The snow is falling; soft and white and still,
Like finest fleece, or softest eider down,
It throws a mantle o'er you distant hill,
O'er meadow, copse, and o'er the busy town;
O'er all the world 'tis slowly settling down
To clothe the earth in robe of dazzling white,
And hide it from our sight.
How pure! How spotless! In the golden light
Of sunset, as the clouds begin to break,
And from the glorious sky the sunbeams bright
Ten thousand diamonds of those crystals make,
Their dazzling splendors all our wonder wake,
And we exclaim, "What whiter can we know
Than this, the drifted snow?"
But look again. Still through the frosty air,
The soft and fleecy flakes are whirling round.
Yet, looking up, we see but dark specks there—
In them no brightness can be found;
Those flakes that look so white upon the ground,
For their own light—they've lost in heaven's light,
Which they reflect so bright.
'Tis so with souls. They may seem good and fair,
And in our eyes they may seem beautiful;
But in the light of God they all appear
Blackened by sin and ruined by the fall.
God says there is none righteous-sinners all,
Ruined, undone, unfit for heaven and God,
Worms only of the sod.
Yet there's one remedy, sin's only cure,
For washed in Jesus' blood, thou may'st be pure,
Cleansed and made whiter than the drifted snow,
The whitest thing that mortal eye can know,
And thus prepared, reflect God's wondrous light,
Like crystal snow, so white.
Jean Rule Baridon
"Through this Man (Jesus) is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by
Him all that believe are justified from
all things."