Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1881-09-29
A MEMORIAL SERMON.
Delivered in Carson City. sept 26. 1881,
by Rev. HI. ". Rice.
ISAIAH, LXIV, g." We all do fade


A~AA w. w Z oil w 1du
as leaf"
The face of the earth is Gods black
board upon which He draws figures
and diagrams to impress upon oul
memories the truths of Scripture. AL
Egypt is written over with hieroglyph
les, and recently a sepulchre has been
opened where, among the Kings and
Queens of over thirty centuries, these
figures are telling US hidden truths OF
the dead past. But God has write n
upon the face of the earth truths per-
tanning not to the dead past but to the
living future. He writes upon so
simple thing as a leaf, our destiny
When He produces painting let artists
stand back. The Equinox has come,
bringing Gods paint brush with the
frost He has stretched his canvas
along the rivers, by the shores of the
lakes, and upon the mountain side.
Within the last few days what pic
ture has He painted along the shores of
Huron, upon the Hudson's highlands,
and on the banks of the rolling Oregon.
Here are the trees with their tips bios
soming into fire. There is the foliage
of underwood that looks as though the
sunset had burst and dropped upon the
leaves. Here are bushes protected by
overhanging rocks and the frost has
been warded off. There is a mass Of
foliage in Which the fire of colors has
caught, and it runs from branch to
branch until the glory of God seems to
submerge them all. The torrents of the
mountain canyon plunge over cataracts
as though they would put out the con-
flagration, but still the fires deepen and
the painting progresses with a crimson
banner that would exhaust the paint
tanks of God, if His colors were not of
infinite supply. But from this piano.
rama we learn lesson. All this gran
deur is mark of death-beautiful or
otherwise the leaf has been death
struck-its colors come, then it fades.
Strains Of sadness, yet strains of glad
ness may be evoked from this harp of
Natures God. "We all do fade as the
leaf"
We notice that the foliage does not
fade all at once, but gradually the
change comes, almost unperceived.
Some three weeks since there
was light frost, but the foliage did
not show it all at once. Again last
week there was another. Then still
another came. The leaves which three
weeks ago felt the frost have been
changing tint day by day. The flush
has been deepening, the veins have
been opening, and the preparation has
been going on for the bleeding of its
life away. From now leaf by leaf they
fall, first from the outer branches, then
from the hidden branches until they all
drop away. And SO the changes come
upon us, gradually, unperceived. To-
day, the day after, and the next will
pass without seeming change, but the
frost has touched us and it's effects are
going to show by and by. In our forms
the work of decay is now going on, and
soon there are the slight colds, the
frequent fatigues, with fever now and
then, neuralgia, rheumatism, pains,
waning vigor, fading sight, deafness,
then the staff and spectacles, and then
the grave. These changes have not
been sudden, but gradual fading, fading,
slowly fading, fading " as the leaf"
Like the leaf we fade away for others
to take our places. The timber round
our homes will next year be dressed as :
richly as in the summer past. The q
and the poplar will be S
clothed next year with another foliage '
If leaves that take the place Of those !
hat are falling now. With the nup- I
;ials of another Spring the month of j
May will rock in the cradle of the wind '
The young buds of another generation. '
the trees of our yards will e
lrop their mantle only to fall upon the v
Of another Elisha, going hence I
:, a chariot If fro Tho Aufuynnol hat q