Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-11-11
Calnase
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talrnsee, d. d.

peted with the falling leaves the
preacher In this sermon draws a lesson
on the shortness OF human life. The
text Is Isaiah Xiv, 8, 1--WE all do fade
as a leaf"
Is there any time I'm all the year
more delightful for vacation I'm the
country than the Indian SUMMER
or course to the lover OF nature the
valleys and the mountains have their
Vaccinations at all seasons. Winter
cold, bleak, growing, freezing winter
has her months of glory. Then the
trees, with their long, outstretched
branches, are like the vestal virgins of
old, robed I'm spotless white. Then the
stars. through the keen, biting January
nights, CLEAN brighter than any other
time of the year. Then the country
roads are echoing with the merrymak-
ings of the sleighbeils, and the lights
from the farmhouses are the beacons
to signal friends to enter the home
where "Welcome" Is written over
every door.
Springtime I'm the country also has
her months OF glory. That is the time
we hear the wooings of bird mating
with bird. That IS the time when the
winds are tossing the white blossoms
every whittier. That is the time of
the seed paintings and of the plowings,
the time when the brooks are rippled
with the trouts' fins, while summer has
her glory of the haymakers and the
harvestings and the vineyards and the
orchards in which we all have reveled
year by year when of for the August
vacations. But. though winter spring
and summer may come to us, each with
special forms OF enjoyment, the most
rapturous time Of all the year in which
TO spend few weeks in the country
is during the autumn, for then the
glory OF October's pride Is the fading
leaf. Never In artists studio were so
many gorgeous eolors mixed together
as God pictures on his canvases of the
autumn foliage.
Here the trees look like q mighty
''river OF blood" as though their ar
teries had been opened by the Mosaic
rod which incarnadined the river OF
Egypt. The leaves have blushed a
deep crimson, as did the water at the
wedding feast at Cana when, at our
Lords word, 1t was borne as new
made wine to the governor at the
feast. Under yonder trees It seems as
though aged Jacobs sons were feast
Ing and had hung up Joseph's coat OF
many colors upon the tree branches
while they were waiting for the Ish-
mselite nomads to come and take their
younger brother away. There the green
and the yellow, the red and the pur-
pie. the blue and all the colors OF the
rainbow, are found blending upon the
same hillside. Yonder field looks like
a prairie fire. We can almost hear the
flames cracking amid the underbrush;
we can almost feel the hot air touch
ing our cheeks. We look at the strange
and wonderful sight of the long grass
cs and brushes, changed within few
weeks TO light red, and we wonder
not as we see the birds flying away to-
ward the sunny south, for rs they fly
we can almost see the pictures OF the
prairie fires OF our youth, when the
birds and the beasts and the serpents
fled I'm Wild terror before the onward
rush OF the consuming confiagratlon.
The Leaves OF Indian Summer.
oh, the beauty OF the autumnal To-
lage! The fading leaves OF the Indian
summer fascinate the eye and WOO
plauditory ordinations from all lips.
As we so forth today 10 catalogue
some OF them we find that there are
big leaves and small leaves, long leaves
and narrow leaves. rough leaves and
smooth leaves, thick leaves and thin
leaves. There are leaves that are yell
low, and red, ana brown, and crimson,
nd ff.np
leaves like those which the tired trav-
elers twist into cups and dip into the
cool waters and lift to their parched
lips. There are leaves like the fresh
emerald ones which the picnickers use
Tor platters when the merrymakers
are banQueting in the woods and
leaves like those the field laborers wet
when they place them in their straw
hats to cool their aching brows. There
ara leaves which the little children
gather and press straight between the
schoolbook pages. There are leaves
which the maidens collect to all the
jars and vases and to decorate the
halls, parlors and bedrooms of the
home. There are leaves which the
florist cuts to give an added beauty to
the flowers he is clustering together
for assemblages of joy and also for
asSemblages of sorrow. There are
leaves which have hidden the nests of
the birds while they were rearing their
young--leaves upon the tree branches,
leaves In the flower gardens, leaves
which have been tossed by the winds
into the dusty road, leaves overhead.
leaves under foot There are a hundred
and and forty and four thousand va
rieties OF them and thousands upon
thousands. LO, this autumn day there
Is host OF falling leaves which no
man can number. They have lived
their short lives. they have faded beau
TRULY and at last have fallen off and
fiuttered silently to the ground The
ancient Hebrew prophet, watching
them as they fell, saw in them q SYM
Dol or the failing OF human lives. Az
the leaves fall and die, SO man falls
and dies. I'VE all do fade as a leaf''
Is the overwhelming and incontroverti-
BILE statement of my text
Like the fading leaf, mans cradle and
grave are not very far apart. Like the
life or leaf, our earthly existence
springs into budding life, has it's short
season OF glorious maturity, and then
fades and falls with ~rapidity that
startles us. Joseph Cook seems to
stretch mans earthly life out almost
endiessly. MANS life," said he.
means tender teens, teachable twen-
Ties. tireiess thirties, fiery forties, forci-
Die mites, serious sixties, sacred seven
ties, aching eighties, shortening breath.
death. the sod, God" But, oh, though
we may live our threescore years and
ten, or even fourscore years, how soon
those years slip away. As the months
or the spring quickly change them
selves into the months of the summer
and the months of the summer change
into the frosts of the autumn, we can
see our lives slipping away. We can |
see them go as the sands of an hour |