The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-11-06
AUTUMN REFLECTIONS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Discourses Upon
the Fading Leaves.
Man, Like the Forest Leaves, Fades Away
bat Be Comes Again Into n Life
Eternal as Nature ReneWh
Her Verdure.

cred by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage be-
fore his Washington congregation,
being based on the text:
We all do fade as leaf.--Isaiah Xiv. &
1t is SO hard for us to understand re-
ligious truth that God constantly re-
iterates. As the schoolmRster takes a
black board, and puts upon 1t figures
and diagrams, SO that the scholar may
not only get his lesson thu ough the
ear, but also through the eye, SO God
takes all the truths of His Bible, and
draws them out in diagram on the nat
ural world. Champollion, the famous
Frenchman, went down into Egypt TO
study hieroglyphics on monuments
and temples. After much labor he de-
ciphered them, and announced to the
learned world the result of his investi-
cations. The wisdom, goodness and
power of God are swritten in hieru-
glyphics all over the earth and all over
the heaven. God grant that we may
have understanding enough TO de-
cipher thcml 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 Pc
culiarly constructed, SO that they can
walk among slippery rocks without
falling Knowing that fact, we I'M
derstand that, when Habakkuk gays,
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 1.-The
daughter of my people is cruel, like
the ostriches Of the Wilderness"
passage that has no meaning save to
the man who knows that the ostrich
leaves its eggs in the sand to be
Matched ont by the sun, and that the
young ostrich goes forth unattended
by any maternal kindness. Knowing
this, the passage is signiicant-"The
daughter Of my people is cruel, like
the Ostriches of the wilderness"
Those know but little of the mean
ing Of the natural world who have
looked at it through the eyes CT 9TH
ers, and from book or canvas taken
their impression. There are some
faces so mobile that photographers can
not take them; and the face of nature
has such flush, and sparkle, and life,
that no human description can gather
them. No one knows the pathos of
birds voice unless he has sat at sum-
mer evening-tide at the edge of wood
and listened to the cry of the whip
Poor-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 autumnal
leaf glance that none see but those
who come face to face-the mountain
looking upon the man, and the man
looking upon the mountain.
For several autumns l have made a
tour to the far west, and one autumn,
about this time, saw that which 1
shall never forget l have seen the
autumnal sketches of Cropsey and 9TH
er skillful pencils, but that week saw
> pageant 1000 miles long. Let artists
stand back when God stretches His
canvasl A grander spectacle was
never kindled before mortal 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 in
describable mingllng of gold, and
orange, and crimson, and saffron,
now SOLDERING 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 transfig-
ured, and in the evening hour they
looked as if the sunset had burst and
dropped upon the leaves. In more Sc
questered spots, where the frosts had
been hindered in their work, we saw
the first kindling of the flames of
color in a lowly sprig; then they
rushed up from branch to branch,
until the glory of the Lord sub
merged 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 and every whittier
by the rocks. Through some of the
ravines we saw occasionally fOaming
stream, as though it were rushing to put
out the conhagration. If at one end
of the woods commanding tree would
set up it's crimson banner, the whole
forest prepared to follow. If Gods
urn of colors were not infinite, one
swamp that saw along the Maumee
would have exhausted it forever. 1t
seemed as if the sea of Divine glory
had dashed its surf to the tip-top of
the Alleghanies, and then it had come
dripping down to lowest leaf and deep
est cavern.
Most persons peachinR from this
text find only in it a vein of sadness. /
find that l have two strings to this
gospel harp-a string of sadness and
a string of joy infinite.
1--WE all do fade as a leaf"
First, like the foliage, we fade grad
uAlly. The leaves, which, week before
last, felt the frost have day by day,
been changing in tint, and win for
many days yet cling to the Dough,
waiting 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
its life now seem obened and bleeding
away. After awhile, leaf after leaf,
they fall. Now those on the outer
branches, then those most hidden. un-
til 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
i - - rr0f1cr Noxu a