Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1896-03-27
REY. DR.. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Washington piVine's
Sunday Sermon.
Subject: "Warm:mg the World"
TEXT: "Who can stanl before His coldT
Psalm cxlvIi., II.

L uo hltudndO says lHat WlnI0r 10 ouuou
and spring has come, but the winds, and the
frosts. and the thermometer, in some places
down to zero, deny it, The psalmist lived In
more genial climate than this, and yet he
must sometimes have been cut by the sharp
winter. Ia this chapter he speaks OF the
snow like wool, the frost like ashes, the hail
stones like marbles, and describes the con-
gealment OF lowest temperature. We have
all studied the power of the heat. How few
of It's have studied the power of the frostl
"Who can stand before His coldY' This
challenge Of the text has many times been
accepted.
October 10, 1872 Napoleon's great army
began its retreat from Moscow. One hun
bred and fifty thousand men, 900 horses,
600 pieces Of cannon, 10000 stragylers. 1t
was bright weather when they started from
Moscow, but soon something wrathier than
than the Cossacks swooped upon their Hanks
An army of arctic blasts, with icicles for
bayonets and haistones for shot, and com.
manded by voice of tempest, marched after
them, the flying artillery of the heavens In
pursuit. The troops at nightfal would
gather into circles aud 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 rlch
SUITS 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 O vain thing
for any earthly power to accept the chal-
lenge Of my text, "Who could stand before
| His coldi"
In the middle Of December, 1777, at Valley
Forge, Ii, 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, ION TO Richmond!
| when the troops were not ready to march, so
in the Revolutionary War there was de-
mand for winry campaign until Washington
lost his equilibrium and wrote emphatically,
| Il assure those gentlemen it is easy enough
seated by good Preside and in comfortable
homes to draw out campaigns for the Ameri-
can Army, but toll them 1t is not sd easy to
lie on 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.
mot we, say the abandoned and crushed
decks of the Intrepid, the Resistance
and the Jeanette. mot We" says
tho process'o on 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 MatterhorD. The largest gall
leries of the world are galleries of ice. 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 aud hand
and chisei and hammer of ice. The cold Is
imperial and has crown OF glittering crys-
| tai and is seated on throne OF Ice, with
with footsiooI scepter Of ice. Who
can tell the sufferings OF the winter OF 1888,
when all the birds of Germany persisted? or
the winter Of 1868 in England, when the
stages rolled on the Thames and temporary
houses of merchandise were built on the iceY
or thu winter OF 1921 in America, when New
York harbor was oz@n over and the heavi-
est teams crossed on the ice to Staten lslandT
Then come down 10 our own winters when
there have been 50 many wrapping them
selves in rurs or gathering themselves around
fires or thrashing their arms about them TO
revive circulation-the millions of the tenn.
perate and the arctic zones who are COM
PEELED 10 confess, "nOne Of us can stand be-
fore His cold,'
Onc-half of the industries OF our day are
employed in batting inclemency OF tbs
weather. The furs Of the North, the cotton
of the South, the fax Of our own fields, the
wool of our own flocks, the Goa from our
own mines, the wood from cur own forests,
all employed in battling these inclcmencies,
aud still every winter, with blue lips and
chatlering teeth, answers, "None Of us can
stand before this cold" Now, this being
such a cold world, God sends out influences
to warm il. am glad that the God of the
frost is the God of the heat; that the Cod oil
the snow is the Col OF the white blossoms;
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. Ia this zone and
weather there are so many freless hearths,
50 many broken window panes, so many de-
fective roofs that slit .he snow. Coal and
wood and fanne's and thick coat are better
for warming up such a place than tracts
and Bibles AMI creeds. Kindle that fire where
it las gone out. Wrap something around
those shiyering limbs. Shoe those pare feet.
Hat that bare head Coat that bare back.
Sleeve that bare arm. Nearly all the pictures
of Martha Washington represent her ID
courtly dress rs bowed to by foreign embas'
,adors, but Mrs. Kirkland, in her Interesting
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 10 sew the patched garments, to con-
sole the soldiers dying of the cold. That is
better picture of Martha Washington.
Hundreds of garments. hundreds Of tons OF
coal, hundreds of GLACIERS at broken window
,ashes, 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 We not, my friends, there arr hundreds
of thousands of people who cannot stand be-
fore THIS coldY Ii is Useless to 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 gospel to the multitude in the
wilderness, He gave them good dinner.
When / was lad remember seeing two
rough wOodculs, but they made more i'm
preston upon me than any pictures have
Ever seen. They were on opposite pages
The one woodcut represented the coming o.
The snow in winter and a lad looking out a.
the door of n great mansion, and he was al
] wrapped in furs. and his cheeks were ruddy
, and with glowing countenance he shouted
: nIt SHOWS. il snoWs!" On the next pa2'
:, there was a miserable tenement, and the doc
was open and child, wan and sick an(
ragged and wretched, was looking out, anC
he said. "Oh, my God, it snows!" The Win
Ter OF gladness or Of grie', according to GU
; circumstances. But, my friends, there il
more than one way of warming up this COLI
world. for it is q cold world in more re
,pects than one. and | am here to consult
with you as to the best way Of warming VI
me world, wanttO have great heater In
it, all oh hoe a nd