Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-09-18

DAY Tor Ed. But way back In the galleries
are his sisters in plain hats and their
shawls, and the old-fashioned father
mother-dear me, she has not had a
new hat in six years, he has not had a new
coat for six years-and they get up and
look over the platform, and they laugh
and they cry, and they sit down, and they
look pale, and they are very much flushed.
Ed gets the garlands, and the old-fash-
Toned group in the gallery have their share
OF the triumph. They have made that
scene possible, and in the day when God
shall more fully reward self-sacrifices
made for others, He will give grand and
glorious recognition. Gas his part is that
goeth down to the battle, so shall his part
be that tarrieth by the stuff"
There is high encouragement in this SUBJ
ject, also, for those who once wrought
nightly for Christ and the church, but
sickness or collapse of fortune,
or advanced years, can not now go to the
front. These two hundred men of the
text were veterans. Let that man bare
his arm and show how the musles were
torn. Let him pull aside the turban and
see the mark of a battle-axe. Pull aside
the coat and see where the spear thrust
him. Would it have been fair for these
men, crippled, weak and old, by the brook
Besor, to have no share in the spoils of
triumph! Do you think my Lord is going
to turn off His old soldiers because they
are weak and worn? Are they going to
get no part in the spoils of victory? Just
look at them. Do you think those c~revices
in the face are wrinkles? No; they are
hQffIQsSooro Tho~ fo,,rht aroi,ok c;o1,-
ness. they fought against trouble, they
fought against sin, they fought
for God, they fought for the
church, they fought for the truth, they
fought for Heaven. They were ready to
do any work, endure any sacrifice, do the
most unpopular thing that God demanded
of them. But now they can not go fur
ther. Now they have physical infrmities,
now their head troubles them. They are
weak and faint by the brook Besor. Are
they to have no share in the triumph? Are
they to get none of the treasures, none of
the spoils of conquest? You must think
that Christ has a very short memory if
you think He has forgotten their services.
Fret not, ye aged ones. Just tarry by
the stuff and wait for your share of the
SISAAos OAuOI uucy dI0 CO11luSs ! uCdl
the bleating of the fat lambs and see the
jewels CLINT in the sun. It makes me
laugh to think how you will be- surprised
when they throw a chain of gold over your
neck and tell you to go and dine with the
King. I see you backing out because you
feel unworthy. The shining ones come up
on one side, and the shining ones come up
on the other side, and they push you on,
and they push you up, and they say:
"Here is an old soldier of Jesus Christi"
and the shining ones will rush out toward
you and say: eyes, that man saved my
soul, J" or they will rush out and say: ooh,
yes, she was with me in the last sickness.0
And then the cry will go round the circle:
"Come in, come in, come up, come up;
we saw you awaydown there, old and sick
and decrepit and discouraged because you
could not go to the front, but tAs his
part is that goeth down to battle, so shall
his part be that t~arrieth by the stuff"
There is high consolation also in this for
aged ministers. l see some of them here
to-day. Thy sit in pews in our churches.
They used to stand in pulpits. Their hair
is white with the blossoms of the tree of
life. Their names marked on the roll of
the General Assembly, or of the consocia-
ton, emeritus" They sometimes hear!!a
text announced which brings to mind a
sermon they preached fifty years ago on
that same subject. They preached more
Gospel on four hundred dollars a year than
some of their successors on four thousand
dollars. Some Sunday the old minister is
in a church and near by in another pew
there is a husband and a wife and a row of
children. And after the benediction the
don't know me, do you?" "Well," he
says, 'your face is familiar, but 1 can not
call you by name" "Why," she says,
''you baptized me and you married
me, and you buried my father and mother
and sisters" "Oh, yes" he says, tiny
eye-sight isn't as good as it used to be-"
They are in all our churches-the heroes
of 1920, the heroes of 1882, and the heroes
Of 1857. By the long grave trench that
cut through half a century. They have
stood sounding the resurrection. They
| have been in more Balaklavas and have
taken more Sebastopols than you ever
heard of. Sometimes they get. a little
fretful because they can not be at the
front. They hear the sound of the battle,
| and the old war horse champs his bit.
But the sixty thousand ministers of relig-
ion, this day standing in the brunt of tho
fray, shall have no more reward than
those retired veterans. "My father, my
| father! the chariots of Israel and the
horsemen thereof" AS his part is that
goeth down to the battle, so shall his
part be that t~arrieth by the stuff"
Cheer up, men and women of unappre-
ciated services. You will get your re-
ward, if not here, hereafter. When Charles
| Wesley comes up to judgment and the
thousands of souls which were waited
into, glory through his songs shall be
| enumerated, he will take his throne. Then
John Wesley will come up to judgment,
| and after his name has been mentioned in
| connection with the salvation of millions
of souls brought to God through the Meth
| odism which he founded he will take his
throne. But between the two thrones of
| Charles Wesley and John Wesley, there
will be a throne higher than either, On
which will sit Susannah Wesley, who
with maternal conservation in Epworth
rectory, Lincolnshire, started those two
souls on their triumphant mission of SER
mon and song through all follow