Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-02-20
REV. DR.. TALMLGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE's SUM-
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT, THE LESSONS OF WINTER. 4"


ures Of the SnoWY'-Job xxxviii, ~
Grossly maligned is the season OF winter.
The spring and summer and autumn have
had many admirers but winter, hoary
headed and white bearded winter hath had
more enemies than friends Yet without
winter the human race would be ilane and
efortless. You might speak OF the winter as
the mother Of tempests. / take It as the
father OF a whole family Of physical, mental
and spiritual energies. The most people that
know are strong in proportion TO the num-
Der 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 vap-
pors those falling blossoms Of the sky, those
white angels Of the atmosphere, those poems
of the storm, those Iliads aud OdySseys of
the wintery tempest, | turn over the leaves
of my Biole and-though most OF 1t was
written in cline where snow seldom or
never fell find many OF these beautiful
congelations. Though the writers may sell
dom or never have felt the cold touch of the
snowflake on their cheek, they had in sight
two mountains the tops OF which were sug-
gestive. Other kings sometimes take Off
their crowns but Lebanon and Mount Her.
mon all the year round and through the
ages never lift the coronets of crystal from
their foreheads.
The first time we find deep fall OF snow
in the Bible is where Samuel describes a
fight between Benaiah and a lion in a pit
and though the snow may have crimsoned
under 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
terTogates Job the scientist, concerning its
wonders saying, Hast thou entered into
the treasures Of the snow"
l rather think that Job may have exam
ined the snowflake with a microscope; for,
although it is supposed that the microscope
was invented long after Jobs time there
had been wonders of glass long before the
microscope and telescope of later day were
thought Of. SO long ago as when the Col
iseum was in its full spendor, Moro sat in
the emperor's box of that great theatre,
which held hundred thousand people, and
looked at the combatants through a gem in
his finger 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 magnifying glass amid the
ruins OF Nlneveh and in the palace of MINI
rod. Whether through msgnifyng instru-
ment or with unaided eye cannot say, but
am sure that Job somehow went through
the galleries Of the snowflake and counted its
pillars and found wonders raptures, mys-
teries, theologies, majesties, infnities walk.
ing up and down its corridors, AS a result of
the question which the Lord had asked him,
Hast thou entered into the treasures Of the
snowT'
Oh it is a wonderous meteor! Memboldt
studied it in the Andes, twelve thousand feet
above the level OF the sea. De Saussure re-
veled among these meteors in the Alps, and
DR.. Scoresby counted ninety-six varieties OF
snowflake amid the arctics. They are in
shape of stars, in shape of coronets, In shape
of cylinders; are globuar, are hexagonal,
are pyramidal, are castellated. After fresh
fall of snow, in one walk you crush under
your feet Tuilleries, Windsor castles, st.
Pauls, st. Peters st. Marks, cathedrals,
Alhambras and Sydenham palaces innumer-
able. know it depends much on our own
condition what impression these flying
meteors of the snow make.
| shall not forget two rough and UMPIRE
tending wood cuts which | saw in my boy
hood side by side; one picture of a prosper
Gus farmhouse, with all signs of comfort
and a lad warmly clothed looking out of the
door upon the first furry Of snow, aud his
mind no uoubt filled with the sound Of jim
Cling sleigh bells and the frolic with playfel-
lows in the deep banks, and he, clapping his
hands and shouting, 1T SHOWS! 1t snowsW
hollow eyed with hunger, looking from the
broken door of wretched home, and seeing
in the falling flakes prophecy of more cold
and less bread and greater privation, wiring
ing his hands and with tears rolling down
his wan cheeks crying, "Oh, my Cod 1t
SHOWS 1t snowsm Out Of the abundance
that characterizes most Of our homes may
there be speedy relief to all whom this win
ter finds in want and exposure
And now propose, for your spiritual and
everlasting profit, if you will accept my guild
ance, to take you through some of these won
ders Of capitalization. And notice first God
In the Titles, You may take alpenstock anc
cross the Mer de Glace, the sea OF ice, and
ascend Mont Blanc, which rises into tbs
clouds like pillar of the great white Throns
or with arctic explorer ascend the mountains
around the north pole, anu see glaciers q
thousand feet high grinding against glacier:
three thousand feet high. But | will TAX
you on less pretentious journey and show
you God In the snowflake There is room
enough between its pillars for the great Je
hovah to stand. In that one frozen drop oil
the tip of your finger you may find the thron
room of the Almighty. l take up the snow
in my hand and see the coursers Of celestia
dominion paving these crystal pavements,
The telescope is grand, but must COMES
that am quite as much interested in tn
microscope. The one reveals the univers,
above us; the other just as great a universe
beneath us. But the telescope overwhelml
me- while the microscope comforts me. What
you want and want especially is a God IL
Titles. IL we were seraphic or archangeliC
in our natures we would want to study God
In the great; but such small weak, short
lived beings as you and l are want to fine
God in the Titles.
When see the Maker of the universe Civ
ing Himself to the architecture of a snow
fake, and making its shafts, its domes, it,
curves its walls, its irradiations 80 perfect
conclude He will look after our insignificant
affairs And II we are OF more value thar
sparrow, most certainly we are of NOR,
value than an inanimate snowflake. SO tn,
Bible would chiefly impress us with God IL
the Titles. 1t does not say Consider tn,
clouds, u but 1t says, Consider the lilies"
does not say, behold the tempestsr' bu
Behold the fowlsp and 1t applauds cup o
cold water and the widows two mites, ant
says the hairs of your head are all numbered
Do not fear, therefore, that you ara going l.
be lost in the crowd. Do not think that be
cause you estimate yourself as only on
snowflake among three days January SNOW
storm that you will be forgotten. The brit
and death Of a drop of chilled vapor is a
certainly regarded by the Lori as the crea
ton and demolition of planet. Nothing |
big TO God and nothing is small.
What makes the honey industries Of Soutl
Carolina such a source Of livelihood au
wealth. 1t is because God teaches the lady
bug to make an opening in the rind of tn
apricot for the bee, who cannot otherwis,
get at the juices of the fruit So God send
the ladybug ahead to prepare tie way TO
the honey bee. He teaches the ant to bit,
each grain of corn that she puts in tn
ground for winter food in order that it MAJ
not take root and 80 ruin the little granary
He teaches the raven in dry weather to thro'
pebbles into a hollow tree, that the water ia
down and out OF reach may come up With
the reach of the birds beak. What a CON
fort that He is a God in littlesl The empero
of all the Russias in olden time was lookin
- he l. Ia