, lunar
stellar meteoric creations, and that is
the Creator himself And they have all
been lovingly christened, each one q name
he telleth the number of the stars; he
calleth them all by their names" The
seven Ile,adcs had names given to them,
and they are Alcyone, Merope, Celaeno,
n'1 ecu l.; S'terope, Taygete and Maia
daughters of starry light that God calls
by name as they sweep by Him with BEAM
ing brow and lustrous robe! SO fond is
God of light-natural light, moral light,
spiritual light Again and again is light
harnesscd for symboliztion~C the
prlght and morning star; evangelization, the
daybrcak; the redemption of nations, Sun
or righteousness rising with healing in
his wings. Oh, men and women, with SO
many sorrows and sins and perplexities,
II YOU want light of comfort, light of par
through Christ, Seek him that maketh the
Seven Stars and Orion"
AGAIN, Amos saw, as we must see, that
the God who made these two archipelagoes
OF stars must be IN unchanging God.
There had been no change in the stellar
appearance in this hcrdsman's lifetime,
and his father, shepherd, reported to him
that there had been no change in his life
tlhe. ANA these two clusters hang over
the celestial arbOr now just as they were
the first night that they shone on the
Edenic bowers, the same as when the
Egyptians built the Pyramids from the top
OF which to watch them, the same as when
the Chaldeans calculated the eclipses, the
same as when Elihu, according to the
Book of Job, went out to study the aurora
borealis, the same under Ptolemaic system
and Copernican system, the same from
CalstheneS to Iythagor6s. and from Pytll-
agoras to Herschci. Surely, changeless
God must Lave fashioned the Pleiades and
Orion! Oh, what an anodyne amid the ups
and downs Of life, and the flux and refiux
of the tides of prosperity, to know that we
have changeless God, the same yesterday,
today. and forever"
Nerxes garlandcd and knighted the
steersman of his boat in the morning. and
day. The world sits in its chariot and
drives tandem, and the horse ahead is
Huzza, and the horse behind is Anathema.
Lord Gotham, in King James's time, was
applaudcd, and had $4,000 a year. but
was afterward execrated, and lived on
scraps stolen from the royal kitchen. Al
exander the Great after death remained un-
buried for thirty days. because no one would
do tie honor of shoveling him under The
duke of Wellington refused to have his iron
fence mended, because it had been broken
By an Infatuated populace in some hour OF
political excitement, and he left it in ruins
that men might learn what tickle thing
is human favor. "But the mercy of the
Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to
them that fear Him. and His righteousness
unto the chdren's children of such as keep
His covenant. and to those who remember
His commandments to do them" This mo-
ment seek Him that maketh the Seven
Stars and Orion"
Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that
the God who made these two beacons OF
the oriental night sky must he God OF
love and kindly warming The Plelades
rising in m:dsky said to all the herdsmen
and Shepherds and husbandmen: Come
out and enjoy the mild weather. and cult
yate your gardens and fields Orion, COM
ing in winter, warned them to prepare for
tempest. All navigation was regulated by
these two consultations. The one said to
shipmaster end crew: Hoist sail for the
the sea. and gather merchandise from other
binds But Orion was the storm signal,
and said: Reef sail, make things snug, or
nut into harbor, for the hurricanes are get
ting their wings out" AS the plciadcs
were the sweet eyange!s OF the spring,
Orion was the warning prophet of the WIN
ter.
Oh, now I get the best view of God l
ever had! There are two kinds OF sermons
| never want to prCaCh-the one that pre-
sents God so kind, so indt'lgent so lenient,
so imbecile that men may do what they will
against him, and fracture his every law,
and put the pry of their impertinence and
rebellion under his throne, and while they
artl ct.lAI u his
heart, he takes them up in his arms and
kisse, their nfuriatcd brow and cheek,
saying, "Of such is the kingdom of he0y-
en-. THE otehcr kind of sermon never want
to preach is the one that, represents God
as all fire and torture and thunder cloud,
and with red-hot pitchfork tossing the hui
man race into par0Xisms of infinite agony.
The sermon that | am now preaching be-
lieyes III a God of loving. kindly,
the God of the plciados and Orion.
You must remember that the winter is
Just as important as the spring. Let one
winter pass without frost TO Kill vegetation
and ice to bind the rivers and snow to en-
rich our fields, and then you will have to
enlarge your hospitals and your cemeteries.
"a green Christmas makes a fat grave
yard" was the Old proyerb. Storms to
purify the air. Thermometer at 10 de-
greoS above zero TO tone UP the system.
December and January just as important as
storms Of life as much as we do the sun
shine. There are more men ruined by pros
perity than by adversely. If we lad our
own way in life, before this we would have
been impersonations of selfshness aud
wordliness and disgusting sin, and puGfed
UP until we would have been like Julius
Caesar, who was made by sycophants to
believe that he was divine, and the freck-
les on his face were as the stars Of the
armament
One of the swiftcst trans Atlantic voy-
ages made last summer by our swiftcSt
steamer was because she had q stormy
wind abat. chasing her from New York to
Liverpool. But to those going in the OPP
posite direction the storm was q buileting
and a hlnllrance. 1t is bad thing 10
have a ST m ahead, pushing us back but
il we be Gods children and aiming toward
heaven, the storms of life will only chase
US the sotner into the harbor. | am so
glad to believe that the monsoons and
typboons end mistrals and sirOccos of the
land and sea are not unclaimed maniAcs let
loose upon the ca1th. but are under divine
supervision! | am SO glad that the God
Of the Seven Stars is also the God of
Orion. IL out of Dante's suffering
came the sublime "Diyina Commedia." and
out of ,iobn Miltons blindness came
PARADISE Lost and out Of miserable in
fdcl attack came "Ihc Brdgewater Treat
ise' in favor Of Christianity, and out of