Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-12-09
bankrupt everything but infnisy and

OF the pictured woods and the opening
doors of the transfgured window glass,
want to cure my folly and your folly
of longing for glorious things in the dis
lance, while we neglect appreciation of
glorious things close by. ''Oh, if could
only go and see the factories of lace at
Brussels" says some one. Why, within
90 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 Lyonsr' says some one.
Why. without leaving your own house
on Christmas morning you may see
where the Lord has spun silken threads
about your windows this way and that
-embroideries such as no one but God
can work.
Alas, for this glorifcation of the dis
tant and this belittling of the close by!
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 reeled back and departed. The
frost is physician that doctors cities,
nations and continents. He medicines
the world Quinine for malaria, antife-
brile for typhoids, sulphonal for sleep
/ lessness, antispasmodic 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
Clarkes and the Macllenzies who APP
peared the first night the fields of Eng
land were trimmed 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. 1t
4 is high time that you make an adden-
dun to your prayers. 1t is high time
that you enlarge the catalogue of your
blessings.
Thank God for frost! 1t is the best of
all germicides, 1t is the only hope in
bacteriology. tits the medicament of
continents. 1t 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 missionary
in China, and in that part of it where
there are no frosts. He SAID there was
]
scribable and an almost intoxication of
delight from the fact that it was the
| first time for years he had felt the sensa-
ton of frost. We complain of it, we
scold it, we frown upon it. when we
ought to be stirred by it to gratitude
and hoist it on doxology.
But l must go farther and speak of the
! oil l,o Sc
rain, so the frost is frozen dew. God
transforms it from liquid into crystal
1t is the dew glorifed. In the thirty
eighth chapter of that inspired drama,
the book of Job, God says to the inspired
dramatist with ecstatic Interrogation,
THE hoary frost of heaven, who hath
gendered it?' God there asks Job if he
| knows the parentage of the frost. He in
quires about its pedigree. He suggests
that Job study up the frost's genealogical
| line. A minute before God had asked
about the parentage of a raindrop in
words that years ago gave me suggest
i've text for Il sermon, Hath the rain
| father But now the Lord Almighty is
catechising JoD about the frost He
4
Their? Do you know itsmother? In what
cradle of the leaves did the wind rock it?
The hoary frost Of heaven, who hath
gendered it
He is stupid Christian who thinks so
much of the printed and bound Bible
that he neglects the Old Testament of
| the fields nor reads the wisdom and
kindness and beauty Of God written in
blossoms on the orchard, in sparkles on
the lake, in stars on the sky, in frost on
| the meadows. The greatest jewcler of
all the earth is the frost. There isnoth-
ing more wonderful in all crystallog-
raphy. Some morning in December
whole continent is found besprinkled
with diamonds, the result of one nights
work by this jeweler.
Do you make the depreciatory remark
/ that the frost is impermanent and will
/ last only two or three hours? What of
that? We go into London tower and
look at the crown jewels of England, bat
we are in procession that the guards
/ keep moving on, and five minutes or less
are your only opportunity of looking at
those crown jewels, but at the crown
jewels bestarred of the frost in parks
and fields you may stand to look delib-
erately and for hours, and no one to tell
You to move on.
/ Oh, these regalias and diadems of
beauty flung out of heavenl Kings and
queens on celebrative days have come
riding through the streets throwing
handfuls Of silver and gold among the
people, but the queen of the winter
morning is the only queen rich enough
to throw pearls, and the king of frost
the only king rich enough to throw opals
and sapphires and diamonds. Homer
describes necklace of amber given to
Penelope, but the frost necklaces con-
tinent. The carcanet of precious stones
given to Harmonic had pinions of orange
jasper and white moonstone and Indian
agate, but it was misfortune to any
one who owned or inherited it, and its
history, generation after generation, was
history Of disaster. But the regalia of
frost is the good fortune of every morn
ing that owns it
The imperial household of Louis XVI
could not afford the diamond necklace
which had been ordered for Queen Marie
Antoinette, and it was stolen and taken
apart and lost, but the necklace that the
frost puts on the wintry morning,
though made of as many brilliants as the
withered grass blades. is easily afforded
by divine opulence and is never lost,
but after its use in the coronation of the
fields is taken back to heaven. o men
and women, accustomed to go into
ecstasy when in foreign travel you come