The Advocate and news., 1899-01-11

planet without the landscape. No noun
tains, no hills, no valleys, no plains no
meadows, no streams, no forests, no
flowers, no grass, no lights and shadows,
no clOuds-nOthing but one vast and
boundless eXpanse Of dreary waste, de-
scribed in those four awful words in
Genesis as without form and void"
Can you comprehend the appalling trans
formation wrought on the planet when
the Great I Am ordered the landscape?
Let your imagination take you back
to that last hour Of chaos, just before
God thought of light.
How your senses would thrill,
How your heart would stand still,
Seeing God FIRST unroll
| The plimOrdiRl scroll,
| And then hurling the earth
| Forth from chaos to birth
Stand here, and look back, and see
the internal fires Of the globe, expanding
and heaVing uncouDted tons of matter
into wrinkles and ridges, into cOrruga-
tions and cont0rtions of mountains and
plains, Of hills and valleys, of meadows
and water courses. Then, as the Titans
Of frost and heat, Of rain and snow, Of
capitalization and disqualification, the
melting and disintegration Of granite
peaks and rocky slopes into soil and fer
tility. See the forests budding and
bursting from the uplands and plains and
rising in majestic sweeps and beautiful
contours; see them cloaking In green the
bare hills and brown plains; see them
rObing the valleys in the changing garb
Of gray and brown and yellow and green
and red; see the flowers and shrubs and
grasses leaping into existence and cloth
ing with verdure and beauty the inter-
spaces that the kindly forests had left
unclad; see the clouds gather and the
shadows c0ngregate and the rills trickle
where gravity leads the way and col
lect into streams, leaping in waterfalls
and rushing torrents down the winding
ways to the sea! See the vines sprlnging
from the dark mold Of disintegrated hills
and climbing and running hither and
thither, up the giant stems OF the trees
and winding over their branches and
trailing from limb to limb, and knitting
up the forests in vast network of
beauty and bloom See the towering
palms swaying in the breezes and the
giant oaks bracing themselves against
the shocks Of tOrturing storms and
thunderbolts. See the great reaches of
pines and cedars and frs lifting, green |
garmented, above the snowy capets of |
the North; see the interviewer jungles at
the equator, denying access to man, and
guarding the primeval secrets of nature
See the insensate seas gathering the
waters Of all the rivers and piling them
to unfathomed depths above their deep |
valleys, whose treasures no man hath |
discovered! See the inaccessible poles |
where the frost kings dominiOns are
never invaded. See all these and thou
sand other wonders, and then tell me,
n you can, the magnitude OF the land |
scape and its momentous relations to
man! When we say all we can about
it, we have even then only touched the
hem Of the mighty garment with which |
the Creator has clothed this rolling
sphere and garmented but one of the
countless orbs of his mighty kingdom!
:: =
Apart from the tragedies OF birth and
death, the landscape has other and ire
mendous influences on the human race.
1t is one Of the greatest schoolmasters
OF the world 1t teaches us the grand
OF form and color, the mar
vels Of light and shade, the enchantment
OF rest and motion, the splendors of
times and seasons with unending perio-
dlcities; the magic Of heat and cold, the
witcheries Of grace and beauty,
the solace of bloom and fragrance, the
music Of birds and FLASHING waters, the
lessons Of Unwearied persistence, the
lullabys of gentle and tender ministries.
the majesty Of mighty forces, and the
glorious hope Of immortality.
It furnishes studies for the painter and
sculptor, patterns for the architect and
materials for the builder. It gives a
hints to the engineer and
builds for him arches and bridges and
causeways 1t touches man at every
point OF existence. It brings into his
lie the beautiful things in art, lltera-
.ure, science, music, and Oratory. Il
stimulates imagination and the creative