Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-10-23

lug ana mining of profound disouisition
any gunpowdery explosions Of indie.
na''on' by sharp. shootines of wit. bv how.
shal, o. mental strength, made to swing
reon., Tvs A'es, by cavalry horses gor.
vain ~ caparisoned paving the air. In
soa,a on inc attempts on the part OF these
.ns ""sai loot soldiers, light horsemen
NY friends, I propose this morning a
eient style of tactics. Let each one
81 49, ene forest of Gods promise and in.
.'on M hew down a branch, and put
On ms shoulder, and let US all come
aIouno these obstinate iniquities, and
O.en' with this pile, kindled by the fires
-, no'y zeal and the flames of a con.
1 :, life, we will burn them out;
Ina. naS steel can not do, fire may. And 1,
+u'S morning, announce myself in favor
any plan of religious attack that suc-
plan of religious attack, how
WI radical, however odd, however I'M
pop p weve hostile to all the conven-
'.ona'ltles of Church and State. If one
seyie OF prayer does not do the work, let
Us Try another style. If the church music
ol 5o'oay does not get the victory, then
lou US make the assault with a backwoods
CHORUS 1t a prayer meeting at 1880 in
Sne evening does not. succeed, let us have
one as early in the morning as when the
angel found wrestling Jacob too much for
MIN. IT a sermon with the three author.
izeo heads does not do the work, then let
let us nave a sermon with twenty heads.
or no head at all. We want more heart in
our song, more heart in our aims. giving.
more heart in our prayers, more heart in
our preaching. Oh for less of Abimel ech's
sword and more of Abimelech's
connagratlon 1 I'VE often heard
There is a fountain filed with blood,
sung artistically by four birds perched on
their Sunday roost in the gallery, until 1
thought of Jenny Lind, and Nilsson, and
Sontag, and all the other warblers; but
there came not one tear to my
eye, nor one master emotion to my
heart But n night I went down to the
African Methodist mesting-house in
Philadelphia, and at the close of the
service a black woman in the midst of the
audience began to sing that hymn, aud
all the audience joined in, and we were
hoated some three or four miles nearer
heaven than l have aver been since. l
saw with my own eyes "that fountain
filled with blood"-red, agonizing, sacri-
fetal, redemptive, and I heard the GRIM
son splash of the wave as we all went
down under it.
For sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.
Oh, my friends, the gospel is not a syl-
loglsm; it is not chemistry; it is not po-
lemics, or the science of squabble. 1t is
blood-red fact; it is warm-hearted invita-
ton; it is leaping, bounding, flying good
news; it is eflorescent with all light; it is
rubescent with all glow; it is arborescent
with all sweet shade. 1 have seen the sun
rise on Mount Washington and from the
Ilp-top House, but there vas no beauty
in that compared with the day spring on
high when Christ gives light to a soul. ]
have heard Parepa sing, but there was no
music in that compared with the voice OF
Christ when he said: "Thy sins are for.
given; go in peace" Good news! Let
| every one cut down q branch of ibis tree
Of life and wave it. Let him throw 1t
down and kindle it. Let all the way from
Mount Zalmon to Shechem be filed with
the tossing joy.
Still further, 1 learn from this subject
the power of example. If Abimelech had
! sat down on the grass and told his men tc
go and get the boughs, and go out to the
battle, they would never lave gone at all,
or if they had, it would have been without
any spirit of effective result; but when
Abimelech goes with his own axe and
hews down a branch, and with Abime.
lech's arm puts it on Abimelech's shoulder
and marches on, then my text says, al
the people did the same. How natura.
that was. What made Garibaldi and
Stonewall jackson the most magnetic
commanders Of this century? They
always rode ahead. Oh, the overcoming
power of example! Here is father on the
wrong road: all his boys go on the wrong
road. Here is a father who enlists fol-
Christ; his children enlist. I saw in SOM
of the picture galleries of Europe that be-
fore many of the great works of the mas
ters-the old masters-there would b.
sometimes four or five artists taking cop
les of the pictures. These copies they
were going to carry with them, perhaps tt
distant lands, and I have thought that
your life and character are a masterpiece,
and it is being copied, and long after you
are gone it will bloom or blast in thu
homes of those who knew you, and be a Cor
gon or a Madonna. Look out what you say
Look out what you do. Eternity will heal
the echo. The best sermon ever preached
is a holy life. The best music ever chant
ed is a consistent walk. If you want 9th.
ers to serve God, serve him yourself.
saw near the beach a wrecker's ma
chine. 1t was a cylinder with some hole
at the side, made for the thrusting in o
some long poles with strong leverage; ane
when there is a vessel in trouble or going
to pieces out in the offing, the wrecker!
shoot a rope out to he suffering men
They grasp it, and the wreckers turn tn
cylinder, and those who ara shipwrecked
are saved. So at your feet to-day there
is an influence with a tremendous lever
age. The rope attached to it swings fa1
out into the billowy future. Your chill
dren, your children's children, and all tn
generations thai are to follow, will girl
that influence and feel the l~ong-reachin,
pull long after the figures on your tomb
stone are SO near worn out that the visito
can not tell whether it was in 1873 or 1773
or 1875 that you died.
Suppose, in military circles, on tn
I'm. ALa .oJl 30 ool1o6 onf