The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1896-11-04
THE FORESTS GLORY
REV. DR.. TAlMAGE DRAWS lNS?iRA-
TON FROM TIE WOODS.

TON FROM The WOODS.
He Likens HUMAN Life to the Woodland
Leavcs-Mnn Without Religion Dies
without Tinse Of Hope-Pe-ishcs With
No Hops of Resurrection.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25. Tho season
Of the year adds much appositeness to
Dr.. Talmage's sermon, which we send
out today. His subject is Tho Pag-
eantry Of the Woods" and his text
Isaiah Xiv, 6, eve all do fade as a
leaf"
It is so hard for rs 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 hind;s feet" a passage which
means nothing save to the man that
knows that the feet CT 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" passage that has no
meaning save to the man who knows
that the ostrich leaves its egg in the
sand to be hatched 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
st it through the eyes Of others and
from book or canvas taken their lnlpres-
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 ono
knows the pathos of q birds voice un-
less he has sat at summer evening tlGe
at the edge OF wood and listened to
the cry Of the whippoorwill.
There is today more glory In ono
branch Of su1nach than a painter could
put on whole forest of naples. God
hath struck into the autumEal 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 I shall never
forget. Ihaye seen the autumnal sketch
es of Cropsey and other skiliful pencils,
but that week I saw 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 sold and
orange and crimson and saffron, DOW
sobering into Grab 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 trarsfgured, and in
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 their
work, we saw the first kindling Of the
flames of color III q lowly sprig. Then
they rushed up from branch to branch,
until the glory Of the Lord submerged
- unro III find
Just making up its mind to change, and
there one looked as if, wounded at every
pore, it stood bathed i'll 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 confagration. If
at one end Of the woods q commanding
tree would set up its crimson banner,
the whole forest prepare to follow. II
Gods urn Of colors were not infinite,
one swamp that saw along the Mau-
NEE would have exhausted it forever.
1t seemed as if the sea of divine glory
had dashed its surf to the tiptop of the
Alleghanies, and then it had come drip
ping down to lowest leaf and deepest
cavern.
We Fade Gradually.
Most persons preaching from this text
find only in it vein of sadness. 1 find
that I have two strings to this gospel
harp-a string OF sadness and Is string
of JOY infinite.
"We all do fade as 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 will for many
days yet cling to the bough, waiting foS
the fist of the wind to strike them. Sup
pose you that the pictured leaf that you
hold in your hand took on its color in
an hour, or in day, or III week? No