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: — The frost and the snow and the ice serve a great purpose in the physical economy, so that without the cold of winter we would have no spring bursting with renewed life, no summer with its warmth and invigorating growth, and no autumn with its rich fruit. In the same way there is a Divine purpose in those harder and more stern experiences of our human life. Like the snow, the frost, and the ice, trials and difficulties and sufferings come from the hand of God, and are the greatest of blessings in the formation, correction, and development of our character, if they are rightly used. God produces and controls, and uses them for His own purposes in us, and by their means He disciplines our character, and induces in us greater spirituality of heart. He holds in His hands all things and all trials and all sufferings; and when He is spiritually recognized by us, He imparts to our souls power to bear them, just as the blade of grass holds the hoar-frost, or the water bears the ice, or the earth the snow. As the earth is richer and more productive by the processes of winter, so the right endurance and the right use of sufferings and difficulties and trials make us nobler and greater, and more Christian in feeling and spirit and life, and give us a greater inheritance of blessing and joy for ever. We must not, however, regard winter from a mere utilitarian point of view. In its greatest severity it is a scene of beauty most sublime and ennobling. The frost and the ice and the snow clothe the earth with a robe richer and more attractive and magnificent than the most splendid pageant or brilliant display of kings or kingdoms. The scenes of winter are capable of exercising a powerful influence over our imagination in ministering to its wealth, and also over our heart and judgment, and the emotions and habits of our life. In the wisdom and power necessary to create and put into form such a scene as has been described we have a manifestation of God's glory. The creative power displayed in a snow-storm taxes the highest flights of imagination, it gives action to the noblest powers of mind, and it is a source of joy to the heart which recognizes the Divine Father in it all. It affords occasion for the exercise of holy admiration and devout gratitude to the beneficent Creator, who not only weighs the mountains in scales, pours the rivers into the oceans, and rolls planet upon planet through immeasurable space; but who also forms the smallest flakes of snow, and straightens the rivers of water with ice, and beautifies the earth with hoar-frost. And the study of such a Divine glory as this is intended by God to exert a salutary influence upon our character, both social and religious, Hence the profusion of wonders and attractive beauty with which God has crowded this world, in order that we may examine and admire them, and by them may rise from the admiration of nature to the admiration and love of God, who is both the God of nature and the God of redemption. That we may really admire, we must carefully examine and study the works of God; for without study the novelty and brilliancy which lie on the surface will soon cease to interest us. In order to interest our minds and benefit our hearts, and so to have a moral and spiritual effect upon us, we must devoutly look into the inner nature and forms of things, and acquire a relish for research and study. In this way we became possessed of a source of happiness of which nothing can rob us — a sweet voice from the works of God falls upon our souls with blessed power — there is unfolded to us a marvellous display of Divine skill and benevolence which, during our earthly pilgrimage, impart to our hearts confidence in God, and make us hope for higher developments and nobler enjoyments in the world of spirits. Our spiritual nature, too, finds in the snow Divine comfort and encouragement. Snow has been employed by the sacred writers to symbolize that purity and spiritual excellence which God offers to all men in the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ. Snow-water is peculiarly fitted for washing all impurities of the hands, and making them white and clean. The washing of the soul by the power of God effects a spiritual purity whiter than snow. The words of pardon to guilty men, made known in the Gospel, will melt their hardened and ice-bound hearts to repentance and newness of life. And when this Gospel of forgiveness is heartily believed and practically received into the life, God, who gives snow like wool, scatters the hoar-frost like ashes, casts forth His ice like morsels, and by His Word melts them again, and makes the waters to flow, is able by the Word and power of His Son to restore warmth and energy to cold and weak hearts, and to impart purity and grace to sinful and corrupt souls, until they become whiter than snow, brighter than hoar-frost, and purer than ice.

(W. Simpson.)

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KJV: He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.

WEB: He gives snow like wool, and scatters frost like ashes.