Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-12-18

not know the power of temptation, it is
because you are bound hand and foot of
sin, and have never made the ATTEMPT To
be emancipated.
Why, it is easy enough to go down
stream in a boat. You can lie upon your
oars. You go just as the tide goes. But
suppose you turn around and head up
stream, then it is not so easy making
progress. AS long as you go down with
the tide of sin and iniquity, it is easy
enough to go that way; but when YOU
turn around and head toward God and
heaven, then it is q struggle, an awful
struggle.
Can it be that you have never tested
the power of temptation? You have one
kind of temptation; you, another; you,
another. There is not a person in the
house but has been tempted, whether you
realize it or not. I never like to hear a
man say: "Oh, l couldn't be tempted the
way that man is" He could not be tempted
the way you are. A lion can not under.
stand why a iish should be caught with a
hook, and the fish can not understand WIN
the lion should be caught with a trap.
You may be free from certain kinds of
temptation, but there are other kinds after
you.
You see some men with a phlegmatic
temperament. "Why," you say, "that
man hasn't any temptations at ALL" You
mistake aim. He has temptations to i'm
dolence, to consciousness, to sink down
into mere latitude Inc longitude of fatti-
ness; to lie down on the road of life.
to stop great enterprises. He has Just
as many temptations in one direction as
you, being of a nervous and excitable tenn
permanent have temptations in another di.
r%ection.
You will see some aged man arise in q
prayer meeting, and at eighty years of age
he talks so sweetly of Christ and Heaven,
you say: "That nan has lived without
temptation" Ask him. He has as manv
temptations at eighty years of age as he
had at twenty. They are only different
styles of temptations. Ask that aged man
whether he has lived beyond the reach of
the powers of darkness in this world, and
he will say 1t has been a conflict all the way
through.
Sixtus was Ia cardinal, and he wanted
the pontifical chair, and history says he
pretended to be sick and crippled. He
said: Nov, if you elect me to that chairI
shall occupy it, and I shall not live long
anyhow, and then you will put some one
else in the chair" He was elected to that
position. He moved to it on clutches.
Getting to the chair, he threw aside the
crutches. He said: "While I was hunting
for the keys of st. Peter, it was appro-
pirate, / stopped; but, having found the
keys OF st. Peter, there is no reason why 1
should stoop any longer" So his crutches
We're gone and he was well. Oh, how sug-
gestive OF temptation! 1t seems at one
time to be wan and weak and crippled, but
give it a throne and it becomes a tvrant to
grind your soul into ruin.
Well, now you say: "All persons being
tempted, what are we to do when we are
assailed of temptation? When the wave
dashes against US is there nothing to hold
on to: Is a man to go into this war with
the world, the flesh and the
devil, with no help?" l will tell
you, my friends: The wisest thing
for you to do in the day Of temptation is,
like these disciples of my text, to go and
tell Jesus. In the eyes that wept with the
Bethany sisters 1 see shining hope. In that
'SASS oA"o II AShS VI II COL1u
until the widow of Main got pack her son
II stupendous sorrow made up in the
arms of rapture-aye in that voice-I hear
the command and the promise: 'Cast thy
burden on the Lord, and he will sustain
thee" He knows all about temptation.
Tempted in all points like as we are. Go
and tell Jesus.
Again, l commend this behavior of the
disciples in my text to all those who are
slandered and abused and prosecuted.
When these disciples saw that Herod had
taken the head Of John the Baptist. they
knew their own heads We're not safe. Every
John has his Herod. There are people that
do not think overmuch OF you. You mis-
fortunes would be honey-comb to them.
They hiss at you through their teeth and
misinterpret your actions, and would be
glad to see you upset. They would be the
most submissive mourners at your funeral.
Every one comes, during the course of
life, to be pommeled. Some SANDER Genes
at you, horned and tusked and hoofed to
trample and gore you, and you think you
are peculiar in that respect. No. CAL
who live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer
persecution" If you are able this morn
ing TO say: II naVcn'C all cucIuy III dl Iue
world" 1t is proof positive you have not
lone your duty; for when n man does his
duty he challenges all earth and hell, and
that challenge will bring against him OPP
position and scorn and persecution. 1t is
so in all circles of life.
One would nave thought that if any man
ought to have been free from prosecutions,
it was George Whitfield, bringing great
masses of the people into the kingdom OF
God, wearing himself out for Christ's sake,
and vet the learned DR.. Johnson called
him a mountebank. Robert Hall preached
about the glories Of Heaven, his face hay
ing shone like an angels, and yet good
Christian John Foster writes OF Robert
Hall, saying: "Robert Hall is a mere
actor, and when he talks about Heaven the
smile on his face is the reflection OF his
own vanity" John Wesley stirred all
England with reform, and yet he was Carl
catured by all the small lights of the day.
He was pictorialized, history says, on the
hoard fences of London, and everywhere
he was the target for the punsters; yet
John Wesley stands to-day before all
Christendom, his anne mightier than any
other name except "the name that is above
every other name," the name OF Christ.
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