STRANGEINFLUENCES
}
We Are Often Affected by Forces
We Seldom Recognize.
Pr. Talma&e Enlnrscji Upon Hnman
Accountability in His Sermon
home Great Surprises of
the New World.
fCopyright, 1901, by Louis Ivlopscb, N. Y.]
Washington, Oct. 27.
In this discourse Dr. Talmage dem
onstrates that we are affected by
forces that we seldom recognize and
enlarges upon human accountability;
the text is .fob 38:31: “Canst thou
bind the sweet influences of Plei
ades?”
What is the meaning of that ques
tion that 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 suggestive
ness? A meaningless passage of
Scripture many thought it to be. But
the telescopes were busy age after
age and astronomical observations
kept oil questioning the skies until
the meaning of my text comes out
lustrously. The Pleiades is a con
stellation of seven stars appearing to
the naked eye, but scientific instru
ments 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
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 422,000 miles
a day in an orbit which it will take
19,000,000 years to complete. The Plei
ades appear in the springtime and are
associated with flowers and genial
warmth and good weather. The navi
gation 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 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 hu
mility God asked him: “Canst thou
bind the sweet influences of the
Pleiades?” Have you any power o*er
the laws of gravitation? Can you
modify or change an influence wield
ed by a star more than 400,000 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. lie 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
puffed 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 mightily. 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 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 dis
quisition upon any subject of sociol
ogy or theology the plainest man may
ask a question that will make the
wisest speechless. After the pro
foundest assault upon Christianity
the humblest disciple may make an
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 the
power of interrogation. We ought to
be loaded with at least half a dozen
questions and always ready, and when
Christianity is assailed and we are
told there is nothing in it, 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 a judgment day,
take out of your portable armory of
interrogation something like this:
What makes the condition of women
in Christian lands better than in
heathen lands? Do you think it would
be kind in God to turn the human
race into a world without any writ
ten revelation to explain and encour
age and elevate and save? And if a
revelation was made, which do you
prefer, the Zenda-Vesta of the Per
sian or the Confueian writings of the
Chinese or the Koran of Mohammed
or our Bible? If Christ is not a Di
'J vine being, what did He mean when
He said: “Before Abram was I am?’
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 or mother
or sister, who used to read it? Do
1 you not think that a 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 Herscliel and
Washington and Gladstone and Wil
liam McKinley its advocates? How
did it happen that our religion fur
nished the theme for the greatest
poem ever written, “Paradise Lost,”
and to the painters their greatest
themes in the “Adoration of the
Magi,” “The Transfiguration,” “The 1
Last Supper,” “The Crucifixion, “The
Entombment,” “The Last Judgment,”
and that all the schools of painting
put forth their utmost genius in pre
senting “The Madonna?”
These words also recognize, far
reaching influences. Job probably t
had no adequate idea of the distance
of the worlds mentioned from our
world, but he kne’. • them to be far
off, and we, who have the advantage ,
of modern sidereal investigation, j
ought to be still more impressed
than was Job with the question of
the text, as it puts before us the fact
that worlds hundreds of thousands
of miles distant have a grip on our
world. There are sweet influences j
which hold us from afar. There may
have been in our ancestral line per
haps 200 years ago some consecrated
man or woman who has held over
all the generations since an influence
for good which we have no power to
realize, and we in turn, by our ;
virtue or vice, may influence those
who shall live 200 years from now.
Moral gravitation is as powerful as
material gravitation, and if, as my
text teaches and science confirms,
the Pleiades, which are millions of
miles from our earth, influence the
earth wre ought to be impressed with
how we may be influenced by others !
far aw'ay back and how we may in
fluence others far down the future.
That rill away up among the Alle- I
ghanies, so thin you think it will
hardly find its way down the rocks, |
becomes the mighty Ohio rolling into
the Mississippi and rolling into the
sea. That word you utter, that deed
you do, may augment itself as the
years go by until rivers cease to roll
and the ocean itself shall be dried
up in the burning of the world.
