Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-05-19
the deficiencies and tr~ansgression, =

tnc ocllcAeASAes duu IauSSreSSlOns oA
to-day.
Few habits formed in childhood .ns
youth are equally valuable with tba.
habit of reading good books. It is the
beginning of that culture which Matthen
Arnold defines as knowing the best tb,t
has been thought and written. It il
mental employment which saves tba'
mind from dissipation and the life from
ennui, and often from vice. Carlvla,
says that his university course Was,
chiefly valuable to him in that it taught.
him to read, to read wisely, with a dis.
ciplined mind, in several languages.
And there is no surer sign of a bad esdu..
cation than an indisposition to become.
acquainted with some part of the worlds,
Intellectual treasure house. And there,
is nothing more perilous to young men,
than the habit of filling the mind with
the scandal and crime which certain
representatives of the industrious press
scrape together from the four quarters:
of the globe.
There is no question of greater mo.
ment to the American people TO-DAY
than that of the reading which is put
into the hands of the young. Let me
furnish the books which make up the.
mental life of the rising generation and
| will shape the national future. There,
is no excuse for not owning and reading
good books to-day. They can be had at
one-ffth their former price. No great
er service can be rendered to the public
and the home than to quicken q desire
to possess and master some portion of
the best literature. Whatever is printed
on the mind of man is an autograph for
eternity. The enduring results Of our
thoughts, habits, choices are found III
our own souls. No man ever did a
mean or INDUCED an impure meditation
without feeling the effect of it in him.
self. We all see the results of physical
disease in the persons of the sufferers.
We a not look into the human soul as,
easily as into the human. face.
But God does. He sees the effect Of
every sin in clear outline and dark color
ing. There sinful pride, hardening into
utter selishness, has left its impression.
There vanity and insincerity have de-.
faced what was originally beautiful.
There lust and anger have burned their.
black foot-marks into the white inno..
cency of the soul; and this is the har-
vest of the fesh-moral deterioration.
or, as the Scriptures call it, corruption.
which in the New Testament is synon.
omous with death. A thing spoiled is a.
thing dead. A human soul dies when
it is lost to virtue. There is many a.
man, increased in goods, fat and pros
porous, a lord Of creation, envied Of
fools, but who, having sown to the flesh,
has reaped moral death, whose heart is
pollution and whose touch is deflement.
"My soul enter not thou into the secret
of that man!'
Young men, 1 entreat you not to re-
gard this world or the next as a grand
lottery in which one is just as likely to,
There is a wise and holy law-giver at
work in human life, and whatsoever YOU
sow, that very thing, and nothing eIse,.
you shall also reap. And the same prin--
ciple which should discourage
men from sowing to the flesh
should encourage them to SOW
to the spirit. Every %virtuous act
confirms the habit of virtue. Every low
ing deed strengthens the capacity of
love. Begin early in sowing to the
spirit. Let the good seed fall into the
good ground of a heart not hardened by
long years of misdoing. Welcome the
dews of Gods grace, and the harvest of
your life shall not be the chaff which the
wind driveth away, but the golden
sheaves which, with great Joy, shall be
gathered into the storehouse of the
Lord.