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be in their hands at all; it is "woe to them that give suck in those days," almost all the milk is turned into poison. The stars fall from heaven.
We have said that the stars mean the lights of heavenly knowledge. Every verse of the Scriptures becomes a "star" when you understand it. It becomes like a beautiful little light that gives its ray in the right place and at the right time. That is the sort of star that St. Peter spoke of in his second epistle, first chapter, and nineteenth verse: "We have also a sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto alight that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." It is a star that rises in the heart; the same sort of star is meant by Jesus in Revelation ii. 28: "To him that overcometh, will give the morning star." No one will suppose that He means, that to the man who over comes in his spiritual conflict, He will give an earthly morning star, either Jupiter or Venus; no one will be so ridiculous as to think so. Oh, no ; the star that Jesus gives is a star of true light from Himself, the true knowledge of Himself, that star of which He speaks when He says, "I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star." When He shines into the soul, to him that conquers selfishness and evil, He is, first of all, a morning star," an inward heavenly light that tells him of a new day, which assures him the night is ended and his morning is beginning. But that same star will enlarge, will become grander as he presses on, until it will become from a star at length, the great Sun of righteousness, that with healing in its wings will shed its whole blessings upon him. When religion is corrupted, when the church is fallen, then men make use of the knowledge they have of heavenly things, not for heavenly purposes, but for earthly ones, the stars fall from heaven.
They care nothing about heaven, they make pelf and power the great objects of their concern; they talk about Scripture, they preach like saints: they make use of religion as if they were the most earnest