Paul, who was all the time saying
important things, said nothing more
startlingly suggestive than when he
declared: “None of us liveth or
dieth to himself.” Words, thoughts,
actions, have an eternity of flight.
As Job could not bind the sweet in
fluences of the Seven Stars, as they
were called, so wTe cannot arrest or
turn aside the good projected long
ago. Those influences were started
centuries before our cradle was
rocked and will reign centuries after
our graves are dug. Oh, it is a tre
mendous thing to live! God help us
to live aright.
Astronomers can easily locate the
Pleiades. TTiey will take you into
their observatories on a clear night
and aim their revealing instrument
toward the part in the heavens where
those seven stars have their habi
tude, and they will point to the con
stellation Taurus, and you can see
for yourself. But it is impossible
to point to influences far back that
have affected our character and will
affect our destiny. We know the in
fluences near by—paternal, maternal,
conjugal—but by the time we have
gone back two generations or at
most three our investigations falter
and fail. Through the modern in
teresting habit of searching back to
find the ancestral tree we may find
a long list of names, but they are
only names. The consecration or
abandonment of some one 200 years
ago was not recorded. It would not
be so important if you and I by our
good or bad behavior blessed or
blasted only those immediately
around us, but our goodness or our
badness will reach as far as the
strongest rays of Alcyone — yea.
across the eternities. Under this
consideration what do you think of
those who give themselves up to
frivolity, or idleness and throw away
50 years of their existence as though
they were shells or pebbles or pods
instead of embryo eternities?
Notice also in my text the influ
ence of other worlds upon this world.
We all regard the effect which our
continent has upon other continents
or one hemisphere upon the other
hemisphere. Great harvest or drought
affects the other side of our world.
A panic in Wall street, New York, has
its echo in Lombard street and the
bourse. The nations of the earth
cablegrammed together all feel the
same thrill of delight or shock of woe.
But we do not appreciate the influ
ence of other worlds upon our world.
The author of my text rouses us to
the consideration. It takes all the
worlds of known and unknown as
tronomy to keep our world in its or
bit, every world dependent on other
worlds. The stellar existence is felt
all through the heavens. Every con
stellation is a sisterhood. Our planet
feels the benediction of Alcyone and
all the other stars of the Pleiades.
Yea, there are two other worlds that
decide the fate of our world, its re
demption or its demolition. Those
two worlds are the headquarters of
angelology and demonology. From
the one world came Christ, come min
istering spirits, come all gracious in
fluences. From the other world rise
all satanie and diabolic influences.
From that world of moral right rose
the power that wrecked our poor
world 6,000 years ago, and all the
good work done since then has not
been able to get our world out of the
. breakers. But the signals of dis
tress have been hoisted and the life
lines are out, and our world’s re
lease’is certain. The good influences
of the consecrated people in our
world will be centupled by the lulp
from the heavenly world, and the Di
vine power will overcome the de
moniac. O man, O woman, expand
your idea and know the magnitude
of a contest in which three worlds are
specially interested. From all the
seven worlds which my text calls the
Pleiades there come no such powerful
influences as from the two worlds
that I am now mentioning. My only
hope for this world is in the reen
forcem'ent that is to come from an
other world. But that is promised,
and so I feel as sure of the ratifica
tion of all evil as though looking out
of my window to-day I saw the parks
and the gardens flowering into anoth
er paradise and the apocalyptic angel
flying through the midst of Heaven
with the news that the kingdoms of
this world have become the kingdoms
of our Lord.
My text called Job and calls u« to
consider “the sweet influences.” We
put too much emphasis upon the acid
ities of life, upon the irritations of
life, upon the disappointments of
life. Ammianus Marcellinus said that
Chaldea was in olden times overrun
with lions-, but many of them lost
their power because the great swamps
produced many gnats that would get
into the eyes of the lions, and the
lions to free themselves of the gnats
would claw their own eyes out and
then starve. And in our time many a
lion has been overcome by a gnat.
