THE LESSONS WHICH IT TEACHES.
MY DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS: When God desired to set Job to thinking, among other questions He asked him: Canst thou enter into the treasures of the snow? (Job xxxviii: 22.) While coming to church to-day, when I saw you frolicking and glad in the midst of the snow, which was falling all about you, I wondered whether you had ever stopped to think much about the snow. So I thought to ask you the question which God asked of Job nearly thirty-five hundred years ago: "Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?"
When you were all so glad on account of this first snowstorm of the winter, did you stop to think that the snow comes from God? Now like everything else which comes from God, the snow is wonderful. No philosopher has ever yet been able fully to explain how the snow is formed and to tell us all about it, and I do not suppose that all the mysteries concerning it will ever be fully and perfectly solved. It is wonderful, however, because it comes down so lightly and noiselessly. It drops upon the earth almost like feathers, covering the ground, hanging upon the limbs of the trees and shaping them into things of strange beauty, piling up on the post by the side of your gate, until perhaps it looks more like the white man from the flour mill than like that to which people tie horses. Yet it comes down so noiselessly that we scarcely notice it.
When the snow falls upon the ground a foot deep it is said to be equal in weight to one inch of rain. Now one foot of snow, on one square mile of street, would weigh, it is estimated, about sixty-four thousand tons. If this snow, which covers only one square mile, were placed in wagons loaded with one ton each, and allowing sufficient space for these teams to move one behind another, these wagons would make a string or procession reaching from Philadelphia to New York, and from New York up the Hudson River almost to the city of Albany. I am sure you will be astonished at this, but when you consider that some snowstorms cover thousands of square miles, and are sometimes more than one foot deep, you will see how increasingly wonderful it is that all this great weight falls so gently upon the earth as to produce no disturbance, no shock, and generally goes away as quietly and peaceably as it came.
Like everything else that God has made, the snow is very beautiful. Did you ever hear that poem which begins:
"Beautiful snow! beautiful snow!
Falling so lightly,
Daily and nightly,
Alike 'round the dwellings of the lofty and low;
Horses are prancing,
Cheerily dancing,
Stirred with the spirit that comes from the snow."
Snow-flakes Magnified.
We oftentimes think that God is seen in the fields and flowers in the spring and summer, but He is also seen in the beautiful snow of winter. If you will let some of the snow fall upon the sleeve of your coat and then examine it carefully, you will be surprised at its beauty. It is beautiful when examined without a microscope, but much more beautiful and wonderful when examined with a microscope. Each flake is fashioned into stellar shape. It is formed and fashioned by the same hand which made the stars of the heavens and gave them their sparkle and beauty. Each flake is a beautiful crystal. Each somewhat like the others, and yet no two exactly alike. There are hundreds of varieties, each beautiful and all glorious. These beautiful little snow stars are all formed with perfect geometrical accuracy. Some have three sides and angles, some six, others eight, and some have more. One resembles a sparkling cross, while others seem almost like the leaves of an open flower. Some are like single stars, others like double stars and clusters of stars; and although the ground in winter is covered with myriads of them, yet each one is formed with as much correctness and beauty as if God had made each one for special examination and as an exhibition of His infinite skill and divine perfection.
But like everything else that God has made, the snow is also useful. You may possibly have thought of it as affording excellent sport in sliding down hill, enabling you to enjoy a sleigh ride behind horses with jingling bells, affording opportunity for a snow-ball fight, or as furnishing the material for making snow men or snow houses. In all these ways the snow is a source of delight and pleasure to boys and girls, but after all, the snow has a special mission in the world during the severe cold of the winter.
A Winter Sleigh Ride.
The severity of the cold is often greatly modified by the presence of snow. The snow forms a warm mantle to protect the grass and grain fields. It wraps its soft warm covering around the plants, and thus protects them from the frost. Many animals also take shelter in the banks of snow, and are thus kept from being frozen to death. The snow of winter is as important in securing our food and blessing as the rain of the summer. As intense heat and the absence of rain produce the great deserts of the earth, so intense cold and the absence of snow would produce barren tracts upon the earth.
Now, what are the lessons we may learn from what I have said? I think the first lesson that we may learn is that God does everything perfectly. God is not in a hurry, as boys and girls often are when they do not take time to learn their lessons thoroughly or to do their work carefully. Perfection is one of God's attributes. We are impatient and imperfect. But God wants us to be perfect. We should constantly strive after perfection. We are to seek after perfection here upon earth, and although we cannot hope to attain it fully in this world, yet we shall attain unto it in the world of blessedness beyond. Remember that whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.
I think the second lesson that we may learn from what I have said, is that God does everything with some good purpose in view. God not only has a purpose in all that He does, but He has a purpose for good. Some boys and girls do things with a bad purpose. Now, God does not do anything with a bad purpose, and He would not have us do anything with a bad purpose. He has given us life and being upon the earth in order that we may accomplish something grand and good. What is the purpose of your life? What have you resolved to make the object which you shall seek to attain in this life? Have some noble purpose, some high aim in life. Whatever it shall be, let it always have in view the blessing and good of others and the glory of God.
The last lesson from this study of the snow is that God has made it a symbol of purity. God is pure, and He wants us to be pure. Do you put tobacco in your mouth? Then your mouth is not pure. Do you use bad words? If so, your mouth is not pure. Do you use your eyes to read worthless story papers and books, or to look at evil pictures? Then your eyes and thoughts are not pure. Do you permit your ears to listen to improper talk? Then your ears and mind are not pure. Do you harbor bad thoughts in your heart? Then your heart is not pure. Do you defile your body by improper eating and drinking? If you do, then your body is not pure. If you and I desire to be pure, we must go to God and earnestly ask Him as David did when he cried unto God and said, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me and I shall be whiter than snow."
Now let us sing this beautiful hymn:
"Wash me and I shall be whiter than the snow."
Questions.—About what did God ask Job, to set him thinking? Where does the snow come from? Does anyone know fully how the snow is formed? Is the snow as wonderful as it is beautiful? What do the flakes look like? Are they all formed alike? Are any two exactly alike? How is the snow useful in winter? Is snow as important in the winter as rain in the summer? Is God ever in a hurry? Are you always patient? What is worth doing well? Does God always have a purpose in whatever He does? Does God expect us to have a noble purpose? Of what is snow the symbol? Does God expect us all to be pure?