The morning times., 1896-10-26
Text: Isaiah lxiv:6: I'VE all do fade
as a Ipaf''

IL Is SO nara IOf us 10 uHueis'ah" iS
religious truth that God constantly re-
itcrates. AS the schooluasler takes "a
blackboard, and puts upon IL figures ana
| Diagrams, so III at The scholar may not oiiiy
| get his lessons through the ear, but aiso
| through the eye So God takes all the
truths of Ills bible and draws them out
| III diag gram on the natural world. Cham
poilion, the famous Erenchman, went GOWN
into Egypt to study the hieroglyphics on
| monuments and temples. Alter much
| labor he deciphered them, and announced
to the learned world the result di his
| investiga tions. -
The wisdom, goodness, and power of
God are written in hieroSlyphics all over
the earth and all over the heaven. 1od
grant that we may have understanding
enough 10 deCipher them! There are
scrptural 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 Feet;
u passage lnat means nothing save 10 the
man that knows that the feet of the red
deer or hind, are peculiarly constructed,
| So that they can walk among slippery
! rocks without falling.
Knowing that fact. we understand that,
| WI hen Habakkuk says, Thou nlaRest my
| feet like hinu's feet" he sets forth that
| the Christian can walk amid the most
| dangerous and slippery places without
THE daughter OF my people is cruel like
| the ostriches of the " ilderness,' 4 passage
that has no meaning save 10 the man VINO
| knows that the ostrich leaves Its egg IN
the sand to be Matched out by the sun, ana
that the young ostrich goes forth unat-
| Tended by any maternal Kindness. Know
| ing this. the passage is significant-'Ihe
daughter OF my people is cruel, ike the
ostrches OF the wilderness"
| GLORIES OF NATURE.
Those know but little of the meaning
| of the natural World, who have looked at
| 1t through the eyes of others and from book
or canvas taken their Impression. There
| are some faces SO mobile that photog-
| raphcrs cannot take them; and the face
OF nature has such flush, and sparkle. and
life, that no human description can gather
| them.
| No one knows the pathos OF BIRDS
voice unless he has sat at summer evening
tide at the edge of a wood, and listened
| TO the cry of the whip-poor-will.
There is today more glory in one branch
| of sumach than a painter could put on Il
| " hole forest of naples. God hath struck
into the autumnal leaf a glance that none
| see but those who come face to facc-thc
mountain looking upon the man, and the
man looking upon the mountain.
Most persons preaching from this text
| find only IN it Il vein Of sadness. l find
IA string of sadness, and a string Of joy
infinite.
We all do fade as leaf.''
First. Like the foliage, we fade gradu-
| ally. 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. Suppose you
| mat the pictured ieaf that you hold IN
| your hand took onits color in an hour. or in
| Il day, or in week? No Deeper and
deeper the flush, till all the veins of its
life now seem opened and bleeding away.
After n while, leaf after leaf, they fan.
So gradually we pass away. From day
To day we h;trdlyisee the change. But the
frosts have touched us.
Again: Like the leaf we fade, to make
room for others. Next years forests VIII
be Grandly foliaSed as this. There are
other generations oil oak leaves to take the
place of those which this autumn perish.
Next May the cradle of the wind will
rock the young buds. The woods Will be
all album with the chorus of leafy voices.
If the tree in front of your house, like
Elijah, takes chariot OF fire. its mantle
Will fall upon Elisha. II, in the blast of
these autumnal batteries, so many ranks
fail, there are reserve forces to take their
place TO Gefend the fortress OF the hills.
PLACES WILL BE FILLED.
The beaters of gold leaf VIII have more
gold leaf 10 beat. The crown that drops
today from the head OF the oak viii he
picked up and handed down for other
kings to wear Let the blasts come. They
only make room for other life.
Do not be disturbed as you see good and
great men die. People worry when some
important parsonage passes off the stage,
and say, Hi place will never be taken ~
But neither the church nor the state will
suffer for it. There will be others TO take
the places.
When God takes one man away, he has
another right back of him. God is so
rich in resources that he could spare 5000
SuInmerfields and Saurins, if there were
SO many There will he other leaves as
green, as exqusitely veined, as gracefully
etched as well pointed However prominent
the place we fill, our death will not
jar the world.
One falling leaf does not shake the Adj
rondacks, A ship is not well manned un-
less there be an extra supply of hands -
some working on deck; some sound asleep
in their hammocks. God has manned this
world very well. There VIII be other sea-
men on deck when you and are down
in tie cabin, sound asleep in the hammOcks,
Again: As with the leaves, we fade and
fat amid m myriads OF offers. One cannot
count the number Of plumes which these
frtsts are plucking from the hills. They
Will strew all the streams; they will drift
into the caverns; they will soften the
wild beasts lair. and fill the eagles eyrie.
the places
| All the aisles of the forest will be COW
cred with their carpet, and the steps of the
hills glow with a wealth of color and
shape that will defy the looms of Axmin-
ster. What urn could hold the ashes of
all these dead leaves? Who could count
the hosts that burn on this.funeral pyre of
the mountains?
So we die in concert. The clock that
strikes the hour of our going will sound
the going of many thousands. Keeping
; step with the feet of those who carry us
4, out will he the tramp Of hundreds doing
the same erranu.
MARCHING TOWARD ETERNITY.
If, in the movement of time, Some great
question between the living and the dead
should be put, anu tod called up all the
dead and the living to decide it, as we
lifted our hands, and from all the resting
places of the dead they lifted their hands
the dead would outvote us. Why, the null
titude of the dying and the dead are as
these autumnal leaves drifting under oul
feet today. .- ...rs -.,.
We march on toward eternity not by COM
panies of "a hundred. or regiments of Il thou
sand, or brigades of ten thousands, but six
teen hundred million abreast Marching on!
Marching on!
Again: As with variety of appearance
the leaves depart, so do we. You have no
ticed that some trees at the first touch of
The frost lose alb their beauty; they stand
withered and uncolIely and ragged wait
ing for The northeast storm to drive them
into the mire.
The s,ln shining atiroonday y gildsthem with
10 beauty. Ragged leaves! Dead leaves
No one stands 10 study them. They are
gathered in no vase They are hung on nu
wall So death smites many. There is nc
beauty In their denartHrp. One silarp frnsI