The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-05-17
PULPIT, EDITORIALS.
delivered by DIR. Frank Crane at Trinity
Church, Chicago, Preceding the Usual
Sermon Sunday, May 10, 1896.
THE MESSAGE OF SPRING.
Copyrighted. 1881

Ia ieSSohs iioiii nature, as lAOugn
nature were not created for this
very purpose. Natures chief BUSH
ness is preaching, she does other things
only incidentally. God never made the
world to De an apothecary shop, nor
a chemical laboratory, but to be a tenn
pie; the final word of creation is spir-
itual. Some scientist may discover that
daisies are good medicine; then we
will say: "At last we have discovered
their utility" forgetting that they did
no small service to mankind by mere
ly spangling the meadows and lighting
up the dusty roadside. The Creator ex-
pends so much force in sunsets and APP
pie blossoms, in the clouds that flush
round the summer sky and IN the sleet
that encrusts the trees with coats of
pearl, that there must be some useful
ness in mere beauty. The greatest
thing we know Of is the spirit, and for
1t all things else were made to teach
and guide, to inspire and uplift it. all
matter and form exist. If the sole pur-
pose of the peach tree is fruit for the
stomach, why the passionate sympa-
thy of pink and white that bourgeons
on the tree in the early year? / looked,
an idle wanderer. the other day at
silver stream flowing through a little
valley. There were fishers by the brim.
farmers in the adjoining fields, a mill
by distant dam. and some small boys
playingon raft; fish for the fisherman,
corn for the farmer, power for the mill
er, indeed but did not the Maker of it
all intend some part to glad my eye,
and to fill the veins Of those youngsters
with gamboling zest Of life?
The universe, / say, is temple, first
of all. Mountains may be of meteoro-
logical consequence, lakes may bear
vessels of grain and pig-iron, storms
may ozonize the atmosphere, and pain
may drive us after remedy. But they
all have better business. The noun
tain is an altar, the lake says Peace"
and Majesty" the cyclone breaches
retribution, and pain dscourses upon
law. Yet some sleep in natures church
also, and dream of bags and boxes dur
ing her sermon. Let them sleep IL they
wish: but it is intolerable when they
impudently deny there was any preach
ment at all.
What is Springs sermon? 1t is hard
to put into words, it is impossible. You
may interpret nature but not in En-
glish, only in smiles, signs and pulses.
Some try to explain music, saying of
this piece that 1t means a landscape, of
that that ii means a battle, and the
like; but music is to be felt in the soul,
not reduced to mental concepts; IL is
to be apprehended, not comprehended.
So OF nature. 1t, like all good preach
ers, is suggestive, not didactic; il kim
dies, startles, rouses; it does not drone
and expatiate and dogmatize. Relig-
ion is divine and theology human: so
Fthe impulse from the vernal wood" is
divine, but the crop Of spring poems it
produces is very, very human. Ii re-
quires the same disposing of ones self
to know nature as to know Christ: one
must open the heart, must reach forth
the sensitive fingers of the soul.
What is the voice of Spring? Solo,
mon says: The voice Of my beloved:
behold! he cometh leaping upon the
mountains, skipping upon the hills"
Spring is the revelation Of the love and
beauty of God. There is something in
Spring whose mysterious self we do
not know, but whose works we see. 1t
is the force that pushes the sap, il is
the balsam in the warming air. it is the
virescent color coming into the grass.
1t is an awakening, a life, a sweetness
all abroad. What is this? This is God.
The same God, who in the Book SAYS:
ITO know me is life eternal" now whis-
pers in the quick evidences of Spring:
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and
come away; for 10! the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone, the flowers
appear upon the earth, and the time OF
the singing of birds is come"
Spring is a keen interpreter of the
Bible. You have read your Holy Writ
with the aid of commentaries by the
Rev. DR.. Dryasdust, you have listened
to the opinionated positively of the
preacher man, you have heard the COM
nent of the Sunday school teacher.
Now take your book out under the ap-
pie tree and feel what the birds and
the bees and the odors and the inter-
laced shadows and the bowling branches
have to impart to you of its meaning.
Has not the Easter lily somewhat to
tell of a shade of intent in the pas
sage, God so loved the world?" Has
not the rising and warbling bird a note
upon, And /, If l be lifted up, will
draw all men unto me?' Can not the
thirsty plants raising up their heads in
a May shower say a word or two about
II am the bread of Life?" And when
your Bible is on your knee, and around
you is the smiling sward, above you
the fiocking clouds herded by the wind
along the blue pasture of the sky, and
before you the opaline lake, trembling
with the thrill of love as the zephyr
strokes II, can you not read with new
Insight the story of the baby on Mary's
breast and of the angels that sang Of
Peace on earth, good will toward
men?"
my beloved is like a roe. or a young |
hart" proceeds the kingly singer: be |
hold! he standeth behind our WALL he |
looketh forth at the windows, shelving |
himself through the lattice" If you |
would see this loneliness, therefore, you |
must have sharp eyes. God hides. The |
very things that uncover Him to the !
simple heart, drape Him before the |
proud mind. Not few stumble through /
a world crowded with God and COM
plain they never met Him. Ii takes !
three faculties TO penetrate to the heart /
Of Springs sermon and to see God: |