The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-03-11
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Looking at the Midnight Heavens
Through Ancient Eyes.
What Amos the Farmer Prophet Saw
Gods Love of Order and Light
The Unchangeability OF
His Love.

ing ton COHSItB dtioh, tohAis AoA LAC
text:
Seek him that maketh the seven stars and
Orion.-AmOS v, 1.
A country farmer wrote this text
Amos of Tekoa. He plowed the earth
and threshed the grain by a new
thre.hing machine just invented, as
formerly the cattle trod out the grain.
He gathered the fruit of the syca-
more tree and scarifed it with an iron
comb just before it was getting ripe,
as it was necessary and customary in
that wav to take from it its bitterness.
He was the son Of a poor shepherd,
and stuttered; but before the SIAM
mering rustic the Philistines, and
Syrians, and Phoenicians, and Moab
ties, and Ammonites, and Edomites,
and Israelites trembled.
Moses was a lawgiver, Daniel was
prince, Isaiah a 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 Odor
of new-mown hay, and the rattle OF
locusts, and the rumble of carts with
shelves and the roar of wild beasts de-
yourng the flock while the shepherd
came out in their defense. lie watched
the herds by day, and by night in
ha bited 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,
hn cfo
| 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
fie Id 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
~ o'clock at night, bark to the VOLTS
bark, and the lions roar, and the bears
growl, and the owls te-whitt e-who,
and the serpent's hiss, as he unwit.
tingly steps too near while moving
through the thickets! SO Amos, like
other herdsmen, got the ha bit of study
ing the map of the heavens, because
it was SO much of the time spread out
before him. He noticed some stars ad-
| vancing and others receding. lie as
ISOLATED 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 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 associat ted
with the spring, as it rises about the
first of May. The latter he associated
meridian in January. The Pleiades,
or Seven Stars, connected with ali
sweetness and joy; Orion, the herald
of the tempest. The ancients were
the more apt to study the physiog-
nomy and juxtaposltion of the heav-
emily bodies, because they thought
they had 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 Atlantic
ocean, and the electric storms in the
sun, by ali scientic admission, affect.
ed the earth, why not the stars have
prcportionate 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 a
meteor run on evanee listic errand on
the 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 coinei
dental that before the destruction OF
Jerusalem the moon was hidden fol
twelve consecutive nights? Did il
merely happen SO that a new star. ap
peared in constellation Cassiopeia, and
then disappeared just before Charles
IN. OF France, who was responsible fol
st. Bartholomew massacre, died? Was
it without significance that in the
days of the Roman Emperor Justiniar
| wal dht "SIO ptSSSuCu W CHS
dimness Of the sun, which for nearly q
year gave no more light than the
moon, although there We're no cloud.
to obscure it?
Astrology, after all, may have beer
something more than brilliant heath
enism. No wonder that Amos Of the
text, having heard these two anthem.
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, ant
advised the recrean. people of his tim,
to return to God, saying: Seek Hin
that maketh the Seven Stars ant
Orio." This command, which Amo
gave 7s5 years, B.. G is just as appro
pirate for US 1897 A. ID.
In the first place, Amos saw. as w,
must see, that the God who made tn,
Pleiades and Orion must be the God o
order. 1t was not 30 much a star her,
and a star there that impressed the in
spired herdsman, out seven in on,
group, and seven in the other group
lie saw that night after night, an,
season after season, and decade afte