Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-12-25

what would have been the result when yo,
told her Of your financial embarrassment
and misfortune? She was cheerful. sh,
was sympathetic, she was helpful, sh,
helped you all through those dark DAYS a
trial, and after the piano went, she coul,
sing without the accompaniment just a.
well as ever she sang with the accompani
ment. There have been Christian womer
who have so had their domestic troubles
sanctlhed that they could get more music
out of a Wheeler g. Wilson sewing-ma.
chine than ever in the days of their pros.
perlty they got out of a Chickering Grand
or a Steinway.
Walter Scott wrote something, half OF
which do not like, for it is sarcastic, but
the other half l do like, for it is so true:
on, woman! in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy and hard to please:
When pain and anguish wiring the brow.
"A minlstering angel thou.
Blessed that home in which the newly
married couple dedicate their souls to
Christ. Blessed the family Bible in which
their names have just been written.
pressed the hour of morning and evening
prayer. Blessed the angels of God who
join wing.tip to wing-tip over that home,
making a canopy of light and love and
blessedness. 1t may be only Yesterday
mat they clasped hands forever. The or
ange blossoms may fall and the fragrance
may die on the air, but they who marry in
Christ shall walk together on that dav
"hen the Church, which is the Lambs
"lfe, shall take the hand of her Lord and
King amid the swinging of the golden cen
sers.
Again, l remark: 1t is a tremendous pass
III llfe when a man comes to his first great
success. You get in the cars some even.
ing. Everybody that looks at you knows
there has something glad happened. You
Sit down in the car, your face Illuminated,
and a lady comes in. There is no place for
her to sit, and you get up in great cheer
Inc insist on her taking your place, and
with great courtesy she says, 'Thank
you," and sits down. You say nothing to
anybody, but it is evident from your man
ner and appearance that great good for
tune has happened unto you. Now, that
IS a crisis in your life. At such a time the
questions will arise: "In what enterprise
shall invest? What shall be the house 1
will live in? What shall be the library?
What shall be my wardrobe? What shall I
do with my money!"
At that point hundreds of men make a
final mistake. Some go into dissipation.
Some take on great arrogance, try to
make everybody feel how small they
are; whole %carava of camels going
through the needless eye of their mean
ness. They walk through the street with
an air, as much as to say: "Get out of the
way! here comes $500, 000!" That is the
Crisis in life where so many fail: because
they have no God to direct them.
There are men who before their sue
cess are kind and amiable, md genial
and useful, who after t. cir success are ar
rogant and unbearable and unchristian.
Here is a man who was once very useful
Ill society, but great success comes, and be
gets III his equipage and he drives on; he
lashes the fiery steeds: he goes faster
and faster, eight miles the hour, twenty
miles the hour, 100 miles the hour, faster
and faster, until in his last moments he
rouses up to find that he is drawn by the
fiery hoofs of eternal disaster as they
come racketing down on the pavements
of hell. o, young man or mar in mid
life! you want God in Eyour great success,
your first great success.
Another tremendous pass in our life is
when we get our first sorrow. It would
be foolish for me to talk to the young men
of this day as though their life was 60
ing to be smooth all the way. You might
as well start a sea Captain in a vessel
without a carpenter, and without any
tools and without my oor5,ro That
would do very well while the sea was
smooth, but when the ship gets caught
in the teeth of a northeastern, and
the waves dash clear over the hur-
cane deck, When the Captain cries
out: Where's the carpenter?
Where are the tools: Where are the
ropes?" the young men of this day would
understand that l misrepresented the mat
ter, if l told them that their life was al
ways to be smooth. They know better.
They know from what they see of the life
of others that life can not always be
smooth. Many men came home from the
late war without a scratch or a bruise, but
in the conflict of life it is not SO, we all
get wounded-wounded in the head, in the
hands, in the feet, in the heart. Life is a
conflict. The Bible over and over again
states that. Paul states it, and he writes
himself as in a war. with the world, q war
with the flesh, and a war with the devil,
and war all the way through. Now, how
are you going to meet the first trouble?
That is the question. Show mo how you
are to meet your first trouble and ! will
show you how you meet all the Other
troubles. 1t is the first blow hat sends q
man to drinking to drown his troubles,
that knocks the fire out of him, so he
spends the rest of his life cowed down.
Who is that weigher in that large COM
mercial establishment? He once owned
the store. Who is that underling in a
large manufacturing establishment, get
ting 1000 or $1,000. a year. He C
owned the factory; but misfortune came.
The first blow brought him to the dust and
he never had the courage to rise. Oh, how
important is the manner in which we re-
ceive the first sorrow!
Perhaps the first trouble is bereavement.
I suppose you know-I suppose you have
recognized the fact, that so often the hrst
horn is taken. I have seven brothers and
sisters. Each one lost the first born, and
suppose that in hundreds of cases Ill TINS
house il was the first born that was taken.
Some people give what is to me a very alb
s,,rd reason for that. They say 1T is be-