The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-12-01
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SABBATH DISCOURSE 6Y THE NOTED
DIVINE.

God Among tho stsrs-Our Own World
tho Smallest Of Thorn All, Was So
lected a. the Theatre For Sin and sor-
row as an Awful Example to Others.
TEXT: "It Is He that buildeth His stories
In the heaven. n."-Amos, i1., 6.
This is flrst-rate poetry from Amos, the
herdsman. While guarding his docks at
night, he got watching the heavens. He
saw stars above stars, and the universe
seemed to him like great mansion many
stories high, silver room above silver room,
silver pillars besides silver pillars, and win
doWs Of silver and doors of silver, and tur-
rets and domes of silver rising into
the immensitles, and the prophets sancti-
fed Imagination walks through that great
silver palace Of the universe, through the
first story, through the second story,
through the third story, through the twen-
, tietb story, through the hundredth story,
through the thousandth story, and reafiz-
ing that God Is the architect and carpenter
and mason OF all that upheaved splendor,
he cries out in the words OF the text, ut
Is He that buildeth His stories In the
heaven"
The fact Is that we have all spent too
much time on one story Of the great man
sion Of Gods universe. We need OCCASION
ally to go upstairs or downstairs In this
mansion; downstairs, and In the cellar
study the rocks, or upstairs and see God IN
some Of the higher stories, and learn the
meaning Of the text when 1t says: "It is
He that buildeth His stories in the heaven"
Astronomy was born In Chaldea. Its
mother was Astrology, or the science OF
foretelling events by juxtaposition OF stars.
The Orlentals, living much out Of doors
and in very clear atmosphere, through
which the stars shone especially lustrous,
got the habit OF studying the night
heavens. In the hot seasons caravans
journeyed chiefly at night, and that gave
travellers much opportunity OF stellar in
formation. On the first page OF the Bible
the sun and moon and stars roll in. The
sun, body nearly three million miles In
circumference and more than twelve thou
sand times as large as our earth; the moon,
more than two thousand miles In diameter.
But God Is used to doing things on such an
omnipotent scale that he takes only one
verse to tell Of this solar and lunar manu-
facture. Yea, In three words all the other
worlds are thrown in. The record says,
'The stars also" It takes whole pages for
man to extol the making Of telescope or
microscope or magnetic telegraph or a
threshing machine, or to describe a fine
painting or statue, but 1t was 80 easy for
the story Is compassed In one verse: God
made two great lights, the greater light to
rule the day and the lesser light to rule the
night. The stars alsoP Astronomers have
been trying to call the roll Of them ever
since, and they have counted multitudes OF
them passing in review before the observa-
tories built at vast expense, and the size
and number Of those heavenly bodies have
taxed to the utmost the scientists OF all
ages.
But God finishes all He has to say about
them In three words, "The stars also!"
That Is Mars, with its more than ffty-fve
million square miles, and Venus. with its
more than one hundred and ninety-one
millione square miles, and Saturn, with Its
more than nineteen billion square miles,
and Jupiter, with its more than twenty
four billion square miles, and all the planets
OF our system OF more than seventy-eight
billion square miles, and these stars Of our
system, when compared with the stars Of
the other systems, as q handful OF sand
compared with all the Rocky Mountains
and all the Alps. "The stars alsol' For
brevity, for ponderosity, for splendor, for
suggestiveness, for sublimity piled on
sublimity, these words excel all that human
speech ever uttered or human Imagination
ever scared after: ''The stars alsol" It Is
put in as you write postscript-something
you thought Of afterward-as hardly worth
putting into the body OF q letter. "The
stars also!'' Oh. what God we have, and
He is our Fatherl
Read on in your Bibles, and after
awhile the Bible flashes with the aurora
borealis or northern lights, that strange
illumination, as mysterious and underlined
now as when, In the book Of Job 1t was
written: "Men see not the bright light
which Is in the clouds. Fair weather
cometh out Of the north" While all the
nations supposed that the earth was built
on q foundation of some sort, and many
supposed that 1t stood on huge turtle, or
some great marine creature, JOB knew
enough Of astronomy to- say 1t had no
foundation, but was suspended on the in
visible arm of the Almighty, declaring
that "He hangeth the earth upon moth
ing" While all nations thought the earth
was level, the sky spread over it like q tent
over fiat surface, Isaiah declared the
world to be globular, circular, saying OF
God: "He sitteth upon the circle OF the
earth" See them glitter in this scripturall
sky-Arcturus, Orion, the Plelades, and
the "bear with her young"
Without the use of telescope and with
out..any observatory and without any as
Economical calculation. know that the
other worlds are inhabited, because my
Bible and my common sense tell me 80.
It has been estimated that in the worlds
belonging to our solar system there Is
room for at least twenty-five trillion OF
population. And believe 1t Is all occu-
pied, or will be occupied, by Intelligent be-
ings. God will not fill them with brutes.
he would certainly put into those worlds
the architecture, the coloring, the grand
eur, the beauty, the harmony Of their sur
roundings. Yea, the inhabitants Of those
worlds have capacity Of locomotton, for
they would not have had such spacious op-
portunity for movement IL they had Dot
powers OF motion. Yea, they have sight,
elsa why the light, and hearing, else how
ger on with necessary language, and how
clear themselve, from advancing perils2
Yea, as God made our human race In His
own image, He probably made the fnhab-
itants of other worlds in His own image; In,
other words, 1t Is as near demonstration as
T care to have it, that while the inhabitants
of other worlds have adaptations OF bodily
structure to the particular climate in
in which they dwell, there is yet similarity
Of mental and spiritual characteristics
among all the inhabitants Of the universe
of God, and made in His image they are
made wonderfully alike.
Now what should be the practical result
OF this discussion founded on scripture and
common sense? 1t is first Of all, to enlarge
our ideas Of God and so intensity our ad-
miration and worship. Under such consid-
GRAFTON, how much more graphic the Bible
question, which seems to roll back the
sleeve OF the Almighty and say: Hast thou
an arm like God?" The contemplation also
encourages US with the thought that II God
made ell these worlds and populated them,
it will not be very much OF IN undertaking
for Him to make our little world over again,
and reconstruct the character OF its popu-
lations as by grace they are to be recon-
structed.
What a monstrosity Of ignorance that
the majority Of Christian people listen not
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