Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1897-02-04
A RUSTIC'S COUNSEL.
seek HIM THAT MAKETH THE SEVEN
STARS AND ORION"

Is unique for practicality and must set all
TO useful thinking. His text is Amos v, s,
''Seek him that maketh the seven stars
ard Orion"
A country farmer wrote this text, Amos
of Tekoa. He eplowed the earth and thrash
ed the grain by new thrashing 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 it the bitterness. He was
the son of poor shepherd and suffered,
but before the stammering rustic the Phil
istines and Syrians and Phenicians and
Moabites and Ammonites and Edomites
and Israelites trembled.
Moses was law giver, Daniel was a
prince, Isaiah a courtier and David king,
but Amos, the author of my text, was
peasant, and, as might be supposed, nearly
all his parallelisms are pastoral, his proph
scy full of the odor of new mown hay, and
the rattle of locusts, and the rumble of
carts with sheaves, and the roar of wild
beasts devouring the flock while the shep-
herd came out in their defense. He watched
the herds by day and by night inhabited
q 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 the 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 embroid
cries and silvered tassels of lunar light.
What life of solitude, oil alone with
his herdsl Poor Amosl And at IL o'clock
at night bark to the VOLTS bark, and the
lions roar, and the bears growl, and the
owls te-whit te-who, and the serpent's
hiss as he unwittingly steps too near while
moving through the thicketsl 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 before him.
He noticed some stars advancing and 9th
ers receding. He associated their dawn
and setting with certain seasons of the
year. He had poetic nature, and he read
night by night, and month by month, and
year by year, the poem of the constella-
tions, divinely rhythmic. 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 Pleiades, or seven
stars, and Orion. The former group this
rustic prophet associated with spring, as it
rises about the 1st of May. The latter he
associated with the winter, as it comes to
the meridian in January. The Pleiades,
or seven stars, connected with all sweet
ness and joy; Orion, the herald of the
tempest The ancients were the more apt
to study the physiognomy and juxtaposi-
ton of the heavenly bodies because they
thought they had special influence upon
the earth, and perhaps they were right If
the moon every few hours lifts and lets
down the tides of the Atlantic ocean and
the electric storms in the sun, by all scien-
titlc admission, affect the earth, why not
the stars have proportionate effect?
And there are some things which make
me think that it may not have been all
superstitution which connected the move
ments and appearance of the heavenly
bodies with great moral events on earth.
Did not q meteor run on evangelistic er-
rand on the first Christmas night and
designate the rough cradle of our Lord?
Did not the stars in their course fight
against Sisera? Was il merely coincidental
that before the destruction Of Jerusalem
the moon was hidden for 10 consecutive
nightsf Did it merely happen so that
new star appeared in constellation Cassi-
opeia, and then disappeared just before
Charles TX of France, who was response.
Bile for the st. Bartholomew massacre, ,diedi
Was it without significance that in the
daysof the Roman Emperor Justinian war
and famine were preceded by the dimness
of the sun, which for nearly year gave
no more light than the moon, although
there were no clouds to obscure itp
Astrology, after all, may have been some
thing more than brilliant heathenism.
No wonder that Amos of the text, having
heard these two anthems of the stars, put
down the stout, rough staff of the herds
man and took into his brown hand and cut
and knotted fingers the pen of a phophet
and advised the recreant people Of his time
to return to God, saying, "Seek him that
maketh the seven stars and Orion" This
WulCn hlAOS gave tCU YEARS u.
O., is Just as appropriate for us, 1897 A. ID.
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 q star
there that impressed the inspired herds
man, 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, O asisterhood new
er clashing and never eontesting preced-
ence. From the time Hesiod called the PIE
ladies' the fseven daughters Of Atlas and
Virgil wrote in his Eneid" of "stormy
Orion" until now, they have observed the
order established for their coming and 60
Ing; order written not in manuscript that
may be pigeonholed, but with the hand Of
the Almighty on the dome Of the sky, so
that all nations may read it-order, per-
sistent order, sublime order, omnipotent |
order.
What sedative to you and me, to whom
communities and nations sometimes seem
going pellmell, and the world ruled by
some dend at haphazard, and in all direc-
lions administration The God who |
keeps seven worlds in right circuit for
5000 years can certainly keep IN the af-
fairs Of individuals and nations atbd conti-
nents in adjustment. We had Vat better
fret much, for the PEASANTS argument Of /
The text was right If God can bake care |
of the seven worlds of the PleiadeAand the
fourchief worlds Of Orion, he can hSbably |
take care of the one world we irhaht
So I feel very much as my father cut one |
lay when we were going to the c(Antry
mill to get a grist ground, and /, a 10Y Of |
years, sat in the back part Of the w lgon,
and our yoke Of oxen ran away with ust and |
slong d labyrinthine road through tho |
woods, so that thought every molndl I we
would be dashed to pieces and mute q
ierrible outcry of fright, and my fther
Erned to me with face perfectly Alln