The Penn's Grove record., 1893-12-08
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S sun.
DAY SERMON.
subject: "The Mission of the Frost.'

TEXT: "By he breath # cod frost il,
qtpen.' JOB xxxvii., 10.
Nothing is more embarrassing to a organ.
;ss or pianist than to put his finger on n key
Of the instrument ard have il make no re.
| sponse. Though all the other KEYS are in
sull play, that one silence destroys the music,
So in the great cathedral Of Nature, If one
part fails to praise tie Lord the harmony is
halted and lost. While fire and hail, snow
| and yapor, respond to tho touch Of ~inspfra-
ton. ii the frost made no utterance the
| orchestral rendering would be hopelessly
damaged and the harmony forever incom-
plete. I am more glad than | can tell that
tho white key Of tine frost sounds forth az
| nightly as any OF the other keys, and when
| David touches it in tho Psalms it sounds
forth tho words, "He seattereth the boar
| frost like ashes, 7" n when Job touches it in
my text it rcsounds with the words, 'By the
| breath OF God frost is given"
AZ no one seems disposed to discuss the
| mtssion OF frost, depending on divine 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
| landscape has been Scared by the autumna
| equinox. The huskers have riiled the corn
| shocks. The night sky has shown the usual
| meteorie restlessness of November. Three
| seasons of the year are past, and the fourth
| and last has entered. Another element now
! comes ir 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 castles
| and TGileries and winter palaces and
| Kcnilworths and Alhambras of ice,
| temples with pendant chandeliers oil
ice, thrones Of iceberg on which
/ eternal silence reigns. theaters on
! whose stage eternal cold drlmatizes 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. D. most considered an enemy
coming here TO benumb and hinder and
silr. l snail show you tiiat the frost is a
/ fricn J. with bened' ION divinely pro-
| nounced. and charge nj surcharged with
J lessons potent. benelictnt and tremendous.
| The Bible seven lines alluirs to the frost,
+, and we must not ignore it. BY the breath
| OF God frost is given"
First 1 think OF frost rs 4 painter. He be-
| gins his work on the leaves and continues it
| on tho windpw 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
| sketcline OF the leaves. Now he puts upon
| the foliage 4 faint pallor. and then a touch OF
brown, and then Il hue OF orange. and last Il
| fame of ftro. The beech and ash and oak are
\ turned first into sunrises and then into sun.
| sets of viyidness and sp.endor. Allthe leaves
are pencilel cns by one. but sometimes a
| whole forest in the course Of q few DAYS
| shows great velocity of work.
| Weenix, the Dutch painter. could make in
a summer day THREE portraits Of life size, but
| the frost in Ten days can paint ten noun
| taius in life size. 1t makes the last days of
| an autnmnal wood the DAYS Of its chlefest
| glory Luxembourgs in tho A~dirondacks,
Louvres in the Sierra Nevadas. Vaticans in
the White Mountains. The work of other
, painters yoE must see in the right light to
| fully appreciate, but the paintings Of the
frost In all lights are enchanting from the
| time when the curtain otthe morning liftsto
| the time when the curtain OF the night drops,
Michael Angelo put upon one ceiling his
representation Of the last Judgment, but tn !,
frost represents universal conf l@r tioii
upon 1899 'ui.t's OF = ~r'tr3ei III grandeur
| Loonar .u.ta Vinci put upon a few feet of
canvas or Lords last supper for all ages to
admire. nut the frost puts the cleaning chat
ices OF The imperial gtories of the last sup
\ per of the dying year in the heights and
~ as sAAAft toAa "a ~ AiAl ia ~
When Titan FIRST gased upon a sketch OF
Ccrreggio, he was wrought up into such
. ecstGey that he cried out. 'If | were not
Titan, / would be Correggio," and so great
and oyerpowering are the autumnal scenes
OF our American forests that one force OF
nature might we'll exclaim to another, "If
were not the sunlight, l would be the FROST
Rugendas, the German painter, suffering
from weakness in his right hand. laOoriously
learned to paint with his left hand, but the
frosts paints with both hands. and has in
them more skill than all the Rembrandts AMI
Rubens and Vests and Poussin5 and Albert
Dnrers and Paul Veropeses and Claudes
gathered in one long art gallery. But the
door OF that great museum OF autumnal col
oring is now closed for a twelvemonth, and
another spectacle just as wonderful is now
open. ! put YOU on the alert and ash you to
put your children on the alert.
Tired of working Oh the leaves, the frost
will soon turn to the window panes. You
will soon waken IN a cold morning n find
that tho windows of your home nave during
the night been adorned with curves, with
~coronets, with exluistteness, with pomp,
with almost supernatural spectacle. Then
You will appreciate wat my text says as it
declares, by the breath of God frost is
giyen.' You will see on the window pane,
traced there by the frost, whole gardens o.
beauty-ferns, orchids, datfodils, heiiotropes,
NiiuN slSltES, lOuutttit~. SldlutS, hOuiil Ou
the chase, roebucks plunging into the stream,
battle scenes with dying and dead, cata-
tulques OF kings, triumphal processions-and
us the morning sun breaks through you will
see cities On fire, and bombardment with
bursting shell, II illuminations as for some
great victory, coronations and angels on the
wing.
All night long while y0u were sleeping III"
frost was working, AMI yOu ought not let
Inc warmth n 1ltpF-lta tIt4 scene until Won
hayo admired il, studied il, absorbed il, set
IT up in your memory for perpetual refresh
ment and realized the force and magnitu lie
and intensity OF my text. by the breath o
God frost is given" Oh, what a Col we
have! What resources are implied by the TACT
that he is able to do that by the finger OF the
1rost fifty times in one winter AMI on "a nun
bred thousand window pmes for thoustnts
OF winters!
The great art galleries Of Venice and Ma
pies and Dresden are carefully quartet,
md governments protect them, for ones lost,
they can never be- repro lueed, but God sets
up in the royal galleries Of the frost pictures
such as no human art could ever produce,
hundreds of thousands Of them, only Tor
four or five hours, and then rubs them out,
making the place clear :or 4 display Just as
magnificent the next morning. No one but
a God could afford to do that. 1t would
bankrupt everything but tnilnity n omnl-
potenee.
Standing here between tla closed doors OF
the pictured woods and the opening doors o.
the TRANSPORTED window glass, L want &c
cure my folly and your folly of longing Tor
glorious things in the distance, while We
neglect appreciation Of g'or.ojs things mean
by. "Oh, II I could only 90 and see tht
factories OF lace at Bru,s is says someone.
Why, within thirty feet OF whereyou awaken
Some December morning You will see rlcher
lace interviewer for your window pane by
divine fingers ''Oh, if I could see the lac
tories Of silk at Lyons says some one.
Why, without leaving your home on the
north side of your " house on Christmas
morning you may soc where the LORD mas
spun silken threads about your windowsthls
way and Observation-Disclosures such rs no one
but God can work.
Alas. for this Qualification OF tho distant
and ills belittlins of the close by' Inls
observation-disclosures aud having a htgh aa1-[
Hon In expenses to look al that which is not
half as well done as something we can oeS
by crossing our own room, ana rec o.
charged This praising of Raphaeis hunareus
Of years gone, when the greater taphael, me
irost. Will soon be busy at the entrances "
your own homei
Naxf 7 qnaak ~ ,na frost ma n physician.