The Dickinson press., 1892-04-02

.oSs AasAo o1ND So w lIlVSU bScs
that the God who made these two
archipelagoes OF stars
MUST BE AN UNcHANa1Na GOD.
"There has been no change in the
stellar appearance in this herdman's
lifetime, and his father, q shep-
herd, reported to him that there
had been no change in his life
time. And these two clusters hang
over the celestial arbor now lust as
they were the first night that they
shone on the Edenic bowers, the same
as when the Egyptians buildthe Pyra-
mids from the top OF which to watch
them, the same as when the Chaldeans
calculated the eclipse, the same as
when Elihu. according to the Book of
job, went out to study the aurora
borealis, the same under Ptolemaic
system and Copernichn system, tho
same from Calisthenes to Pythagoras
and from Pythagoras to Herschol.
Surely, a changeless God must have
fashioned the Pleiades and Orion!
On, what an anodyne amid the ups
and downs OF life, and the flax and re-
t1ux OF the tides of prosperity, to
know that we have a changeless God,
the same yesterday, today and for
ever"
Again, Amos saw, as we must see.
that the God who made these two
beacons of the Oriental night sky must
be a God of love and kindly warning.
The Pleiades rising in mid-sky said to
all the herdsmen and shepherds and
h%usbandmen: "Come out and enioy
the mild weather, and cultivate your
gardens and fields" Orion, coming in
winter, warned them to prepare for
tempest. All navigation was r%egulat-
ed by these two consultations. The
said to shipmaster and crew:
"Hoist sail for the sea and gather
merchandise from other lands" But
Orion was the storm-signal, and said:
."Reef sail, make things snug, or put
into harbor, for the hurricanes are
getting their wings out" AS the
Pleiades were the sweet evangels of
the spring, Orion was the warning
prophet OF the winter.
Oh, now | get the best view of God l
ever had! There are two kinds of
sermons | want to preach-the
one that presents God so kind, so in
dulgent, 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 are splitting in his face and stab
bling at his heart, he takes them up in
his arms and kisses their infuriated
brow and cheek, saying, "Of such is
the kingdom OF heaven" The other
kind OF sermon 1never want to preach
is the one that represents God as all
IRE N TORTURE AND THUNDERCLoUD
and with red hot pitch forks tossing
the humun race into paroxysms OF
infinite agony. The sermon that l am
now preaching believes in a God of
loving, kindly warning, the God OF
spring and winter, the God of the
Pleiades 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 enrich our fields,
and then you will have to enlarge
your hospitals and your cemeteries.
"a green Christmas makes a fat
graveyard" was the old proverb.
Storms to purify the air. Thermon-
etel at 10 degrees above zero to tone
up the system. December and Jan
uary just as important as May and
June. | tell you we need the storms
OF life as much as we do the sunshine.
There are o men ruined by pros
perity than by adversely. If we had
our way in life, before
this we would have been
representations of selfishness
and worldliness and disgusting
sin, and pulled up until we wouldhave
been the like OF Julius, Caesar, who
was made by sycophants to believe
that he was divine, and that the
freckles on his face were as the stars OF
the armament.
One of the swiftest transatlantic
voyages made last summer by our
swiftest steamer was because she had
a stormy wind abaft, chasingherfrom
New York to Liverpool. But to those
going i'll the opposite direction the
storm was a hutfetinga and hindrance.
1t is a bad thing to have a storm
ahead, pushing us back, but
IF WE BE GODS CHILDREN
and aiming toward heaven, the storms
Of life will only chase us the sooner
into the harbor.
And l am glad that so many texts
call Is to look off to other
worlds, many of them larger
and grander and more Respondent.
"Look there" says Job. Eat Mazar-
9th and Arcturus and his sons!"
"Look there" says st. John, cat the
moon under Christ's feet!" "Look
there" says Joshua, eat the sun
standing still above Gibeon!' "Look
there" says Moses, cat the sparkling
firmament!''Look there" says Amos,
the herdsman, cat the Seven Stars
and Orion!" Don't let us be so sad
about those who shove off from this
world under Christly pilotage.. Don't
let us be SO agitated about our own
going off this little barge or sloop or
canal-boat OF a world to get on some
"Great Eastern" OF the heavens.
Don't let us persist in wanting to stay
in this barn, this shed, this clubhouse
OF a world, when all the King spalaces
already occupied by many of our best
friends are swinging wide open their
gates to let lis in.
Oh, how this widens and lifts and
stimulates our expectation! How lit
tie it makes the present, and how stu
pendous it makes the future! How it
consoles lis about u pious dead,
who instead of being boxed up and
under the ground have the ranee of as
many rooms az there are worlds, and
welcome everywhere, for it is the
H. I-.. g. -,l:-l, Al~.. 1-o
many mansions! Oh, Lord God of the
Seven Stars and Orion, how can l en-
dure the transport, the ecstasy, of
such q vision! l must obey my text
and seek him. ! will seek him. 1 seek
him now, for I call to mind that it is
not the material universe that is most
valuable, but the spiritual, and that
each of us has a soul worth more
than all the worlds which the in
spired herdsman saw from his booth
~, tbo lille of 7Nokoo