Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-07-04
Inndels Depending.

The men who are laboring to DESTROY
Christianity do not grow happy. There
is a certain exhilaration while tbei,
bright but injurious books bring them
copyright, and while crowds of men orp
found willing, for reasons which brine
no credit to their minds or their hearts
to pay a dollar each and contribute aln
their applause to a preacher of bias.
phemy; but as life wears on, and a,
there comes to such men a revelations
the probable effects of their teachino
on the future of society, they grow verVV
Respondent. =
M. Renan is reported to have said:
eve are living on the perfume of an
empty vase. Our children will have TO
live ON the shadow of shadow. Their
children, L fear, will have to live on
something less"
1t would be almost cruel to ask tbi,
brilliant writer who they arc that
emptied the wage, and who they are
that have spent their strength in taking
the substance out of all human life, Sol
that nothing but shadows should be
left. But should we spare him that
keen question unless he frankly repent
and employ the remainder of his life in
laboring to neutralize the poison he has
SO insidiously injected into society, aud|
which now infects him and produces al
deadly dependency?
We have, however, comfort for him
and for all Of his class. Their grand
children will live in an age of increas.|
ing Christian activity, in an age when
Christianity will be more stripped oil
ecclesiasticism than nov and the mind
of the Spirit in the Word of God will
be better known, and there shall be an
increase of that faith which rounds out
reasons and compliments the barren.
ness of this life by the hope of a life to
come. They will have something BET.
ter than perfume and more substantial
than shadows.
Now let all men pause and consider /
the pitifulness of this case. A few /
gifted men have been employing their
powers in accommodating an estate for
posterity, and the best of them thus
makes statement of the assets Of the
estate; in hand, '.the perfume of an
empty vase" for the next generation,
''the shadow of a shadow;'' for the
third generation something less" No
wonder M. Renan is Respondent. The
more his descendants believe as he does
the less they will have.
The late Prof. Clifford, of England,
on his dying bed uttered some mex.
pressibly mournful thoughts which are
strikingly similar to the testimony Of
M. Renan. Prof. Clifford said:
ut a not be doubted that the the.
istic belief is a comfort and q solace td
those who hold it, and the loss OF it is
q very painful loss. 1t can not DO
doubted, at least by many of us in this
generation, who either profess it nov
or have received it in our childhood,
and have parted from it since with
such searching trouble as only cradle.
faiths a cause We have seen the
spring sun shine out of an empty
Heaven to light up a soulless earth; We
have felt with utter loneliness that tho
Great Companion is dead"
The laborers on. the Christian side
have no such gloom. We may die, but
the Gospel will live. The more our de-
scendants receive and believe and live
this Gospel we preach, the happier they
Will be. We grow cheerful as time
goes on and as our departure is az
hand. Men may live and men mayde'
put Christianity goes on foreyeELI
Reu Dr. Charles f. Deems, ia Char@
Union.