Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-10-28

we are affected by forces that we sell
dom recognize and enlarges upon hu-
man accountability. The text is Job
Xxxviii, 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 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 lustrousIy. The Pleiades is
q 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
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 it's planets wheel around that
center at the rate of 422,O00 miles
day in an orbit which it will take 49,
600 900 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
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 humil-
ity God asked him, "Canst thou bind
the sweet Influences of the Pleiades?"
Have you any power over the laws Of
gravitatiOn? Can you modify or change
an influence welded by a 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 omnipotence.
Power of InterroGatio2.
The proba bility is that Job had been
tempted to arrogance by his vast at
tainments. lie was metallurgist, a
zoologist. q 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 hui
man pride as an Interrogation point
rightly thrust. Christ used it nightly.
Paul mounted the parapet Of his great
arguments with such battery. Men
of the world understand it. Demos
themes began his speech to the crown
and Cicero his Grafton against Catline
and Lord Chatham bis 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 q Ques-
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 a Yoltaire.
Called UpO2, as we al 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 assG.led. and we are told there is !
nothing in it and there is no God and |
there never was 4 miracle and that the |
Scriptures are unreasonable and cruel |
and that there never will be a 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 it |
would be kind in God to turn the hui
man race into 4 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 Zerda-Vesta of the Persian
or the COnfucian writings CT the Chi
peSe or the Koran of Mohammed or our |
Bible? If Christ is not a divine being. |
what did he mean when be said, Be |
fore Abram was, | am? If the Bible |
Is bad book. what are the evil results |
or reading it? Did you see any degrad- |
Ing influence of the book in your father |
or mother OR sister who used to read |
1t? Do you not think that judgment |
day is necessary in order to explain |
and fix up things that We're never eX-
planned or fixed up? If our religion
Is illogical and an imposition upon hui
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 |
eAdnrat ton of the Magi' The T1.anS