Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-12-20
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Mission of the Frost ;,

ist or pianist lhan TO put MS Unger ora Key
of the instrument and have Il make no re-
sponse. Though all the other keys are 10
full play, that oae silencS destroys the music.
SO in the great cathedral of Nature, II ons
part fails to praise the Lord the harmony 4
halted and lost. While fire and hail, snow
and yapor. respond to the touch OF inspira-
tion. If the frost made no utteranee the
orchestral rendering would be hopeisssly
damaged and the harmony forever ineouS
piete. am more glad than 1 can tell that
the white key of the frost sounds forth ss
nightly as any OF the other keys, and when
David touches it in the Psadms ii SOUNDS
forth the words, "He scattereth the hoaT
frost ike ashes" and whsn Job touches it In
my text it resounds with the words, "By the
breath OF God frost is given"
As no one seems disposed to discuss the
mission of frost. depending on divine help
undertake It. This IS the first Sabbath OF
winter. The leaves are down. The warmth
has gone ont Of the air. The birds hay5
made their winged march southward. The
landscape has been Scared by the autumnal
equinox. The huskers have rifed the corn
shocks The night sky has shown the usual
meteoric rcst!essness Of November. Three
seasons OF the year are past, AMI tho fourth
and last has entered. Another element now
comes in to bless and sduEn and instruct the
world. II Is the frost. TAs palaces OF this
king are far up in the arctic. Their walls
are glitteving cengelation. Windsor castles
Kenflworths and Alhambras of ice,
temples with pendant chandeliers OF
fee, thrones Of iceberg on which
eternal silence reigns, theaters on
whose stage eternal cold dramatizes eternal
winter, pillars OF ice, arches Of ice, crowns
OF ice, chariots OF ice, sepulchers of ice,
mountains OF ice, domtnions of ice--eternsi
frigidfty From those hard, white, Furnished
portals King Frost desceRds and waves his
sjlvery scepter over our temperate zone.
You will soon hear his heel on the skating
pond. YOu already feel his breath in tire
night wind. BY most considered an enemy
coming here 20 benumb and hinder and
slay, I shall show you that the frost is a
friend, with beneii0t'On divinely pro-
nounced, and charge nd surcharged with
lessons potent, benedceut and tremendous.
The Bible seven times alludes 30 the frost,
and we must not ignore IL. by the breath
Of God frost is given"
First 1 think of frost IS q painter. He be-
gins his work on the leaves and continues il
on tho window panes With palette covered
with all manner OF colOrs in his left haRi
and pencil of crystal In his right hand he
sits down before the hUmblest bush in the
latter part OF September and begins thk
sketching OF the leaves. Now he puts upOi
the foliage Il faint pGllor. and then touch Of
brown, aud then q huO OF ORANGE and last =
fame Of fire. The beech and ash and oaE are
turned first into sunriSas and then into sun
sets Of vividuess and sp!end0r. Alihe leaves
are penciled one by one, but sometimes =
whole forest in the course Of q few days
shows great velocity OF work.
WeenlE, the Dutch painter. could make ia
a summer day three portraits OF life size. bn
the frost IN ten days can paint ten noun
tain5 in life size. II makes the last days Of
an autumual wood the days OF its chisfast
glory LuXembourgs in tho AdirondacSs,
touvres IN the Sierra Nsvsdas, Yatlcans in
the White Mountains. The work Of other
frHr7 81 -f.-r,E Ifr,f,~
fully appreciate, but tho paintings OF tho
frost In all lights are enchanting from ths
time when the curtain Otthe morning lifts ia
the time when the curtain Of the night dropsi
Michael Angelo put Rpon one ceiling his
representation Of the last Judgment but th1
frcst represents universal confiacratiol.
upon 5000 miles Of stretched out GRANDEUR
Leonardo do Yinci put upon a few feet of
canvas our Lords last supper for all ages TO
admire, but the frost puts the cleaning chal-
ices OF the imperial gl0ries Of the last sup.
