Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1896-03-19
THE WINTER BLASTS
REV. DR.. TALMAGE SHOWS HOW TO
WARM THE WORLDS

w
blasts which have swept over the country
at tho time we expected spring weather
make this sermon especially appropriate
DR.. Talmages text was Psalm cxlvii, II,
"Who can stand before his ood?'
Tho almanac says that winter Is ended
and spring has como but tho Winds and
the frosts, and tho thermometers, in some
places down to zero, deny it. Tho psalmst
lived in more genial climate than this,
and yet he must sometimes have been cut
by tho sharp weather. In this chapter he
speaks Of the snow like wool, tho frost like
ashes, tho hailstoDcs like marbles and to-
scrbos the congealmont of lowest temper
aturo. We have all studied tho power of
tho heat. How few of us have studied tho
powor of the frost9 "Who can stand be-
foro his colds" This challenge of tho text
hos many times been accepted.
Oct. 49, 1919, Napoleon's great army
began Its retreat from Moscow. Ono hun
drcd and fifty thousand mon, 30, 900 horses,
600 pieces Of cannon, 40, 900 stragglcrs. 1t
was bright weather when they started
from Moscow, but soon something wrath
ior than tho Cossaoks swoopcd upon their
TANKS. An army OF arctic blasts with
icicles for bayonets and hailstones for shot,
and commanded by voice Of tempest,
marched aftor them, tho flying artillery
of tho heavens in pursuit. Tho troops at
nightfall would gather into circles and
huddle themselves together for warmth,
but when the day broke they rose not for
they were dead, and the ravens came for
their morning meal OF corpscs. Tho way
was strewn with the rich stuffs of the cast,
brought as booty from the Russian capt.
Al It'll 10,
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. Tho feezing
horror which has appalled, history was proof
20 all ages that 1t is vain thing for any
earthly power to accept the challenge OF
my text, "Who could stand before his
cold?" In tho middle Of December, 1777,
at Valley Forge, II 900 troops were, with
frosted ears and fosted hands and frosted
feet, without shoes, without blankets, iy-
Ing on the white pillow Of tho snowbsnk.
Frigid Horrors.
AS during our civil war tho cry was,
"On to Richmond" when tho troops woro
not ready to march, so in tho Revolution
airy war there was demand for wntry
campaign until Washington lost his cqui-
librium and wrote emphatically, ~ assure
those gentlemen II Is easy enough seated
by good fresido and in comfortable
homes to draw out campaigns for tho
American army, but tell them 1t is not
so easy to lie on bleak hillside, without
blankets and without shoes" Oh, tho
frlgid horrors that gathered around tho
American army In the winter of It'll
Valley Forge was one of tho tragedies OF
tho century. Benumbed, senseless, dead
"Who can stand before his coldS" mot
VIC, say the frozen lips Of Sir John Frank
lin and his men, dying In arctic cxplora-
ton. "Not we" answer Schwatka and
his crew, falling back from tho fortrcsscs
Of ice which they had tried in vain to
capture. "Not we" say tho abandoned
and crushed decks Of tho Intrepid, tho Re-
sistance and the Jeannette. "Not wo, " shy
tho procession Of American martyrs re-
turned home for American sepulturc, Do
Long and his men. The highest pillars Of
the earth arc pillars Of ice-Mont Blanc,
Jungfrau, tho Matterhorn. Tho largest
galleries Of the world aro galleries of ice
Some Of the mighty rivers much Of tho
year are in captivity Of leo. Tho greatest
sculptors of tho ages arc the glaciers, with
arm and hand and chisel and hammer of
ice. Tho cold Is imperial and has crown
OF glittering crystal and Is seated on u
throne Of ice, with foot stool Of leo and
scepter Of Ice. Who can tell tho sufforings
Of the winter Of 1893, when oil tho birds
OF Germany persisted, or the winter of 1865
In England, when the stages rolled on the
Thames and temporary houses Of mer.
ohandise were built on the Ice or tho win
ter of 1921, In America, whom New York
harbor was frozen over and the heaviest
teams crossed on the ice to Staten IslandS
Then come down to our own winters
when there have been so many wrapping
themselves In furs, or gathering them
selves around fires, or thrashing their
arms about them to revive circulation
the millionl of tho temperate and tho
arctic zones who arc compelled to confess
None OF us can stand before his cold"
Fireless Homes.
One-half of the industries Of our day arc
employed In battling inclemcncy Of the
weather. The furs of tho north, the cot
ton OF the south, the flax Of our own fields
the wool Of our own flocks, the coal from
our own Mines the wood from our own
forests, all employed in battling these in
clomencics and still every winter, with
blue lips and chattering teeth, answers,
"None of us can stand before his cold. -
Now, this being such cold world, God
sends ont influences to warm it. / am
glad that tho God OF the frost Is tho Cod
of tho heat; that the God of tho snow Is
the God Of the white blossoms; that the
God OF January is the God of June. The
question as to how shall we warm this
world up Is a question Of immediate and
oil encoinpassing practically. In this
zone and weather there are so many fire.
less hearths, so many broken window
panes, so many defective roofs that sift tho
snow. Coal and wood and flannes and
thick coat arc better for warming up such
place than tracts and Bibles and creeds.
Kindle that fire where 1t has gone out
wrap something around Nose shivering
limbs; shoe those bare feet; hat that bare
head; coat that bare back; sleeve that bare
arm.
Nearly all the pictures of Martha Wash
ington represent her in courtly dress as
bowed to by foreign ambassadors, 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 10 feot long by IA 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 broker
window sashes, hundreds of whole sOuled
men and women are necessary to warn
the wintry weather. What arc we doing
to alleviate the condition of those not sc
fortunate as wep Know 70 not my
friends, there are hundreds Of thousands