Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-10-31

Leaves Man Without NoiiSton Dlcs
Without Tingo of Hopo-Porishcs With
No Hope Of Resurrection.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 80. Tho season
ST the year adds much appositenoss to
Dr. Talmago's sermon, which we send
ont today. His subject is "Tho Pag-
oantry Of tho Woods" and his text
Isaiah Xiv, 6, "Wo oil do fade as a
leaf. "
1t is 60 hard for us to understand re-
ligious truth that God constantly reit-
crates. As the schoolmaster takes n
blackboard and puts upon it figures and
diagrams, so that the scholar may not
only get his lesson through the ear, but
also through tho eye, so God takes all
tho truths of his Bible and draws thom
out in diagram on the natural world.
Champollion, tho famous Frenchman,
went down into Egypt to study tho
hieroglyphics on monuments and tenn
pies. Aftor much labor he deciphercd
them and announced to the learned
world the result of his Investigations
Tho wisdom, goodness and power of
God arc written i'll hieroglyphics all
over the earth and all over tho heaven.
God grant that we may have under
standing enough to decipher them!
There arc Scriptural passages, like my
text, which need to be studied i'll the
very presence of the natural world.
Habakkuk says, "Thou makest my
feet like kinds feet, a passage which
means nothing save to the man that
knows that the feet Of the red deor, 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 feet, p"
he sets forth that the Christian can
walk amid the most dangerous and slip
perry places without falling. III Lamcn-
tations we read that "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 tho ostrich leaves its egg in the
sand to bo Matched ont by the sun, and
that the young ostrich goes forth unat-
tended by any maternal kindness.
knowing this, the passage is significant,
Tho 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 tho face of nature has such flush
and sparkle and life that no human de-
scription can gather them. No one
knows the pathos of q birds voice I'M
less he has sat at summer evening tide
at tho edge of wood and listened to
the cry of the whippoorwill.
There is today moro glory in one
branch Of sumach than q painter could
put OH whole forest Of naples. God
hath struck into tho autumnal leaf a
glance that mono see but those who
como face to face-the mountain look
ing upon tho man, and the man looking
upon the mountain.
For several autumnsI have had atour
to tho far west, and one autumn, about
this time, saw that which shall never
forget. Ihave seen the autumnal sketch
es of Cropsey and other skillful pencils,
but that week 1 saw pageant 1000
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 tho sides of the great hills
and by the banks of the lakes there was
an Understandable mingling of gold and
orange and crimson and saffron, now
SOLDERING into drab and maroon, now
flaming into solferino and scarlet. Here
and there tho trees looked as if just
their tips had blossomed into fire. In
the morning light the forests seemed as
if they had been transigured, and in
the evening hour they looked as if tho
sunset had burst and dropped npon the
leaves. III more sequestered spots, whero
the frosts had been hinderod in their
work, wo saw the first kindling of the
flames Of color in q lowly sprig. Then
they rushed up from branch to branch,
until the glory Of the Lord submerged
the forest Here you would find tree
Just making up its mind to change, and
there one looked as if, wounded at every
pore, it stood bathed in 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 conhagration. If
at ono end of tho woods a 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 L saw along the Maui
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 loaf 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
haYp-a string Of sadness and string
of joy infinite.
"We all do fade as q 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 for
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 in a week? No.
Deeper and deeper the flush till all the