The free press., 1893-12-28
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE RROOKLYN DIvINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: s'The Mission of the Frost. :"

TEXT: "By the breath Of God frost is
| gtuen." Job xxxvii., 10.
Nothing is more embarrassing to an organ
| fst or pianist than to put his finger on key
of the instrument ard have il make no re-
sponse. Though all the other keys are in
full play. that one silence destroys the music.
So In the great cathedral Of Nature, if one
part fails to praise the Lord the harmony is
halted and lost. While fire and hail, snow
and vapor, respond to the touch Of inspira-
ton. If the frost made no utterance the
orchestral rendering would be hopelessly
damaged and the harmony forever incom-
plete | 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 it in the Psalms it sounds
forth the words, "He scattereth the hoar
frost like ashes" and when job touches 1t 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 have
made their winged march southward. The
landscape has been Scared by the autumnal
equinox The huskers have rified the corn
shocks The night sky has shown the usual
melGOflC TtSIltSSHeSS Ol NOftuDc1. lnf6b
seasons of he year are past, and the fourth
and 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 castles
and Tuileries and winter palaces and
Kenilworths 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
slay, | shall show you that the frost is a
friend, with benediction divinely pro-
nounced, and charged and surcharged with
lessons potent, benehcent 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 be-
gins his work on the leaves and continues 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 pauor. and then touch of
brown, and then hue of orange, and last a
flame of fire. The beech and ash and oak are
turned first into sunrises and then into sun
sets of vividness and splendor. Allthe leaves
are penciled one by one, but sometimes
whole forest in the course OF few days
shows great velocity Of work.
Weenix the Dutch painter, could make in
a summer day three POI rats of life size, but
the frost in ten days can paint ten noun
tains in life size. 1t makes the last Gnys OF
an autumnal wood the days OF its chiefest
glory Luxeabourgs in the Adirondacks,
Louvres in the Sierra Nevddas, Vaticans in
the White Mountains. The work of other
painters you 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 of the morning lifts to
the time when the curtain of the night drops
Michael Angelo put upon one ceiling his
representation of the last Judgment, but the
frost represents universal conhagration
upon 5000 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 fr 81 puts the cleaning chal-
ices of the imperial glories of the LAST sup
per of the dying year in the heights and
VS. VIs.i1 III iuu pnc'na oi .no Aileghahies;
HI.-nti. " nen litiait Hlat Saneu upon ske'ch OF
ooI.ressip, ne was wrousnt ,s up INTO such
TTsiaey T.iy tii,'o ne , ol,ou E ou', were hot
- a1'i'ii, mou'. 20 anu 50 sreat
anu az oSerpoMGlus lowing 49, ato tne & aut ulilnal scenes
VI our AnieIicnT r ioiJsts '.ia' one Iorce OF
.E WIZ bAoiHtn ~ another
"Gto not tnc sIllitSl', "ouiu pe the Irost.
thG ii.i'h euieiilS
I'm ~ tiS ~ u. n"ho, iaoVrlouSly
i'I ~ p',it VIZ ms ieit nahu' put tne
!' tos1' P,'iL'o potn I, .sih9' . anu mas III
ph 1T ~ tii,',' an ee anu
n Duoens am am D9 "sa.9 w ou9elis aau Alpert
Duiens ,otb aihu aui ,eio1eSeI anu @ nlauues .
Satneiet III ii @ ono ionS ant 6ai'eiS buI lhe
uool oi 'iioI siea. museum VI utunnai COL
orilI - nov ci2seu toI l." ,lEetnohtn' anu
anornoi 9Pus'ue.o yu'. "o "ouiel I iui 10 no"
.i' ~ ou vi 'uo "i1i. anu "7A you u
PuT your I', tilIluIen On .iie aiert'
III iieu l. y, MoiNlnS oh tu9 leaVes' tue lrost
WI VII il soon I'LL ~ .no willow panes. lou
NJ Midi sEon Waaen oli "a oo't ioinihs anu nhu
th that tn1 "inuo"a 81 your nonno nave curing
tls ~ niSn' peeh '.i auolheu WIN curves, WIN
Ill cGtpness, WIN eA4.,sI.9ness, WIN poGInP,
WIN .iIi aiiiioSt spoctacle. Ihen
SS Sou WIZ uPPlo.iaeo i wlat my teAS says as II
u;',aa by % .n1 nrea'1 oa' Vi uou Irost Is