The Yale expositor., 1897-02-05

iron COMP just DelOIS IL "s'S .
ripe, as it was necessary ana custom
airy in that way to take from II the Dlt-
terness. He was the son of poor shep-
herd, and suffered; but before the
stammering rustic the Philistines, ana
Syrians, and Phoenicians, and Moa-
bites and Ammonites. and Edomites'
and Israelites trembled.
Moses was law-glver, Daniel was
prince, Isaiah courtier, and David
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 door
of new mown hay, and the rattle OF 10
Gusts. and the rumble of carts Win
sheaves, and the roar of wild beasts de-
vouring the flock while the shepherd
came out in their defense. He watched
the herds by day, and by night IN
habited booth made ont of bushes so
that through these branches he could
see the stars all night long, and was
more familiar with them than we VINO
have tight roofs to our houses, ana
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 embroideries and siiyered
tassels of lunar light.
| What a life of solitude all alone
with his herds! Poor Amos! And at
twelve 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 NOV
ing through the thickets! SO Amos,
like other herdsmen, got the habit OF
studying the map of the heavens, be-
cause il was so much OF the time
spread out before him. He noticed
some stars advancing and others re-
ceding. He associated their dawn and
setting 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. 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 midnight heavens
the Pleiades, or Seven Stars, and Orion.
The former group this rustic prophet
associated with the spring, as 1t rises
about the first of May. The latter he
associated with the water, as it comes
to the meridian in January. The Plei-
AIDES, or Seven Stars, connected with all
: sweetness and joy; Orion, the herald
of the tempest The ancients were the
more apt to study the physiognomy and
juXtaposition of the heavenly bodies
? because they thought they had a spe-
: cial influence upon the earth; and per-
= haps 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
tific admission, affected the earth why
I not the stars have proportionate effect
And there are some things which
make me think that it may not have
been all superstitution which connect
ed the movements and appearance o
> the heavenly bodies with great mora
events on earth. Did not a meteor rul
. on evangelistic errand on the frs
Christmas night, and designate tn
5 rough cradle of our Lord? Did not tn
y stars in their course fight agains
y Sisera? Was it merely coincidental tina
! before the destruction of Jerusalem tn
: moon was hidden for twelve consecutiv
y nights? Did il merely happen so tina
new star appeared in constellation
u Casseopeia, and then disappear just be
l. fore Charles TX. of France, who wa
e responsible for st. Bartholomew mass
g acre. died? Was 1t without significanc
d that in the days of the Roman Empero
4, Justinian war and famine were pre-
e ceded by the dimness of the sun, whic
l. for nearly a year gave no more ligt
'r than the moon, although there wer
, no clouds to obscure it?
I. Astrology, after all, may have bee
II something more than brilliant HEATH
III enism. No wonder that Amos of tn
l. text, having heard these two anthem
20 OF the stars, put down the stout roug
OF staff of the herdsman and took int
{. his brown hand and cut and knotte
rs fingers the pen of the prophet, and az
Id vised the recreant people of his tin
e. to return to God, saying: Seek hi
l. that maketh the Seven Stars an
ne Orion" This command, which Am'
is gave 7S5 years b. c., is just as Apr
pirate for us 1897 A. ID.
In the first place, Amos saw, as v
D. must see, that the God who made Il
mt Pleiades and Orion must be the God
40 order. 1t was not so much star he
". and a star there that impressed the Il
te spired herdsman, but seven In OF
N. group, and seven in the other grou
be He saw that night after night and sc
or son after season and decade after q
i'll cade they had kept step OF light, ea'
sr. one in its own place, sisterhood new
in clashing and never contesting pre-
Of edence. From the time Hesiod call
ms the Pleiades the "seven daughters
or Atlas" and Virgil wrote in his Acne
of"3torny Orion" until now, they ha