Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-07-17

that | have EVER known have laughed
the loudest. Religion was intended to
brighten up our character. Take out
the sprig of cypress from your coat
and put in "A cluster of cHmphire
from the vineyards Of En-gedi." Re-
ligion's ways are ways of ple~asantness
and all her paths are peace | have
found it SO. There are hundreds in
this house who have found it so.
remark again, that the campfire
plant Of the text was a symbol Of Jesus
Christ, because it is a mighty restora-
tive. You know that there is nothing
that starts respiration SO 500 in n
who has tainted as camphor, as we
have it. Put upon a sponge or hand
kerchief, the effects are almost inn
mediate. Well, this camphire-plant Of
the text, though somewhat different to
that which we have, was a pungent
aromatic, and in that respectit becomes
a type of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the mightest of all restoratives. lhavc
carried this camphire-plant into the
sick room, after the doctors had held
their consultation and said there
was no hope and nothing more
could be done. and the soul
Frightened up under the spiritual re-
storative. There is no fever. no mar
xsmus, no neuralgia, no consumption,
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 softcst pillow, Christ's pardon is
the strongest stimulus, Christ's comfol
is the mightiest anodyne, Christ's sal
walton is the grandest restorative. 1t
makes a man mightier than his physi-
cal distress.
"Art thou weary Art thou languids Art
thou sore distressed,
Come to me- saith One-'and coming, be
ut rest
II I ask Him to receive me, will he say me
nay'
Not till earth, and not till heaven pass away.
Finding, following, keeping, struggling, is he
sure to bless!
Saints, apostles, propeets, martyrs, answer
-"Yes!.
Nero tarred and put his pitch upon
the Christians of his day, and then set
them on fire, hat they might illumine
the night round about the palace; but
while they were burning and the crowd
beneath were jeering, louder than all
the noise went mp the song Of praise
and triumph from the dying martyrs.
John Bradford came out in the pres
cnce of the instrument of torture that
was to put him to death, and said: Il
am a Christian now. | have never
been before" And so, again and
again, the Lion of Judah's tribe has
torn to pieces the wild beasts of mar
tyrdom.
This grace is also a restorative for
the back-slider. Who do you mean by
that? you say. mean you who used
to frequent the house of God, but sell
dom 90 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; | mean
you who once rejoiced in Christian
society but now sit amid scofers. Back
sliders! Oh, what IA 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-from
l~.- NEIor l ol,lo
he knows not where he wi 20. You
have been sliding back toward dark
ness. You have been slidiL~ back to-
ward an unblessed grave, toward n
prccipice, the first ten million miles of
which downward are only a small part
of the eternal plunge, You were, per-
haps, 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 de-
stroyed you; it may be the kind of
wife whom you married. You have no
more hope for heaven now than if you
had lived in Central Asia and never
heard of Christ and the iudg-
ment. Oh, where is that Bible you
used to read? Where is that room you
used to pray imp What have you done
with that Jesus whose voice you once
heard? Oh. murdered hours! Oh,
massacred privileges! Oh, dead OPP
p%ortunities! Wake mp now and shrek
in that mans ear until he shall rouse
himself from the horrible somnambul-
ism, walking as he does, fast asleep,
within an inch of hell. Oh, that he
might cry out now: Golden Sab
baths, come back! Wooings Of the
Holy Ghost, come back!" But they
will not come. Gone! gone! gone!
| Sorrow will come, but not they. Oh,
that you might save the few remaining
years of your life, and consecrate them
to Christ! I have seen sad sights. /
have heard sad sounds; but l tell you
the ghastliest thing outside the gates of
the damned is a backslider's d~eath-bed.
Do you not feel like having applied
to your soul this divine restorative?
DO you not feel like crying out with
David: 'Restore unto me the joys OF
thy salvationp' For great sin, great
pardon. For deep wounds, omnipo-
tent surgery. For deaf ears, = divine
anrist. For blind eyes, n heavenly oc-
ulist. For the dead in sin the upheval
of q great resurrection.
But i'm the heavenly world we shall