The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-04-01
WARNING IN THE STARS.
DR.. Talmage Draws Lessons From
The Heavenly Bodies.
seek Him That Maketh the Seven Stars
and Orfon"-Trust All to God-The
Need of Storm as Well as
Sunshine.

Amos V. s: Seek Him that Maketh
the Seven Stars and Orion" Follow
ing is the sermon:
A country farmer wrote this text
Amos of Tel1oa He plowed the earth
and threshed the grain by a new
threshing machine just invented, as
formerly the cattle trod out the grain.
He gathered the fruit of the sycamore
tree, and scarifed it with an iron comb
Just before it was getting ripe, as it
was necessary and customary in that
way TO take from il the bitterness. He
was the son of a poor shepherd,
and suffered; but before the stammer-
ing rustic the Philistines. and Syrians,
and Phpnicians, AMI Moabites, and
Ammonites, and Edomites, and Israel
ties trembled
Moses was a law giver, Daniel was
prince, Isaiah courtier, and David
king; but Amos, the author of my
text, was peasant and, as might be
supposed, nearly all of his parallelisms
are pastoral, his prophecy full of the
-odor of new mown hay, aud the rattle
of locusts, and the rumble Of carts
with sheaves, and the roar of wild
beasts devouring the flock while the
shepherd came out in ther defense. He
watched the herds by day, and by
night inhabited booth made out of
bushes, so that through these branches
he could see the stars all night long,
and was more familiar with them than
we who have tight roofs to our houses,
and hardly ever see the stars except
among tall brick chimneys of the great
towns But at seasons of the year
when the herds were in special danger,
he would stay out in the open field all
through the darkness, his only shelter
the curtain of the night heaven, with
the stellar embroideries and silvered
tassels of lunar light.
What a life of solitude, all alone
with his herds! Poor Amos! And at
twelve o'clock at night bark to the
VOLTS bark, and the lions roar, and
the bears growl, and the OWLS te-whit-
to-who, and the serpent's hiss, as he
unwittingly steps too near while NOV
ing through the thickets! So Amos, like
other herdsmen, got the habit of study
ing the map of the heavens because it
was so much of the time spread out be-
fore him. He noticed some stars advanc-
ing and others receding. He associated
their dawn and setting with certain
seasons of the year He had a poetic
nature and he read night by night, and
month by month, and year by year,
the poem of the consultations, divine
" rhvthmic. But two rosettes of stars
especially attracted his attention while
seated on the ground, or lying on his
back under the open scroll of the mid
night heavens-the Pleia1es, or seven
stars, and Orion. The former group
this rustic prophet associated with the
spring, rs it rises about the first of May.
The latter he associated with the win
ter, as it comes to the meridian in JAN
uarv. The Pleiades, or seven stars,
connected with all sweetness and joy;
Orion. the herald of the tempest The
ancients were the more apt to study
the physiognomy and juztaposition of
the heavenly bodies, because they
thought they had 4 special influence
upon the earth; and perhaps they were
right. IF the moon every few hours
lifts and let's down the tides of the At
lautic ocean, and the electric storms of
the sun. by all scientific admission, af-
feet the earth, why not the stars have
proportiouate effect?
And there are some things which
make me think that it may not have
been all superstition which connected
the movements and appearance of the
heavenly bodies with great moral events
on earth. Did not 4 meteor run on
evangelistic errand on the first Christ
mas night and designate the rough
cradle of our Lord? Did not the stars
in their courses fight against Sisera?
Was it merely coincidental that before
the destruction of Jerusalem the moon
was eclipsed for twelve consecutive
nights? Did it merely happen so that
a new star appeared in constellation
Cassiopeia and then disappeared just
before King Charles IN, OF France.
who was responsible for St Bartholo-
NEW massacre, died? Was it without
significance that in the days of the
Roman Emperor Justinian war and
famine were preceded by the dimness
of the sun. which for nearly a wear
gave no more light than the moon. al
though there were no clouds to obscure
it ?
Astrology, after all, may have been
something more than brilliant heath
enism. No wonder the Amos of the
text. having heard these two anthems
of the stars, put down the stout rough
staff of the herdsman and took into his
brown and cut and knotted fingers the
pen of prophet, and advised the re-
creaut people of his time to return to
God, saying: 'Seek Him that maketh
the seven stars and Orion" This COM
mand, which Amos gave 7S5 years B.
c., is just as appropriate for US, 1892
a. d.
In the first place. Amos saw, as we
must see, that the God who made the
Pleiades and Orion must be the God of
order. 1t was not so much a star here
and star there that impressed the in
spired herdsmen, but seven in one
group and seven in the other group.
He saw that night after night and
season after season and decade after
decade they had kept step of light, each
one in its own place, a sisterhood never
-clashing and never contestiug prece-
.dence. From the time Hesiod called
the Pleiades the seven daughters of
Atlas" and Virgil wrote in his Eneid
of stormy Orion" until now thev
have observed the order established for
their coming and going; order written
not in manuscript that may be pigeon
uoled, but with the hand of the Al
mighty on the dome of the sky, so that
all nations may read it Order. Per
.sistent order. Sublime order. Om-
nipotent order.
What sedative to you and me, to