The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-04-08
REV. DR.. TAIMAGE.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE
NOTED DIVINE.
Subject: "Warming the World"
TEXT: "Who can stand before His cold2
Psalm cxlvii., II.

Selu CAlNu., IL.
The almanac says that winter is ende,
and spring has come, but the winds, and tn
1rosts. and the thermometer, in some place
down to zero, deny II. The psalmist lived il
more genial climate than this, and vet b.
must sometimes have been cut by the shar]
winter. In this chapter he speaks of tht
snow like wool, the frost like ashes, the hail
stones like marbles, and describes the con
gealment OF lowest temperature. We have
oil studied the power of the heat. How few
OF Us have studied the power of the frost
"Who can stand before His cold?" Thi:
challenge OF the text has many times beer
accepted.
October 10, 1912, Napoleon's great army
began its retreat from Moscow. One hun
dred and fifty thousand men, $4,000 horses
600 pieces OF cannon, 10000 stragglers. /,
was bright weather when they started from
than the Cossacks swooped upon their Hanks
An army Of arctic blasts, with icicles fol
bayonets and hailstones for shot, and com.
manded by voice Of tempest. marched after
them, the flying artillery Of the heavens In
pursuit. The troops at nightfall would
gather into circles and huddle themselves TO-
gether for warmth, but when the day broke
they rose not, for they were dead, and the
ravens came for their morning meal OF
corpses. The way was strewn with the rich
stuffs of the east, brought as booty from the
Russian capital. An invisible power seized
100 900 men and hurled them dead into the
snowdrifts, and on the hard surfaces OF the
chill rivers, and into the maws OF the dogs
that had followed them from Moscow. The
freezing horror which has appalled, history
was proof to all ages that it is vain thing
for any earthly power to accept the chal-
lenge of my text, who could stand oetore
His cold?"
In the middle of December. 1777, at Valley
Forge. H. 90 troop were. with frosted ears
and frosted hands and frosted feet, without
shoes. without blankets, lying on The white
pillow Of the snow bank. As during our
Civil War the cry was, "On to Richmond"
when the troops were not ready to march, so
in the Revolutionary War there was de-
mand for wintry campaign until Washington
lost his equilibrium and wrote emphatically,
81 assure those gentlemen 1t is easy enough
seated by good fireside and In comfortable
homes to draw out campaigns for the Ameri-
can Army, but tell them 1t is not so easy to
lie on a bleak hillside, without blankets and
without shoes" Oh, the frigid horrors that
gathered around the American Army in the
winter of 1777! Valley Forge was one OF the
tragedies Of the century. Benumbed. sense
less. dead! who can stand before His cold?"
"Not we," says the frozen lips OF Sir John
Franklin and his men, dying in Arctic ex.
ploration. "Not we." answer Schwatka and
his crew, falling back from the fortresses Of
ice which they had tried in vain to capture.
'Not we," say the abandoned and crushed
decks Of the Intrepid the Rssstsnes
the procession of American martyrs
returned home for American sepulture, De
Long and his men. The highest pillars of
the earth are pillars Of ice-Nont Blanc.
Jungfrau, the Matterhorn. The largest gal
leries Of the world are galleries Of ica. Some
OF the mighty rivers much of the year are in
captivity OF ice. The greatest sculptors of
the ages are the glaciers, with arm and hand
and chisei and hammer Of ice. The cold is
imperial and has q crown Of glittering crys-
tai and is seated on throne Of ice, with
with footstool a scepter OF ice. Who
can tell the sufferings OF the winter OF 1888,
when all the birds OF. Germany perished2 or
the winter of 1858 in England, when the
stages rolled on the Thames and temporary
houses Of merchandise were built on the ice?
or the winter Of 1921 in America, when New
York harbor was frozen over and the heavi-
est teams crossed on the ice to Staten Island?
Then come down to our own winters when
there have been so many wrapping them
selves In furs or gathering themselves around
fires or thrashing their arms about them to
perate and the arctic zones who are COM
PEELED to confess. ''none of US can stand be-
fore His cold
One-half OF the industries Of our day are
employed in battling inclemency OF the
weather. The furs of the North, the cotton
Of the South, the fax OF our own fields, the
wool Of our own focks, the coal from our
own mines, the wood from our own forests,
all employed in battling these inclemencies,
and still every winter, with blue lips and
chattering teeth, answers, "None of US can
stand before this cold" Now, this being
such a cold world. God sends out influences
to warm 1t. am glad that the God of the
frost is the God of the heat that the God OF
the snow is the God of the white bios SONS;
that the God of January is the God of June.
The question as to how we warm this world
UP is question OF immediate and all encom-
passing practically. In this zone and
weather there are so many flreless hearths,
80 many broken window panes. so many de-
fective roofs that sift :ne snow. Coal and
wood and fannels and thick coat are better
for warming up such a place than tracts
and Bibles and creeds. Kindlethat fire where
it has gone out. Wrap something around
those shivering limbs. Shoe those bare feet.
Hat that bare head. Coat that bare back.
Sleeve that bare arm. Nearly all the pictures
OF Martha Washington represent her in
courtly dress as bowed to by foreign embas-
sadors, but Mrs. Kirkland. in her interesting
book, gives more inspiring portrait of
Martha Washington. She comes forth from
her husbands hut in the encampment, the
hut sixteen feet long by fourteen feet wide
she comes forth from that hut to nurse the
sick, TO sew the patched garments, to con-
sole the soldiers dying OF the cold. That Is
a better picture of Martha Washington.
Hundreds of garments. hundreds Of tons OF
coal, hundreds Of glaciers at broken window
sashes, hundreds Of whole souied men and
women are necessary to warm the wintry
weather. What are we doing to alleviate the
condition Of those not so fortunate as we?
Know ye not, my friends, there are hundreds
of thousands Of people who cannot stand be-
fore this cold? 1t is useless 20 preach to
bare feet, and to empty stomach. and to
gaunt visages. Christ gave the world les
son in common sense when, before preach
ing the gospe, to the multitude in the
wilderness. He gave them good dinner.
When was lad I remember seeing two
rough woodculs, but they made more i'm
preston upon me than any pictures 1 have
ever seen. They were on opposite pages.
The one woodcut represented the coming Of
the snow in winter and lad looking out at
the door Of a great mansion, and he was all
wrapped in furs and his cheeks were ruddy,
and with glowing countenance he shouted:
"It SHOWS, it snows" On the next page
there was miserable tenement, and the door
was open and child, wan and sick and
ragged and wretched, was looking out, and
he said. "Oh, my God, 1t SHOWS" The win
ter OF gladness or Of grief, according to our
circumstances. But, my friends, there is
more than one way of warming up this cold
world, for It is a cold world in more re-
spects than one. and I am here to consult
with Won aS TO the best way OF warming IN
the world. I wantto have great heater in
troduced into all your churches and all your
homes throughout the world. 1t is Il heater
az dirina natant II hos many ninas with