The Globe-republican., 1893-01-06
Divine Science.


in the natural world as disclosed in the
Bible. The subject chosen for the ini
tial sermon was, ''rhe Astronomy of the
Bible, or God Among the Stars" the tex
| being from Amos ix, 6, 1t is he thai
buildeth his stories in the heaven"
My hearers,it is time that we widened
out and heightened our religion:
thoughts In our pulpits and Sabbath
classes and Christian work Of all sorts
we 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 preached from or indeed
even noticed. Hence / to-day begin a
series Of sermons. not for consecutive
Sabbath mornings, but as often as
think it best for variety's sake. on the
astronomy of the Bible, or God among
the stars: the geology of the Bible, OF
God among the rocks; the ornithology OF
the Bible. or God among the birds; ich-
thyology of the Bible. or God among the
| fishes; the pomOlogY Of the Bible or God
| among the orchards; the precious stones
of the Bible, or God among the ame-
thysts; 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 go 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, 1T is he that buildeth his
stories in the heaven"
Astronomy was born in Chaldea. Its
mother was astrology, or the science Of
foretelling events by juxtaposition of
stars. The orientals. living mach out Of
doors and in very clear atmosphere,
through which the stars shone especially
lustrous, got the habit of studying the
night heavens. In the hot seasons cara
vans journeyed chiefly at night, and that
gave travellers much opportunity of stei-
lar information. On the first page of
the Bible the sun moon and stars roll in.
The sun. body nearly three million
miles in circumference and more than
twelve thousand 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 manufacture. Yea, In three words
all the other worlds are thrown in. The
record says, ''The stars also!' 1t takes
whole pages for man to extol the max
ing Of telescope or microscope, or q
magnetic telegraph or threshing ma
chine, or to describe fine painting or
statue, but it was SO easy for God -
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 alsc!'
Astronomers have been trying to call
the roll Of them ever since, and they
have counted multitudes of them pass
ing in review before the observatories
built at vast expense, and the size and
NUN Der 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
alsor That Is Mars with its more than
fifty-fve million square miles, and Venus
with its more than one hundred and
ninety-one million square miles, and Sa-
turn with its more than nineteen billion
square miles, and Jupiter with its more
than twenty-four billion square miles.
and all the planets 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 COM
pared with all the Rocky mountains and
all the Alps. THE stars also!' For
brevity, for ponderosity, for splendor,
for suggestiveness, for sublimity piled on
sublimity, these words excel all that hu-
man speech ever uttered or human i'm
agination ever scared after. THE stars
alsO!" 1t is put in as you write post
script-something you thought Of after
ward, as hardly worth putting into the
body of q letter. 1.-The stars also!''
Read on in your Bibles, and after
awhile the Bible flashes with the aurora
borealis or northern lights, that strange
illumination, rs mysterious and unde-
fined now as when in the book of Job 1t
was written: '.Men see not the bright
light which is in the clouds. Fair
weather cometh out of the north" While
all the nations supposed that the earth
was built on foundation of some sort,
and many supposed that it stood on .
huge turtle, or some great marine crea-
ture. Job knew enough OF astronomy to
SSS ~ u0u uO AOuuuAtious OuS " - SuS.
pended on the invisible arm of the Al
mighty. declaring that ''he hangeth the
earth upon nothing" While all nations
thou9ht the earth was level, the sky
spread over 1t like a tent over fiat sur
face, Isaiah declared the world to be
glObular, circular. saying Of God, "He
sitteth upon the circle Of the earth"
See them glitter in the scriptural sky
Arcturus. Orion. the Pleisdes and the
"Bear with her young"
While running your fingers among the
leaves of your Bible with the astronomi-
cal thought in your mind. you see two
worlds stop-the sun and the moon. But
what does that Christian know about
that miracle who does not understand
something Of those two luminaries? Un-
less you watch modern astronomy put
those two worlds In its steel-yards and
weigh them you are IS ignorant IS
Hottentot about the stupendousness of
that scene In the life Of Joshua. The
sun over three thousand times - heavy
Is our earth and going thousands Of
miles an hour. Think of stopping that
and starting 1t again without the; ship
wreck of tae universe! But can easily
believe It What confounds me Is not
that He could stop and start again those
two worlds In Joshua's time. but that He