Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-11-27
to answer, and IL I gave YOU an opporsuni.

to answer, and If I gave you an opportuni.
ty in the midst of this assemblage, you
would speak out and say in regard to the
~scoverie you have made Of the mercy,
and the grace, and the goodness of God:
The half-the half was not told mel"
Well, we hear a great deal about the good
time that is coming to this world, when it
is to be girded with salvation. Holiness
on the bells of the horses. The lions name
patted by the hand of a babe.
SHIPS of Tarshnh bringing cargoes
for Jesus, and the hard, dry, barren,
winter-bleached, storm SCARED, thunder
split rock, breaking into floods of
bright water. Deserts into which drome-
DIARIES thrust their n~ostrils, because they
were afraid of the simoom; deserts bl oom-
ing into %carnation roses and silver-tipped
lilies. 1t is the old story. Everybody tells
it. Isaiah told it, John told it, Paul told
it, Ezekiel told it, Luther told it, Calvin
cold it, John Milton told it, everybody tells
1t; and yet-and yet when the midnight
shall fly the hills, and Christ shall marshal
MS great army, and China, flashing her
ldols INTO the dust, shall hear tire voice of
God mi wheel into line; and India, de-
stfoylng her j~uggernaut and snatching up
her little children from the Ganges, shall
hear the voice of God and wheel into line:
and vine-covered Italy and wheat
crowned Russia, and all the nations of
the earth, shall hear the voice of
God and fall into line; then the Church.
which has been toiling and strug.
Cling through the centuries, robed and
%garlanded like a bride adorned for her
husband, shall put aside her veil and look
up into the face of her Lord and King and
say: 1.-THE half-the half was not told
mew
Well, there is coming a greater surprise
to every Christian-a greater surprise than
anything I have predicted. Heaven is an
old story. Everybody talks about it.
There is hardly a hymn in the hymn-book
that does not refer to it. Children read
about it in their Sabbath-school book.
Aged men put on their spectacles to study
it. We say it is a harbor from the storm.
We call it u home. We say it is the
house OF many mansions. We weave TO-
gether all sweet, beautiful, delicate, ex-
hilarant words; we weave them into let
tiers, and then we spell it out in rose and
lily md amaranth. And yet that place
is going to be a surprise to the most
intelligent Christian Like the Queen of
Sheba, the report has come to us from the
far country, and many Of us have started.
1t is a desert march, but we urge on the
camels. What though our feet be blistered
with the way? We are fastening to the
palace. We take all our loves and hopes
and Christian ambitions, as frankincense
and myrrh and %cassia, to the great King.
We must not rest. We must not halt. The
night is coming on, and it is not safe out
here in the desert. Urge on the camels.
I see the domes against the sky, and the
houses of Lebanon, and the temples, and
the gardens. See the fountains dance in
the sun, and the gates flash as they open
to let in the poor pilgrims. Send
the word up to the palace that we are
coming n that we are weary of the
march of the desert. The King will come
out and say: "Welcome to the palace;
battle in these waters, recline o. these
banks. Take this cinnamon and franklin
and myrrh, and put it upon a censor
and swing it before the altar" And yet
my friends, when Heaven bursts upon us
it will be a greater surprise tina that-Je.
sus on the throne and we made like him
All our Christian friends surrounding Us
in glory! All our sorrows and tears and
sins gone by forever! The thousands OF
thousands, the one hundred n forty and
four thousand, the great multitudes that
no man can number, will cry world with.
out end: "The half-the half was not told
,ofB