V". ?.
The Sioux County Journal
VOLUME VI.
HAKKISON, NEBRASKA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 181KS.
NUMBER 15.
I , , at
- ."
TALMAUES SERMON.
ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ON THE
MISSION OF THE FROST.
A NrnM Appropriate tot ha Cold WMtk
r The Frot a a latntr, a Jewelrr
mad aa KTaujelUt Tb Imim and the
Pararatlan.
Ta Dlriaa Hreath.
lip fore the uitual thrones that for
early 25 yearn have gathered in the
first, second, and third Hrooklyn Tab
rnacle sucx-eiwively, Dr. Talmage
Sunday forenoon preached this goKjKsl
wrnion, after eomraentinjj upon an ap
propriate Scripture lotwon and giving
-out the mutt inxpirinfr hymns. The
ubject wan, "The Mission of the
Front." Text -Job xxxvii, 10, ' By the
breath of (kxi froht is given."
Nothing is more emlmrraMHing- to an
rganit or pianist than to put his
finger on a key of the instrument and
have it make no response. Though all
fhe other keys are in full play, that
one silence destroys the music. So in
the great cathedral of nature, if one
part fails to praise the Ixird the
harmony is halted and lost. While
fire and hail, snow and vapor, resmmd
to the touch of inspiration, if the frost
made no utterance the orchestral ren
dering would be hopelessly damaged
ana the harmony forever incomplete.
I arn more (find than I can toll that the
white key of frost sounds forth as
mightily as any of the keys, and when
David touches it in the 1'salms, it
sounds forth the words, "Hescattereth
the hoar frost like ashes," and when
Job touches it in my text it resounds
with the words. ''By the breath of (Jod
frost is given."
As no one seems disKsed to discuss
the mission of frost, depending on di
vine help I undertake it. This is the
first Sabbath of winter. The leaves
are down. The warmth has gone out
of the air. The birds have made their
winged march southward. The land
scape has been scarred by the autum
nal euuinox. The hunkers have ritled
the cornshocks. The night sky has
shown the usual meteoric restlessness
of November. Three seasons of'the
vear are past, and the fourth and last
lias entered. Another element now
comes in to bless and adorn and in
struct the world, it isthe frost. The
palaces of this king are far up in the
arctic. Their walls are glittering con
gelation. Windsor castles and 'fuller
i ies and winter palaces and Kenilworths
and Alhambras of ice, temples with
pendant chandeliers of ice, thrones of
iceberg on which eternal silence
reigns, theaters on whose stage eternal
cold dramatizes eternul winter, pillars
of ice, arches of ice. crowns of ice,
chariots of Ice, sepulchers of ice,
mountains of Ice, dominions of ice
eternal frigidity! From those hard,
white, burnished portals King Front
descends and waves his silvery
scepter over our temiorate one.
You will soon hear his heel on
the skating snd. You already
feel his breath in the night wind. I5y
most considered an enemy coming
here to benumb and hinder and slay, 1
shall show you that the frost is a
friend, with benediction divinely pro
nounced, and charged and surcharged
with letters potent. Ismeuecnt, and
tremendous. The Hible seven times
alludes to the frost, and wo must not
ignore it. "My the breath of iod frost
is given."
First 1 think of frost us a painter. He
logins his work on the leaves and con
tinues it on the window panes. With
palette covered with all manner of
colors in his Ml hand and pencil of
crystal in his right hand, he sits down
before the humblest bush in the latter
part of September and begins the
sket hing of the leaves. Now he puts
upon the foliage a faint color, and then
a touch of brown, and then a hue of
urange, and hist a llatne of lire. The
beech and ush and oak are turned first
Into sunrises and then into sunset of
vividness and splendor. All the leaves
are penciled one by one. but sometimes
a n hole forest in the course of a few
days shows great velocity of work.
Tired of working on the loaves, the
frost will soon turn to tho window
panes. .You will soon waken on a cold
morning and find that the windows of
votir home have during the night been
adorned with curves, with coronets,
with exiiulsitcncfs, with pomp, with
almost supernatural sectacle. Then
you will appreciate what my text says
aa it declares, 'Hy the breath of (iod
frost is given.' You will see on the
window pane, traced there by the
frost, whole gardens of beauty ferns,
orchids, daffodils, heliotropes, china
asters, fountains, statues, hounds on
the chase, roebucks plunging into the
stream, battle scenes with dying and
dead, catafalques of kings, triumphal
processions - and us the morning sun
breaks through you will see cities of
fire, und bombardment with bursting
hell, und illuminations as for some
great victory, coronations, and angels
on the wing.