The little stinging annoyances of life
keep us from appreciating the sweet
influences. And how many of these
last there are! Sweet influences of
home, however plain it may be! That
is the harbor into which we sail.
That is the goal for which we run.
That is the place where we rest.
There abide all confidence and affec
tions. There we lay our plans. There
we extend our sympathies. There
we talk over our successes. There
we unload our griefs. Its four walls
shut out a prying and inquisitive
world. Thank God for the home in
which we were born, the home in
which we now live, the home in which
we expect to die!
Not sufficiently do we recognize the
sweet influences of the wife. We men
are of a rougher mold, and our voice is
loud, and our manners need to be
tamed, and gentleness is not as much
of a characteristic as it ought to be,
and we often say things we ought to
take back. It is to change this that the
good wife comes in. The interests of
the twain are identical. That which
from outsiders would be considered
criticism and to be resented becomes
kindly suggestion, sweet influences
that make us better men than we oth
erwise would have been or could have
been.
The sweet influences of the heavenly
world, which many wise men thought
for a long while was Alcyone, the cen
ter of the constellation of the Plei
ades, world of our future residence,
as we hope; world of chorus and il
lumination, world of reunion, world
where we shall be everlastingly com
plete, world where our old faculties
will be intensified and quickened and
new faculties implanted, world of high
association with Christ, through
whose grace we got there at all, and
apostles and poet s—Habakkuk and St.
John, of T’atmos, and Edward Young,
his “Night- Thoughts” turned into
eternal day; and Horatius Bonar, of
modern hymnology; andHannah More,
and Mrs. Ilemans and Mrs. Sigourney,
who struck their harps till nations lis
tened; and David, the victor over Go
liath with what seemed insufficient
weapons; and Joshua, of the pro
longed day in Gibeon; and Havelock,
the evangelist hero, and those thou
sands of men of the sword who fought
on the right side. What company to
move in. What guests to entertain!
What personages to visit! What
choirs to chant! What banquets with
lifted chalices filled with “the new
wine of the kingdom!” What victories
to celebrate!
Sweet influences of the Jloly (ihost,
with all His transforming and cum
fortingandemancipatingpower 1 When
that power is fully felt, there will be
no more sins to pardon and no more
wrongs to correct and no more sor
rows to comfort and no more bondage
to break. But as the old-time ship
captains watched the rising of the
Pleiades for safe navigation and set
sail in Mediterranean waters, but
were sure to get back into port before
the constellation Orion came into
sight, the season of cyclone and hurri
cane, so there is a time to sail for Heav
en, and that is while the sweet in
fluences are upon us and before the
storms overtake the delay. Open all
your soul to the light and warmth and
comfort and inspiration of that Gos
pel which has already peopled Heaven
with millions of the ransomed and is
helping millions to that glorious desti
nation. Do not postpone the things
of God and eternity till the storms of
life swoop and the agitations of a
great future are upon us. Do not dare
wait until Orion takes the place of the
Pleiades. Weigh anchor now and with
chart unrolled and pilot on board head
for the reunions and raptures that
aw'ait all the souls forgiven. “And
they need no candle, neither light of
the sun, for the Lord God giveth them
light, and they shall reign forever and
ever.”
FARMER AND PLANTER
SOUTHERN PRODUCTIONS.
A Few Fact* Designed to Set tlie
Farmer* of tlie South to
Thinking; and Acting.
We do not often indulge in figures.
The dry bones are very useful to build
upon. They are sometimes the frame
work upon which we may place mus
cles and tendons and nervfcs and fat
and skin and construct a well-formed
body.
We 6hall not undertake to be exact
in this article. Round figures and ap
proximations will suit our purposes.
We wish simply to set you to draw
some conclusions for your own bene
fit.
