The Baptist headlight. (Topeka, Kan.) 1893-1894, 1893-12-22
The Divine Breath.


Before the usual throngs that for
nearly IS years have gathered IN the
first, second, and third Brooklyn Tab
ernacles successfully, DR.. Talmage
SUNDAY forenoon preached this gOspel
sermon. after commenting upon an ap-
propriate Scripture lesson and giving
out the most inspiring hymns. The
subject was, 1.-The Mission of the
Frost" Text-Job xxxvii, 10, by the
breath of God frost is given"
Nothing is more embarrassing to an
organist or pianist than to put his
finger on a key of the instrument ana
have it make no response. though all
the other keys are in full play, that
one silence destroys the music. so III
the great cathedral of nature, II one
part fails to praise the Lord the
harmony is halted and lost. Whlle
fire and hail. snow and vapor, respond
to the touch of inspiration, If the frost
made no utterance the orchestral rem
dering would be hopelessly damaged
ana the harmony forever incomplete.
I am more glad than | can tell that the
white key of frost sounds forth as
nightly as any of the keys, and when
David touches it in the Psalms, 1t
sounds forth the words. He scattereth
the boar frost like ashes, and when
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 di-
vine help undertake it. This is the
first Sabbath of winter. The leaves
are down. The warmth has gone out
of the air. The birds have made their
winged march southwark. The land
scape has been Scared by the autumn
nal equinox. The huskers have rified
the cornshocks. The night sky has
shown the usual meteOric restlesSnesS
of November. Three seasons of the
year are past, and the fourth and last
has entered. Another element now
comes in to bless and adOrn and in
struct the world. 1t is the frost. The
palaces of this king are far up in the
arctic. Their walls are glittering con-
collation.. Windsor castles and Tuiler-
les and winter palaces and KenllwOrths
and Alhambras OF ice, temples with
pendant chandeliers of ice, 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, dominions of ice
eternal frigidity. From those hard,
white, FURNISHED portals King Frost
descends and waves his silvery
scepter over our temperate zone.
You will soon hear his heel on
the skating pond. You already
feel his breath in the night wind. By
most considered an enemy coming
here to benumb and hinder and slav, |
shall show you that the frost is a
friend, with benediction divinely pro-
nounced, and charged and surcharged
with letters potent. beneticent, and
tremendous. The Bible seven times
alludes to the frost, and we must not
ignore it. "By the breath of God frost
is given"
First | think of frost as painter. He
begins his work on the leaves and con-
tinues it.On the window panes. With
palette covered with all manner of
cOlors in his left hand and pencil of
crystal in his right hand, he sits down
before the humblest bush in the latter
part of September and begins the
sketching Of the leaves. Now he puts
upon the foliage faint color, and then
II GOuCu OI DFONu. duu blCH nue. Vi
orange, and last a flame of fire. The
beech and ash and oak are turned first
into sunrises and then into sunsets of
vividness and splendor. All the leaves
are penciled one by one, but sometimes
whole forest in the course of few
days shows great velocity of work.
Tired of working on the leaves, the
frost will soon turn to the window
I al
morning and find that the windows of
your home have during the night been
adorned with curves, with cOronets,
with exquisiteness, with pomp, with
almost supernatural spectacle. Then
as it declares. by the breath of God
frost is given" You will see on the
window pane, traced there by the
frost, whole gardens of beauty-ferns,
orchids. daffodils, heliotropes, china
asters, fountains, statues, hounds on
the chase, roebucks plunging into the
stream. battle scenes with dying and
dead. catafalques of kings, triumphal
processions-and as the morning sun
breaks through you will see cities of
fire. and bombardment with bursting
she'll and Examinations as for some
great victory, cOronations, and angels
on the wing.
Standing here between the closed
doors of the pictured woods and the
opening doors of the TRANSPORTED win
dow glass, want to cure my folly and
| your folly of longing for glorious things
in the distance, while we neglect APP
probation of glorious things close by.
"Oh, If could only GO and see the
| factories of lace at Brussels" says
some one. Why, within twenty feet
of where you awaken some December
morning you will see rich lace inter
woven for your window panes by divine
| fingers. ''Oh. if | could see the factO-
ries OF silk at Lyons" says some one.
Why, without leaving your own house
on Christmas morning you may see
4 where the |. ord has spun silken threads