The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-01-04
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVlNES sun.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: God Among the Stars"

TEXT: "N fS he thGC 0utlGetH dtS StoFteo
in the heauen."-Amos IL, 9.
Preceding the sermon the congregation
sang Isaac Watts's 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 hocks at
night he got watching the heavens: He
saw stars above stars, and the universe
seemed to him like a great mansion many
stories high, silver room above 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 ln,
mensities, and the prophets sancnhed
imagination walks through that great silver
palace Of the universe, through the first
story, through the second story, through the
third story, through the twentieth story,
through the huuireth story, through the
tnousandth story, and realizing that God is
the architect and carpenter and mason OF
all that upheaved splendor, he cries out in
the words Of the text ''1t is He that build.
eth His stories in the heaven"
Nv hearers, it is time thas we wideued
out and heightened our religious 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 sermous,
not for consecutive Sabbath mornings, but
as often as I think it best for variety's 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 ichthyology of the Bible.
or god among the fishes; the POM
ology of the Bible Of 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 go upstairs 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 AMI
learn the meaning Of the text when 1t says,
'It is He that buildeth his stories in the
heaven"
Astronomy was born in Chaldea. Its
mother was astrology, or the science OF fore
telling 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 heavens. In the hot
seasons caravans journeyed Chiefly at night,
and that gave travellers much opportunity OF
stellar information. On the first page Of the
Bible the sun and moon and stars roll In.
The sun, body of nearly three million miles
in circumference and more than twelve
thousand times as large as our earth; the
ameter. .t
But God is used to doing things on such
an omnipotent. scale that Hs taxes only one
verse to tell Of this stellar and lunar manu-.
facture. Yea, in three words all the other
worlds are thrown n. The record says
~The stars alsop It takes whole pages for
a man to extol the making Of q telescope or
microscope, or magnetic telegraph or a
threshipg machine, or to describe q fine
painting or statue, but it was so easy for God
TO hang the celestial upholstery that the
two great lighrsf the greater light to rule
the day and the lesser light to rule the night.
The stars alsop
Astronomers have been trying to call the
roll Of them ever since, anf they have
counted multitudes Of them passing in re-
view before the observatories built at vast
expense, and the size and number OF those
heavenly bodies have taxed tn tho utmost
the scientists Of all ages. But God finishes
Gil n6 phS 10 SLY dUOdL tuon IL glK % "OkooS
1.-THE stars alsop That is Mars with 1t more
than fifty-fve million square miles, and
Venus with its mora than one hundred and
ninety-one million square miles. and
Saturn with its more than ninetesn
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 those stars OF our
system when compared with the stars OF the
other systems, as handful Of sand with all
the Rocky Mountains and all the Alps.
1.-THE stars alsop For brevity, for ponder
osity, for splendor, for suggestiveness, for
sublimity piled on sublimity, these words
excel all that human speech ever uttered or
human imagination ever scared after.
1.-THE stars alsop 1t is put in as you write
q postscript you thought OF at
terward, as hardly worth putting into the
body Of a letter. 1.-THE stars alsow
Read on in your Bibles, and after awhile
the Bible flashes with the aurora borealis or
northern lights. that strange illumination,
as mysterious and underlined now as when
in the book OF Job it was written: "Men SEQ
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 a huge
turtle, or some other great marine creature,
Job knew enough Of astronomy to say it had
no foundation, but was suspended on the in
visible arm OF the Almighty, declaring that
''He hangeth the earth upon nothing"
While all nations thought ths earth was
Q fat surface, Isaiah declared the world to
be globular, circular, saying Of God, "He
sitteth upon the circle or the earth" See
them glitter in the scriptural sky-Arcturus,
Orion, the Pleiades and the "Bear with her
young"
While running your fingers among the
leaves Of your Bible with the astronomical
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? Unless you watcn modern as
tronomy put those two worlis in its STEEL
yards and weigh them you are as ignorant
as Hottentot about tine stupen ;ousness OF
that scene in the life OF JOSHUA. The sun
over three hundred thousand times as heavy
as our earth and going thousands OF miles
an hour. Think Of stopping that and start
ing it again without the shipwrecS OF the
universel But can easily believe it. What
confouuos me is not that He could stop and
start again those two worlds in Joshus's
time, but that He could have made the wheel
Of worlds of which ths sun and moon are
only cozs and keep that wheel rolling for
thousands Of years-the aywhssl Of all eter-
nifty.
II an engineer can start a long train, It Is
not surprising that he can stop it. Ii God
could make and nova the universe, which
is an express train drawn by an omniposent
engine, am not surprised that for part OF
day He could put down the brakes on two
pieces OF the rotating machinery. Inddelity
Is hard ND for ground Of complaint against
the Scriptures when it finds fault with tina,
cessation OF stellar and lunar travel: Here
is nv watch. could not make q watch Il