Standing here between the closed
doors of the pictured woods and the
opening doors of the transfigured win
dow glas, I want to cure my foil v and
1 your folly of longing forglorious things
ft in tho distance, while wo neglect ap
preciation of glorious things (dose bv.
"Oh, If I could only go and seo the
factories of lace at llrussels!" nays
some one. Why, within twen'-y feet
of where you awaken some December
morning jou will see rich lace inter
woven for your window panes by divine
lingers. "Oh, if I could see trie facto
ries of silk at Lyons!" says some one.
Why, without leaving your own house
on Christmas morning you may see
where the Ird haa spun silken threads
about your windows this way and that
embroideries iuch at no one but (iod
ran work.
Alas, for this glorification of the dii
lut and thin belittling of the close by!
This crowing of oceans and paying
- high admlasTon in expenses to look at
that which li not half as well done ai
something we can ee by crossing our
own room, tod free of charge. ThU
praising of liapbvels, hundreds of years
gone, when tho greater ICaphaei, the
frost, will sood be busy at the en
trances to your own home.
Next 1 speak of the frost as a physi
cian. Standing at the gates of New
York harbor autumn before last, the
frost drove back the cholera, saying,
"Thus far shalt thou come and no
farther." From Memphis and New
Orleans and Jacksonville he smote the
fever plague till it reeled back and de
parted. The frost is a physician that
doctors cities, nations, and continents.
He medicines the world. (Quinine for
malaria, antifebrile for typhoids,
sulphonal for sleeplessness, antispas
modic for disturbed nerves, but in all
therapeutics there is no remedy like
the small elletg prepared by the cold,
and no physician so skillful or so
mighty as the frost.
Thank God for frost! It isthe best of
all germicides. It is the only hope in
bacteriology. It is the medicament of
continents. It is the salvation of our
temperate zone. It is the best tonic
that (JoJ ever gave the human race.
It is the oniy strong stimulant which
has no reaction.
But I must go farther and speak of
the frost as a jeweler. As the snow Is
frozen rain, so tho frost is frozen dew. j
God transforms it from a liquid into a
crystal. It is tho dew glorified, in
the thirty-eighth chapter of that in
spired drama, the be jk of Job, God
says to the inspired dramatist with ec
static interrogation, "The hoary frost
of heaven, "who hath gendered it?"
God there asks Job if he knows the
parentage of the frost, lie inquires
als)Ut its pedigree. He suggests that
Job study up the frost's genealogical
line. A minute before GckI had asked
aliout the parentage of a raindrop in
words that years ago gave me a sug
gestive text for a sermon, "Hath the
rain a father?" But how the Iru Al
mighty is catechising Job atsiut the
frost. Ho practically says: "Do you
know its father? Do you know its
mother? In what cradle of the leaves
did the wind rock it? 'The hoary frost
of Heaven, who hath gendered it?"
He is a stupid Christian who thinks
so much of tho printed and Ixtund
Bible that he neglects tho Old Testa
ment of the fields nor reads the wisdom
and kindness and beauty of God writ
ten in blossoms on the orchard, in
sparkles on the lake, in stars in tho
sky, in frost on the meadows. The
greatest jeweler of all the earth is the
frost. There is nothing more wonder-
1 ful in all crystallography, home morn
ling in December a whole continent is
I found besprinkled with diamonds, the
j result of one night's work by this jev -
eler.
i Do you make the depreciatory re
mark that the frost is Impermanent and
will last only two or three hours?
What of that? We go into London
Tower and look at the crown jewels of
England, but we are in a procession
that tho guards keep moving on, and
five minutes or less are your only op
jiortunity of looking at those crown
jewels, but at the crown jewels be
starred of th,e frost in parks and fields
you may stand to look deliterately and
for Jiours, and no one to tell you to
move on.
The imperial household of Louis
XVI. could not afford the diamond
neckluco which had been ordered for
yueen Mario Antoinette, and it wae
stolen and taken apart and lost, but tho
necklace that the frost puts on the
wintry morning, though made of as
many brilliants as tho withered grass
blades, is easily afforded by divine
opulence and is never lost, but after its
use in the coronation of the Holds is
taken back to Heaven. O men and
women, accustomed to go into ecstasy
when in foreign travel you come uMin
the historical gems of nations, whether
tho jewel be called the Mountain of
Glory, or the Sea of Light, or the
Crown ol the Moon, or the Eye of Al
lah, or the Star of Sarawak, or the
Koh-i-noor, I implead vou study the
jewels strewn all round your wintry
home and realize that "by the breath
J of God frost is given!
