Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1896-10-30
THE FORESTS GLORY
REV. DR.. TALMAGE DRAWS INSPIRA-
TION FROM THE WOODS.


WASHINGTON, Oct %. - The season
of the year adds much appositeness to
DR.. Talmage's sermon, which we send
out today. His subject is "The Pag-
eantry Of the Woods" and his text
Isaiah Xiv, 6, "We all do fade as a
leaf. "
1t is so hard for US to understand re-
ligious truth that God constantly reit-
crates. 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 famous Frenchman,
went down into Egypt to study the
hieroglyphics on monuments and tenn
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 the earth and 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
feet like kinds feet, p" 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 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 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
1.-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 their impress
sion. 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 de
scription can gather them. No one
knows the pathos Of a birds voice un-
less he has sat at summer evening tide
at the edge of a wood and listened TO
the cry of the whippoorwilL
There is today more glory IN one
branch Of sumach than painter could
nut on a whole forest Of NAPLES. God
hath struck into the autumnal leaf a
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 l shall never
forget. I have seen the autumnal sketch
es Of Cropsey and other skillful pencils,
but that week 1 saw pageant 1900
miles long. Let artists stand back when
God stretches his canvas. A grandeI
spectacle was never kindled before NOR
tai eyes. Along by the rivers and ny
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
Q sobering into drab and maroon, now
, flaming into solferino and scarlet. Here
I and there the trees looked as II just
= their tins had blossomed into fire. IL
, the morning light the forests seemed a
@ if they had been transtgured, and II
the evening hour they looked as II the
Q sunset had burst and dropped upon tht
= leaves. In more sequestered spots, wher'
= the frosts had been hindered in theii
e work. we saw the first kindling OF th'
: flames Of color in a lowly sprig. Thel
s they rushed up from branch to branch
until the glory Of the Lord submerged
e the forest. Here you would find a tre'
n lust making up its mind to change an'
= there one looked as if, wounded at ever
pore. it stood bathed in carnage. Aloni
J. the banks Of Lake Huron there wer
:. hills over which there seemed pouring
J. cataracts of fire, tossed up and down am
y every whittier by the rocks Througl
n some Of the ravines we saw occaslonalI.
g a foaming stream, as though 1t wer
rushing to put out the conhagration.
It at one end Of the woods commandlnl
/ tree would set up its crimson banner
l. the whole forest prepare to follow. l
!. Gods urn Of colors were not infinite
l. one swamp that l saw along the Mau
g NEE would have exhausted it forever
II II seemed as if the sea Of divine glor
'e had dashed its surf to the tiptop of tn
IS Alleehanies, and then it had come drip
ming down to lowest leaf and deepes
le cavern.
IF We Fade Gradually.
1t Most persons preaching from this tex
I. find only in it vein Of sadness fin
st that have two strings to this gospt
at harp-a string Of sadness and strln
le of JOY infinite.
ave all do fade as leaf. D."
ID First, like the foliage, we fade grad
re ually. The leaves which week befor
10 last felt the frost have day by da
Of been changing in tint and will for man
Mt days yet cling to the bough, waiting &c
ID the fist of the wind to strike them SUI
90 pose you that the pictured leaf that 20
re hold in your hand took on its color
Q, an hour, or in day, or in week. NJ
TX Deeper and deeper the flush till all II
as veins of its life now seem opened an
bleeding away. After awhile leaf aft'
al leaf they fall, now those on the out
g. branches, then those most hidden, unit
. the last spark of the cleaning forI
shall have been quenched.
10 SO gradually we pass away. FRO
=, ~ day TO day we hardly see the chang
l,a But the frosts have touched u.s. II
work of decay is going on, now slig