Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-02-06
Alone With lis Herds.

Alone With Lis Herds.
What life of solitude, all alone with
his herds! Poor Amos! And at u
o'clock at night harll to the VOLTS bark,
and the lions roar. and the bears
growl, and the OWLS tc-whit tc-who,
and the scrpcnt's hiss she unwittingly
steps too near while moving through the
thicllcts. So Amos, like other hcrdsmen,
got the habit of studying the map of the
heavens because it was so much OF the
time spread out before him. He noticed
some stars advancing and others reced-
ing. He associated their dawn and set
ting with certain seasons of the year.
He had Il poetic nature, and he read
night by night and month by month
and year by year the poem of the con-
stellations, tlivinely 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-thc Plciades,
or seven stars, and Orion The former
group this rustic prophet associated with
the spring, rs it rises about the first of
May. The latter he associated with the
winter, as it comes to the meridian il
January. The Plciadcs, 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 special influence upon the
earth-and perhaps they were right. If
the moon every few hours lifts and lets
down the tides of the Atlantic ocean
and the electric storms III the sun, by
all scientific admission, affect 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 connected
the movements and appearance of the
heavenly bodies with great moral events
on earth. Did not meteor run OH evan
gelistic GRAND on the first Christmas
night and designate the rough cradle Of
our Lord? Did not the stars i'll their
courses fight against Sisera? Was it
merely coincidcntal that before the de-
struction Of Jerusalem the moon WAS
hidden for 10 consecutive nights? Did
it merely happen SO that new star APP
pea1cd III constellation Cassiopeia and
then disappeared just before Charles IN
of France, who WAS responsible for the
st. Bartholomew massacre, died? Was it
without significance that, i'll the days Of
the Roman empire Justinian, war and
famine were preceded by the dimncss of
the sun, which for nearly Il year gave
no moro light than the moon, although
there were no clouds to obscure it?
Astrology, after all, may have been
something more than Il brilliant hea-
thenism. No wonder that Amos of the
text, having heard these two anthems
of the stars put down the stout, rough
staff of the herdsman and took into his
brown hand and cut and llnotted fingers
The pen Of Il prophet and advised the
recreant people of his time to return to
God, saying, Seek him that maketh
the seven stars and Orion" This COM
mand, which Amos gave 7S5 years B.
c., is just as appropriate for US 1897
A. D.
God of Order.
In the first place, Amos saw, as VIC
must see, that the God who made the
Pleiades ant. Orion must be the God Of
order 1t was not so much a star here
and star there that impressed the in
spired hcrdsman, but seven in one group