The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-12-06
mission OF THE FROST"
A Timely Discourse by Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage.
and rs q Physician-Ths Greatest Col
lege From which We Can
Graduate is the Col
lege of Frosts.

sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle
was 1.-THE Mission of the Frost" the
text being Job xxxvii, 10: by the
breath Of God frost is given"
Nothing is more embarrassing to an
organist OF pianist than to put his fin
ger on key Of the instrument and
have ii make no response. Though all
the other keys are in full play, that
one silence destroys the music. So In
the great cathedral of nature II one
part fails to praise the Lord the har-
mony is halted and lost While fire
and hail, snow and vapor, respond to
the touch Of inspiration, II the frost
made no utterance the orchestral rem
dering would be hopelessly damaged
and the harmony forever incomplete.
am more glad than can tell that the
white key of the frost sounds forth as
nightly as any Of the other keys, and
when David touches 1t In the Psalms 1t
sounds forth the words; "He scattereth
the hoar frost like ashes," and when
Job touches II in my text II 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 scattered by the au-
tumnal equinox. The huskers have
riaed the cornshocks. The night sky
has shown the usual meteoric restless
ness of November. Three seasons OF
the year are past, and the fourth, the
last, has entered. Another element
now comes In to bless and adorn and
instruct the world. 1t is the frost.
The palaces of this king are far
up in the Arctic. Their walls are
glittering congelation. Windsor cas-
ties and Tuilleries and winter pal
aces and Kenilworths and Alham-
bras Of ice. Temples with pendant
chandeliers of ice. Thrones of ice
berg, on which eternal silence reigns.
Theaters on whose stage eternal cold
dramatized 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 silvcry 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 him
der and slay, shall show you that the
frost is q friend, with benediction di-
vlnely pronounced, and charged and
surcharged with lessons potent, bone
ficent, and tremendous The Bible sew
en- times alludes to the frost, and we
must not ignore 1t. by the breath Of
God frost is given"
First, think Of Frost as a painter.
He begins his work on the leaves and
continues IL 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 humblest bush in the latter part
OF September, and begins the sketch
ing OF The leaves. Now he puts upon
the foliage faint pallor, and then q
touch of brown, and then a hue Of
orange, and last flame Of fire. The
beech and ash and oak are turned, first
into sunrises, and then ito sunsets Of
vividness and splendor. All the leaves
are penciled one by one, but sometimes
q whole forest in the course of few
days shows great velocity Of work.
Weenix, the Dutch painter, could make
in summer day three por.
traits of life size, but the frost
in ten days can paint ten mountains
In life size. 1t makes the last days Of
an autumnal wood the days of its chief
est glory. Luxembourgs in the Adri-
ondaclSs. Louvres in the Sierra Ne
vadas. Vaticans in the White Noun
tains. The work of other painters you
must see in the right light to fully APP
preciate, but the paintings of the frost
in all lights are enchanting, and from
the time when the curtain OF the morn
ing lifts to the time when the curtain
of the night drops. Michael Angelo
of the last Judgment, but the frost rep
resents universal conAagration upon
three thousand miles OF stretched-out
grandeur. Leonardo da Vinci put upon
few feet of canvas our Lords "Last
Supper" for all ages to admire, but the
frost puts the cleaning chalices Of the
imperial glories Of the last supper of the
dying year on the heights and lengths
and breadths Of the Alleghenies. When
Titan first gazed upon sketch Of Cor
reggie he was wrought up into such
ecstacy that he cried out: "If were
not Titan would be Correggio," and
so great and empowering are the au-
tumnal scenes Of our American forests,
that one force OF Nature might we'll OK.
claim to another: "If were not the
sunlight would be the frost" Ru.
gendas, the German painter, suffering
from weakness in his right hand, labo-
riously learned to paint with his left
hand, but the frost paints with both
hands, and has In them moro skill than
all the Rembrandts and Rubens and
Vests and Poussins and Albert Durers
and Paul Veroneses and Claudes gath.
cred into one long art gallery.
But the door Of this great mu.
scum autumnal coloring Is now
closed for twelve-month, and
another spectacle, just as wonderful.
Is about TO open. | put you on the
alert, and ask you TO put your children
nm the ALERT Tired OF working on the