Democratic messenger., 1893-12-09

by the breath of God frost is gwen. "
You will see on the window pane. traced
there by the frost. whole gardens of
beauty-ferns. orchids. daffodils. hello
tropes. china asters. fountains. statues,
hounds ON the chase. roebucks plunging
into the stream. battle scenes with dy-
ing and dead. catafalqucs of kings. tri-
unphal proccssions-a az the morning
sun breaks through you will see cities
on FIRE, and bomlar,lment with bursting
shell, and illuminations as for some
great victory. c"ronations and angels ON
the wing
All night long while you were sleep
hg the frost was working. and you ought
not let the warmth obliterate the scene
until you have admired it, studied it, alb
sorbed it. set it M in your memory for
perpetual refreshment, and realized the
force and magnitude and intensity of my
text, by the breath of God frost is
given" Oh, what God we have! What
resources arr implied by the fact that he
is able To do that by the finger of the
frost so times in one winter and OH a
hundred thousand window panes for
thousands of winters!
The great art galleries Of Venice and
Naples and Dresden are carefully guard
ed, and governments protect them, for.
once lost. they can never be reproduced,
but God sets up in the royal galleries of
the frost pictures such as no human art
could ever produce. hundreds of thou
sands of them. only for four or five
hours, AMI then rubs them out, making
the place clear for display just rs mag
nificent the next morning. No one but
God could afford to do that. 1t would
bankrupt everything but infinity and
omnipotencc.
Standing here between the closed doors
of the pictured woods and the opening
doors of the transfgured window glass,
i want to cure my folly and your folly
of longing for glorious things in the dis
tance, while we neglect appreciation of
glorious things close by. "Oh, il lcould
only go and see the factories of lace at
Brussels says some one. Why, within
20 feet of where You awaken some De-
cember morning you will see richer lace
interviewer for your window panes by
divine fingers. "Oh. if | could see the
factories of silk at Lyons: says some one.
Why. without leaving your own house
on Christmas morning you may see
where the Lord has spun silkcn threads
about your windows this way and that
-embroideries such as no one but God
can work
Alas. for this glorification of the dis
tant and this belittling Of the close byi
This crossing of oceans and paying high
admission IN expenses to look at that
which is not half as well done as some
thing we can see by crossing our own
room, and free of charge. This praising
of Raphaels. hundreds of years gone.
when the greater Raphael. the frost. will
soon be busy at the entrances to your
own home
Next speak of the frost as physi-
clan. Standing at the gates of New York
harbor autumn before last. the frost
drove back the cholera, saying. Thus
far shalt thou come and no farther"
From Memphis and New Orleans and
Jacksonville he smote the fever plague
till it reelcd back aud departed. The
frost is n physician that doctors cities,
nations and continents. He medicines
the world. Quinine for malaria. antife-
brile for typhoids. sulphonal for sleep
lessness, antisIasmolic for disturbed
nerves. but in all therapeutics there is
no remedy like the small pellets prepared
by the cold, and no physician so skillful
or so mighty as the frost.
Scotland has had great physicians,
but her greatest doctors have been the
Abernethies and Abercrombies that
have come down over the highlands
horsed on the north wind. England has
had her great physicians. but her great
est doctors have been the Andrew
peared the first night the fields of Eng
land were rimmed with white. America
has had its great physicians. but her
greatest doctors have been the Willard
Parkers and Valentine Motifs who land
ed from bleak skies while our fingers
were benumbed and our ears tingled
with the cold. Oh. it is high time that
you add another line to your liturgy. It
is high time that You make an adden-
dunn to your prayers. Ii is high time
that you enlarge the catalogue of your
blessings.
Thank God for frost! II is the best Of
all germici,les. II is the only hope in
bacteriology. II is the medicament of
continents. II is the salvation of our
temperate zone. 1t is the best tonic that
God ever gave the human race. 1t is
the only strong stimulant which has no
reaction. The best commentary on it /.
had while walking near here one cool
morning with my brother John. who
spent the most of his life as a missionary
in China. and in that part of it whert
there are no frosts. He SAID there waa
tingling gladness in his nerves indet
scribable and an almost intoxication oh
delight from the fact that it was tn.
first time for years he had felt the seusa.
ton of frost. We complain of it. WV
scold it, we frown upon it. when W
ought to be stirred by it to gratitudci
and hoist it ON doxolosy. b;
But must 20 farther and speak of thu;
frost as a jeweler. As the snow is froze
rain, SO the frost is frozen dew. Go :,
II otd
1t is the dew glorified. In the thirty
eighth chapter of that inspired drama
the book of job, God says to the inspire
dramatist with ecstatic intcrrogatione
"The hoary frost of heaven. who hatal
gendered it," God there asks job if h =,
knows the parentagc of the frost. He in e
qures about its pedigree. He suggest
that job study up the frost gcnealogica
line. A minute before God had aske
about the parentage Of raindrop
words that years ago gave me a sugges;
i've text for Il sermon. Hath the rain :.
father But now the Lord Almighty q:
caiechising job about the frost. H.
practically says: DO you know it's ffIl
ther? Do you know itsmother: In what
cradle of the leaves did the wind rock it?
The hoary frost of heaven. who hath
ppntlered it?'"