Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-06-18

are fortresses in which you may hide, and
from which you may fight against the
temptations of your life. Morning, noon
and night. Sundays and weekdays, thank
God for plenty to do.
Another encouragement is the fact that
their families are going to have the very
best opportunity for development and use.
fulness. hat may sound strange to you,
but the children Of fortune are very apt to
turn out poorly. In nine cases out of ten
the lad finds out if a fortune is coming, by
twelve years of age-he finds out there is
no necessity of toll; and he makes no
struggle, and a life without struggle goes
into dissipation or into stupidity. There
are thousands and tens of thousands of
men in our great cities who are toiling on,
denying themselves all luxuries, year after
year toiling n grasping. What for? To
get enough to spoil their children.
The father was fifty years getting tho
property together. How long will it take
the boys to get rid Of that property, not
having been brought up in prudenthabits?
Less than five years to undo all the work
OF fifty. You see the SOM of wealthy par
ents going out into the world, inane, nerve.
less, dyspeptic, or they are incorrigible
and reckless; while the son of the porter
that kept the gate learns his trade, gets a
robust physical constitution, achieves high
moral culture, and stands in the front rank
of Church and State. Who are the men
mightiest in our Legislatures, and Con-
gress. and cabinets? Did they walk up the
steep of life in silver slippers? o! no. The
mother put him down under the tree in the
\ Shnha- whi1o she crrooI tho I,o~, NF.-.-A
these mighty men ate out of an iron spoon
and drank out of the toughest earthen.
ware-their whole life a forced march.
They never had any Inquiries until, after
awhile, God gave them af1uence and use.
fulness and renown as a reward for their
persistence. Remember, then, that though
you may have poor surroundings and small
means for the education of your children,
they are actually starting under better adj
vantages than though you had a fortune to
give them. Hardship and ~privation are
not a damage to them, but an advantage.
Again, I offer as encouragement that
you have so many opportunities of gain
ing information. Plato gave II, 300 for two
books. The Countess of Anjou CAV 200
sheep for one volume. Jerome ruined him.
self financially by buying one o Of
Origen. Oh, the contrast. Now there are
tens of thousands of pens gathering up
information. Type-setters are calling for
"copy." All our cities quake with the
rolling cylinders of the Harpers and the
Appletons, and the Lippincots and the
Petersons and the Ticknors, and you now
buy more than Benjamin Franklin ever
knew for fifty cents! A Woodworking
man comes along toward his home, and he
looks into the show window of the book
store and sees an elegantly bound volume.
He says:
II wish I had hat book; there must be
q great deal of information in it,"
A few months pass along, Ind though
that book which he looked at cost five
dollars, it m now in pamphlet shape
and costs him fifty cents. The high wall
around about the well of knowledge is be-
ing broken down, and people come, some
with porcelain pitchers and som with
pewter mugs, to dip up the living water
for their thirsty lips. There are people
who toll from seven O'Clock in the morning
until six O'Clock at night, who know more
about anatomy than the old Psychologists
and who know more about astronomy
than the old philosophers. If you should
take the learned men of two hundred
years ago and put them on one bench, and
take twenty children from the common
schools in Brooklyn, and put them dow
Of the other bench, the children could ex'
anime the philosophers and the philoso'
piers could not examine the children.
o! rejoice that you lave all these oppor.
tunities of information spread out before
you, and that, seated in your chair al
home, by the evening light, you can lool
over all nations and see the descending
morn of a universal day.
One more encouragement: Your tolls in
this world are only inten I'D to be a disci.
pline by which you hall be prepared 70,
heaven. "Behold 1 bring you glad tidings
Of great joy" and tell you that Christ
the carpenter, of Nazareth, is the work
ingman's Christ. You get his love once
can sing on the wall in the midst of the
storm, and in the shop amidst the showing
of the plane, and down in the mine annie
the plunge of the crowbar, and OF
shipboard while climbing ratlines. Il
you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ h
will count the drops of sweat on you
brow. He knows every ache and pain yol
have ever suffered in your worldly occu
patton. Are you weary! He will Civ
you rest. Are you sick? He will give 20,
health. Are you cold? He will wral
around you the warm mantle of his eter
nal love. And beside that, my friends, yo'
must remember that all of this is onl,
preparatory-a~ preparatory and introduc
tory. 1 see a great multitude before tn
throne of God. Who are they? TO-" yo'
say, "those are princes. They must hav'
always been in a royal family. The,
dress like princes; they walk like princes
they are princes. There are none of thu
common people there-none of the people
that ever toiled with hand and foot" All
you are mistaken. Who is that bright
spirit before the throne? Why, that
was a sewing girl, who, work as hard as
sh e could, could make but two shillings
the day. Who is that other illustrious
soul before the throne? Why, that man
toiled amid the Egyptian brick kilns. Who
is that other illustrious soul before the
throne? Why her drunken father drove
her out OF a cold winter night and she
froze into heaven. What are those kings
and queens before the chrome? Many OF
them went up from Birmingham mills and