The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1896-11-05

teuSlOuS LIuLu IudC GOQ constantly re-
iterates. AS the schoolmaster takes
blackboard, and puts upon it figures
and diagrams, so that the scholar may
not only get his lesson through the
ear, but also through the eye, so God
takes all the truths of his Bible. and
draws them out in diagram on the
natural world. Champollion, the ia
nous Frenchman, went down into
Egypt to study the hieroglyphics on
monuments AMI temples After much
labor he deciphered them, and an
nounced to the learned world the result
OF his investigations. The wisdom,
goodness and power Of God are written
In hleroglyphics all over the earth and
all over the heaven. God grant that
we may have understanding enough to
decipher them! There are scriptural
passages, like my text, which need to
be studied in the very presence Of the
natural world. Habakkuk says, ''Thou
makest my feet like kinds feet;;''
passage which means nothing save to
the man that knows that the feet of the
red deer, or hind, are peculiarly con-
structed, so that they can walk among
slippery rocks without falling Know
ing that fact, we understand that,
when Habakkuk says, "Thou makest
my feet like kinds feet" he sets forth
that the Christian can walk amid the
most dangerous and slippery places
without falling. In Lamentations we
read that 'The daughter of my people
is cruel, like the ostriches Of the wilder
ness;' passage that has no meaning
save to the man who knows that the
ostrich leaves its egg in the sand to be
Matched out by the sun, and that the
young ostrich goes forth unattended by
any maternal kindness. Knowing this,
the passage is Significantly daugh-
ter of my people is cruel, like the os-
triches Of the Wilderness
Those know but little Of the mean
ing Of the natural world who have
looked at it through the eyes of others,
and from book or canvas taken their
impression. There are some faces so
mobile that photographers cannot take
them; and the face Of nature has such
a flush, and sparkle, and life, that no
human description can gather them.
No one knows the pathos of a birds
voice unless he has sat at summer even
ing-tide at the edge Of a wood and
listened to the cry of the whirlpool
will
There is to-day more glory in one
branch Of sumach than a painter could
put on a whole forest Of naples. God
hath struck into the autunal leaf of
glance that none see but those who
come face to face-the mountain look
ing upon the man, and the man looking
upon the mountain.
For several autumns I have made
tour to the far West, and one autumn.
about this time, saw that which I shall
never forget. I have seen the autumnal
sketches of Cropsey and other skillfu
pencils, but that week I saw q page
ant 1000 miles long. Let artists stand
back when God stretches his canvas!
"A grander spectacle was never kindled
before mortal eyes. Along by the riv-
ers, and up and down the sides of the
great hills, and by the banks Of the
lakes, there was an indescribable min
Cling Of gold, and orange, and crimson,
and saffron, now flaming into solferino
and scarlet. Here and there the trees
looked as if just their tips had bios
somed into fire. In the morning light
the forests seemed as if they had been
transfgured, and in the evening hour
they looked as if the sunset had burst
and dropped upon the leaves. In more
sequestered spots, where the frosts had
been hindered in their work, we saw
the first kindling Of the flames of color
in lowly sprig; then they rushed up
from branch to branch, until the glory
of the Lord submerged the forest Here
you would find tree just making up
it's mind to change, and there one
looked as if, wounded at every pore, it
stood bathed in carnage. Along the
banks of Lake Huron there were hills
over which there seemed pouring catar-
acts Of fire, tossed up and down and
every whittier by the rocks. Through
some OF the ravineS we saw occa sional-
~ a foaming stream, as though it We're
rushing to put out the confagration
If at one end of the woods command
ing tree would set up it's crimson ban
ner, the whole forest prepared to fol-
low. II Gods urn of cOlors were not
infinite, one swamp that I saw along
the Maumee would have exhausted it
forever. 1t seemed as If the sea of d.
vine glory had dashed it's surf to the
tip-top Of the Alleghanies, and then it
had come dripping down to lowest leaf
and deepest cavern.
Most persons preaching from this
teAt uuu Only III IL a vein OF sadness
find that I have two strings to this
gospel harp-a string Of sadness and a
string of joy infinite.
1--WE all do fade as leaf.''
First, like the foliage, we fade gradu-
ally. The leaves which, week before
last, felt the frost have, day by day,
been changing in tint, and will for
many days yet cling to the bough, wait
ing for the fist of the wind to strike
them. Suppose you that the pictured
leaf you hold in your hand took on its
color in an hour, or in a day, or in a
week? No. Deeper and deeper the
flush, till all the veins of it's life now
seem opened and bleeding away. After
a while, leaf after leaf, they fall. Now
those on the outer branches, then those
most hidden, until the last spark of the
cleaning forge shall have been
quenched.
So gradually we pass away. From
day to day we hardly see the change.
But the frosts have touched us. The
work Of decay is going on. Now a
slight cold. Now a season of over
fatigue. Now fever. Now a stitch
in tho side Now a