The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1901-11-02
STRANGEINFLUENCES
We Are Often Affected by Forces
We Seldom Recognize.
Dr.. TaImage Enlargcs Upon Human
Accountability in His Sermon
some Great Surprises of
the New World.

- 49,
onstrates that we are affected by
forces that we seldom recognize and
enlarges upon human accountability;
the text is Job 1881: "Canst thou
bind the sweet influences of Plei-
sdes?'
What is the meaning of that ques-
ton that God put to Job? Have we
all our lives been reading 1t and are
most of us ignorant of its beauty
and power and practical suggestive
ness? A meaningless passage OF
Scripture many thought it to be. But
the telescopes were busy age after
age and astronomical Observations
kept on questioning the skies until
the meaning of my text comes out
l%ustrously. The Pleiades is a con-
stellation of seven stars appearing TO
the naked eye, but scientific lnstru-
ments reveal more than 400 properly
belonging 10 the group. Alcyone Is
the name of the brightest star of that
group called the Pleiades. a Russian
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,OOO mue
a day in an orbit which it will take
10000, 900 years to complete. The Plei-
aides appear in the springtime and are
associated with flowers and genial
warmth and good weather. The navi-
cation of the Mediterranean was from
May to November-the rising and the
setting of the Pleiades. The priests
of Belus noticed that rising and set
ting 1000 years before Christ.
Now. the glorious meaning of my
text is plain as well as radiant. To
give Job the beautiful grace of hui
mility God asked him: "Canst thou
bind the sweet influences of the
P~leiades?" Have you any power over
the laws of graduation? Can you
modify or change an influence WELD
ed by a star more than 400 900 miles
away? Can you control the winds of
the springtime? Can you call out the
flowers? How little you know COM
pared with omniscience. How little
you can do compared with Omnipo-
tence.
The probability is that Job had
been tempted to arrogance by his vast
attainments. He was a metallurgist,
a zoologist, a poet, and shows by his
writings he had knowledge of hunt
ing. of music, of husbandry, of medi-
cine, of mining, of astronomy, and
perhaps was so far ahead of the
scholars and scientists of his time
that he may have been somewhat
pulled up; hence this interrogation OF
my text. And there is nothing that
so soon takes down human pride as
an Interrogation point rightly thrust,
Christ used it nightly. Paul mounted
the parapet Of his great arguments
with such a battery. Men of the
world understand it. Demosthenes
began his speech on the crown and
Cicero his Grafton against Catiline
and Lord Chatham his most famous
Orations with a question. The empire
of ignorance is so much vaster than
the empire of knowledge that after
the most learned and elaborate dis,
QUESTION upon any subject of sociol
ogy or theology the plainest mar may
ask a question that will make the
wisest speeches.. After the pro
foundest assault upon Christianity
the humblest disciple may make ar
inquiry that would silence a Voltaire
Called upon, as we all are at times
TO defend our holy religion, instead
of argument that can always be an
swered by argument let us try tn,
power of Interrogation. We ought t
be loaded with at least half a dozeI
questions and always ready, and whel
Christianity is assailed and we ar
told there is nothing in it, and Their,
IS no God, and there never was
miracle, and that the Scriptures ar
unreasonable and cruel, and tina
there never will be a Judgment day
take out of your portable armory o
interrogation something like this
What makes the condition of wome
in Christian lands better than j
heather lands? Do you think it woul
be kin in God to turn the huma
race into a world without any writ
ten revelation to explain and encoul
age and elevate and save? And if
revelation was made, which do 70
prefer, the Zenda-Vesta of the Pc,
sian or the Confucian writings of tn
Chinese or the Koran of Mohamme
or our Bible? If Christ is not a d
vine being, what did He mean whe
He said: Before Abram was 1 am
If the Bible is a bad book, where al
the evil results of reading it? Di
you see any degrading influence {
the book in your father or motht
or sister, who used to read it? u
you not think hat a judgment da
is necessary in order to explain an
fix up things that were never e,
planned or fixed up? If our religion
Illogical and an imposition upon HI
san credulity, why were Herschel an
Washington and Gladstone and w
liam Mckinley it's advocates? Ho
did it happen that u religion fu
nished the theme for the creates
poem ever written, paradise Lost
and to the painters their create!
themes in the Alteration of I'll
Magi," 1.-THE Transportation" "T1
Last SUPPER" "The Crucifxion, "T1