j But I go a step further and speak of
! the frost as an evangelist, and a text of
Scripture is not of much use to mo un
less 1 can lind the gobel in it,. The
Israelites in t he wilderness breakfasted
' on something that looked like frozen
, dew. The manna full on the dew, and
j the dew evaporated and left a pul-
verized material, white and looking
like frost, but it was manna. und of that
I they ate. St) now this morning, mixed
with the frozen dew of my text, there
I is a manna on which we may breakfast
our souls. You say the frost kills,
j Yes, it kills some things, but we have
j already seen that it gives health and
j life to others. This gospel isthe savor
I of life unto life or of death unto death,
j As the frost Is mighty, tho gospel Is
I mighty. As the frost descends from
: heaven, the gospel descends from
! heaven. By the breath ot God the
gosiicl is given. As the frost purifies,
i to the grace of Cod purifies. As the
I frost be-tars ths earth, so grace be
j jewels the soul. As the fro.-t prepares
for food many things that otherwise
' would bo Inedible, so the fro.-t of trial
ripens and prepares food for the soul.
In the tight grip of the frost the hard
I shells of walnut and chestnut and hick-
ory oH-n. and the luxuries of the woods
. come Into our laps or iion our tables:
f-o tho frost of trial takes many a hard
' and prickly shell and crushes it until
' that which stung the soul now feeds it.
; There tire passages of scripture that
once were enigmas, puzzles, rtuaies.
and imsissit)le for you to understand,
but the frosts of trouble after awhile
exposed the full meaning to your soul.
You said, "1 do not see why David
keeps rolling over In his Psalms the
story of how he was pursued and ncr
seciitca." He describes himself as
surrounded by bees. He savs, "They
compassed me aliout like 1ees: yea.
they compassed me aliout like bees."
You think what an exaggerating thing
for him to exclaim, "Out of the depths
of hell have I cried unto thee, OLord!'"
And there is so much of that style of
lamentation In his writings you think
he overdoes It, but after awhile a frost
coma upon you In the shape of perse
cution, and vou are stuck with this
i ... i. i.u i - I
censure, aim biuck wim ubi uouuiir
tion. and stuck with some falsehood,
and lies in swarms are buzzing, buzz- '
ing about your eari, and at last you
understand what David meant when he
said, "They comimssed me about 11 te
bees," and vou go down under nervous
prostration and feel that you are as far
down as David when he cried. "Out of
the depths of hell!"
What opened all those chapters that
hitherto had no appropriateness?
Frosts! For a long while the Bible
seemed lopsided and a disproportionate
amount of it given up to the consola
tory. Why page after page and chap
ter after chapter and book after book
in the Bible taken up with allevia
tions, with pacifications, with con
dolences? The book seems like an
aiiothecary store with-one-half of the
shelves occupied with balsams. Why
such a superfluity of balsams? But
after awhile tho membranous croup
carries off your child, or your health
gives way under the grip, or your
property Is swept off by a baj Invest
ment, or perhaps all three troubles
come at once bankruptcy, sickness,
and bereavement. Now the consola
tory parts of the Bible do not seem to
be disproportionate. You want some
thing off almost all the shelve of that
sacred dispensary, What has uncov
ered and exposed to you the usefulness
of so much of the Bible that was be
fore hiden? The frosts have been ful
filling their mission.
Put down all tho promises of the
Biblo on a table for study, and put on
ono side the table a man who has never
had any trouble, or very little of it, but
pile ujHin the table iwside him all
encyclopedias, and all dictionaries, and
and all arca-ologiew, and all commen
taries, and on the other side of the
table put a man who has had trial upon
trial, disaster upon disaster, and let
him begin the study of tho promises,
without lexicon, without commentary,
without any book to explain or help,
and this latter man will understand far
more ot the height ana depth ana
length and breadth of those promises
than the learned exegete oppsite, al
most submerged in sacred literature.
Tho one has the udvantage over the
other because ho has felt the mission
of the frosts. O, take the consolation
of this theme, ye to whom life is a
struggle, and a disapKintment, and a
gantlet, and a pang. That is a beauti
ful proverb among the Hebrews which
says. "When the tale of bricks is
doubled, then Moses comes. "
Mild doses of medicine will do for
mild sickness, but violent pains need
strong doseB, and so I stand over you
and count out some drops that will
alleviate your worst troubles if you
will only take the medicine, and hero
it is: "In the world ye shall have
tribulation, but be of good cheer. I
have overcome the world." "Weep
ing may endure for a night, but joy
cometh in tl e morning." Thank God
for frosts ! What helped make Milton
the greatest of poets? The frost of
blindness. What helped to make
Washington the greatest of generals?