Our cotton crop will for this and
succeeding years figure around ten
million bales. At present it is doubt
ful if we will get that. Ten million
bales at eight cents per pound would
be four hundred millions of dollars.
The seed products will be worth an
other hundred million dollars. The
corn crop will be another two hun
dred million. Wheat and oats over
another hundred million. The various
hay Crops at least a hundred millions
more. Then we have the sugar cane,
rice, potatoes, truck crops, melons
and peaejies, which add up more than
a hundred millions more. These all
grow out of the earth and upon the
farms. Sow add to these the horses,
mules, cows, sheep, hogs, chickens,
eggs, butter, hides, etc., and you will
find at least two hundred millions
more. These all grow upon the
farms.
Let us sum up and we find:
Cotton.$400,000,000
Seed . 100,000,000
Corn and stover. 200,000,000
Wheat and oats. 100,000,000
Hay of all sorts. 100,000,000
Miscellaneous. 100,000,000
Live stock, ets. 200,000,000
Total.$1,200,000,000
Here we have an annual production
from southern agriculture of more
than one billion and two hundred
millions of dollars.
Now we must not forget the large
productions of lumber, coal, iron, gold
and other valuable minerals, naval
stores, etc. These, with our manu
factures, add perhaps as much as the
agricultural products.
If these vast, almost inconceivable
sums of money were kept here and
annually added to our means, we
would, in a few years, be a rich and
prosperous people. But a large part
of it is now sent out to pay for pro
visions which we coidd just as well
raise here. Other large sums are sent
out to pay for luxuries, many of
which we do not need. Other large
sums go into too rapid building up of
cities and towns, w'hich drain the
country oJ its men and women, and
then of its money.
Still other large sums go to pay for
margins on futures. This betting busi
ness carries out of the south much
more money than we are generally
aware of. It is estimated that south
erners pay out on losses in cotton fu
tures half as much as the cotton crop
brings. But we began simply to call
attention to the enormous wealth we
are annually' creating and distribut
ing. And yet many of us remain poor.
This need not be. The southern farm
er who looks after his business is
bound to get well off.
Since writing the above, the follow
ing table has appeared in the Atlanta
Constitution. We give it room here,
because it shows that our figures were
entirely inside of the real facts.
In view of these wonderful figures
we wish to say that the man who
owns a southern farm is fortunate.
We should be very slowr to sell our
land at any price. It will rapidly rise
in price.
A table purporting to give the agri
cultural products of th^, south during
the year 1900 has caused not a little
astonishment in the north. Here is
the table referred to:
Cotton and cotton products.$720,500,000
Corn. 234,684,123
Wheat . 68,204,370
Oats . 30,371,008
Bye . 1,306,848
Irish potatoes. 10,254,437
Hay . 42,466,428
Sugar. 26,300,000
Tobacco. 40,000,000
Bice . 10,000,000
Sweet potatoes . 25,000,000
Teanuts. 3,000,000
Poultry and eggs. 25,000,000
Milk and butter (counted
together) . 30,000,000
Fruits and vegetables
shipped and consumed at
home, over . 100,000,009
Cattle and swijjje killed for
home consumption and
shipped away, over. 30,000,000
There is only one thing, says the
Memphis Commercial-Appeal,the mat
ter with this table, and that is that it
is below the mark in some respects.
The poultry and egg item, for in
stance, ought to be at least $75,000,
000, while the milk and butter item
should be at least $100,000,000.
This would make the total of values
for the agrieultural products of the
south over $1,500,000,000. This, how
ever, does not tell the entire story
of southern prosperity. It is isti
mated that the mineral products of
the south, and the manufactured
products, exclusive of cotton, amount
to at least as much in value as the
agricultural products. So we would
have a total product worth $3,000,000,
000, which would establish the claim
made that the south is naturally the
richest section in the union. Yet some
or our richest resources have hardly
been tapped as yet; and no account ia
made in the above est iniate of the
manifold mercantile industries of this
section, of the railroad and other in
terests, or of the healthy and
etpiable climate. No one can
observe all these evidences of
progress without perceiving that the
south is destined to become the gar
den spot of America.—Southern Cul
tivator.
