The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-12

bowling and the night tempestuous. should not; wonder fl we could hear a Bethesda, saying, "Inasmuch as yc did it to them, ye. did t to me"
 Victories of the Frost.
 An, the might of the cold! The arctic
 and antarctic invading the temperate
 the Thames in 12O5 became firm as any bridge and the inhabitants crossed ana
 recrossed on the Ice and booths and
 b,,.lt on the hardened surface: as when many years ago New York harbor was
 paved with ice so that the people passed on foot to the adjoining islands. But me
 known. The lips which would have told
 1t were frozen and the fingers that would
 have written 1t were benumbed. o@ny @
 here and there fact appears. In l69l
 the cold was so terrific that the wolves entered Vienna In 146S 1t was so cold
 that wine was cut with hatchets ana ana
 distributed among the soldiers. In lZSi a whole forest was killed by the cold
 at Ravenna. In 763 the Black Sea was frozen over. As we go further back the frosts are mightier, but as we come fur
 ther down the frosts lessen; lessen The worst ha snows have lost their depths, ana the
 thermometers announce less terrific falls of temperature, and the time will come of foliage and bloom. While tho worlds | moral condition will be reformed, the
 worst climates will be corrected. You could not have a milenneum with Jan < The increasing Daylight. Behold, also. as it is possible in no other month of the year. the wondrods anatomy of the trees in January. the
 leaves of the last year all gone, and not so much as bud of new botanical \ wardrobe appearing, the treee standing r with arms stretched toward heaven, one of the greatest evidences of the wisdom | and the power of the Creator. The leaves appear only once and then die, | but these great arms are stretched up toward Heaven in silent prayer for scores of years, now mailed with ice. now roped in snow or lowing to the God Of the tempests as he passes in the midnight hurricane. In July the trees stand glo- rifying the earth; in January they stand
 the child plays with his toy. and, grow ing up to manhood. sits under 1t in sent
 iriental or philosophic mood and, having
 passed on to old age, rests himself under trees seem to say: '"Fhe leaves that rus tied their music in the last summer are dead and gone. but the leaves that VIII adorn these bare arms shall have as much beauty and glory as their prede- cessors. Only wait. There are beautiful and lovely things to come in my tree lie, as there are beautiful and lovely things
 to come in your life, human spectd- tor.'' Oh. the tres! Only sEe Almighty and the Infinite could have made one.
 Gothic architecture was suggested by IL. But for the arch of its bough and the pointing of it's branches the St. Chapellt of Paris and other specimens of Gothic arch would never have been lifted. NO
 wonder the world has taken from 1t many
 styles of sngsestiyeness-tne laurel Ior the aspen for the trembling, the cypress
 for the burial But, unlike ourselves,
 they cannot chang: their place and so I \ -I.4. A1aN znc n
 them are solemn monuments of the cen turies. Thank God for trees, their beau ty, their shelter. their interlacing
 branches-not only for the trees Tn June time coronation, but in January orlvaton os everything but graceful structnre; Let the. iconocIastic ax not be lifted against them. "Wooaman spare that l tree."
 Behold also in this January month the increasing daylight. Last month the sun went down at 4:30. but in this month tIe | days are getting longer. The sunrise | and the sunset are farther apart. sun | light instead of artificial light, and there
 is for our dear old battered earth grow
 inc light The day-spring from on high l hath visited us" We shall have moro | lieht for the home, more light for the | church. more light for the nation, mo.e l light for the world-light of intelligence, | light of comfort, light Of rescue HSn. | oi civilization, light from the face Of ! God light from the throne. But, you say, | the light increases so slowly, each day | ok. this January only one minute lonses
 than it's predecessor. the sun setting tnS | 1St day of January at o'clock and 4S l minutes, the sun setting the Znd day or I January at o'clock and A minutes. tns ! 3d day of this month the sun setting al 4 o'clock and 45 minutes, the 4th day O. January the sun setting at o'clock anu 46 minutes. This evening 1t will set at
 1 o'clock and AZ minutes. The day en- larges very little, and the reign of sun light is not much increased, put do not despise the minute of increasing light
 each day of this January, and do not
 despise the fact that more light Is com
 ing for the church and the world, though
 1t come slowly. As we are now in this
 season gradually going toward the long
 est day of next summer. so our world
 ia moving forward toward the long day
 of emancipation and Christly dominion.
 It may now in the state and the church
 and the world be January cold. but we
 are on the way to July harvests and
 September orchards.
 Do not go out and ask the trees hung
 with iclcleS by January storm whether
 they will ever again blossom in May
 and leaf in June. We are moving toward
 the worlds redemption. The frozen
 tears will melt, the river of gladness
 will resume its flow. the crocus will come
 up at the edge of the snowbank, the
 morning star will ooen the door for the
 day, and the armies of the world wilt
 ground arms all around the world.
 The January of frost will be abolished. ana the palm ana TduldHCe oL d ulNlH0 atmosphere will fill the nations. If you do not see it and hear it for yourself.
 I think at the utmost your. grandchil- dren will see and hear it. The heavens
 will take part in the conflict between righteousness and sin, and that will set tie it. and settle 1t alright, and settle 1t forever.
 In this very month of January, l6fa. two months after a great battle had been fought between the army of the king and the army of parliament, shepherds and travellers between l. and l CLOCK at night heard the battle repeated in the sk1eS-the sound of drums. the clash of arms. the groans of dying men and then the withdrawal of the scene into travellers repeated in the neighboring towns what they heard, and large num- bers of people. expecting that all was deception. went out the following night, and they heard the same uproar and tumult in the heavens-the two ar mics in battle. The king. hearing of this seeming combat In the heavens, sent em- bassadors to inquire into the mystery. In the night chey also heard the conflict and came back to the king and took solemn oath as to this mysterious oc- currence.
 Whether those shepherds and travel CTS and ambassadors of the king were in delusion 1 cannot say, but this I know-that the forces of God and the forces of Satan are now in combat. the heavens as well as the earth in struggle as to who shall win this world for bless edncss or Woe, and. as inc armies of God are migntier than the armies dia- We have d right to shout the victory ! through our Lord Jesus Christ Tn ' King of Kings, the Lord of Hosts, Ihe God of Joshua and Havclock, leads in |