The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1893-02-11
ignorant as a Hottentot about the stu.

ignorant as Hottentot about the stu.
pendousness of that scene in
the life of Joshua. The sun
over three hundred thousand times
as heavy as our earth and go
ing thousands OF miles the hour. Think
of stopping that and starting it again
without the shipwreck of the universe!
But can easily believe it. What con-
POUNDS me is not that He could stop and
start again those two worlds in
Joshua's time, but He could have made
the wheel of worlds of which the sun
and moon are only cogs, and keep that
wheel rolling for thousands of years
the fly.wheel of all eternity. If an en-
gineer can start long train, 1t Is not
surprising that he can stop it. II God
could make and move the universe.
which is an express train drawn by an
Omnipotent engine, ! am not surprised
that for part of a day He could put
down the brakes on two pieces of the
rotating machinery. Infidelity ii hard
up for ground of complaint against the
Scriptures when it finds fault with that
cessation of stellar and lunar travel.
Here is my watch. could make a
watch If I tried, but / can stop it
and start it again. 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
astounds me more is that each one of
the millions of worlds has a God-given
name. Only q comparatively small
number of them have names given
them by scientists If astronomers can
give a name to a whole constellation or
galaxy, they think they do well, but
God has name for each star in all inn
mensity. Inspired David declared of
God: "He telleth the number of the
stars, He calleth them all by their
names" They are not orphans that
have never been christened. They are
not waits of the night. They are not
unknown ships on the high seas of i'm
mensity. They belong to family of
which God is the father, and as you call
your children Benjamin, or Mary. or
Bertha, or Addison or Josephine, SO He
calls all the infant worlds and all the
adult worlds by their first name, and
they know it as well as though there
were only one child Of light in all the
Divine family. ''IIe calleth them all
by their Names" and when He calls /
warrant they come.
Oh the stars! Those vestal fires kept
burning on infinite affairs. Those light
houses on the coast of eternity. The
hands and weights, and pendulum of
the great clocleof the universe. Ac-
cording to Herschel. the so-called
fixed stars are not fixed at all, but
each one sun with mighty system
of worlds rolling round it, and this
whole system with all the other sys-
TENS rolling on around some other
great center Millions and millions,
billions and billions, trillions and tril-
lions, quadrillions and quadrillions!
But what gladdens me, and at the
same time oyerwhelms me. is that those
worlds are inhabited The Bible SAYS
so, and what small idea you must
have Of God and His dominion if you
think it only extends across this chip
of a which you and / now inbabit.
Have you taken this idea of all the
other worlds being inha bited as human
guesswork? Read Isaiah xiv, 1S:
THUS saith the Lord that created the
heavens, God himself that formed the
earth and made it; He hath established
it, He created it not in vain, He for med
it to be inhabited" Now, if
He inhabited the earth so that
it would not be created in vain, would
He make worlds hundreds and thou
sands of times larger and not
have them inhabited? Speak
ing of the inhabitants of the
world He says: THE nations are
as the drop of bucket" If all the in
habitants of this world are as drop of
bucket. where are the other drops of
the bucket? Again and again the
Bible speaks of the hosts of Heaven
and the word "hosts'' means living
creatures not inert masses, and the ex-
preston Ghosts of Heaven" must mean
inhabitants of other worlds. The
psalmist cries out: 'Thy mercy is
great above the heavens" If there
were no inhabitants above the
heavens, what use of any mercy?
Again, the Bible exclaims: "Thy
goodness is great above the heav-
ems" What would be the use of His
goodness above the heavens if there
were no inhabitants to enjoy it? Again,
the Bible says: "He has set thy glory
above the heavens" And here my
text comes in with its idea of a man.
sion of many stories: ut is He that
buildeth His stories in the heaven" Is
it possible that we who live on the
ground-foor of this many-storied build
ing are the only tenants, and that the
larger rooms and the more gorgeously
upholstered rooms and the more bril-
liantly chandeliered rooms above it are
uninhabited? Besides this, we are pos
itively told in the Bible that
two other worlds are inhabited
the world angelic and the world
diabolic. Those two worlds, added to
our own, make it positive that three
worlds are inhabited. Why, then, stop
with three worlds of living beings
when there are not only millions but
billions of worlds? Are they all stand
ing like extensively furnished houses
in time of financial panic marked ''To
Let and no one to take them? All
around us in this world we see economy
of Omnipotencc. If Christ was going