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


one case saves life and in the other de
stroys It. This possibility of repent
ence at the close Of life may cure the
old man while it kills the young. BE-
cautious in taking 1t.
Again, my subject is descriptive Of
those who come to a sudden and rad
ical change. You have noticed how
short a time it is from morning tC
night in winter-eight or ten hours.
You know that q winter day has a very
brief life. The heart of the longes,
day beats twenty-four times and then
is dead. How quick the transition in
the character of these Benjaminites
"In the morning they shall devour the
prey, and at night they shall divide the
spoil" Is it possible that there shall
be such a Transformation in any of our
c%haractersp Yes, a man may be at 7
o'clock in the morning an all. devour-
ing wording. and at Z o'clock at
night he may be a peaceful ~distributive
Christian. Conversion is instantan-
Gus A man passes into the kingdom
Of God quicker than down the sky runs
the zigzag lightning. A man may be
anxious about his soul for a great
many years; that does not make him
q Christian. A man may resolve on
the reformation of his character and
have the resolution going on a great
while; that does not make him a Chris
tian. But the very instant that he
filings his soul on the mercy of Jesus
Christ, that instant is %lustration, eman-
cipation, resurrection. Up 10 that
point he is going in the wrong direc-
ton; after that point he is going in the
right direction. Before that moment
he is a child of sin; after that moment
he is a child Of God. Before that mo-
ment, hellward; after that moment,
heavenward. Before that moment, de-
vouring the prey; after that moment,
dividing the spoil. Five minutes is as
good as five years. My hearers, you
know very we'll that the best things
you have done you have done in a
flash. You made up your mind in an
instant to buy or to sell or to invest or
to stop or to start. If you had missed
that one chance you would have
missed il forever. Now just as
preciptate and quick and spontan-
cons will be the ransom Of your
soul. This morning you are making a
calculation. You are or the track Of
some financial or social game. With
your pen or pencil you are pursuing it.
This very morning you are devouring
the prey, but tonight you will be in a
different mood. You find that all
heaven is offered you. You wonder
how you can get it for yourself and
your family. You wonder what re-
sources it will give you now and here.
after. You are dividing peace and
comfort and satisfaction and Christian
reward in your soul. You are divid-
ing the spoil.
On a sabbath night at the close OF
service l said to some persons: "When
did you first become serious about
your soulP" And they told me: ITO.
night" And l said to still others:
when did you resolve to serve the
Lord all the DAYS of your lifep" And
they said: Tonight" l saw oy
their appearance that when the grace
of God struck them they were devour-
ing the prey but I saw also in the
flood of joyful tears aud in the kind
ling raptures of their brow andin their
exhilarant and transporting utteranees
that they were dividing the spoil. AT
night, with one touch of electricity, all
these lights blaze. Oh, l would to
God that the darkness of your souls
might be broken up. and that by one
quick, overwhelming, instantaneous
flash of illumination you might be
brought into the light and the liberty
of the sons of God!
You see that religion is q different
thing from what some of you supposed.
You thought il was a decadence; you
thought religion was emanciation; you
thought it was a highway robbery;
that il struck one down and left him
half dead; that it plucked out the eyes:
that it plucked out the plumes of the
soul that it broke the wing and crushed
the beak as it came clawing with its
black talons through the air. No, tina,
ia not religion. What is religionr II
is dividing the spoil. 1t is taking q
defenseless soul and panoplying it fol-
eternal conquest. 1t is the distribution
Of prizes by the Kings hand, every
medal stamped with a coronation. II
is an e~xhilaration, an expansion. 1t is
imparadisation. 1t is enthTonement.
Religion makes a man master Of earth
and death and hell. 1t goes forth to
gather the medals of victory won by
Prince Imnanuel, and the diadems OF
heaven and the glories of realms terres.
trial and celestial, and then. after
ranging all worlds for everything tina,
is resplendent, it divides the spoil.
What was it that James Turner, the
famous English evangelist, was doing
when in his dying moment he said
"Cbrist is all! Christ is allv' Why,
he was entering into light; he was
rounding the Cape Of Good Hope; he
was dividing the spoil: Whas was the
aged Christian Quakeress doing when,
at eighty years of age. she arose in the
meeting one day aud said: THE
time Of my departure is come; my
grave clothes are falling Off" She
was dividing the spoil.
She longed with wings to fly away,
And mix with everlasting day.
What is Daniel now doing, the lion
tamerp and Elijah, who was drawn by
the flaming c~ourssrs? and Paul. the
rafting Of whose chains made king
quaker and all the other victims O
flood and fire, and wreck. and guillo-
tine? Where are theyp Dividing tn
spoil.
Ten thousand times ten thousand,
In sparkling raimeut bright,
The armies of the ransomed ssints