Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1896-03-19

Nh wa PSalmlSt lived In
II D. more genial climate
than this, and yet
he must sometimes have been cut by
the sharp weather. In this chapter he
speaks of the snow like wool, and frost
like ashes, the hailstones like marbles,
and describes the congealment of low
est 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
challenge of the text has many times
been accepted October 10Th, 1872, Ma
poleon's great army began its retreat
from Moscow. One hundred and fifty
thousand men, fifteen thousand horses,
six hundred pieces Of cannon, forty
thousand stragglers. II was bright
weather when they started from Mos
COW, but soon something wrathier than
the Cossacks swooped upon their tanks.
| An army of arctic blasts, with icicles
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 and 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 Russian capital. An
| invisible power seized one hundred
thousand 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 Moscow. The freezing hor-
ror which has appalled, history was
proof to all ages that IL Is vain thing
for any earthly power to accept the
challenge of my text who could
stand before his cold?" In the
middle of December. 1777, at Valley
Forge eleven thousand troops were,
with frosted ears and frosted hands and
| frosted feet. without shoes, with
out blankets, lying on the white
pillow OF the snow bank. AS during
our civil war the cry was: ION to
Richmondv' when the troops were not
ready to march, so In the revolutionary
Iwar- tfsere Mas . ssema0d. for wiptry
campaign until Washington lost his
equilibrium and wrote emphatically:
II asure those gentlemen II is easy
enough seated by good fireside and in
comfortable homes to draw out cam
paigns for the American army; but l
tell them 1t is not so easy to lie on a
bleak hillside. without blankets and
without shoes" Oh, the frigid horrors
that gathered around the American
army in the winter of 1777! Valley
Forge was one of the tragedies Of the
century. Benumbed, senseless. dead!
who can stand before his cold ?" mot
We" say the frozen lips of Sir John
Franklin and his men, dying in Arctic
exploration. mot We" answer
Schwatka and his men, falling back
from the fortresses of ice which they
had tried in vain to capture. mot we, "
say the abandoned and crushed decks
OF the Intrepid, the Resistance and the
Jeanette. mot we," say the process
sion of American martyrs returned
home for American sepulture, De Long
the earth are pillars of ice; Mont Blanc,
Jungfrau, the Matterhorn. The largest
galleries Of the world are galleries of ice
Some of the mighty rivers much of the
year are in captivity of ice. The great
est sculptors the ages are the glaciers
with arm and hand and chisel and ham,
mer of ice. The cold Is imperial and
has crown Of glittering crystal and Is
seated on throne of ice, with footstool
of ice and scepter of ice. Who can tell
the sufferings OF the winter Of 1893
when all the birds Of Germany per-
ished? Or the winter Of 1858 in En-
gland, when the stages rolled on the
Thames, and temporary houses of mer-
chandis were built on the ice? Or the
winter of 1921 In America, when New
York harbor was frozen over and the
heaviest teams crossed on the ice to
Staten island? Then come down to our
own winters when there have been sc
many wrapping themselves In furs, OIL
gathering themselves around fires, OIL
threshing their arms about them to re-
vive circulation-the millions OF the
temperate and the arctic zones who
are compelled to confess, None of u.
can stand before his cold"
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 fax of oul
own fields, the wool Of our own flocks
the coal from our own mines. the wooc
: from our own forests. all employed In
battling these inclemencies. and still
+ every winter. with blue lips and chat
tering teeth, answers: None of us car
stand before his cold" Now this beinl
such cold world, God sends out infiu
ences TO warm It. am glad that thu
God of the frost 10 the God OF the heat
: that the God of the snow Is the God o
. the white blossoms; that the God OF Jan
3 uary Is the God of June. The question
, as to how shall we warm this world III
) 10 Q question of immediate and alien
: comprising practically. In this zon
and weather there are so many freles
hearths. SO many broken window
panes. SO many defective roofs that sif