Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1897-02-04

III gOur ocCupdtlOni your ulSSlOn, your
sphere, do the best you can and then trust
I TO God, and If things are all mixed and
disquieting and your brain Is hot and your
heart sick get some one to go out with you
/ into the starlight and point out TO you the
Pleiades, or, better than that, get into some
! observatory, and through the telescope see
farther than Amos with the naked eye
could-namely, 200 stars In the Pleiades,
and that in what is called the sword of
Orion there isa nebula computed to be
| two trillion two hundred thousand billion
of times larger than the sun. Oh, be at
peace with the God who made that and
| controls all that, the wheel of the constel-
lations turning in the wheel of galaxies
for thousands Of years without the break
ing of cog, or the slipping of band, or
the snap of an axle. For your placidity
and comfort through the Lord Jesus Christ
I charge you, ''Seek him that maketh the
seven stars and Orion. -
Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that
the God who made these two groups of the
text was the God Of light Amos saw that
God was not satisfied with making one
star or two or three stars, but he makes
seven, and, having finished that group of
worlds, makes another group-group after
group. To the Pleiades he adds Orion. 1t
seems that God likes light SO well that he
keeps making it. Only one being in the
universe knows the statistics of solar,
| lunar, stellar, meteoric creations, and that
is the Creator himself. And they have all
| been lovingly christened, each one a name
as distinct as the names of your children.
''He telleth the number Of the stars. He
| calleth them all by their names" The
seven Pleiades had names given to them,
and they are Alcyone, Merope, Celano,
Electra, Sterope, Taygete and Maia.
| But think of the billions and trillions of
daughters Of starry light that God calls by
name as they sweep by him with beaming
brow and lustrous robeI So fond is God of
light-natural light, moral light, spiritual
light! Again and again is light harnessed
for symbolization-Ch Christ, the bright and
morning star; evangelization, the day
break; the redemption of nations, sun of
righteousness rising with healing in his
wings. Oh, men and women, with so
many sorrows and sins and perplexities, IL
you want light of comfort, light of par
don, light of goodness, in earnest prayer
through Christ, "Seek him that maketh
the seven stars and Orion"
Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that
the God who made these two archipelagoes
Of stars must be an unchanging God
There had been no change in the stellar
appearance in this herdsman's lifetime,
and his father, shepherd, reported to him
that there had been no change in his life
time. And these two clusters hang over
the celestial arbor now just as they were
the first night that they shone on the
Edenic bowers; the same as when the Egyp-
tians built the pyramids from the top Of
which to watch them; the same as when
the Chaldeans calculated the eclipses; the
same as when Elihu, according to the book
of Job, went out to study the aurora borea-
lis the same under Ptolemaic system and
Copernican system; the same from Calls
themes to Pythagoras and from Pythagoras
to Herschel. Surely a changeless God
must have fashioned the Pleiades and ORR
onl Oh, what an anodyne amid the ups
and downs of life and the fiux and reflux
of the tides of prosperity to know that we
have changeless God, "the same yester-
day, today and forever!'
Xerxes garlanded and knighted the
steersman of his boat in the morning and
hanged him in the evening of the same
day. Fifty thousand people stood around
the columns Of the national capitol shout
ing themselves hoarse at the presidential
inaugural, and in four months SO great
were the antipathies that a ruffians pistol
In Washington depot expressed the senti-
ment of many disappointed office seeker.
The world sits in its chariot and drives
tandem, and the horse ahead is Huzza, and
the horse behind is Anathema. Lord Cob
ham, in King James time, was applauded
and had $35, 900 year, but was afterward
execrated and lived on scraps stolen from
the royal kitchen. Alexander the Great
after death remained unburied for 80 days
because no one would do the honor of
shoveling him under. The Duke of We'll
lington refused to have his iron fence
mended because it had been broken by an
infuriated populace in some hour of politi-
cal excitement, and he left it in ruins that
men might learn what a tickle thing is hui
man favor. "But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting to them
that fear him, and his righteousness unto
the children's children of such as keep his
covenant, and to those who remember his
commandments to do them" This mo-
ment "seek him that maketh the seven
stars and Orion"
Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that
the God who made these two beacons of
the oriental night sky must be God of
love and kindly warning. The Pleiades
rising in midsky said to all the herdsmen
and shepherds and husbandmen, "Come
out and enjoy the mild weather and culti-
vate your gardens and fields" Orion,
coming in winter, warned them to prepare
for tempest All navigation was regulated
by these two consultations. The one said
to shipmaster and crew, Hoist sail for
the sea and gather merchandise from other
lands. But Orion was the storm signal
and said, 'sReef sail, make things snug or
put into harbor, for the hurricanes are
getting their wings out" As the Pleiades
were the sweet evangels OF the spring,
Orion was the warning prophet Of the
winter.
Oh, now get the best view of God I
ever hadl There are two sermons 1 never
want to preach-the one that presents God
10 kind, so indulgent, SO lenient, SO imbe-
cile that men may do what they will
tSSbllaU iillit bud LID lONCI 1hWJ
and put the pry Of their impertinence and
rebellion under his throne, and while they
are splitting in his face and stabbing at his
heart he takes them up in his arms and
kisses their infuriated brow and check,
saying, OF such is the kingdom of heav-
en-" The other kind Of sermon never
want to preach is the one that represents
God as all fire and torture and thunder
cloud, and with redhot pitchfork tossing
the human race into paroxysms of infinite
agony. The sermon that am now preach
ing believes in God Of loving, kindly
warning, the God Of spring and winter,
the God Of the Pleiades and Orion.
You must remember that the winter Is
Just as important as the spring. Let one
winter pass without frost to kill vegetation
and ice to bind the rivers and snow to en-
rich our fields, and then you will have to
enlarge your hospitals and your cemeteries.
IA green Christmas makes a fat grave