The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-02-12

the country mill to get grist ground,
and !, boy of years, sat in the back
part of the wagon, and our yoke of
oxen ran away with US and along a
labyrinthine road through the woods,
so that thought every moment we
would be dashed to pieces, and made
terrible cutlery of fright, and my
father turned to me with face per
fectly calm and said: Dewitt, what
are you crying about? guess we can
ride as fast as the oxen can run" And,
my hearers, why should we be af-
frighted and lose our equilibrium in
the swift movement of worldly events,
especially when we are assured that
this is not yoke OF unbroken steers
that are drawing us on, but that order
and wise government are in the yoke?
Again, Amos saw, as we must see,
that the God who made these two
groups of the text was the God of
| light. Amos saw that God was not
satisfied with making one star or two
or three stars, but He makes seven;
and, having finished that group of
worlds, makes another group-group
after group. To the Pleiades He adds
Orion. 1t seems that God likes light
SO well that He keeps making 1T. Only
one Being in the universe knows the
statistics of solar, lunar, stellar, mete-
ORIG creations, and that is the Creator
Himself. And they have all been low
ingly christened, each one a name as
distinct as the names of your children.
He telleth the number of the stars;
He calleth them all by their names. -
The seven Pleiades had names given
to them, and they are Alcoyne,
MerOpe. Celaeno, Electra, Sterope.
Taygete and Maia.
But think of the billions and trillions
of daughters of starry light that God
calls by name as they sweep by Him
with beaming brow and lustrous robel
So fond is God of light-natural light,
moral light, spiritual light. Again
and again is light harnessed for sym
bolization - Christ, the bright and
morning starr evangelization, the day
break; the redemption of nations, sun
of righteousness rising with healing
in His wings. Oh, men and women,
with SO many sorrows and sins and
perplexities, if you want light of COM
fort, light of pardon, light of good
ness, in earnest prayer through Christ:
Seek Him that mal1eth the Seven
Stars and Orion"
Again, Amos saw, as we must see,
that the God who made these two
archipelagoes of stars must be an I'M
changing God. There has been no
change in the stellar appearance in
this herdsman's life time, and his IA
Their, a shepherd, reported to him that
there had been no change in his life
time. And these two clusters hang
over the Celestial arbor now just as
they were the first night that they
shone on the Edenic lowers, the same
as when the Egyptians built the
pyramids from the top of which to
watch them, the same as when the
Chaldeans calculated the eclipses, the
same as when Elihu, according to the
Book of Job, went out to study the au-
rora borealis, the same under Ptole-
maic system and Copernican system,
the same from Calisthenes to Pythag-
oras, and from Pythagoras to Her
schel. Surely, a changeless God must
have fashioned the Pleiades and Orion!
Oh, what an anodyne amid the ups
and downs of life, and the f1ux and
rehux of the tides of prosperity, to
know that we have a changeless God,
1.-The same yesterd ay, to-day and for
ever"
Xerxes garlanded and knighted the
steersman of his boat in the morning,
and hanged him in the evening of the
same day. Fifty thousand people stood
around the columns of the national
capitol, shouting themselves hoarse at
the presidential inaugural, and in four
months SO great were the antfpathies
that ruffian's pistol in Washington
depot expressed the sentiment of many
a disappointed office-seeker. The world
sits in its chariot and drives tandem,
and the horse ahead is Huzza, and the
horse behind is Anathema. Lord Cob
ham, in King James time was applaud
ed, and had $4,000 a year, but was
afterward execrated, and lived
on scraps stolen from the
royal kitchen. Alexander the
Great after death remained unburied
for 30 days because no one would do
the honor of shoveling him under.
The duke of Wellington, refused to
have his iron fence m ended because it
had been broken by an Infatuated pop
ulace in some hour of political excite
ment, and he left it in ruins that men
might learn what tickle thing is HUI
man favor. But the mercy of the
Lord is from everlasting to everlast-
ing to them that fear Him, and His
righteousness unto the children's chill
dren of such as keep His covenant, and
to those who remember His command
ments to do them" This moment:
Seek Him that maketh the Seven
Stars and Orion"
Again, Amos saw, as we must see,
that the God who made these two bea-
cons of the oriental night sky must be
God of love and kindly warning. The
Pleiades rising in midsky said to all
the herdsmen and shepherds and hus-
bandmen: Come out and enjoy the
mild weather, and cultivate your gar
dens and fields" Orion, coming in
winter, warned them to prepare for
tempest. All navigation was regulated
by these two CONSULTATIONS. The one
said to shipmaster and crew; Hoist
sail for the sea, and gather merchan-
disc from other lands" But Orion
was the storm-signal, and said: Reef
sail, make things snug, or put into
har Dor, for the hurricanes are getting
their wings out" As the Pleiades
were the sweet evangels of the spring,
Orion was the warning prophet of the
winter.
Oh, now L get the best view of God /
ever had! There are two sermons /
never want to preach-the one that
presents God SO kind, so indulgent, so
lenient, so imbecile that men may do
what they will against Him, and frac-
ture His every law, and put the pry of
their impertinence and rebellion under
His throne, and while they are splitting