Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-04-25
Talmage

BY Rec.
Frank De EOfff
TAIN age. d. ID.


sermon the preacher announces the di-
vine amnesty to all who repent, and
sinners of every degree are urged to
accept the offer which is made with a
royal magnanimity and completeness
that put human forgiveness to shame
by comparison. The text is Psalm
Ii, Z, Wash me, and | shall be whittier
than snow"
absurd smile" you say; that state
ment cannot be scientifically true.
There is nothing whittier than the snow,
any more than there is anything deader
than death, or blacker than black, or
Iredder than arterial blood, or emptier
than a vacuum"
Snow, from a chemists standpoint,
has superlative whiteness. The pur-
est of all vdpOrs is that found far up
in the heavens. Along comes sudden
cold wave and it freezes that vapOr in
to snOwhakes, just as that cold wave
can freeze falling raindrops into hail
stones which patter upon the pave
ment Then as that snowflake slowly
drops through the air it comes to us
as white as it is possible for anything
I to be. And yet there is a sense in
which the psalmist is right in saying
that God can wash away our sins I'M
til we become whittier than snow" the
pure snow, the spOtless, wind driven
4snOw.
The Poets License.
What you state about the snow is
literally true Scientifically, there can
be nothing whittier than snow" But
lyOu must interpret these words of my
text with the fgurative license of the
poet When you see through poetic
ieyes and hear through poetic ears you
can see sights and hear sounds never
analysed in any laboratory or CLASH
fed by any earthly acoustician. l re-
member that some years ago in a SER
mon l described myself as walking
through an orchard and lying down
under the branches Of an old apple
tree and listening to a long conversa-
ton between two apples on the tree
overhead. One apple wanted to live
only for self. 1t wanted to hold on to
that tree branch until its flush of
health died away and it became
wrinkled and brown and decayed and
fell to the ground to be trampled under
foot by the swine The other apple
was willing to die in order that others
might live. This second apple wanted
to be pulled off to adOrn the Thanks
giving banquet table, or to be carried
as a gift to the invalid's room or to be
slowed away in the ships hull for an
arctic explorer, or TO be crushed i'll
the press that the cider might sparkle
and glow with life. AS | described
those two apples talking together L
saw one Of my dearest friends in the
audience with a veXed look upon his
face He was n hard headed business
man, without an atom of poetry in his
makeup. After the service he came
iup to me and said: ''Why did you
two apples? You never heard two
apples talking. Apples can't talk" 1
looked at him for Il moment and then
said: Didn't you ever hear the flow
ers talk and the birds talk and apples
talk? l have. l have heard them
often talking to me. If Isaiah could
make mountains and the hills break
forth into singing and all the trees of
the fields clap their hands for joy,
surely can hear two apples talk. l
know those apples talked, for l heard
them"
The DrUnkard's Sins.
We do not bind the imagination of
the poet with the rigid bonds of scien-
ltific accuracy. He is accorded a Il
icense to see and hear with his spirit
iual eyes and ears scenes and sounds
not scientifically true. Though these
words of my text may not be literally
true, in the fgurative language of the
psalmist they are POLITICALLY so. They
may mean. in the common language
this: Though your past lives show
stains that seem to you indelible as
scarlet. though you have committed
sins which have not only corrupted
Eour own soul, but have laid the souls
of others, like the human sacrifice of
the Aztec sun wOrshipers, on the fiery
affairs, yet even for you there are par
don and cleansing, if you will accept
them Like the prOdigal in his rags
and tatters, there is a home for you in
the Fathers house. Though, like Paul,
you have to acknowledge yourself the
chief of sinners, like him you may find
grace and have the honor of toiling in
Christian service
Christ is ready to cleanse the drunk
ards sins. These are neither few nor
small, for the drunkard's sins can drag
n man down so low that he will lose
all sense of decency and respect. They
can change a man into a condition
more imbruted than that of a wild
beast. The drunkard after awhile
seems TO become as unQuenchable in
his passions as the patient whose vo-
racious appetite IS Unsuitable after
long attack Of typhoid fever. The
drunkard's craving will make a man
lie and steal and destroy his home and
his business. The drunkard's sins will
eat out a mans heart as well as his
brain. The drunkard's sins are like