Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-12-24
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
Ths Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun.
day Sermon.


The heavens declare Thy glory. Lord.
In every star Thy wisdom shines.
That is first rate poetry from Amos the
herdsman. While guarding his hocks at
night he got watching the heavens. He
saw stars above starS, and the universe
seemed to him like a great mansion many
stores high, slyS: room above silver room.
silver pillars beside silver pillars, and win
dows OF silver and doors OF silver AMI tur-
rets and domes of silver rising into the i'm
mensltIes, and the prop Iet's sanctifiei
imagination walks through til It great silver
palace OF the universe, through the first
story, through the second story, through the
third story, through tbs twentieth story.
through the hun ireth story. through the
thousandth story. and realizing that God is
the architect AMI carpenter and mason Of
all that upheaved spendor, he cries out in
the words CT the text sit il He that build.
eth His stories in the heaven ~
My hearers it is time tt we widenei
out anl heightened our religious thoughts.
In our pulpts and Sabbath classes aud
Christian work of all sorts wa ring the
changes on few verses OF Scripture until
they excite no interest, Many of the best
parts OF the Bible have never yet been
I preached from or indeed even noticaI,
! Hence | to-day begin series OF sermons.
not for consecutive Sabbath mornings, but
| as often as think it best for varlety's SAKE,
on the astronomy OF the Bible or Col
among the stars; the geology of the Bioie
/ or God among the rocks; the ornithology
I Of the Bible, or God among the
birds; the ichthyology of the Bible
or god among the fishes; the pom.
( ology Of the Bible of Got among thu
orchard tle precious stones of the Bible or
/ God among the ametlysts; the conchology
| of the Bible, or God anon, the shells; the
botany OF the Bible, or God among the
/ flowers; the chronology of the Bible, or Col
among the centuries. The fact is that we
have all spent too much ii ne on one story
/ of the great mansion of Co.'s universe WI
/ need occasionally to go upstairs or down
/ stairs in this mansion; down stairs AMI in
/ the cellar study the rocks, or up stairs AIT
4 see God in some OF the higher st )res AMI
( learn the meaning of the text when it says,
I at is he that bull leth HIS stories in the
/ heaven
Astronomy was born in Chaldss. Its
mother was astrology, or the sciencs Of fo-4-
/ telling events by juxtapoSitIon OF stars. The
orientals living much out of doors an in a
! very clear atmo 10 lere, throIgh which the
stars shone especially lustrous, got the habit
OF studying the night heavens In the hot
4 seasons caravans journeyed chiefly at niyat
and that gave travellers much opportunity of
stellar in tormatiou. On the first page of thu
/ Bible the sun and moon I'd stars roll in
/ The sun, body of nearly three million miles
7 CIV
! thousand times as large as our earth; the
moon, more than two thousan miles ia di.
/ Ameter.
But God is used to dom things on such
an oBnipotent scale that II ia Ies onl; ons
verse to tell of this stellar anl lunar manu-.
facture. Yea in three words all the other
worlds are thrown in. The record says,
"rhe stars alson' 1t takes whole pages for
man to extol the making of a telescope or
microscope, or a magnetic telegraph or
threshing machine, or to describe fne
painting or ste tue but it was SO easy for ID
to hang the celestial upholstery that the
story is compasse i'll one verse: God made
two great lights; the greater light to rule
/ the day and the lesser liglt orlle the night.
The stars alsoW
{ Astronomers have been trying to call the
roll of them ever sincA, AMI thsy have
| counted multitu les of the passing in re.
view before the oOservatories built a5 vast
expense, and the sizs AMI number of those
heavenly bodies have take tn tho utmost
the scientists OF al ages. But ii haisaes
all He has to saw about than In tarsa WORKS
/ "The stars aisoF' That is Mars wien it mors
than tifty-tve million square miles. AMI
Venus with its more than o 10 hun iraI an |
/ ninety.one million square miles. an
! Saturn with its more than ninetean
| billion square miles, an Juoiter with
! its more than twenty-four billion
/ square IntleS, an al Ju5 OL our
I system of more than seventy-eight
/ billion square miles AMI those stars of our
system when compared with the stars OF the
{ other systems. as han lful of SAM with all
4 the Rocky Mountains and all the Alps.
