AGE after age has rolled past in the ever onward flowing river of time, since this question was asked. And many may have puzzled over the thought that it conveys to us. Have you ever looked up at these same Pleiades and remembered that that omnipotent One, who formed every flashing orb that sparkles there, speaks of their "sweet influence"? Have you ever thought what that influence was?
Or are you like a young friend of mine, who, when some of her school-fellows were telling her of their having seen one of the planets looking most wonderful and unusually bright, and also that the Pleiades had been seen for the first time this winter by them, replied, "I do not know what you mean by the Pleiades, and have never noticed them"? So in case any of you have never looked carefully at them, I think we may as well make our acquaintance with them at once.
Look now for Orion, there it shines, and Sirius, lower to the left. Now imagine a line drawn from Sirius to the belt in Orion, and then prolong the line upwards and you meet with a star almost as bright as the famous Sirius. You can see it, can you not? Well, this star is called Aldebaran, or by some astronomers it is known as the “eye of Taurus," or the Bull, as those three bright stars are called that form a triangle, to the right above Orion. Now carry your imaginary line still higher, inclined towards the West, and you arrive at our group of Pleiades.
A gleaming spot of light is at times all we can discern there; but on clear, frosty evenings, we can distinguish a cluster of six stars, and some say they can count eight or nine; but, as a rule, only six are visible now: though in ancient times, seven were known.
These are perhaps those spoken of in God's word as “the seven stars," and, I think, always in connection with Orion. When seen through a good telescope, about eighty stars appear to rise from the void or space, that here especially looks as if sprinkled over with gold dust—so numerous and lustrous are the gleaming lights that are at too immense a distance to be seen as single suns; but their light is seen, though they themselves are only recognized by the tremulous luster that they shed through the void of azure.
The central star or sun is called Alcyone, and around this are grouped fourteen conspicuous stars —when seen through a telescope, I mean—it is only then that they appear bright, and more conspicuous than those around them. And so great is the power of the largest telescopes now used, that the motions of these fourteen stars have been accurately determined and noted. Their motions are all in the same direction, and very nearly equal to each other; and it has been found, too, that a very great number of the stars beyond this cluster, appear to move in the same direction; that is, in the same path that they would do if they were all circling around Alcyone, in the same way that our earth moves round the sun.
Now look up again at the Pleiades, dear friends, and just think of the immense distance that separates us from them as we look up at them to-night. But we can only get a glimpse of that distance, for our mortal minds are not capable of comprehending it really, especially if it is all new to us, this delightful “considering of the heavens." Let us imagine that to-night we start to pay them a visit-that is, if you can imagine anything so stupendous. Our sight reaches them, so we imagine ourselves as accompanying it. We shall go at an almost incredible swiftness, that of light itself.
Now, then, imagine we have started from the earth—we flash over twelve hundred thousand miles in the first minute; in rather more than half an hour we pass Jupiter and its moons; then on and on to the outermost known planet, seventeen hundred millions of miles; and even then we do not appear to have lessened the distance between ourselves and our far-off clusters of stars by any appreciable degree. There they flash, almost as far away as when we stood upon the earth. On again for days and months, still the same—sweeping along at this breathless rate, and still no sign of shortening our journey; months grow into years, years roll away till we count them by centuries. Imagine that we look back now: our sun is no longer visible as such, but merely a point of light, such as any other of the “forest” of stars behind us. Still on and on, and there lie the glorious group of suns that we are moving to, only nearer to us by one-fifth of the distance. So on for five centuries, and even then we are not at the actual end of our mind's journey; for thirty years still must we traverse the infinite universe before we finally reach the great central star. For light itself is supposed to occupy that length of time in reaching our earth from Alcyone—530 years.
Does not this give us a glimpse of what the universe of God is? Far away beyond these wonderful Pleiades, lie other worlds and systems of worlds in endless, countless number; so that millions are reckoned by millions, and do not end there. And when we try to think what a million means, we shall get an idea of what distance and number when counted by millions really are.
One thing that will help us in this, I think, just to look back at the time when we read of earth being created. According to the usual method of reckoning, six thousand years have passed away since the time of its creation. Look own the centuries, as it were: think of the Flood, hen of Moses, of Solomon, of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel—then of the cross—and our own eighteen hundred years—and now see that only rather more than two millions of days have passed since this world was first formed and fashioned by our glorious omnipotent God. Now does not that give you an enlarged idea of what a million really means?
