The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1897-02-10

lands But Orion was the storn sig
nal and said Reef sail; make things
snug or put into harbor, for the hurri-
canes are getting their wings out. y AS
the Pleiades were the sweet evangels Of
the spring, Orion was the warning
prophet of the winter.
Oh, now I get the best view Of God
ever had! There are two sermons nev-
erwant 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 fracture his every
law and put the pry of their impertl-
nence and rebellion under his throne
and while they are splitting in his face
and stabbing at his heart lie takes them
up in his arms and kisses their infuriat-
ed brow and check, saying, "Of such is
the kingdom of heaven. The other
kind of sermon I never want to preach
is the one that represents God as all fire
and torture and thundercloud and with
redhot pitchfork tossing the human
race into paroxysms Of infinite agony.
The sermon that am now preaching Ee-
lieves in God of loving, kindly warn
ing, the Gcd of spring and winter, the
God of the Pleiades and Orion.
You must remember that the winter ls
just as important as the spring. Let one
winter pass without frost to kill vegeta-
ton and ice to bind the rivers and snowto
enrich our fields, and then you will have
to enlarge your hospitals and your cem-
eteries. GA green Christmas makes
fat graveyard" was the old proverb
Storms to purify the air. Thermometer
at degrees below zero to tone up the
system. December and January just as
important as May and June. tell you,'
we need the storms Of life as much as
we do the sunshine. There are more men
ruined by prosperity than by adversely.
If we had our own way i'll life, before
this we would have been representations
of selfshness and worldliness and dis.
gusting sin and puffed up until we
would have been like julius Caesar, who
was made by sycophants to believe that
he was divine, and the freckles Oh his
face were said to be as the stars Of the
frmamcnt.
The God of Orion.
One of the swiftest transatlantic voy
ages made one summer by the Etruria
was because she had stormy wind
abaft chasing her from New York to
Liverpool. But to those going in the op-
posite direction the storm was buffet
ing and hindrance. 1t is bad thing
to have storm ahead, pushing US back,
but if we be Gods children and aiming
toward heaven the storms Of life will
only chase US the sooner into the har-
bor. am so glad to believe that the
monscons, typhoons and mistrals and
siroccos of tie land and sea are not un-
chained maniacs let loose upon the
earth, but are under divine supervision.
I am so glad that the God of the seven
stars is also the God Of Orion. 1t was
out of Dantes suffering came the sub
lime "Divina Commedia," and out OF
John Millions blindness came para
disc Lest" and out of miserable infidel
attack came the Bridgewater Treatise
in favor of Christianity, and out of
David's exile came the songs Of conso-
la,ion, and out of the sufferings of Christ
came the possibility Of the worlds re-
demption, ard oft of your bereavement,
your persecution, your poverties, your
misfortunes, may yet come all eternal
heaven.
Oh, what a mercy it is that in the
text and all up and down the Bible God
induces US to look out toward other
worlds! Bible astronomy in Genesis, il
Joshua, in Job, in the Psalms, in the
prophets, major and minor, i'll St.
Johns, Apocalypse, practically saying:
Worlds, worlds, worlds! Get ready
for themp' We hare a nice little world
here that we stick to, as though losing
that we lose all. We are afraid of falling
off this little raft Of world. We are
afraid that some meteoric lconoclast
will some night smash it, and we want
everything to revolve around it and are
disappointed when we find that 1t re-
wolves around the sun instead of the sun
revolving around it. What fuss we
make about this little bit of world, its
existence only short time between two
spasms, the paroxysm by which it was
hurled from chaos into order, and the
paroxysm of its demolition.
And I am glad that so many texts call
US to look off to other worlds, many OF
them larger and grander and more re-
splendent. "Look there" says Job, lat
Nazareth and Arcturus and his sons!'
"Lcok there says st. John, lat the
moon under Christ's feet!'' Look
there says Joshua, lat the sun stand
ing still above Gibeon!" Look there, "
says Moses, at the sparkling frma-
ment!'' "Look there" says Amos, the
herdSman, "at the seven stars and
Orion!' Do not let US be SO sad about
those who shove off from this world un-
der Christly pilotage. Do not let US he
so agitated about our own going OH this
little barge or sloop or canalboat OF
world to get Oh some Great Eastern OF
! the heavens. Do not let US persist III