Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-02-05
ADVICE OF A FARMER
BEFORE THE STAMMERlNG RUSTIC
MIGHTY HOSTS TREMBLED.

Rev. DIR. Talmage at His Best In Ser
mon Declaring the Goodness and Power
and watchfuIness of God-Looking at
the Midnight Heavens.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31.-This sermon
of DR.. Talmage, looking at the midnight
heavens through the eyes of one Of the
ancients, is unique for practicality and
must set all to useful thinking. His text
is Amos V, S, Seek him that maketh
the seven stars and Orion"
A country farmer wrote this text,
Amos Of Tekoa He plowed the earth
and thrashed the grain by a new
thrashing machine just invented, a
formerly the cattle trod out the grain.
He gathered the fruit Of the syca-
more tree and scarified 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 bitter
ness. He was the son Of poor shepherd
and suffered, but before the stammer-
ing rustic the Philistines and Syrians
and Phenicians and Moabites and Am
monites and Edomites and Israelites
| trembled.
Moses was a law giver, Daniel was a
prince, Isaiah a courtier and David a
king, but Amos, the author Of my text,
was a peasant, and, as might be sup
posed, nearly all his parallelisms are
pastoral, his prophecy full of the odor
Of new mown hay, and the rattle Of To-
Gusts, and the rumble Of carts with
sheayes, and the roar Of wild beasts de
vouring the flock while the shepherd
came ont in their defense. He watched
the herds by day, and by night inhabited
booth made out of bushes, so that
through these branches he could see the
stars all night long, and was more IA
miliar with them than we who have
tight roofs 70 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
ont in the open field all through the
darkness, his only shelter the curtain Of
the night heaven, with the stellar en-
broideries and silvered tassels Of lunar
light
Alone with His Herds.
What a life Of solitude, all alone with
his herds Poor Amos And at II
o'clock at night hank to the VOLTS bark,
and the lions roar, and the bear 5
growl and the owls te-whit te-who,
and the scrpent's hiss as he unwittingly
steps too near while moving through the
thickcts. SO Amos, like other herdsmen,
got the habit Of studying the map of the
heavens because il was 50 much Of the
time spread out before him. He noticed
some stars advancing and others reced-
ing. He associated their dawn and set
ting with certain seasons Of the year.
He had a poetic nature, and he read
night by night and month by month
and year by year the poem Of the con
stellations, diyinely rhythmic. Bat tive
rosettes Of stars especially attracted his
attention while seated on the ground OF
lying on his back under the open scroll
of the midnight heavcns-the Pleiades
or seven stars, and Orion. The former
group this rustic prophet associated Will
the spring, as it rises about the first Of
Nav. The latter he associated with th'
winter. as it comes to the meridian II
January. The Pleiades, or seven stars
connected with all sweetness and joy
Orion. the herald Of the tempest. Th'
ancients were the more apt to study th'
physiognomy and juxtaposition OF th'
heavenly bodies because they though
they had a special influence upon thu
earth-and perhaps they were right. l
the moon every few hours lifts and let
down the tides Of the Atlantic oceal
and the electric storms i'll the sun, b.
all scientific admission, affect the earth
why not the stars have proportional
effect?
And there are some things whicl
make me think that it may not hav
been all superstition which connecte'
the movements and appearance Of tn
heavenly bodies with great moral event
on earth. Did not meteor run on evan
Celistic errand on the first Christina
night and designate the rough cradle Q
our Lord? Did not the stars in thei
courses fight against Sisera? Was
. merely coincidental that before the dc
struction of Jerusalem the moon wa
hidden for 12 consecutive nights? ID
it merely happen so that a new star aT
peared in constellation Cassiopela an
then disappeared just before Charles L
of France, who was responsible Tor IN
St Bartholomew massacre, died? Was
| without significance that, in the days
the Roman empire Justinian, war an
famine were preceded by the dimness
| the sun, which for nearly a year CAV
no more light than the moon, althoug
there were no clouds to obscure 1t?
I Astrology, after all, may have bee
something more than brilliant hei
thenism. No wonder that Amos of II
text having heard these two anthem
of the stars, put down the stout, roug
Z staff Of the herdsman and took into n
brown hand and cut and knotted finge
the pen Of a prophet and advised Il
recreant people of his time to return
q, God, saying, "Seek him that maket
the seven stars and Orion" This con
~ mand, which Amos gave 7S5 years
J. c., is just as appropriate for us ls'
A. ID.
A God of order.
II In the first place, Amos saw as
+. must see, that the God who made q
Pleiades and Orion must be the God
order. 1t was not so much a star he
and a star there that impressed the l
M spired herdsman, but seven in one gro'
10 and seven in the other group. lie sa
that night after night and season AT
season and decade after decade they hi
r, kept step Of light, each one in Its oV
m place. a sisterhoOd, never clashing al
never contesting precedence. From {
= time Hesiod called the Pleiades {
"seven daughters Of Atlas" and Vlrt
To- wrote in his Eneid of "stormy Orlol
until now they have observed the ord
established for their coming and going
~ order written not in the manuscript th