Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-10-16

tha tros.P VI. tornado, and falls over In
sa, trough OF the sea, and broadside ON
;un On 70 the beach aud keels over. leay-
&c 'ne gre" to strug gle in the merciless
~. ease away! Cast away! Aud. 80
nave 70 tell you that there are thou.
saaus OF men destroyed through the swoop
'einptations. Some great Inducements
~oilol'ness, or to sensuality, or to high
temper, or to some form OF d,ssination
so" " upon them. II they had time to
examine their Bible, if they had time to
tsu's with their friends, If they had
..me TO deliberate, they could stand
~ puG the temptation came so s,d.
ueniy-a curoclydon on the Meliterra.
mean, a whirlwind of the Caribbean. One
awful surge of temptation, and thew ner.
.r 1 AUD so we often hear the old story:
naan,t seen my friend in a great many
years. we were very glad to meet. He
salo l must drink, and he took me by the
arm ana pressed me along, and filed the
cup Until the bubbles ran over the edge.
, u III an evil moment all my good reso.
iuolons We're swept away, and to the out.
raging OF God aud my own soul. I fell.n
or the story is: II had hard work to sun.
port my family. knew that by one false
entry, by one deception, by one embezzle-
.nens, l might spring out free from all nv
'fouples; but the temptation came upon
me SO tercely that I could not think. 1
ald wrong, and having done wrong once,
could not stop" Oh, it is the first step
that costs; the second is s%easier, and the
third, and so on to the last. Once having
broken loose from the anchor, it is not so
easy to tie the parted strands. How often
u Is that men perish for the reason that
the temptation comes from some unex.
pected quarter. AS vessels lie in Margate
Roads safe from southwest winds. but
the wind changing to the northeast they
are driven helpless and go down. Oh that
900 would have mercy upon those upon
whom there comes the sudden swoop of
temptation, that they.perish not, becom.
ing, for this world and the world to come.
cast away, cast away.
By talking with sailors, I have found
out, also. that some vessels come to this
calamity through sheer recklessness.
There are 1900, 900 men who follow the
sea for a living. 1t is a simple fact that
the average Of human life on the sea is
less than twelve years. This comes from
the fact that men by familiarity with
danger become reckless-the Captain, the
helmsman, the stoker, the man on the
lookout, become reckless, and in nine
out of ten shipwrecks it is found
out that some one was awfully to blame.
SO l have to tell you that men lost their
souls through sheer recklessness. There
are thousands Of my friends in this house
tonight who do not care where they are
in spiritual things. They do not know
whether they are sailing toward Heaven
or toward hell, and the sea is black with
piratical hulks that would grapple them
with hooks of steel and would blindfold
them and make them ''walk the plank"
They do not know what the next moment
may bring forth. Drifting in their the
ology, drifting in their habits, drifting in
regard to all the future. No God, no
Christ, no settled anticipations of eternal
felicity, but all the time coming nearer
and nearer to a dangerous coast. Some of
them are on fire with evil habits, md they
shall burn on the sea, the charred hulk
tossed up on the barren beach of the lost
world; many of them with great troubles,
financial troubles, domestic troubles, so :
cial troubles; but they never pray for
comfort. With an aggravation of sin
that stirs up the ire of God, they pray
for no pardon. They do not steer for the
light-ship that dances in gladness at the
mouth of Heavens harbor, reckl ess as to
where they come out, drifting farth er
from God, farther from carly religious in
fluences, farther rom their present happi.
ness, farther from heaven. And, what Is
the worss thing about it is, that they are
taking their families along with them;
and it one perish, perhaps they will all
perish; and the way one goes, the proba.
bility is they will all go. Yet no anxiety.
As unconscious of danger as the passen-
gers on board the Arctic one moment be-
fore the Vesta rushed into her. Wrapped
up in the business of the store, notremem-
bering that soon they must quit all their
earthly possessions. Absorbed in their
social position, not knowing that very
soon they will have attende ed the last levee
and wbirled in the last schottiss he. They
do not deliberately choose to be ruined;
neither did the French frigate Medusa
aim for the Arguin banks, but there it
went to pieces. o, We reckless souls!
wish that tonight 1 could wake you up
with some great perturbation. The perils
are so augmented, the chances of escape
are so few; you will die just as certainly
as you sit there, unless you bestir your
self. l fear, my brother, you are becom-
ing a castaway. You are making no eft.
fort, you are putting forth no exertion for
escape. You throw out no oar; you take
no soundings; you watch no compass; you
are not calculating your bearings while
the wind is abait, and yonder is a long
line of foam bounding the horizon, and
you will be pushed on coward it, and
thousands have perishel there, and you
are driving in the same direction. Ready
| about! Down helm! Hard down! or in
the next five minutes, or four minutes, OF
three minutes, or two minutes, or one
minute, you may be a castaway.
o u~nforgiven soul! If you could see
your peril before God to might on account
of your lifetime sin and transgression,
| there would be fifty men who would rush
through this aisle crying for mercy, and
there would be fifty who would rush
through that aisle crying for mercy, and
they would be as mon are when they rush
across the deck of a laundering ship; and
there would be thousands of arms tossed
up from the galleries; and as these Chris
tian men rose up to help them, it would be
q rvhan a vassel drives on the rocks and