Then think that in the Milky Way alone lie not only millions of stars, but systems; and still on and on lie others ever increasing—ever countless and then remember that the almighty power formed every single world—one infinite Wisdom sustains, rules, directs, governs all—and then look at Jesus Christ of Nazareth, of Calvary, and see hat in Him all that that omnipotent God is, is now made known to you here to-night if you are trusting your soul to Him.
Ah, dear friends, our fancied journey of five hundred centuries is nothing, only a point of time, when we think of the more marvelous journey the Lord's people will soon pass through. Where is the Lord Jesus now? “Far above the heavens, "is the answer that peals down to us from above. And there is your place and mine, dear friend, if you, too, are one of “the Lord's redeemed.”
Now do not you think that it was an immense thing for such a God as ours is—One, of whose power and glory and wisdom I hope you have had a fresh glimpse this evening—do not you see that it is the very greatest marvel of marvels, that this God should visit one world in such a way as He has deigned to visit ours?
No wonder that, for the only time since it was created, the sun refused to give its light to Calvary. And greatest of all other wonders, that men and women on this earth can live and die without ever seeing the glory that shines out in the One who there “gave himself a ransom for all."(1 Tim. 2:66Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. (1 Timothy 2:6).) And yet He was the very same One that “made the seven stars and Orion.”
But to go back to our question of what the “sweet influences of Pleiades “may be. And here we can only tell you of what a great astronomer has recently announced: that after years and close observations of the movements of our solar system, and also of a great many others, he has come to the conclusion, that in the same way as the earth and the other planets roll ceaselessly around our sun, so exactly in the same manner are all the myriads of star clusters that "crowd the Milky Way," revolving ceaselessly around the central star of the Pleiades.
And as our solar system—the sun and all the splendid train of planets and comets that attend it on its course—is only one of the many millions of this Milky Way, we get an idea, it may be no more than that, of where it is speeding its course to.
Now supposing M. Maedlar to be correct, and other great astronomers are assenting to this conclusion, as agreeing with many researches and facts that are now certain; then, I think, we get at least a glimpse of some of the influences of this magnificent cluster of suns that we look up at to-night and say, “There are the Pleiades.”
And if it be that there shines the great central sun, about which all the universe of stars are revolving, then do we get, instead of uncertainty and doubt, one of the most glorious proofs of the lovely harmony that takes in the whole created universe of God—where not a single star shines for itself, but has a perfectly ordered path to pursue, from which it never swerves.
Dear friends, I do want you to see from all this what a God we who know and adore Him have, because we are “in Christ."For we know that this infinitely glorious One “who telleth the number of the stars and calleth them all by name," is the same one that in pity and tender love "healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." The same One that says, too, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Is not He able to do what He says? Just try for yourselves and see, dear friends.
Do you wonder either that if any one refuses to obey this call from such a mighty Creator God as He who spake the worlds into being—do you wonder that, outside all the glory of heaven, there is no place left for them but "blackness of darkness"? No starlight will send its pitying ray of light across that horrifying blackness—no single solitary ray from sun or moon will pierce through that dense veil that separates it from the Light.
Think what it means to be shut out from God for—not a lifetime merely-not for millions of years merely—but for all eternity.
Are you leaving God out of your plans for this life? And this reminds me of a remark of Napoleon the Great, as he was called, when all his plans for some of his campaigns had been carefully completed by him alone, one of his most trusted generals was taken into his confidence; and then Napoleon, in his private cabinet in the luxurious palace of the Tuileries, unfolded to the eyes of his officer all his carefully considered arrangements, and the various routes by which the great army of France was to be led—all the preparations for any emergency that might arise—so that it seemed as though everything had been thought of. And when all had been made known to the general, Napoleon added, “All has been prepared for, excepting the hand of God; that is the great exception always to be made.”
Now, dear young friends, are you forgetting this hand of God? Or are you joyfully remembering that that Hand is the Guide of your life, now that you have given up trusting yourselves, and are trusting Him whose hands were pierced for your sins. One or the other of these two things all of you are now doing.