THE LIFE OF THE FARMER.
There Is a Difference, of Course, But
It is Usually as the Farmer
Himself Makes It.
Farm life has been extolled by the
wisest men in all ages. Only during
the dark ages, and in lands perpetual
ly dark, has farming been considered
a lit occupation for slaves. In ancient
Egypt, Assyria and Home, when each
in turn led the civilization of the
■world, agriculture was esteemed the
“noblest occupation of man.” During
modern times the farmer has ranked
high among the useful citizenship of
all civilized nations, until now learn
ing the science, in all their branches,
have been called into requisition to
add interest and pleasure to the op
erations of the farm. There can be no
greater or more rational pleasure
than that of planting, nurturing, car
ing for and enjoying the fruit of na
ture’s living organisms of the vege
table and animal world and in apply
ing the scientific principles of breed
ing to them. What can be a more in
' spiring sight than fields of waving
! grain, or trees and vines blooming,
and then bearing, first the embryotie,
| and finally the mature fruit? Then
there are the domestic animals to
care for, and their mute but satis
| factory companionship a constant!
source of inspiration to higher
achievements. There is scope on a
farm for the exercise of every intel
lectiml faculty and every laudable
. emotion. God never intended that
| man should live in dirty, smoky, filthy
j cities and carry on a perpetual war
over a little gold and silver money,
, and piles of brick and mortar, that
\ contain no nutriment, no pleasant
taste, no appetizing flavor—not one
element that can support life or cause
a single pleasureable sensation. Man
was created a farmer and placed in a
garden and left to hoe his own row.
The d—1 then got in his work, cities
were built and Satan and his dis
ciples quit the farm and moved to
| town, and then the strife began, and
j is kept up. As we write these Lines,
across the street the police court is
busy assessing fines for drunkenness
and disorderly conduct, and in the
higher courts lawyers are straining
| their ingenuity and lung power in the
] effort to clear the guilty or convict
| the innocent; sharpers are plotting
i new and plausible schemes to fleece
the unwary, and vice, thinly veiled
and lavishly bedizened, walks the
streets without a blush, and as the
“cars rattle o’er the stony streets”
one has to shout to be heard, while
smoke and dust offend the lungs and
obstruct every organ of the body, lie
who wants peace and quietness to re
i store the energy lost in the fierce
j chase for the mighty dollar must
seek it in the country.—Texas Farm
and Ranch.
HERE AND THERE.
—Seed corn should always be se
lected in the field. That in the crib
should be fed to the stock.
—Potato scab is a serious disease of
the tuber, but these days even the
scabe will bring' a good price.
—Every cattle raiser who uses good
bulls and is constantly improving his
cattle is making progress, is bettering
his condition.
—It will pay at this season to watch
the weeds. Many of our worst garden
and farm pests have a habit of mak
ing up for lost time, which is insidi
ous and annoying.
—The profits in raising cattle do not
consist alone in the cash revenue re
ceived, but in the gradual improve
ment in the blood, together with the
increase from year to year in number.
—Don't allow the cattle to walk off
their flesh and tramp out the grass
going to and from water. Save all
this unnecessary loss by distributing
the water at convenient distances all
over the pasture.
—With all our great cane planta
tions and beet farms, this country
only produces 350,000 tons of sugar,
of which 350,000 tons is cane sugar of
the south, and about 100,000 tonsmade
from beets in the far west and Mich
igan.
—The telephone is not apreciated
by farmers in closely-settled com
munities as much as it should be. But
it is rapidly coming into favor, and
the lines are being extended farther
and farther out into farming dis
trict*.