Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-06-16
AT THE CHURCHES

from week to week give synopsis, or
brief extract, from sermons preached
at the different churches.
An appropriate sermon, given at
the Congregational church, by Rev.
B. J. FL. Shaw, was entitled 1.-THE
Glory and Song of Summer. He
said in brief:
'What an Undesirable glory is
that of summertime. The resurrec-
ton of nature has taken place in the
spring; the hidden life has burst forth
from the tomb of winter and all it's
forms have become clothed with a
lovely dress of myriad colors.
eff we could place our ear to the
earth and hear the sound Of the
various properties Of the soil rushing
up into the plants and filling the
flowers and fruits; if we could sit
down in the orchard and listen to the
sap working in the trees and through
out their thousand branches; if by
some new and wonderful gift Of hear
ing, by the growth Of finer sense, we
could catch all these sounds, what a
new world of music and delight it
would open to us.
THE early summer has a special
charm. The very life is luxury. The
air is full of scent and SOUND and
sunshine, of the song Of birds and
the murmur of insects: it almost
seems as if one could see the grass
grow and the buds open.
The hours when the mind is
absorbed by beauty are the only hours
when we really live. To be beautiful
and to be calm, without mental fear,
is the ideal of nature. But this beauty
of summer is not only some picture
that is easily seen-in the landscape,
or the river scene; nor is the song
only from the birds; the beauty is
everywhere-in every form and feature
of nature-in the thousand cOlors and
delicate tints, in the brilliancy which
the play of light makes on the waters.
on every leaf and flower. The music
of summer is vibrant in all things.
1t is in the blowing Of the winds, in
the flowing of the waters, the ripping
of the stream, in the sprouting of the
plant, the quivering of the leaf. The
air is full of harmonious sound. With
out this universal rhythm nothing
could live. Harmony and gladnesS
are it's life. And so through all the
busy life of summer all the work of
nature is set to music.
Beauty is the expression of thought;
it cannot be seen except by the pure
mind. What would all these sights
and sounds be to us if we could only
see and hear them by the outer ear
and eye? Why, then there would be
nothing more than size and weight
and noise-a multitude of things
thrown together. A man must be
able to see the meaning of all
parts: be must find something more
than the chemical composition OF
color or mechanical structure. 1t is
the aesthetic faculty which sees
harmony. The farmer sees his crops,
the wood-cutter stick of wood, the
manufacturer his power in the water
to turn his mill, the huntsman a
profit from the sale of the birds fine
feathers, the artist and poet see the
glory of heaven and hear what God is
doing to gladden. the hearts of his
children.
Elbow soon we become worn out by
this perpetual grind. The sense of
the sublime decays; we miss all the
best things. And SO it is that the
summer comes, not simply for the
growth and ripening of foods and
fruits. that might be done without
beauty and music; more than that,
God has made the world lovely, he
has filled it with sweet singers to
awaken the senses to the finer things
of life. to call us away from an over
devotion to pursuits that would waste
| life and make it miserable. The
summer is an Invitation to learn from
nature how God wants US to live.
Summer is the great opportunity for
learning this lesson. Nature teaches
us how much richer and happier life
might become if only we would live
naturally and open our being to the
countless gifts of God.''