Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-12-04

ID IL.
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 plungins
into the stream, battle scenes with dy.
ing and dead, catafalques of kings, tri
umphal processions-and as the morning
sun breaks through you will see cities
on fire, and bombardment with bursting
shell, and Examinations as for some
great victory, coronations and angels on
the wing.
All night long while you were sleep
ing 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 up in your memory fol
perpetual refreshment, and realized the
force and magnitude and intensity of my
text, s'By the breath of God frost is
given" Oh, what a God we have! What
resources are implied by the fact that he
is able to do that by the finger of the
frost 80 times in one winter and on a
hundred thousand window panes fol-
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, and then rubs them out, making
the place clear for display just as mag
nifcent the next morning. No one but
a God could afford to do that It would
bankrupt everything but infnity and
omnipotence.
Standing here between the closed doors
of the pictured woods and the opening
doors of the TRANSPORTED 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
Brusselsr' 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 q physi-
cian Standing at the gates of New FORK
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. Til.
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 j,
no remedy like the small pellets prepared
by the cold, and no physician SO skillfu1
or so mighty as the frost.
Scotland has had great physicians
but her greatest doctors have been the
Abernethics and Abercrombies that
have come down over the highlands
horse0 on the north wind. England has
had her great physicians, but her great
est doctors have been the Andrew
Clarkes and the Mackenzies 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. It
is high time that you make an adden-
dunn 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. It is the only hope in
bacteriology. It is the medicament of
continents. It is the salvation of our
temperate zone. It is the best tonic that
God ever gave the human race, It is
the only strong stimulant which has no
reaction. The best commentary on it l
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 where
there are no frosts. He said there was
a tingling gladness in his nerves indie
scribablo 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 must go farther and speak of the