The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1897-02-13
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Looking at the Midnight Heavens
Through Ancient Eyes.
What Amos the Farmer Prophet saw
Gods Love of Order and Light
The Unehangsabiiityo OF
His Love.

text:
Seek him that maketh the seven stars an
Orion.-Amos W.,
A country farmer wrote this text
Amos of Tekoa. He plowed the eartl
and threshed the grain by new
threshing machine just invented, al
formerly the cattle trod out the grain
lie 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 ana customary III
that way to take from it its bitterness
, lie was the son of poor shepherd,
and suffered; but before the STAN
mering rustic the Philistines, and
Syrians. and Phoenicians, and Moab
ties, and Ammonites, and Edomites,
and Israelites trembied.
Moses was law-giver, Daniel was
prince, Isaiah a courtier, and David
king; but Amos, the author Of my text,
was peasant, and, as might be sup
posed, nearly all his parallelisns are
pastoral, his prophecy full of the odor
of new-mown hay, and the rattle OF
locusts, and the rumble of carts with
shelves and the roar of wild beasts de-
vouring the flock while the shepherd
came out in their defense. lie watched
the herds by day, and by night in-
habited u 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 embroideries and sill
vered tassels of lunar light.
What life of solitude, all alone
with his herds. Poor Amos. And at
II 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, Us he unwit-
tiEgiy steps too near while moving
through the thickets! So Amos, like
other hcrdsmen, got the habit of study
it was SO much of the time spread out
before him. lie noticed some stars adj
vanciug and others receding. He as
sJclated their dawn and setting with
certain seasons of the year. He had Il
poetic nature, and he read night 10y
night, and month by month, ana year
10y year, the poem OF the constella-
tions, divinely rhythmic l'ur two
ro>settes of stars especially at
tractcd his attention while seated
on the ground, or lying on
his back under the open scroll If the
midnight heaven-the Picladas, or
Seven Stars, and Orion. The former
group this rustic prophe: associated
with the spring, as IL rises about the
first of May. The latter he associated
with the winter, as it comes to the
meridian in January. The Pleiadcs,
or Seven Stars, connected with all
Sweetness and joy; Orion, the herald
of the tempest. The ancients were
the more apt to stuiy the physiog-
nomy and juxtaposItion of the heav-
emily bodies, because they thought
they had a special influence upon the
earth; and perhaps they were right.
If the moon, every few hour, lifts and
let's down the tides of the Allan tic
ocean, and the electric storms in the
sun, by ali 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 Il
meteor run on evang elistic errand on
tie first Christmas night, and desig.
nate the rough cradle of our Lord?
Did not the stars in their courses fight
against Sisera? Was it merely coinci-
dental that before the destruction of
Jerusalem the moon was hidden for
twelve consecutive nights? Did it
merely happen SO that new star APP
prafed in constellation Cassiopeia, and
then disappeared just before Charles
IN. of France, who was responsible for
st. Bartholomew massacre, died? Was
ii 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 Il
year gave no more light than the
moon, although there were no clouds
to obscure it?
Astrology, after all, may have been
something more than a brilliant heath.
enlsm. No wond er that Amos of the
text, having heard these two anthems
of the stars, but down the stout,
rough staff 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 makcth the Seven Stars and
Orio.' This Command, which Amos
gave 1856 years, B, c., is just as appro-
pirate 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. IL was not SO much star here
ana star there that impressed the in
spired herdsman, but seven in one
group, and seven in the other group
lie saw that night after night, and
season after season, and decade after