Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-05-22

the night. Hearing that dollar even
in the darkness thrilled them as an
Adirondack sportsman is thrilled by a
looms laugh. They chased the dollar
to the money vault. They chased it to
the government treasury. They routed
it from under the counter. All the
hounds were out-all the pointers and
settlers. They leaped the hodges for
that dollar, and they cried: "Hark
away! dollar! a dollar!" and when
at last they came upon it and had act
ually captured it their excitement was
like that of q falconer who has sue
cessfully flung his first hawk. In the
morning of their life, oh how they de-
voured the prey! But there came a
better time to their soul. The found
out an immoral nature cannot live on
government bonds. They took M q
Northern Pacific bond, and there was
a hole in it, through which they could
look into the uncertainty of all earthly
treasures. They saw some Ralston,
living at the rate of S25, 900 q month,
leaping from San Francisco wharf be-
cause he could not continue to live
at the same ratio. They saw the
wien and paralytic bankers who had
changed their souls into molten gold
stamped with the image of the earth,
earthly. They saw some great souls by
avarice turned into homunculi, and
they said to themselves: 81 will seek
after higher treasure" From that
time they did not care whether they
walked or rode If Christ walked with
them, o whether they lived in a
mansion or a hut If they dwelt under
the shadow of the Almighty, nor
whether they were robed in French
b~roadcloth OF in homespun If they had
the robe OF the Savior's righteousness,
nor whether they were sandaled with
morocco or calfskin il they were shod
with the preparation of the gospel.
Now you see peace on their counten-
aDce. Now that man says: ''What a
fool | was to be enchanted with this
world. Why, 1 have more satisfaction
in five minutes in the service of God
than | had in all the first years of my
life while l was gain-getting. like
this evening of my life a great deal
better than l did the morning. In the
morning l greedily devoured the prey,
but now it is the evening. and / am
gloriously dividing the spoil"
My friends, this world is a poor
thing to hunt. 1t is healthful TO 60
out in the woods and hunt. 1t re-
kindles the luster of the eye. 1t strikes
the brown OF the autumnal leaf into
the cheek. 1t gives to the rheumatic
limbs a strength to leap like the roe.
Christopher North's pet gun, the
muckle-mounted Meg, going off in the
summer in the forests, had its echo in
the winter-time in the eloquence that
rang through the university halls OF
Edinburgh. 1t is healthy to 60 hunt
ing in the fields; but l tell you that it
is belittling and bedwarfing and be-
tanning for a man to hunt this world.
The hammer comes down on the gun
cap and the barrel explodes and kills
you instead of that which you
are pursuing. When you turn out
to hunt the world, the world turns out
to hunt you; and as many a sportsman
aiming his gun at a %panther's heart
has gone down under the striped claws,
so while you have been attempting to
devour this world the world has been
devouring you. So it was with Lord
Byron. So it was with Coleridge. So
it was with Catherine of Russia. Hen
ry ii. went out hunting for this world.
and its lances stuck through his heart.
Francis /. aimed at the world, but the
assassin's dagger put an end to his
ambition and his life with one stroke.
Mary Queen of Scots wrote on the win
dow OF her castle:
From the top OF all my trust
Mishap hath laid me IN the dust.
The queen dowager Of Navarro was
offered for her wedding day a costly
and beautiful pair of gloves and she
put them IN. but they were poisoned
gloves and they took her life. Better
q bare hand Of cold p~rivation than a
warm and poisoned glove of ruinous
success. "Oh," says n young man
in the audience, * believe what you
are preaching. I am going to do that
very thing. In the morning of my life
] am going to devour the prey, and in
the evening l shall divide the spoil of
Christian character. / only want a
little while to sow my wild oats and
then l will be good" Young man,
did you aver take the census of all the
old peoplep How many old people
are there in your houseP One, two,
or noneP How many in a vast assem-
blsge like thisP Only here and there
a gray head, like the patches OF snow
here and there in the fields on q late
April day. The fact is that the tides Of
the years are so strong that men
go down under them before they
get to be 60, before they get
70 be so. before they get to
be 40 before they get to be 80; and If
you, my young brother, resolve now
that you will spend the morning of
your days in devouring the prey the
probability is that You will never d.
vide the spoil in the evening hour. He
who postpones until old age the reli-
gion of Jesus Christ postpones it for
ever. Where are the men who. thirty
years ago. resolved to become Christ
isns in old age, putting it off a certain
number of yearsP They never got to
be old. The railroad collision. or the
steamboat explosion, or the slip on
the ice. or the falling ladder, or the
sudden cold put An end to their oppor-
tunity. They have 20 had an op.
~portunity since and pever will have an
opportunity again. They locked the
door of heaven against their soul, and
they threw away the key; and il they
coTld now break jail and come up