The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1901-11-01
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE 5r The NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject; The Sweet Influences - We Are
Affected For Good or Evil By Forces
That We seldom Reeoznizs-InpoTt-
anes Of Good Actions.
fCopyrigha INLI

biity. The text Is Job xxxyiu, 81
"Canst thou bind the sweet influences o.
Ple.ades"
What is the meaning Of that question
which God put % JODt Have we all oul
lives been reading IL, and are most OF vi
ignorant OF its beauty and power and
practical suggcstiveness; A meaningless
passage OF Scripture many thought 1t "a
be, but the telescopes were busy age after
age, and Astronomical observations kept
on questioning the skies until the mean
ing OF my text comes out lustrOusy. Inc
Pleiades IL A constellation OF seven stars
appearing 20 the naked eye, but sclen-
tihc instruments reveal more than 400
properly belonging 10 the group. Alcyone
~ the name OF the brightest star OF that
group called the Pleiades. A Russian as
| tronOmer observed that Alcyone ~ the
. centre of gravtation OF our solar system.
! Hugh Macmillan says that the sun and its
| planets wheel around that centre at the
. rate OF 422 900 miles a day IN an orUIt
which II viii take 100000 years 10 com
plete. The Pleiades appear in the spring.
! time and are associated with flowers and
genial warmth and good weather. The
navigation of the Mediterranean was
from May 10 November, the rising and
the setting Of the Pleiades. The priests
! OF Belus noticed that rising and setting
/ 1000 years before Christ
Now, the glorious meaning OF my text
] n = i
! the beautiful grace of humility God asked
/ him, "Canst thou bind the sweet inlu-
/ enccs OF the Pleiades?' Have YOU any
/ power over the laws OF Cravitation? Can
you modify or change an influence welded
| by a star more than 400 CG0 miles away?
| Can yon control the winds OF the spring
| tlmcf Can YOU call out the floWersy How
| little you know compared with omnis
ccnce? How little you can do compared
with omnipOtCncei
The probability il that Job had been
tempted 20 arrogance by his vast attain
mcnts. He was metallurgist, a 2oolog
st. a poet, and shows by his writings he
! had knowledge of hunting, of music, Of
hugbandry. OF medicine. Of mining of
astronomy and perhaps was so far ahead
Of the scholars and scientists OF his time
that he NAV have been somewhat puifed
up: hence this interrogation of my text.
And there is nothing that 90 soon takes
down human pride as an interrogation
point rightly thrust. Christ used II
nightly. Paul mounted the parapet of
his great arguments with such a battery.
Men Of the world understand it. Demos
themes began his speech TO the crown and
Cicero his Grafton against Catihne and
Lord Chatham his most famous orations
with a question. The empire of ignor-
ance is go much vaster than the empire
of knowledge that after the most learned
and elaborate dsquistion upon anv sub
jcct OF sociology or theology the p,ainest
man NAV ask a question that will make
the wiscst speechless. After the pro-
foundCst assault upon Christianity the
humblest disciple NAV make an inquiry
that would silence Notaire.
Called upon, az we all are at times, to
defend our holy religion. instead of argu-
ment that can ALWAYS be answered by
argument let us try the power of interro-
cation. We ought TO be loaded with at
least half dozen questions and always
ready, and when Christianity il assailed,
and we are told there is nothing in 1t and
there is no God and there never was
miracle and that the Scrlptures are un-
reasonable and cruel and that there new
er will be Judgment day, take out of
your portable armory Of interrogation
something like this: What makes the
condition of woman in Christian lands
better than in heather lands? Do YOU
think it would be kind in God to turn
the human race into a world without any
written revelation to explain and en-
courage and elevate and save? And II a
revelation was made, which do you pre-
fer-the Zeuda-Vcsta Of the Persian or
the Confucian writings OF the Chinese
or the Koran Of Mohammed or our Bible?
II Christ is not divine being. what
did He mean when lie said. Before
Abram was, | ann" If the Bible Is a
reading il? Did vou see any degrading
influence Of the book in your father or
mother or sister who used to read it?
Do you not think that a Judgment day
is necessary in order to explain and TX
up things that were never explained or
fixed up? If our religion is Illogical and
an impostion upon human crcdultv, why
were Hcrschcl and Washington and Cad
stone and William Mckinley its advo-
Gates?
How did it happen that our religion
furnished the theme for the greatest
poem ever written, Paradise Lost and
to the painters their greatest themes IN
the Alteration of the Magl, The
Transformation" "The Last Supper"
"Thc Last Judgment and that all the
schools Of painting put forth their utmost
genius in presenting "The Madonna"
Why was it that William Shakespeare
after amazing the world as he will amaze
the centuries with the sp'endor and pow,
er of The Merchant of Venice" and
".C(orio'9nus,', and aRich2r9 III .,9 and
beth" and Hamlet" wrote with his own
hand his last will and testament. begin
ming il with the words: 'ln the name
of God. amen I, William Shakespeare:
of Stratford-onAvo in the County OF
Warwick, in perfect health and memory
this my last will and testament. through
the only merits of Jesus Christ. my Saw
Jour, TO hc made partaker OF life ever.
lasting and lhy BODY 70 the earth whereof
il il made" Had ShakcsDcare lost his
reason when he wrote his faith in Christ
and the great atonement? Put your an.
tagonist few questions like that. and
you will find him excusing himself for an
engagement he must meet immediately
These words also recognize far-reachmg
influences JOB probably had no adequate
idea Of the distance of the words men
toned from our world, but he knew them
10 be far of. and we, who have had
he advantage of modern sidereal inves.,
hration, ought to nc still more impressed
than was Job with the question of the
text. as il puts before us the fact that
worlds hundreds Of thousands OF miles
distant have grin on our world. There
ire sweet influences which hold US from
,far. There may have been IN our an
sestral line perhaps 600 years ago some
,onsccrated man or woman who has he'd
over all the generations since an lnhu-
snce for good which we have no power 10
realize. and we IN turn by our virtue or
vice may influence those who shall live
200 Years from now Moral gravitatlon
IA as powerful ~ material crNvltaton, and
/ II. as nv text teaches and science coa-
| firms. the Pleiadcs, which are millions
Of miles from our earth. influence the
earth VIC ought to be impressed with
/ how we may be Influenced bv others Tar
/ away back and how we may INFLUENCE
/ o,hCrs far down the future. That riI
away up among the A0cEhaD.cs, 50 thin
/ vou thipl, It viii hardly find Its way down
] the rocks. becomes the mighty Ono, rou-
/ ing into the Mississippi and rolling into
/ the sea. That word YOU utter. that deed
Won do. may augment Itself az the wears
' CO lv until rivers cease 90 roll and the