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Page 5
In former times men used to put mill wheels into the currents of the
tides; when they rushed into little bays and salt ponds they turned the
wheels one way; when out, the other.
STAR HELP
"We for whose sake all Nature stands,
And stars their courses move."
Do the stars, that are so far away and seem so small, send us any help?
Assuredly. Nothing exists for itself. All is for man.
Magnetism tells the sailor which way he is going. Stars not only do
this, when visible, but they also tell just where on the round globe he
is. A glance into their bright eyes, from a rolling deck, by an
uneducated sailor, aided by the tables of accomplished scholars, tells
him exactly where he is--in mid Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, or
Antarctic Ocean, or at the mouth of the harbor he has sought for
months. We lift up our eyes higher than the hills. Help comes from
the skies.
This help was started long since, with providential foresight and care.
Is he steering by the North Star? A ray of guidance was sent from that
lighthouse in the sky half a century before his need, that it might
arrive just at the critical time. It has been ever since on its way.
The stars give us, on land and sea, all our reliable standards of time.
There is no other source. They are reliable to the hundredth part of a
second.
The Italian physicians, in their ignorance of the origin of a disease,
named it the influenza, because they imagined that it came from the
influence of the stars. No! There is nothing malign in the sweet
influences of the Pleiades.
The stars are of special use as a mental gymnasium. On their lofty
bars and trapezes the mind can swing itself higher and farther than on
any other material thing. Infinity and omnipotence are factors in
their problems. They also fill the soul of the rapt beholder with
adoring wonder. They are the greatest symbols of the unweariableness
of the power and of the minuteness of the knowledge of God. He calleth
all their millions by name, and for the greatness of his power not one
faileth to come.
Number the stars of a clear Eastern sky, if you are able. So
multitudinous and enduring shall the influence of one good man be.
HELP FROM INSENSIBLE SEAS
Suppose one has been at sea a month. He has tacked to every point of
the compass, been driven by gales, becalmed in doldrums. At length
Euroclydon leaps on him, and he lets her drive. And when for many days
and nights neither sun nor stars appear, how can he tell where he is,
which way he drives, where the land lies?
There is an insensible ocean. No sense detects its presence. It has
gulf streams that flow through us, storms whose waves engulf us, but we
feel them not. There are various intensities of its power, the north
end of the world not having half as much as the south. There are two
places in the north half of the world that have greater intensity than
the rest, and only one in the south. It looks as if there were
unsoundable depths in some places and shoals in others.
The currents do not flow in exactly the same direction all the time,
but their variations are within definite limits.
How shall we detect these steady currents when wind and waves are in
tumultuous confusion? They are always present. No winds blow them
aside, no waves drench their subtle fire, no mountains make them
swerve. But how shall we find them?
Float a bit of magnetic ore in a pail of water, or suspend a bit of
magnetized steel by a thread, and these currents make the ore or needle
point north and south. Now let waves buffet either side, typhoons
roar, and maelstroms whirl; we have, out of the invisible, insensible
sea of magnetic influence, a sure and steady guide. Now we can sail
out of sight of headlands. We have in the darkness and light, in calm
and storm, an unswerving guide. Now Columbus can steer for any new
world.
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