Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-11-07
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE eY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: Tho Sweet Influences - we Arc
Affected For Good or Evil Ey Forces
That We Seldom acknowledgements
ance of Good Actions.


Affected For Good Evil Ey Forces
That We Seldom I,ccognize-Import-
ance of Good Actions.
Copyright. lsol.l
WASHINGTON, D. C.--In this discourse
Dr. Ialmage dem onstrates that we are
affected by forces that we seldom recog-
nlZe and eniarges upon human accounta-
bility. 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 snggestiveness? 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 mean
ing OF my text comes out lustrously. The
Pleiades is constellation of seven stars
appearing to the naked eye, but scicn-
titic instruments reveal more than 400
properly belonging to the group. Acyone
Is the name OF the brightest star OF that
group called the Pleiades. a Russian as
tronomer observed that Alcyone is the
centre of gravitation of our solar system.
Hugh Macmillan says that the sun and its
planets wheel around that centre at the
rate of $4,000 miles a day in an orolt
which it will take 100000 years to COM
plcte. The Pleades appear in the spring
time and are associated 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
oI Belus noticed that rising and setting
2ooQ 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
MN, Canst thou bind the sweet lnfin-
nf ha Hnya
power over the laws OF gravitatlon! Can
you modify or change an influence welded
py star more than 4oooOo miles away!
Can you control the winds OF the spring
time! Gan you call out the flowers! How
httle you Know compared with omnls,,
WIN omnipotence!
The probability is that Job had been
tempted to arrogance by, his vast attain
ments. He was metallurglst, zoolog-
3st, a poet, and shows Dy his writings he
had knowiedge OF hunting, OF music, or
huspanary' OF medicine, OF mining; OF
OF the scholars and scientists OF his time
that he may have been somewhat pulled
up; hence TINS interrogation OF my text.
And there Is nothing that so soon takes
down human prlde as an lhterrogauon
point ,rightly thrust. Shrist used 1T
mightily. Paul mounted the parapet OF
his great arguments with such battery.
Men OF the world understand 1t. Demos,
themes began ms speech to the crown and
cicero ms grafton against Catlllne and
LORD chatham his most famous ooratlons
with a question. The empire OF lgnor-
ance is so much vaster than the empire
of knowledge that after the most learned
and elaborate disauls,tion upon any sub
Ject OF sociology or theology the ,nianest
man may ask question that VIII make
the 'wlsest speechess. AFTER the pro
ioundest assault upon ChrlselahltY the
humbiest disciple may make an inquiry
that would silence V0oitalre.
Called upon, as we all are at tunes, TO
defend our holy religion. instead OF argu-
ment that can always be answered by
argument let us try the power or lnterro-
CATION We ought to be loaded with at
least least hait dozen r Questions ana always
ana ana we are tod there IS nothing IN II ana
there IS no God and there never was
miracle and that the Scriptures are un-
reasonable and cruel and that there nev.,
er Will be Judgment day, take out OF
your portable armhGry ,Wh 3r lnterroga'ibbn ION
condition OF woman, IN Christian lands
better than IN heatnen lands! 10 YOU
think 1T would be KIND IN GOD to turn
the human race INTO word without any
written revelation to explain ana en-
courage and elevate and sayei And it,. If
i-N
fer-the Zenda-Vesta of the Persian or
the Contueian Writings o, the Chlnese
or the Koran OF Mohammed or our Bihie
II Christ Is not dlvine being: What
did He mean when lie said; Before
Abram was, | am" If the, Bible Is a
bad book. what are the evil results OF
reading it? Did you see any DEGRADING
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 flX
up things that were never explained or
fixed up? If our religion is Illogical and
an imnositlon, upon human creduitv why
were Herschel and Washington and Glad
stone and William Mckinley its advo-
Gates?
How did it 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
TRANSPORTATION" The Last supper.
"The Cruc6xion," THE Entombment.'
"The Last Judgment" and that all the
schools of painting put forth their utmost
genius in presenting THE Madonna