Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-07-23

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the spiritual restorative. There is no
fever, no marasmus, no neuralgia, no con.
sumption, no disease of the body that the
grace of God will not help. wish that
over every bed of pain and through every
hospital of distress we might swing this
cluster of campfire from the vineyards
OF En-gedi." Christ's hand is the softest
pillow, Christ's pardon is the strongest
stimulus, Christ's comfort is the mightiess
anodyne, Christ's salvation is the grand.
est restorative. 1t makes a man miphtier
than his physical distress.
Art thou weary? Art thou langu,d? Art
thou sore distressed?
"Come to me,' saith one-"and coming. be
at rest"
II I ask him to receive me, will he sav mc
nay?
Not till earth and not till heaven pass awav.
FINDING, following, keeping, struggling, Is He
sure to bless?
Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs. answer-
"Yes!"
Nero tarred and put pitch upon the
Christians of his day, and then set them
on fire, that they might illuminate the
night round about the palace; but while
they were burning and the crowd beneath
were jeering, louder than all the noise
went up the song of praise and triumph
from the dying martyrs. John Bradford
came out in the presence of the Instrument
OF torture that was to put him to death
and said: ~ am a Christian now. I have
never been before" And so, again and
again, the Lion of Judah's tribe has torn
to pieces the wild beasts of martyrdom.
This grace is also a restorative for the
oacksllder. Who do you mean by that?
you say. l mean you who used to FIRE.
quent the house of God, but seldom go
there now; you who once used to pray,
but never pray now; you who once sat at
the holy communion, but take not the
Lords cup now; l mean you who once re.
joiced in Christian society, but now sit
amid scoffers. Backslider! Oh, what a
suggestive word! Backslider! From what
have you slid back? You have slid
back from your fathers faith, from
your early good habits. You have
been sliding back from Christ, from
the cross-sliding back from Heaven.
When a man begins to slide he
knows not where he will go. You have
been sliding back toward darkness. You
have been sliding back toward an UNI
blessed grave, toward a precipice, the first
10,000,000 miles OF which downward are
only a small part of the eternal plunge.
You were, perhaps, professors in the
country; you have made shipwreck in the
town. 1t may be that the club blasted
you; it may be that fashionable society
destroyed you; it may be the kind of wife
whom you married. You lave no more
hnna for Donuan nnu,t ho ~ ;f x,o,, 1,o} 1;-ol
in Central Asia and never heard of Christ
and the Judgment. Oh, where is that
Bible you use to read? Where is that
room where you used to pray? What
have you done with that Jesus whose
voice you once heard? Oh, MUIR
dered hours! Oh, massacred privileges!
Oh, dead opportunities! Wake up now
and Shrek in that mans ear until he shall
rouse himself from the horrible
bulism, walking, as he does, fast asleep,
within an inch of hell. Oh, that he might
cry out now: Golden Sabbaths, come
back! Communion seasons, come back!
Wooings of the Holy Ghost, com back!"
But they will not come. Gone! gonel
gone! Sorrow will come, but not they.
Oh, that you might ave the few remains
ing years of your life and consecrate them
to Christ! l have seen sad'sights, l have
hoard sad sounds; but, l tell you, The
ghastliest thing outside the gates of the
damned is a backslider's death bed. Do
you not feel like having applied to your
sou this divine prerogative? Do you
not feel like crying out with David: "Re-
store unto me the joys of Thy salvation?"
For great sin, great pardon. For deep
wounds, o,nnipotent surgery. For deaf
ears, a divine aurist. For blind eyes, a
heavenly %oculist. For the dead in sin, the
upheaval of a great resurrection.
But in the heavenly world we shall feel
the chief restorative power of religion.
This is a planet of weeping we are living
on. We enter upon life with a cry and
leave it with a long sigh. If l could gath
er up the griefs of this audience and put
them in one sentence, and then utter it, it
would make every thing between here and
the throne Of God shudder and
howl. The earth is gashed deep
with graves. AS at the close Of the
huntfet nnG nifty men, the fragment of
the thousand men that went out; so, as I
stand before you I can not but realize the
fact that you are the fragments represent
ing hundreds of regiments of joyful assoc
Citations that have been broken up forever.
O., this is a world of sorrow! But, blessed
be God, there will be no sorrow in Heaven!
The undertaken will have to rave some
other business there. In the summer tim 9
our cities ave bills Of mortality which are
frightful-sometimes in New York a thou
sand deaths in a week, sometimes it has
been two Thousand in London; but
in that great heavenly city there
will be not a single case of sick
ness or death; not n black dress Of
mourning, but plenty of white robes of
joy; hand-shaking of welcome, but none
of separation. Why, if one trouble should
attempt to enter Heaven, the shining pc.
lice of the city would put it under ever.
lasting arrest. If all the sorrows of life,
mailed ana sworded under Apollyon,
should attempt to force that gate, one
company from the tower would strike them
back bowling to the pit Room in Heaven
for all the raptures that ever knocked at
the gate, but no room for the smallest
annoyance, though slight as a summer in
sect. Doxology, but no dirge; banquet.
ing, but no 'funeral baked meats"
No darkness at all; no grief at all; no
sickness at all; no death at all. A soul