Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-02-12
BEAUTIFUL SNOW.
DIR. TALMAGE breaches ABOUT
THE EMBLEM OF PURITY.
The Wonders and Mysteries Con-
tanned in a Snowfiake.-God Re-
vealed in a Frozen Tain-drop.-
How the Sinner May Become
Whittier Than Snow

| NEw YORK, N, Y, Feb. 8, lS91.-Dr.
Talmage's sermon this evening, which he
also preached in the Brooklyn Academy OF
Music in the morning, was from Job SO.
| 90. Hast thou entered into the treasures
of the snow?"
Grossly maligned is the season of winter.
The spring and summer and autumn have
had many admirers, but winter, hoary-
headed aud white bearded winter, hath
had more enemies than friends. Yet with
out winter the human race would be inane
and effortless. You might speak of the
winter as the mother of tempests; l take
it as the father of whole family of physl-
cal, mental and spiritual energies. The
most people that know are strong in pro-
portion TO the number of snow banks they
had TO climb over, or push through, in
childhood, while their fathers drove the
Sled loaded with logs through the crunching
drifts high as the fences. AT this season
of the year when we are so familiar with
the snow, those frozen vap0rs, those fall
ing blossoms of the sky, those white
angels Of the atmosphere, those poems OF
the storm, those IHuds and Odysseys of the
wintry tempest, turn over the lea |es OF
my Bible and-thoUgh most Of it was
written in cline where snow seldom or
never fell find many Of these beautiful
congclatioh.. Though the writers may
seldom or never have felt the cold touch of
the snowflake on their cheek, they had in
sight two mountains, the tops of which
were suggestive Other kings sometimes
take of their crowns, but Lebanon and
Mount Hcrmon all the year round and
through the ages never lift the Coronets OF
nj IN fTC+
time we find a deep fall Of snow in the
Bible is where Samuel describes a fight
between Bcnaiah and a Ion in a pit; and
though the snow may have cr.msoned
u.fer the wounds of both man and brute,
the shaggy monster rolled over dead and
the giant was victor. But the snow is not
fully recognized in the Bible until God in
s"rrogates job the scientist, concerning its
wonders, saying: Hast thou entered into
the treasures Of the snOW?'
] rather think that JOB may have exam
incd the snowflake with a microscope; for,
although il is supposed that the microscope
was invented long after Jobs time, there
had been wonders of glass loug before the
microscope aud telescope Of later day were
thought Of. So long ago as when the Col
iseum was in its full splendOr Nero sat in
the cmperor's box of that grand theatre,
which held a hundred thousand people, and
looked at the COmhatantS through a gem ia
his tinger-ring which brought everything
close up to his eye. Four hundred years
before Christ, in the stores at Athens, were
sold powerful glasses called burning
Spheres and Layard, the explorer, found
a maguifving- glass amid the ruins of Nine
yah, and in the palace of Nimrod. Whether
through magnifyirg instrument or with I'M
aided eye, / cannot say. but | am sure that
Job somehow went through the galleries of
the snowflake and counted its pillars and
found wonders Taptures, mysteries, theolo-
GiCs, maieoties, intinities walking up and
down its corridors, as a result of the ques-
ton which the Lord had asked him, Hast
thou entered into the treasures of the
snOw?"
And now propose for your spiritual and
everlasting profit, if you will accept my
guidance, to take you through some of
these wonders of crystillization. And
notice first, God in the Titles. You may
take AlpCnstOCk and cross the Mer de
Glace, the Sea of Ice, and ascend Mont
Blanc which rises into the clouds like a
pillar of the Great White Throne, or with
Arctic explorer ascend the mountains
around the North Pole and see glaciers a
thousand feet high grinding against glaciers
three thousand feet high. But 1 will take
you on a less preteutiouS journey and show
you God in the snowflake. There is room
enough between its pillars for the great
Jehovah to st1nd. In that one frozen drop
on the tip OF your finger you may find the
throRe-room of the Almighty. ! rake up
the snow in my hand see the cOursers of
celestial dominion paving these crystal
pavements. The telescope is grand, but
must confess that | am quite as much
interested in the microscope The one
reveals the universe above US; the other,
Just as great a universe beneath us. But
the telescope Overwhelms me, while tho
microscope comforts me. What you want
and | want especially is God in Titles.
If we were Ceraphic or arch-angelic in our
natures we would want to study God in
the great; but such small, weak, short
lived beings as you and are, want to find
God in the Titles.
When l see the Maker of the universe
giving himself to the architecture of a
snowflake and making its shafts, its domes,
its curves, its walls, its irradiations so
perfect, conclude he will look after our
insignificant affairs. And if we are of
moro value than sparrow most
than an inanimate snowflake So
the Bible would chiefly impress US with
God in the Titles. 1t does not say. Con
slider the Clouds" but it says Consider
the lilies" 1t does not say, Behold the
tempests," but, Behold the fowls!" and
it applauds cup of cold water, and the
widows two mites. and says the hairs of
your head are all numbered. Do not fear,
therefore, that you are going to be lost
in the crowd. Do not think that because
you estimate yourself as only one snow
fake among a threc-days' January snow
storm that you will be forgotten. The
birth aud death of drop of chilled vapor
is as certainly regarded by the Lord as the
| creation and demolition of planet
Nothing is big TO God and nothing is small.
| What makes the honey industries of South
| Carolina such source of livelihood and
| wealth? 1t is because God teaches the
lady-bug to make an opening in the rind OF
| the apricot for the bee who cannot other
wise get at the juices of the fruit. So God
| sends the lady-bug ahead TO prepare the
| way for the honey-bee. He teaches the
I ant TO bite each grain of corn that she puts
! in the ground for winter food in order that
! it may not take root and so ruin the little
! granary. He teaches the raven in dry
weather to throw pebbles into a hollow
tree that the water far down and out OF
reach may come up within reach of the
birds bcak. What comfort that he is g
God in the Titles.
oh" says some one, ~ would like &c
stop the forces of sin and crime that are
marching for the conquest of the nations
but | am nobody, l have neither wealth moi
eloquence nor social power. What can
do?" My brother, how much do you
weigh? AS much as snowflake? "Ot
yes" Then do your share. 1t is an ag
lrsgation of small influences that will yct
put this lost world back into the bosom Of
j pardoning God. Alas that there are 81
many men and women who will not use
the one talent because they have not ten
and will not give a penny because they
cannot give dollar, and will not speak as
well as they can because they arc not elo
quent, and will not be a snowflake because
they cannot be an avalanche. In earthly
wars the generals get about all the credit
but in the war for God and Righteousness!
and heaven all the private soldiers win &C
| crowns of ViptOrv falling Whan wv