THE stars aisoP For brevity, for pom ter-
osltv, for splendor. for su sgestivensss, for
sublmity piled on sublimty, these woris
excel all that human speecl ever uttered o.
human Imagination ever soareI after.
"The stars alsoN 1t is put in as yoI write
a notwithstanding you tn III 5ht OF af-
terward, as hardly worth putting into tae
! body of letter. Fine stars a.sow
{ Read on in your Bibles, and after awhile
! the Bible flashes with the aurora b)reaiis or
northern lights, that strange illumination,
as mysterious aud uu le6aed now as waen
1 in the book OF Job it was written; Men see
not The bright light WHICH is in tae clou Is.
Fair weather coneth out OF thu Nortl.'
While all the nations supposed that the earth
was built on Il foundation OF SO ne sort, an
i many supposed that it stood on huge
! turtle, or some eth n great marine creature.
Job knew enough of astronomy to say it hal
/ no foundation, but was suspended on the in.
/ visible arm of the Almi ghty, declaring that
( He hangeth the earth upon nothing
While all nations thou yht tne earth was
Level, the sky sprea over it like tent over
fiat surface, Isaiah declared the world to
! be globular, circular, saying of God "He
stitch upon the circle OF the earth" Ses
them glitter in the scriptural sky-Ar cturus
Orion. the Pieiades and the "Bsar with her
young"
While running your tinye among the
leaves of your Bible with the astronomical
thought in your mini, you sse two worlds
stop-the sun and the moon. But what does
that Christian know about that miracle who
does not uud 'rstau1 something of tn ose two
luminaries? Unless you watch mo lern as
tronomy put those two WORT is in its steel.
yards and weigh them you are as ignorant
as a Hottentot about thu stupen iousness OF
that scene in the life OF JOSHUA. The sun
over three hundred thousand times as heavy
/ as our earth and going taousants OF miles
an hour. Think of stopping that and start
ing it again without the shipwreca of the
universe! But 1 can easily believe it. What
con 'ounds me is not that He could stop AMI
start again those two worlds in Joshuas
time, but that He could have made the wheel
Of worlds Of which the sun AMI moon are
only CO.'S AMI keep that wheel rolling for
thousands of years-the fywhsel Of all eter-
uity.
II an engineer can start long train. it Is
not surprising that be- can stop it. liz Col
4 could make aud move the universe, which
is an express train drawn by an omnipotent
engine, am not surprise that for part OF
day He could put down the rlkes on two
3 pSceS Vi tbSIoLdllHS machinery. luuuSilty
Is hari np for ground OF co nplaint against
the Scriptures when it finds fault with that
cessation of stellar and lunar travel Here
is my watch. could not make a watch it
tried, but l can stop it aud start 1t gain.
My difficulty is not that God could stop
two worlds and start them again, but that
he could make them at all as He did make
them What pleases me and astoun Is me
more and more is that eaca one of the mill
ions of worlds has a God given name. Only
comparatively small number of them have
names given them by scientists. II astron-
omers can give ma ne to whole constella-
ton or galaxy they think they do well, but
God has name for each star in all inmen.
sity. Inspire David declares OF God. 'Ha
telle'h the number OF the stars; He caIleth
them all by their Names
They are not ornhanS that have never
been clristsnei. They are not waits OF the
nj ght. ThsY are not unknown shins on ths
high seas of INN ansity, Tney belong to
family of which Go is the Father ani as
vou call your children Benjamin or Mary or
Bertha or Addison or Jos suhine 50 Hs calls
a / the infant worlds an all the adult worlds
by their first name, AMI they know it as
well as though they were only one child Of
light in all thu divine family. ''He calleth
them all By their Names AMI when He calls
warrant they come.
Oh, the stars, Those vestal fires kept
burning on infinite affairs. Those lighthouse,
on the coast of eternity. Tae hands ami
weights aud pendulum of the great CLOCK of
the universe. According to Herschel the so
called ixel stars are not fixed at all, but
each one a SUI with a mighty system of
worlds rolling round it aud this whole sys-
ten with all the other systems rolling on