The times., 1897-12-06
GRANDEURs OF THE FROST
DR.. Talmage DisceurSes Of the
Winters of the Bible.
HEAVENS DIADEM OF BEAUTY
As tho Earth is Made Grand by the
Frozen Dews of the Dying Yea.
So is the Soul Bejeweled by Grace
Fertilization OF the Soul by ley
Trials

AT the First Presbyterian Church yes
terday morning, Dr. Talma ge, entering
upon the fifth OF his course OF sermons On
God Every where discoursed from the
text; Job xxxvii:t0; by the breath of
God, frost is eiven,' the subject taken
therefron being Winters of the Bible; or
God Among the Frosts.'
Nothing" said the preacher, lis more
embarrassing 10 an organlst or pianist tnan
TO put his finger on key ot tue instru-
| memo ana aVeItniake no response. Though
| all the Keys are i'll full play, that one
| silence destroys the music. 30 IN the great
cathedral of nature, Ii one part fails To
| praise the Lord, the harmony Is halted and
| lost. While fire and hail, snow and vapor
respond to the touch OF inspiration, if the
| frost made no utterance, the orchestral
| rencefmg would be hopelesSly damaged and
| the harmony forever incomplete. am
| more than glad that | can tell that the
white Key OF the frost sounds forth us
| nightly as any Of the other keys, and
when David touches it i'll the Psalms, it
| SOUNDS forth the words; lie scattereth
| the hoar frost like ashes, and when job
| touches IL in my text, it resounds with
the words; By the breath OF God, frost
! Is given.
li.s rs he first Sablath h of winter. The
! lea Nes are down. Tne warmth has gone
ouo OF the air. The birds have made their
winged march southwark. The landscape
| has been SCARED by he autunnal equinox.
| The huskers have riiled the corn shocks.
| The night sky mas shown the usual fneteoric
restlesSness OF oVembcr. Three seasons Of
the year are past, and the fourth and
last has entered. Another element now
comes IN 10 blets and adCrn and instruct
the world. 1t is the 1I0st.
BY most considered an enemy coming
here to benumb and hinder and slay,
| snail show you that FROST ~ friend, with
| benediction divinely pron Ounced, and
charged and surcharged wit hlessons potent,
| beneficent and tremendous. The Bible
seven times alludes To tie fICst, and we
| must not ignore it. BY the breath of God
| frost is given
| irst, / Unlnk OF Frost as Laintcr. He
begins his work Oh the leaves and CON
| tiuues il on the window panes. With
palette COY cred with all manner of colors
in his left hand, and pencil of crystal in
/ his right hand, he sits down before huniblest
| bush in the latter part of September, and
| begins the sketching of the leaves. All
| are peHcilea, one by one, but sometimes
/ wnole forest in the course Of few days
| shows great velocity OF work. WeeniX,
| the Dutch painter, could make in a sum
mer day three portraits OF life size, but
| the frost in ten days can paint ten noun
| tans in life size.
Michael Angelo put upon one ceiling his
| representation of he Last Judgment, but
| the frost represents univ cTsal Conf!agation
| upon three thousand miles OF stretched-out
| grandeur. Leonardoda Vinci put upon afew
| feet Of canvas our Lords Last Supper for
| all ages TO admire, but the frost puts the
| cleaning chalices OF the imperial glories OF
| the last supper OF the dying year on the
| heights and lengths and breadths OF the
Alleghanies.
You VIII soon waken on ? cold morning
| and find that the windows of your houle
have during the night been adorned with
| curves. with coronets. with exquisi teness,
| with pomp, with almost supernatural
| spectacle. Then YOU Will appreciate what
| my text says, ar 1t declares, BY the brtA tn
or God frost is given You viii see on & he
| window pane, traced there by the frost,
| whole gardens of beauty ferns, orchids,
| daffodiiS, heliotropeS, china asters foun-
| tains, statues, hounds on the chase roe
/ bucks plungingintot the tream, battIescenes
| with dying and dead. Catafalques of kings
| triumphal professions, and as the morning
sun breaks through you will see cities
Lon fire, and bombardment with bursting
| shell, and illuudnations as for some great
| victory, coronations, and angels on the
wing. All night long, while you were sleep
ing, the frost was working, and you ought
| not to let the warmth obiterate the scene
| until YOU have admired it. studied il, alb
| sOrbed it, set it up IN your memory for.
perpetual refrtshnent, ana realized the
| force and magnitude and intensity of my
text: By the brea tn OF God frost is given "
The preacher alluded to frost as a ply
sician. No physician, he said, is 50 skill
ful or SO mighty as the frost. All ma
tions, he showed, have had their great
DOCTORS but frost presented the best tonic
that God ever gave to the human race.
Frost as a jeweler received his eloquent
admiration.
He is a stupid Christian who
| thinks so much Of the printed and bound
Bible that he neglects the old Testament
| OF the fields, nor reads the wisdom and
kindness and beauty of God written in
| blossoms on the orchard in sparkles on
the lake, in stars in the sky, in frost on
the meadows The greatest .ieweler of
| all the earth is the frost.
| But | go a step further and speak Of
| the frost as an evangelist, and a te Xt of
| Scripture Is not of much use to me unless
can find the gospel i'll it. The Israelites
| in the wilderness breakrasted on some
| thing that looked like frozen dew. The
| mamma fell on the dew and the dew
evaporated and left pulverized ma terial,
| white and looking like frost; but it was
| mama, and of that they ate. So now,
this morning, mixed with the frozen dew
of my text there is mamma ON which we
| may breakfast our souls. You say the
| frost kills. Yes, it kills some things, but
| we have already seen that it gives health
| and life to others. This gospel is the
| saver of life unto life, or of death unto
| death. As the frost is mighty, the gospel
is mighty. AS the frost descends from
| heaven, the gospel descends from heaven
BY the breath of God frost is given. By
the breath of God the gospel is given.