The Baptist headlight. (Topeka, Kan.) 1893-1894, 1893-12-22

pra1sing of Raphaels, hundreds OIL years
gone, when the greater Raphael, the
frost, will soon be busy at the en-
frances to your own home.
Next | speak of the frost as pnysl-
clan. Standing at the gates OF Ne"
York harbor autumn before last, the
frost drove back the cholera, saying,
THUS. far shalt thou come ana no
| farther" From Memphis and New
Orleans and Jacksonville he smote the
fever plague till it reeled back ana de-
parted. The frost is physician that
doctors cities, nations, and continents.
malaria, antifebrile for typholds,
sulphonal for sleeplessness, antispas-
mOdic for disturbed nerves, but in all
therapeutics there is no remedy like
the small pellets prepared by the cold,
and no physician so sklllful or so
mighty as the frost.
Thank God for frost. It is the best of
all germicides. 1t is the only hope in
bacteriology. 1t is the medicament of
continents. 1t is the salvation of our
temperate zone. 1t is the best tonic
that God ever gave the human race.
It is the only strong stimulant which
has no reaction.
But I must 60 farther and speak of
the frost as a jeweler. AS the snow is
| frozen rain, so the frost is frozen dew.
| God transforms it from liquid into
crystal It is the dew gIoritied. In
| the thirty-eighth chapter of that in
spired drama. the, book of Job, God
SAYS to the inspired dramatist with &C.
static interrogation, 1.-THE hoary frost
of heaven, who hath gendered it?"
| God there asks Job if he knows the
parentage of the frost. He inquiries
about its pedigree. He suggests that
Job study up the frost's genealogical
! line. A minute before God had asked
about the parentage of raindrop in
words that years ago gave me a sug-
| gestive text for a sermon, Hath the
rain father?" But how the Lord Al
mighty is catechising Job about the
frost. He practically says: "Do you
know its father? Do you know its
mother? 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 Tesla
ment of the fields nor reads the wisdom
and kindness and beauty of God writ
ten in blossoms on the orchard, in
| sparkles on the lake, in stars in the
| sky, in frost on the meadows. The
greatest jeweler of all the earth is the
frost. There is nothing more wonder
full in all crystallography. Some morn
! ing in December a whole continent is
! found besprinkled with diamonds, the
result of one nights work by this jew
eler.
Do you make the depreciatory re-
mark that the frost is ilnpermanent and
will last only two or three hours?
What of that? We go into London
! Tower and look at the crown Jewels of
England. but we are in procession
that the guards keep moving on, and
five minutes or less are your only OPP
portunity of looking at those crown
Jewels, but at the crown jewels be-
starred of the frost in parks and fields
you may stand to look deliberately and
for hours, and no one to tell you to
move on.
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 ne ser lost, but after it's
use in the coronation of the fields is
taken back to Heaven. o men and
women, accustomed to 60 into ecstasy
when in foreign travel you come upon
the historical gems of nations, whether
the jewel be called the Mountain of
Glory or the Sea of Light, or the
Crown or the Moon, or the Eye of AL
lab, or the Star of Sarawak, or the
Koh-i-noor, [ implead YOU study the
jewels strewn all round your wintry
home and realize that "by the breath
of God frost is given"
But go step farther and speak of
the frost as an evangelist, and text of
Scripture is not of much use to me I'M
less can find the gospel in it. The
Israelites in the wilderness breakfasted
on something that looked like frozen
dew. The mamma fell on the dew, and
the dew evaporated and left pull
verified material, white and looking
like frost, but it was mamma, and of that
they ate. So now this morning. mixed
with the frozen dew of my text, there
is mamma on which we may breakfast
our souls. You say the frost kills.
Yes, it kills some things, but we have
already seen that it gives health and
life to others. This gospel is the SAVIOR
of life unto life or of death unto death.
AS the frost is mighty, the gospel is
mighty. AS the frost descends from
heaven, the gospel descends from
heaven. BY the breath OF God the
gospel is given. As the frost purifies.
so the grace of God purifies. AS the
frost bestars the earth, so grace be-
jewels the soul. AS the frost prepares
for food many things that otherwise
would be inedible, so the frost of trial
ripens aud prepares food for the soul.
In the tight grip of the frost the hard
shells OF walnut aud chestnut and hick-