St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1897-03-06
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Looking at the Nidni9ht Heavens
Through Ancient Eyes.


What Amos she Former Prophet Saw
0oI's Love Of Order saa Light
The UAehasgsab,llty ee
Rev. T. Dewitt Tslmage delivered
the following sermon before his Wash.
ington congregation. taking for his
text:
Orion.-Amos VA
A country farmer wrote this text
Amos Of Tekoa He plowed the earth
and threshed the grain by . new
threshing machine just invented. ~
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,
rs it was necessary and customary In
that way to take from it its bitterness.
lie WAS the SON Of poor shepherd,
and suffered; but before the stam-
mering rustic the Philistines, and
Syrians, and Phoenicians, and Moab
ties, and Ammonites, and Edomftes,
and Israelites trembled.
Moses was law-giver, Daniel was :
prince, Isaiah . courtier, and David .
king; but Amos, the author Of my text,
was . peasant, and. as might be sup
posed, nearly al his parallelisms are
pastoral, his prophecy full of the odor
Of new-mown hay. and the rattle Of
locusts. and the rumble of carts with
sheeyes and the roar of wild beasts de-
vouring tho flock while the shepherd
came out in their defense. He watched
the herds by day. and by night In
habited . booth made out of bushes,
20 that through these branches he
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 1t 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 enight-heaven,
with tho stellar embroideries and oil.
vered tassels of lunar light.
| What . life Of solitude, all alone
with his herds! Poor Amos! And at
12 o'clock 1t night, bark to the VOLTS
bark, aud the lions roar, and the bears
Rrowl, and the owls te-whit-te-who.
and the serpents hiss, n he unwit.
tingly 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 50 much of the time spread out
before him. He noticed some stars ad-
vancing and others receding. He as
sociated 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
rossettes Of stars especially At
tracted his attention while seated
ON the ground, or lying on
his back under the open scroll Of the
midnight heaven-the Pleiades, or
Seven Stars, and Orion. The former
group this rustic prophet associated
with the spring, - it rises about the
6rst Of May. The latter he associated
with the winter, ~ it comes to the
meridian in January. The Pleiades,
or Seven Stars. connected with all
sweetness and joy; Orion, the herald
of tho tempest. The ancients were
the more apt to study the physiog-
nomy and juxtaposition of the heav-
enly bodies. because they thought
they had special influence upon the
earth; and perhaps they were right.
II the moon. every few hour, lifts and
lets down the tides Of the Atlantic
ocean, and the electric storms in the
sun, by all scientic admission, Affect
ed 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 superstition which con-
nected the movements and appearance
Of the heavenly bodies with great
moral events ON earth. Did not .
meteor run on evanR elistic errand on
the first Christmas night. and desig-
nate the rough cradle of our Lord7
Did not the stars in their courses fight
Iaga;nst Sisera? Was it merely coinci-
dental that before the destruction Of
Jerusalem the moon was hidden for
twelve consecutive nights? Did it
merely happen 20 that =. new star ap-
peared in constellstion Csssiopeia, and
then disappeared just before Charles
TX. Of France, who was responsibls for
st. Bartholomew massacre. died? Was
it without significance that In the
days Of the Roman Emperor Justinian
war and famine were preceded by the
dimness Of the sun. which for nearly .
year gave NO moro light than the
moon, although there were NO clouds
TO obscure it?
Astrology. after Ill, may have been
something more than . brilliant heath
Ienism. No wonder that Amos Of the
text, having heard these two anthems
Of the stars, but down the stout,
rough stan Of the herdsman, and took
into his brown hand and cut and knot
ted fingers the pen Of . prophet, and
advised the recreant people Of his time
to return TO God, saying: seek Him
that maketh the Seven Stars and
Orio." This command. which Amoe
gave 7s5 years. b c., ID just ~ sppro-
pirate for N 1897 A. d.
In the hrst place, Amos saw, - ~
must sse, that the God who made thu
Pleiades and Orion must be the God ot
order. II was not 90 much star herr
and . star there that impressed the in.
spired herdsman, but seven in one
group. and seven In the othsr group
He saw that night after night, and
season after season. and decade afteI
decade, they had kept step Of light
each one in it, own place. . sisterhood
} never clashing and never eontestina
precedence. From the tims Hesiod