Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-12-19
All THE TABERNACLE.
DR.. TALMAGe BEGINS A SERIES OF
SERMONS ON DIVINE SCIENCE.

God in the Natural world-The Heavens
Declare His Glory and the Earth shown
That Christ Should Die in This World.
BROOKLYN, Dec. 18-Rev. DR. Talmage
today preached the first of the promised
series'of sermons on God in the natural
world as disclosed in the Bible. The sub
ject chosen for the initial sermon was,
.'The Astronomy of the Bible, or God
Among the Stars" the text being from
Amos TX, 9, 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 flocks at
night he got to watching the heavens. He
saw stars above stars and the universe
seemed to him like a great mansion many
stories high. silver room aboves 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
immensities, and the prophets sanctifed
yer palace of the universe, through the
first story, through the second story,
through the third story, through the TWEEN
tieth story, through the hupdredth story.
through the thousandth story, and realiz-
ing that God is the architect and carpenter
and mason of all that upheaved splendor
he cries out in the words of the text, ut is
he that buildeth his stories in the heaven"
Mr. do hot Il
out and heightened our religious thoughts.
In our pulpts 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 series of sermons,
not for consecutive Sabbath mornings, but
M often as think it best for varietys 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, or God among the birds; the ich-
THEOLOGY of the Bible, or God among the
fishes; the pomoogy of the Bible, or God
among the orchards; the 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
20 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 stories and learn the meaning
Of the text when it says, ut is he that
buildeth his stories in the heaven"
ORIGIN OF THE SCIENCE.
Astronomy was born in Chaldea. It's
mother was astroogy, or the science of
foreteling 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 heav
ems. In the hot seasons caravans jour
neyed chiefly at night, and that gave trav-
elers much opportunity of stellar informa-
ton. On the first page Of the Bible the
sun and moon and stars roll in-the sun
II body nearly three million miles in cir
conference and more than twelve thou
sand 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 man
ufacture. Yea, in three words all the other
worlds are thrown in. The record says
1.-THE stars alsop'
1t takes whole pages for aman to extol
the making of a telescope or microscope,
or magnetic telegraph, or a thrashing
machine, or to describe "a fins 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 also" Astronomers have been
trying to call the roll of them ever since,
and they have counted multitudes of them
passing 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, 1.-The stars
also"
That is Mars, with its more than fifty
five million square miles, and Venus, with
its more than one hundred and ninety-one
million square miles, and Saturn, with its
more than nineteen billion square mil ;,
and Jupiter, with its more than tweut :
four billion square miles, and all the plan
cts 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 noun
tains and all the Alps. "The stars alsoP'
For bsevity, for ponderosty, for splendor,
for suggestiveness, for sublimity piled on
sublimity, these words excel all that hu- |
man speech ever uttered or human imagi- |
nation ever scared after, 1.-The stars also!'
1t is put in as you write a postscript
something you thought of afterward as
hardly worth putting into the body of a
letter. The stars also!'
SCIENCE IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
Read on in your Bibles, and after awhile
the Bible flashes with the aurora borealis,
or northern lights, that strange illumina-
tion as mysterious and underlined now as
when in the book of Job it was written:
"Men see not the bright light which is in
the clouds. Fair weather cometh out of
the north" While all the nations sup
posed that the earth was built on a founda- |
ton of some sort, and many supposed that
It stood ON huge turtle or some great
marine creature, job knew enough of |
astronomy to say it had no Foundation, but |
was suspended on the invisible arm of the |
Almighty, declaring that "ho hangcth the |
earth upon nothing" While all nations
thought the earth was level, the sky spread |
over IL like a tent over flat surface |
Isaiah declared the world 10 be globular, |
circular, saying OF cod, lie sitteth upon |
the circle of the earth" See them glitter |
in the Scriptural skyAArcturus, Orion |
the pleiades aud tue "bear with her |
young"
While running your fingers among the
,.a,,aa IF ,nup l2ihls with thpusyrorg'ltru !