Connecticut western news., 1901-10-31

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27.-In this dis course pr. Talmage demonstrates that we are affected by forces that we sell dom recognize and enlarges upon hu- man accountability. The text Is Job xxxviii, 31, "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiadesp
 What is the meaning of that question which God put to Job? Have we all our lives been reading 1t, and are most of us ignorant of It's beauty and 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 a constellation of seven stars appear ing to the naked eye, but scientific in- struments reveal more than 400 prop erly belonging to the group. Alcyone Is the name of the brightest star of sian astronomer observed that Alcyone is the center of gravitation of our solar system. Hugh Macmillan says that the sun and it's planets wheel around that center at the rate of 422, 1000 miles day in an orbit which 1t will take 19,- 000, ,0O0 years to complete. The Pleiades appear in the springtime 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 kH, snIA Tbx, tNrtn nf noticed that rising and setting 2,000 years before Christ.
 Now. the glorious meaning of my 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 Pleiadesw Have you any power over the laws of gravitation? Can you modify or change m influence wiclded by star more than 100000 miles away7 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 omnipotence!
 Power of Interrogation.
 The probability is that Job had been tempted to arrogance by his vast at tainments. He was a metallurgist, xoologist, 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 far ahead of the scholars and sci entists of his time that he may have been somewhat puffed 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 1t nightly. Paul mounted the parapet of his great arguments with such battery. Men of the world understand 1t. Demos themes began his speech to the crown and Cicero his oration 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 disquisition upon any subject of sociology or theol- ogy the plainest man may ask a ques- ton that will make the wisest speech less. After the profoundest assault upon Christianity the humblcst disci- pie may make an inquiry That would silence Eoltaire.
 Called upon, as we all are at 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 a dozen questions and always ready, and when Christian ity Is assailed. and we are told there Is nothing In 1t 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 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 hu- man race into world without any written revelation to explain and en- courage and elevate and save? And If Q 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? If Christ Is not divine being, what did he mean when he said, Be fore Abram was, amY If the Bible Is n bad book, what are the evil results of reading 1t? Did you see any degrad- ing influence of the book in your father or mother or sister who used to read it? Do you not think that judgment day Is necessary in order to explain and fix up things that were never ex- plained or fixed up? If our religion is illogical and an imposition upon hu- man credulity, why were Herschel and Washington and Gladstone and Will 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 Alteration of the Magi,' The Transfig uration.' The Last Supper,' The Cruel fixion,' 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 1t that William Shake speare after amazing the world as he will amaze the centuries with the splendOr and power of "The Merchant of Venice" and "Coriolanus." and ''Richard Ill.," and King Lear." and "Othello," and Macbeth" and Ham. iet' wrote with his own hand his last will and testament, beginning 1t with the words: 'In the name of God, amen! l, William Shakespeare, of Stratford- on-Avon, In the county of Warwick, in perfect health and memory God be praisedD do make and ordain this my last will and testament through the only merits of Jesus Christ, my Say jour. to be made partaker' of life ever lasting and my body to the earth whereof 1t Is made| Had Shake Epeare lost his reason when he wrote his faith in Christ and the great atone x4a1 t,A fAx