The frosts of Valley Forge. What
! made it appropriate for ono passing
! John Bunyan's grave toexclaim. "Sleep
i on, thou prince of dreamers?" The
frosts of imprisonment.
I The greatest college from which we
j can graduate is the college of frosts.
! Especial trial fits for especial work.
Just now watch, and you will see that
j t rouble is preparative and educational.
That is tho grindstone on which liattle
i axes arc; sharpened. I have always
; noticed in my own case that when tho
j Lord had some esjiecial work for mo to
, do it was preceded by especial attack
; upon me. This is so proverbial in my
own house that if for something I say
or do I get poured upon me a volley of
j censure and anathema, my wife always
j asks: "I wonder what opportunity of
I usefulness is about toopen? Something
1 good and grand is surely coming!"
! What is true in my case is true on a
I larger or smaller scale in the history
of every man and woman who wants to
servo tho Lord. Without complaint
j take tho hard knocks. Yon will see
I after awhile, though you may not ap
preciate it now, that by the breath of a
I good and loving God frost is given,
j Let the corners of your mouth, so long
i drawn down in complaint, be drawn up
i in smiles of content.
! For many years jioets and essayists
! have celebrated the grace and swift
1 ness of the Arabian horses. The most
', wonderful exhibition of horsemanship
i that I ever witnessed was just outside
j of the city of Jerusalem an Arabian
steed mounted by an Arab. Do you
j know where these Arabian horses got
! their fleetness and poetry of motion?
I Long centuries ago Mohammed, with
.''(I, ooo cavalry on the march, could lind
for them not a drop of water for three
days. Coming to tho top of a hill
a river was In sight. With wild
: dash the .'10.000 horses started for the
stream. A minute afteran armed host
was seen advancing, and at Moham
I mod's command 100 bugles blew for tho
i horses to fall in lino, but all tho ItojMKI
continued the wild gallop to the river,
! except live, and they, almost dead with
i thirst, wheeled into line of battle,
j Nothing in human bravery and self
! sacrifice excels that bravery and self
1 sacrifice of those five Arabian war
! horses. Those five splendid s'eeds
; Mohammed chose for his own use. and
( from those five came that race of Ara
! bian horses for agos the glory of the
' equestrian world. And let me say that
' In this great war of truth ag.iinst or-
; ror. of holiness against sin and Heaven
against hell, the lcst warhorses are
descended from those who under pang
and self denial and trouble answered
' t he gospel trumpet and winded into
line. Out ot the great tribulation, out
, of great tires, out of great frosts, thoy
' caine.J
! And lot me say tl will not take long
I for (iod to make up to you in the next
j world for all you have suffered in this.
As you enter Heaven He may say;
I "Give this man one of those towered
; and colonnaded palaces on the ridge oj
j gold overlooking the sea of glass. (Jive
l nil woman m noroe among move ama
rintbine blooms and betwoen those
fountain teasing in the everlasting
sunlight, Give her a couch canopied
with rainbows to pay her for all the fa
tigues of wifehood and motherhood and
housekeeping, from which she had no
rest for forty years.
"Cupbearers of Heaven, give these
newly arrived souls from earth the
costliest beverages and roll to their
door the grandest chariots, and hang
on their walls the sweetest harps that
ever thrummed to fingers seraphic.
Give to Ihem rapture on rapture, cele
bration on celebration, jubilee on jubi
lee, heaven on heaven. They had a
hard time on earth earning a liveli
hood, or nursing 4 sick children, or
waiting on querulous old age, or bat
tling falsehoods that were told about
them, or were compelled to work after
they got short breathed and rheumatic
and dim sighted.
"Chamberlains of Heaven! Keepers
of the king's robes! Banqueters ot
eternal royalty! Make up to them a
hundredfold, a thousandfold, a million
fold for all they suffered from swad
dling clothes to shroud, and let all
those who. whether on the hills, or in
the temples, or on the thrones, or on
jasper wall, were helped and sanctified
and prepared for 1 his heavenly realm
by the mission of the frosts, stand up
and wave their scepters!" And I
looked, and Ishold. nine-tenths of
the ransomed rose to their feet and
nine-tenths of the scent rs swayed to
and fro in the light of the sun that
never sets, and then I understood, far
better than i ever did before, that
trouble comes for beneficent purpose,
and that on the coldest nights the
aurora is brightest in the northern
heavens, and that "by the breath of
God frost is given.''
Highest Overflow laiu.
