Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-10-29
FORESTS GLORY
kEv. Dr. TALMA6E DRAWS lNSPIRA-
TON FROM THE WOODS.

He LIkens Human Life TO the Woodland
Leaves-Man without Religion Dies
without TInge Of Hops-Perishes With
No Hope OF Resurrection.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25. The season
If ahe year adds much appositeness to
u. Talmage's sermon, which we send
out today. His subject is "The Pag-
santry Of the Woods" and his text
Isaiah Xiv, 6, ''We all do fade as a
leaf"
It is go hard for US to understand re-
ligious truth that God constantly reit-
srates. AS the schoolmaster takes a
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
also Though the eye. 80 God takes all
the 'w,-hs Of the Bible and draws them
on ia diagram on the natural world
tLpollion, the famous Frenchman,
ht down into Egypt to study the
sGTOBiS JULIUS VI ulOuulAClbo du4 bCA41
pies. After. much labor he deciphered
them and announced to the learned
world the result Of his Investigations.
The wisdom, goodness and power Of
God are written in hieroglyphics all
over khe earth ard all over the heaven.
God grant that we may have under
standing 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
Ieet like kinds feet" a passage which
means nothing save to the man that
knows that the feet of the red deer, or
hind, are peculiarly constructed, SO that
they can walk among slippery rocks
without falling. Knowing that fact, we
understand that, when Habakkuk says,
"Thou makest my feet like hind's feet, +"
he sets forth that the Christian can
walk amid the most dangerous and slip
perry places without falling. In Lamen-
tations we read that ''the daughter Of
my people is cruel, like the ostriches of
the wilderness" a 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 unat-
tended by any maternal kindness.
Knowing this, the passage is significant,
THE daughter Of my people is cruel,
like the ostriches Of the wilderness.
Glory of the Forest.
Those know but little of the meaning
Of the natural world who have looked
at it through the eyes Of others and
from book or canvas taken tLeir impress
sion. There are some faces so mobile
that photographers cannot take them,
and the face Of nature has such flush
and sparkle and life that no human de-
scription can gather them. No one
knows the pathos Of birds voice IN
less he has sat at summer evening tide
at the edge Of wood and listened to
the cry of the whippoorwill.
There is today more glory in one
branch Of sumach than a painter could
put on whole forest Of naples. God
hath struck into the autumnal leaf q
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 have had tour
to the far west and one autumn, about
this time, saw that which shall never
forget. Ihaye seen the autumnal sketch
es of Cropsey and other skillful pencils,
but that week I saw a pageant 2,000
miles long. Let artists stand back when
God stretches his canvas. A grander
spectacle was never kindled before NOR.
tai eyes. Along by the rivers and up
and down the sides of the great hills
and by the banks Of the lakes there was
an indescribable mingling of gold and
orange and crimson and saffron, now
sobering into drab and maroon, now
flaming into solferino and scarlet Here
and there the trees looked as if Just
their tips had blossomed into fire. In
the morning Light the forests seemed as
if they had been transfgured, and IL
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 thei1
work. we saw the first kindling of the
flames of color in a lowly sprig. Their
they rushed up from branch to branch,
until the glory Of the Lord submerged
the forest. Here you would find tree
just making up its 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
cataracts Of fire, tossed up and down ant
every whittier by the rocks. Through
some Of the ravines we saw occasionally
a foaming stream, as Though 1t were
rushing to put out the confagration. L
at one end Of the woods commanding
tree would set up its crimson banner
the whole forest prepare to follow. L
Gods urn of colors were net infinite
one swamp that saw along the Mau
NEE would have exhausted it forever
It seemed as if the sea of divine glory
had dashed its surf to the tiptop of thu
Alleghanies, and then it had come drip
ping down to lowest leaf and deepes
cavern.
We Fade Gradually.
Most persons preaching from this tex
fnd only in it vein of sadness. I flnt
that I have two strings to this gospe
aarp-a string Of sadness and string
of joy infinite.
"We all do fade as leaf"
First, like the foliage, we fade grad
oally. The leaves which week befor,
last felt the frost have day by da,
been changing in tint and will for man,
days yet cling to the bough, waiting fol
the fist Of the wind to strike them. Sup
pose yOu that the pictured leaf that yot
hold in your hand took on its color ii
an hour, or Ia day, or in week9 No
Deeper and deeper che flush till all th,