per Of the dying year IN the heights aud
lengths and breQdths OF the Allechanies,
When Titan first gaZsd upon a sketch OF
CorreggiO, he was wrought up into such
ecstacy that he cried out, III l were no,
Titan, would be COrregg.O" and so great
and overpow2ring are the autumnal scenes
of our American forests that Que force of
nature might well eXciaim to another, II I
were not the sunlight. would he the fr0se. -
RugendRs, the German painter. suffering
from weakness in his right hand. lahoriousiY
learned to paint with his left hand, but the
frosts paints with both hands. auI has in
them more skill than all the Rembrauits an Z
Rubens ami Vests and Pgussius and Albert
DursTs and Paul Ner0ueses and Claude,
gathered in ono long art gallery. But the
door Of that great museum Of aUtumuul co..
oring Is now closed for a twelvsmonth, AMI
another spectacle Just as wonderful is now
open. put vOu on the alert and ass y0l to
put yOur chill 4ran on the q 'prF
Tired OF working on the leaves the frost
viii soon turn TO the window paues lOu
WILL soon waken on a cold morning, and fin
that tho windows of your home have durInz
the night been adorned with curves. with
COrOuetS, with eEgGisiteness, with pOmp.
with almost supernatural spectacle. Then
you will appreciate what my text SAYS az II
declares, BY the breath of God frost is
given You will see on the window pane,
traced there by the frost, whole gardens o,
beauty ferns. orchids. daiTOdils, heliotropes.
china asters. fountains. statues, hounds on
the chase, roebucSs plunZinE into the stream,
battle scenes with dying and dead. cata.
falques Of kings, triumphal processlons-and
as the morning sun breaks through you will
see cities on fire, and bOmbardrnent with
bursting shell and illuminatiOns as for some
great victory, coronations and angels on the
wing.
All night long while YOU were sleeping the
frost WAS working, and YOU ought not les
the warmth Obliterate the scene until YOU
have admired it, studied it. absorbed i, set
it up in your memory Tor perpetual refresh b.
nent and realized the force and magnitude
and intensity OF my text. ''By the breath OF
God frost Is given Oh, what a Col We
have What resources are implied by the fact
that he Is able 10 do that by the finger Of the
frost fifty times in one winter and on a hun
dred thousand window PHnes for thousands
Of winters
The great art galleries Of Venice and Ma
plcs and Dresden are carefully guarded
and governments protect them, for once los1 ,
they can never bs reproduced, but God Sc 5
up IN the royal galleries OF the frost picture.
such as no human art could ever produce
hundreds OF thousands Of them, only Tor
four or five hours and then rubs them out,
masking the place clear for a display Just as
magnificent the neIt morning. No one hut
ii God could afford 70 DO that It wpuld
bankrupt everything hrt inlnity and olnni-
potencc.
Standing here hctweeu the closed doors Of
the pictured woods anI the opening doors o.
the transigured window class, [ want to
cure my folly and your folly OF longing for
glorious things in the distance, while We
neglect appreciation OF g.0riOus thing, neal
by. "O6, If I could only 20 and see ths
factories Of lace at Brussels ~ says someone
Why, within thirty feet of where you awaken
some December morn .u- you will see richer
lace inteJwOyan for yoUr window panes by
divine fingers. "On. II could see the ia =
tories Of silk at Lyons j. SAYS some one
Why. without leaving your home on tho
north s:3e Of yoUr own house on Christmas
morning. you may see whore the Lord has
spun silEan threads about your windows this
way and dthat-emhrg!lnries such rs no one
but God can work.
Alas. for this EIorilcatior OF tho distant
and tbs belttlug Of tine close byl This
cE0z&ln-s a. aaSaz-S S=s.n 90 -z.yh adG--ss
s..- ......n 'J1E at t'iHt vn.cn - no.