Mexico weekly ledger., 1896-11-05
FALL REFLECTIONS
BY REV. TALMAGE
1--WE All Do Fade as a Leaf'-But We
Come Again Into a Life Eternal-The
Autumn Brings a Vein of Sad
ness, But Likewise a Meas
ure Of Joy.

W~AoblNtloN, II. w., oCtoDCI SJs-
The season of the year adds mucf
appositeness to DR.. Talmage's ser
mon, which we send out today. Hi
subject is ''The Pageantry of th'
Woods" and his text, Isaiah lxviv.
6: 1--WE all do fade as a leaf"
1t is so hard for us to understand
religious truth that God constantly
r~eiterates. AS the schoolmastel
takes a blackboard, and puts upon il
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 French.
man. went downinto Egypt to study
the hieroglyphics on monuments
and temples. After much labor he
deciphered them and announced to
the learned world the result of his
investigations. The wisdom, good
ness and power of God are written
in hieroglyphics 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. Ha-
bakkuk says, ''Thou makest my
feet like kinds feet" q passage
which means nothing save to the
man that knows that the feet of the
red deer, or hind, r peculiarly con-
structed SO that they can walk
among slippery rocks without fall
ing. Knowing that fact we under
stand that when Habakkuk says,
''Thou makest my feet like kinds
feet,m he sets forth that the chris
tian can walk amid the most danger
Gus and slippery places without fall
ing. In Lamentations we read that
1.-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 i'll the sand to
be Matched out by the sun, and that
the young ostrich goes forth unat-
tended by an maternal kindness.
Knowing this the passage is signifi-
cant-''The daughter of my people
is cruel, like the ostriches of the
wilderness"
Those know but little of the
meaning of the natural world who
have looked at it through the eyes
of others, and from book and can
vas taken their impression. There
arc some faces so mobile that photo |
graphers can not 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
evening tide at the edge of a wood
and listened to the cry of the whip
There is today more glory in one
branch of sumach than a painter
could put on a whole forest Of
naples. God hath struck into the
leaf a glance that none
see but those who come face to face
the mountain looking upon the man,
and the man looking upon thel
For several autumns / have made
q tour to the far west, and m au-
about this time, saw that
which ] shall never forget. / have
seen the autumnal sketches of Crop
sey and other skillful pencils, but
that week / saw a pageant 1900
miles long. Let artists stand back
when God stretches his canvasl A
yrander spectacle was never kindled
before mortal eyes. Along by the
and up and down the sides of
the great hills, and by the banks of
the lakes, there was an ~undescriba
BILE mingling of gold, and orange,
and crimson, and saffron, now sob
sring into drab and maroon, now
into solferino and scarlet.
Here and there the trees looked as
Z just their tips had blossomed into
ire. In the morning light the for
,sts seemed as if they had been
.ra~nsfgured, and in the evening
hour they looked as IL the sunset
,ad burst and dropped upon the
In more sequestered spots,
where the frosts had been hindered
m their work. we saw the first kind