Stanislaus County, Cal., will have
the highest oversow dam in the
world in about sixty days. It is
called the La Grange dam, and is be
ing constructed :or the Modesto and
Turlock irrigation districts. Its
location is in the canyon of the Tu
olumne Uiver, three miles from the
town of La Grunge. Work on Ihe
project was commenced in June,lHiii,
and has been prosecuted continuously
since. A force of 200 men has been
etn ployed i n the work, the total cost
of which will be U)0,000.
The LaGrange will tie 'M0 feet
long on top, the plan being curved on
a radius of :!20 feet. Its maximum
height about the foundation will be
127 feet!) inches. The front face of
the wall Is made to conform to the
curve described by the water in over
flowing, and to deflect it into the
basin in front of the dam.
The dam is build of - cyclopcan
rubble, " and is a model of soliditv.
Hugh rocks, weighing from lix to ten
ton?, were first laid ou the bottom.
All their projecting pieces were cut
off, and a Hat but rough surface was
prepared for the lower bed. liefore
leing placed in the bottom all stones,
whatever their size, were scrubbed
and subjected to the action of num
erous jets ot water under the pressure
of ".') feet
The dam will distribute water over
a territory embracing 7i,ooo acres.
The Turlock Districtcomprises about
lH,00t) and the Modesta District
7X, 000 acres. The water will flow
over the darn into two ditches. One
will be thirty miles long and 100 feet
wide, the other twenty-eight miles
long and eighty feet wide. The
water of the Tuolumne Hiver will be
banked up by the dam in the Rocky
Canyou. A lake will thus be formed
four miles long and a half mile wide.
- San FrancUco Call.
Tie Taste Was Itellcr.
"Mistah Itronson," said a colored
man to a grocer on Beaubicn street,
"was you gwine to keep watermlll
yons dis se.un?"
"Of course."
'Was you gwine to keep some on
ice'"'
"Oh, yes."
"Was de price, goin' tor be about
fo' bits?"
"I presume so."
"Mistah Bronson, was you gwine
tcr hev a few green watermillyons dls
se.un?" continued the mau.
'Well, there are always some green
ones, you know."
"Sartin. Was you gwine ter take
a big green one an' pour in a quart of
kerosene He an1 leave itout-doahs for
somebody to kerry off?"
"1 may why?"
"Bekase, Mistah Hionson, 1 got
hold of one of deni watermillyons you
fixed last year, an' it was so much
mo' beautifuller dan any of your ripe
ones dat 1 wanted to speak for de
fust one you put out. I loan' forgit
nie, Mistah Uronson: my cognomen
was Git Iar Jones." Erec l'ress.
An Optimistic View ol'lt.
When, during the present month,
three or four times as many peoole
are killed in a s ngle explosion or
dynamite as have been killed on all
the railroads of the United States
during the entire year, that may well
be spoken of as appalling. But, aficr
all, with deaths from uccidents by
high explosives, by steam, by elec
tricity and by all other dangerous
agencies of civilization, we have an
always lessee Ing risk. Of course this
cannot be demonstrated by figures,
to convince anyone who knows some
thing of nlstory that the ordinary
citizen of America has ten chances or
living his life out to one chance en
Joyed by aoyone ot his ancestors In
Europe five centuries ago. Civiliza
tion has Its disadvantages but ltd
risks are not appalling at all when
compared with the risks of not be
coming as civilised as possible. St
Louis republic.
THE
COMMERCIAL BANK.
ESTABLISHED 1888.
Harrison.
B. E. Bkbw&tilr,
President.
D. H. GRISWOLD, Cashiar.
AUTHORIZED CAPITAL. $50000.
Transacts a General
CORRESPONDENTS:
American Exchange National Bank, New York,
U.n.ted States National Bank, Omaha,
First National Bank, Chadroo.
Interest Paid on Time Deposits.
WDRAFTS SOLD ON ALL PARTS OF EUROPE.
THE PIONEER
Pharmacy,
J. E. PHINNEY, Proprietor.
Pure Drugs, Medicines, Paints,
Oils and Varnishes.
WART1STS' MATERIAL.
School Supplies.
Prescriptions Carefully Compounded
Day or Night.
nous
Harrison,
Real Estate Agents,
Have a number of bargains in
choice land in Sioux county.
Parties desiring to buy or sell real
estate should not fail to
call on them.
School Lands
leased, taxes paid for
non-residents; farms rented, oto.
CORRESPONDENTS SOLICITED.
Nebraska.
C. r. Coma,
Vioe-PrasMkat
Banking Business
OTBRU8HES.
& SMILEY,
Nebraska,
'i
v
f
i
iff