The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-10-29

course Dr. 1aImaSe demonstrates that we
are affected by forces that we seldom rec
0gnize and enlarges upon human account
ability; the text is Job xxxviii, 81, "Canst
thou lind the sweet influences OF Plei-
ades?"
What is the meaning Of that question
that God put to Job? Have we all our
lives been reading it anG are most Of US
ignorant of its beauty and power and
practical suggestiyeness? y meaningless
passage of Scripture many thought it TO
be. But the telescopes were busy G
after age and astronomical observations
kept on questioning the skies until the
meaning OF my ext comes out lustrously.
The Pleiades is a constellation Of seven
stars appearing to the naked eye, but sci
entific instruments reveal more than 400
properly belonging to the group. Alcyone
is the name of the brightest star of that
group called the Pleiades. A Russian
ono observed that Alcyone is the
center Of grayitation Of our solar system.
Hugh Macmillan says that the sun and
its planets wheel around that center at
the rate of $4,000 miles a day in an or
bit which it will take 19,OC0,O 900 years to
complete. The Pleiades appear in the
springtime and are associated with flow
ers and genial warmth and good weather.
The navigation of the Mediterranean
was from May to 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
is plain as well as radiant. To give Job
the beautiful grace of humility God asked
him, "Canst thou bind the sweet in1u-
ences of the PIeiades ?" Have you any
power over the laws of gravitation? Can
you modify or change an influence WELD
ed by Il star more than 400 900 miles
away? Can you control the winds Of the
springtime? Can you call out the flow
ers? How little you know compared with
omniscience, How little you can do COM
pared with OmnipOtencei
The probability is that Job had been
tempted to arrogance by his vast attain
ments. He.was a metallurgist, a zoolo-
gist, a poet, and shows by his writings he
had knowledge of hunting, of music, Of
~husbandry, of medicine, of mining, of as
tronomy, 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 might
lily. a mounted the parapet of his
great arguments with such q battery.
Men Of the world understand it. Demos
themes began his speech on the crown and
Cicero his Grafton against Catiline and
Lord Chatham his most famous o~rations
with a question. The empire of ignorance
is so much yaster than the empire Of
knowledge that after the most learned
and elaborate disquisition upon any SUBJ
ject of sociology or theology the p~lainest
man may ask a question that will make
the wisest speechless. After the pro-
%foundes assault upon Christianity the
humblest disciple may make an inquiry
that would silence 4 Voltaire.
Armed With Interrogations.
Called upon, as we all are at times, to
defend our holy religion, instead of argu-
ment that can always be answered by ar
gument let us try the power of interroga-
ton. We ought to be loaded with at least
half a dozen questions Inc always ready,
and when Christianity is assaulted and we
are told there is nothing in it, and there
is no God, and there never was q miracle,
and that the Scriptures are unreasonable
and cruel, and that there never Will be a
Judgment day, tax out Of your portable
armory of interrogation something like
this: What makes the condition Of wo-
man 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 encourage and elevate and
save? And if a revelation was made
which do you prefer, the Zenda-Vesta OF
the Persian or the Confucian writings OF
the Chinese or the Koran of Mohammed
or our Bible? If Christ is not a divine
being, what did he mean when he said
Before Abram was l ann" If the Bible
is a bad book, where are the evil results
of reading it? Did you see any degrading
influence of the book in your father OF
mother or sister, who used to read it? Dc
you not think hat a judgment day is nee
essary in order to explain and fix VI
things that were never explained or fixeG
up? If our religion is illogical and al
imposition upon human %credulity, VIII!
were Herschel and Washington and Glad
stone and William Mckinley its adyo
Gates? How did it happen that our reli
gion furnished the theme for the creates
poem ever written, Paradise Lost" anC
to the painters their greatest themes il
the "Adoration of the Magi," 18th,
TRANSPORTATION" The Last Supper,
saTHhe Crucifxion,'' The Entombment,
The Last Judgment" and that all tn
schools of painting put forth their utmos
genius in presenting THE MadonnaT'
Why was it tina William Shakespeare
after amazing the world Us he will amaz
all centuries with the splendor and powe
of 1.-THE Merchant of Venice" n Corr
olanus," and Richard the Third" an
king Lear" and "OthellO," and MAD
beth" and Hamlet wrote with his ow
hand his last will aid testament, begin
ming it with the words. In the name o
God. amen. l. William Shakespeare Q
Str0tford-on-avon. in the county of Wal
wick. in perfect health and memory, Go
be praised. do make and ordain this m
last will and testament through the onl
merits Of Jesus Christ. my Saviour, to b
made partaker Of life everlasting and m
body to- The earth whereof 1t is made:
HaI Sb~ kpSpoa 70 lOct his reason when b