The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-16
HOW TO WARM UP THE WORLD.
THE ICE OF UNBELIEF MELTED BN
THE son OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.


TaImage Declares IL Useless &"
Preach to Bare Feet. Empty sfom-
aehS and Gaunt VisaEes-A Lesson
in Common sense Given by Christ
in Giving the Multitude "A Good
Dinner Before Preaching the SER
mon in the Wilderness.
Washington. D. G.. March 1.-THE freez-
ing blasts which have swept over the
country. at the time we expected spring
weather. make this sermon especially ap-
propriate DR. Talmage text was Psalm
l4717. who can stand before his cold2'
The almanac says that winter is ended
and spring has come, but the winds, and
the frosts. and the thermometer, i'm some
places. down to zero. deny il. The Psalm
ist lived in a more genial climate than
this. and yet he must sometimes have been
cut by the sharp weather. In this chap
ter he speaks of the snow like wool the
frost like ashes, the hailstones Ike mar
bIes, and describes the cOngealmemt OF
lowest temperature. We have all studied
the power of the heat How Few of us
have studied the power of the frost? Who
can stand before his cold?" This chal-
Ienge Of the text has many times been ac-
cepted. Oct. 10. 1872 Napoleons greae
army began its retreat from Moscow. one
hundred and fifty thousand men, hfty
thousand horses, six hundred pieces OF
cannon. forty thousand stragglers. IT was
bright weather when they started from
Moscow. but soon something wrathier
than the Cossacks swooped upon their
TANKS An army of Arctic blasts, with
icices for bayonets and hailstones for
shot, and commanded by voice of tempest,
marched after them. The flying artil-
lery of the heavens in pursuit. The troops
at nightfall would gather into circles ana
huddle themselves together for warmth;
but when the day broke they rose not,
for they were dead, and the ravens came
for their morning meal of corpses. The
way was strewn with the rich stuffs OF
the east brought as booty from the Rus
sian capital. An invisaDle power seized
100000 men and hurled them dead into the
snow drifts, and on the hard surfaces OF
the chill rivers, and into the maWs OF the
dogs that had followed them from MOS
COW. The freezing horror Whlch mas APP
paled history was proof to all ages that
Ii is a vain thing for any edrthly power
TO accept the challenge OF my text. Nho
could stand before his cold! In the Hlu-
die of December, 1lH, at Valley Forge,
900 troops were, with frosted ears ana
frosted hands and frosted feet, without
shoes, without blankets, lying on the Whlie
pillow of the snow bank. As during our
civil war the cry was, ION to Richmond!
when the troops We're not READY 10 march,
so in the revolutionary war there was a
demand for Wintry campaign until WASH
ington lost his equilibrium and wrote en-
phatically: Il assure those gentlemen II
Is easy enough seated by a good fireside
and in comfortable homes TO draw out
campaigns for the American army; but 1
tell them il is not so easy TO lie on a
bleak hillside, without blankets and with
out shoes" Oh, the frigid horrors That
gathered around the American army in
the winter of l777,. Valley Forge was one
~, Afag of he H.
ed, senseless, dead! "Who can stand be
fore his cold?" Not We say the frozen
lips of Sir John Franklin and his men,
diving in Arctic exploration. Not
We" answer schwatka, and his
crew. falling back from the fortresses
of ice which they had tried in vain to
and crushed decks of the Intrepid, the Re
sistance and the jeanette. NOT we, say
the procession Of American martyrs re-
turned home for American sepulture, DE
Long and his men. The highest plllafs
of the earth are pillars OF ice; Mont Blanc
Jungfrau, the Matterhorn. Inc largest
galleries of the world are gallarieS OF Ice
Some of the mighty rivers much or the
year are in captivity OF ice. Inc greatest
scuptors of the ages are the glaciers,
with arm and hand and chisel ana nam
mer of ice The cold is imperial and has
a crown of glittering crystal ana IS seat
ed on a throne of ice, with IootstQ0l OF
ice and scepter of ice. Who can tel the
sufferings of the winter of 1883, Wlen all
the birds of Germany perished? or the
winter of 1858 in England, when the stages
rolled on the Thames, ana temporary
houses of merchandise We're built on the
ice2 or the winter of 1921 in America, When
New York harbor was frozen over ana
the heaviest teams crossed on the Ice TO
Staten Island? Then come down TO our
own winters when there have been so
many wrapping themselves in furs, or
gathering themselves around nres, or
fhreshing their arms about them to revive
circula tion-the millions of the temperate
and the Arctic zones who are compelled
to confess, none of us can stand before
One-half of the industries of our day
are employed in battling inclemency of
the weather. The furs of the north, the
cotton of the south, the flax of our own
fields, the wool of our own tiocks, the
coal from our own mines, the wood from
our own forests, all employed in battling
these inclemencies, and still every winter
with blue lips and chatter1ng teeth, an
swers: None of us can stand before his
cold" Now, this being such cold world
God sends out influences to warm it.
am glad that the God of the frost is the
God of the heat; that the God of the
snow is the God of the white blossoms;
that the God of January is the God of
June The question as to how shall we
warm this world up is a question of i'm
mediate and all-encompassing practcah-
ty. In this zone and weather there are
so many fireless hearths, so many broken
WindoW-paneS, so many detective roofs
that sift the snow. Coal and wood and
f1annels and thick coat are better in warm
ing up such a place than tracts, and BIZ
bles and creeds. Kindle that fire where it
has gone out Wrap something around
those shivering limbs. Shoe those bare
feet. Hat that bare head. Coat that bare
back. Sleeve that bare arm. Nearly all
the pictures of Martha Washington rep
resent her in courtly dress as bowed TO
by foreign ambassadors; but Mrs. Kirk
land, in her interesting book, gives more
inspiring portrait of Martha Washington.
She comes forth from her husbands hut
in the encampment, the hut sixteen feet
long by fourteen feet wide-she comes
forth from that hut to nurse the sick, to
sew the patched garments, to console the
soldiers dying of the cold. That is a bet
ter picture of Martha Washington. Hun
dreds of garments hundreds of tons
of coal, hundreds of glaciers at broken
window sashes, hundreds of whole-souled
men and women, are necessary to warm
the wintry weather What are we doing
TO alleviate the condition of those not so
fortunate as we? Know yet not my
friends, there are hundreds of thousands
of people who cannot stand before his
cold? 1t is useless to preach to bare feet
and to empty stomachs, and to gaunt Wis
ages. Christ gave the world lesson in
common sense when, before preac ching the
Gospel to the multitude in the Wilderness
he gave them good dinner. When I was
lad remember seeing two rough wood