Can You Bind the Beautiful Pleiades? Words by Spurgeon on God's Sovereignty

Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion? Job 38:31

If inclined to boast of our abilities, the grandeur of nature may soon show us how puny we are. We can't move the least of all the twinkling stars, or quench so much as one of the beams of the morning. We speak of power, but the heavens laugh us to scorn. When the Pleiades shine forth in spring with vernal joy we can't restrain their influences, and when Orion reigns in a higher place, and the year is bound in winter's fetters, we can't relax the icy bands. The seasons revolve according to the divine appointment, neither can the whole human race effect a change therein. Lord, what is mankind?

In the spiritual, as in the natural world, humanity's power is limited on all hands. When the Holy Spirit sheds abroad His delights in the soul, none can disturb; all the cunning and malice of humankind are ineffectual to suppress the genial life-giving power of the Comforter. When He deigns to visit a church and revive it, the most inveterate enemies can't resist the good work; they may ridicule it, but they can no more restrain it than they can push back the spring when the Pleiades rule the hour. God wills it, and so it must be. On the other hand, if the Lord in sovereignty, or in justice, binds us up so that our soul is in soul bondage, who can give us liberty? He alone can remove the winter of spiritual death from an individual or a people. he looses the bands of Orion, and no one but He. What a blessing it is that He can do it. O that He would perform the wonder tonight. Lord, end my winter, and let my spring begin. I cannot with all my longings raise my soul out of her death and dullness, but all things are possible with You. I need celestial influences, the clear shinings of Your love, the beams of Your grace, the light of Your contenance, these are the Pleiades to me. I suffer a great deal from sin and temptation, these are my wintry signs, my terrible Orion. Lord, work wonders in me, and for me. Amen.