The pioneer-review. [volume] (Philip, Haakon County, S.D.) 1920-current, 1920-12-23

LNCiyOiG "no was UP as carry
as he should have been last Sun
day morning could behold won
derful sight by merely looking up.
A gorgeous sunrise, such as comes
frequently at this season of the
year in this locality, was on dis
play. The sun itself was not yet
above the horizon, but as herald
of it's coming, the whole eastern
sky was flooded with a flaming
glory. The mackeral clouds, rather
broken overhead, stretched away
more densely toward the skyline
where they were packed in glow
ing masses like Goals on a hearth.
From this point towards the zen
ith each successive wavelet of
cloud was on fire, as il the sun had
h,s;lt itself itself a flaming way by
which to climb the sky. It was
worth looking at, not only with
mere mortal eyes but with the
soul.
Standing aWe-sruck before this
flood of beauty, one could not av-
old the reflection that most of us
are usually insensible to splendor
that nature fings about us with
such lavish hand. Here on these
prairies a wonderful sunrise or a
more wonderful sunset is such 4
common occurrence that it does not
make us pause. We give it d
glance, if it happens to be in the
NATURAL line of our Wis on, and hur-
ry along faster towards the theat-
er to see picture of a sunset.
Yet artists have come here from
Europe, Macmillan among the
rest, in vain attempt to recaptue
the granduer of our sunsets for
the painted canvass. Vain effort.
No human hand can do justice to
this thing. Yet some of the weak
results hang in the great galleries
of the world.
Only the Hand Of the Great Ar
tist can accomplish these wonders,
and lie takes the whole heavens
for his canvass. Like all miracles.
it does not long endure. The
whirling world rolls bit on its
axis, and the glory that has held
us spell-bound fades, fingers a
moment, and is gone. Yet Philip
people may see it if they will only
look up and open their eyes. 1t
passes, leaving a dull, grey sky,
but tomorrow they may see it
again, and the next day, and the
next, if the sun shines, as long as
their living eyes may look up into
Gods heavens.
God, did we say? Yes, what else
can all this beauty mean. There
must be a God behind the spread
of things, and this must be His
handiwork. Is there not surer
proof of the existance of Eternal
Goodness in South Dakota sun
rise, calling as it does to waken
our slunbering sense of the beau
tiful, than in all the books and
creeds that men have devised? It
seems to us So The Book of Ma
ture is in truth the Book of Books.
1t is the Holy Book. And in it are
written the laws and the teachings
of God.
The sunrise is but a page, but
if men could only real and under
stand it, they would be learned.
They would be good, and their
souls would be saved. If men
would only go forth and study the
beauties of the heavens; If they
would listen to the music of run
ming waters, the roar Of the gath
ering storm, and the hiss Of the
gale sweeping across the prairies,
then they could hope to under
stand something of the gentleness
and the goodness as well as the
granduer of God. Instead, they sit
in stuffy churches, and listen to
mere men talk learnedly of the
dimensions Of God.
1t was not so with the Great
Teacher. He was ever in the open,
under the dome Of the sky, and
with the smiling world about Him.
We do not believe that the record
shows that he preached many SER
mons indoors. But he did preach
on the montain-side. And we find
him by the sea, in the garden and
tn cornfields, ever proclaiming His
Gospel, and Illustrating it again
and again from the teachings Of
nature. There is little comfort for
the Indoor Cult in anything He
says.
May we rot therefore at this
Christmas Time 1920, highly re-
solve that we will open all the
gatewavs Of our soul wider and
wider to the beauties of the world