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dom recognize and enlarges upon hui
man accountability. The text is Job
xxxyiii, 81, "Canst thou bind the sweet
influences OF Pleiades?"
What Is the meaning Of that question
which God put to Job? Have we all
our lives been reading it, and are most
OF US ignorant OF its beauty aud power
and practical suggestiveness? a mean
ingless passage of Scripture many
thought it to be, but the telescopes
were busy age after age, and astronom-
ical observations kept on questioning
the skies until the meaning of my text
comes out lustrously. The Pleiades is
constellation of seven stars appear
Ing 10 the naked eye, but scientific in
struments reveal more than 900 prop
erly belonging to the group. Alcyone
is the name of the brightest star OF
that group called the Pleiades. A Rus
sian astronomer observed that Alcyone
Is the center of gravitation of our solar
system. Hugh Macmillan says that the
sun and its planets wheel around that
center at the rate of 422, 600 miles n
day In an orbit which 1t will take 49,
100000 years to complete. The Pleiades
appear in the spr;ngtime and are asso-
ciated with flowers and genial warmth
and good weather. The navigation OF
the Mediterranean was from May to
November, the rising and the setting
OF the Pieiades. The priests Of Belus
noticed that rising and setting 1000
years before Christ.
Now, the glorious meaning OF nv
text is plain as well as radiant To
give Job the beautiful grace OF humil-
ity God asked him, "Canst thou bind
the sweet influences of the Plelades?''
Have you any power over the laws OF
gravitation? Can you modify or change
an influence welded by n star more
than 100000 miles away? Can you
control the winds Of the springtime?
Can you call out the flowers? How
little you know compared with omnis-
cience? How little you can do COM
pared with omnipotencel
Power OF Interrogation.
The probability is that Job had been
tempted to arrogance by his vast at
tainments. He was n metallurgist. q
zoologist. poet and shows by his writ
ings he had knowledge OF hunting, OF
music, OF husbandry, OF medicine, of
mining, of astronomy and perhaps was
so Tar ahead OF the scholars and sci
entists OF his time that he may hive
been somewhat pulled up; hence this
interrogation OF my text. And there
is nothing that SO soon takes down hu-
man pride as an interrogation point
rightly thrust. Christ used it nightly.
Paul mounted the parapet OF his great
arguments with such a battery. Men
or the world understand It, Demos
tnenes began his speech to the crown
ana Cicero his Grafton against Catiline
ana Lord Chatham his most famous
orations with question. The empire
or ignorance is so much vaster than
the empire or knowledge that after the
most learned and elaborate dlsquisltion
upon any subject of sociology or theol-
ogy the plairest man may ask n oues-
ton that will make the wisest speech
less. After the profoundest assault
upon Christianity the humblest disci-
PIE may make an inquiry that would
. silence Voltaire.
Called upon, as we all are ut times
TO defend our holy religion. instead OF
argument that can always be answered
by argument let us try the power OF
Interrogation We ought to be loaded
with at least half dozen questions
and always ready, and when Christian
ity is assailed, and,we are told there is
nothing in it and there is no God and
there never was a miracle and that the
scriptures are unreasonable and cruel
and that there never will be n judg-
ment 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 1t
would be kind In God to turn the hui
man race into n world without any
written revelation to explain and en-
courage and elevate and save? And IL
n revelation was made, which do you
prefer-the Zenda-Vesta of the Persian
or the Confucian writings OF the Chi
nese or the Koran of Mohammed or our
Bible? IL Christ Is not a divine being.
what did he mean when he said. Be
Tore Abram was, amP If the Bible
is bad book, what are the evil results
OF reading it? Did you see any degrad-
ing influence OF the book In your father
or mother or sister who used to read
III Do you not think that q judgment
day IS necessary in order to explain
ana TX up things that were never ex-
planned or fixed up? If our religion
Is illogical and an imposition upon hu-
man credulity, why were Herschel and
Washington and Gladstone and W.T.
liam Mckinley its advocates? How did
1t happen that our religion furnished
the theme for the greatest poem ever
written, Paradise Lost and to the
painters their greatest themes In the
'Adoraton OF the Magi,' The Transfig-
uration,' The Last Supper The Cruel |
hxion. The Entombment,' The Last
Judgment and that all the schools of !
painting put forth their utmost genius |
In presenting The MadonnaP"
Farreaching influences.
Why was It that William Shake |
speare after amazing the world as he
VIII amaze the centuries with tho
spiendor and power OF "The Merchant
or Venice" and "Coriolanus," and
richard ILL.," and "King Lear" and
"othello." and Macbeth" and Ham
let wrote with his own hand his last
VIII and testament, beginning it with
the words; I'm the name of God. amen,
1, William Shakespeare, of Stratford-
on-Avon, III the county OF Warwick. in
perfect health and memory God be
pralsedD do make and ordain this my
last will and testament through the
only merits Of Jesus Christ, my Saw
lour, TO be made partaker Of life ever
fasting and my body to the earth
whereof 1t is nader Had Shake
speare lost his reason when he wrote
MS faith in Christ and the great atone
ment? Pat your aateronfst n fax-
questions like that, and you will find
MN excusing himself for an engage
ment he must meet Immediately.
These words also recognize farreach-
ing influences. Job probably had no
adequate idea OF the distance of the
worlds mentioned from our world. but
he knew them to be far off, and we.
who have had the advantage of mod