Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-12-08

BE not a bat. fit neither to walk nor fly.
having just enough of heaven to spoil the
world, and SO much of the world as to
spoil heaven. Christ says that your pres.
ent condition nausea!es him to positive
sickness: Because thou art neither cold
nor hot, | will spew thee out Of my
MOUTH In the ruins of Pompeii there
was found a petrifed woman, who, in
stead Of trying to fly from the destroyed
city, had spent her time in gathering up
her jewels. She saved neither her life
nor her Jewels. There are mulutudes
making the same mistake. In trying to
get earth and heaven they lose both. "1e
cannot serve God and mammon.' Be
one thing or the other. Tread the earth
like a lion, or mount the air like the
eagle; for my text says: "Ye shall have
in abomination among the fowls, the
bat"
II TYPE OF FrCKLENEss.
Again, taking the suggestion of the
text. drive out the chameleon from your
soul. There is some difference among
good men as TO the name of this creeping
thing which God pronounced unclean,
but shall take the opinion which seems
best suited to my purpose. The chame-
ltDu 10 81 ltDlltI, tIltnN biAO"h Wy 40
changebleness of color, taking The color
of the thing next TO it, sometimes brown,
sometimes red and sometimes gray, but
always the color OF It's surroundings, a
type of hat class Of Christians who are
now one thing in religious faith and now
another, just to suit the circumstances,
always taking their color OF religious be-
lief from the man they are talking to,
They go II place and are first rate Uni
tarians. Jesus was a good man, but
nothing more" They go TO Princeton
and are Trinitarians, almost willing 10 die
for the divinity of Jesus. Among the
Cniversalists they refuse the idea of flu
turc punishment, and gong among those
Of opposite belief announce that there is
a hell with a gusto that makes you think
they are glad of it. Drive out that un-
clean chameleon from your sonl. Do not
be ever changing the color of your faith.
My friends, liberal Christianity, falsely
so called, believes in nothing. God is
anything you want to make him. The
Bible is TO be believed in SO far as you
like it. Heaven a grand mixing up of
Neros and Pauls. The man who dies by
suicide in his right mind in 1888, beating
into glory by ten years the Christian man
who dies n Christian death in 1893, the
suicide proving himself wiser than the
Christian. Oh, my friends, let us try to
BELIEVE IN SOMETHING.
An inidel was called to the bedside Of
his daughter. The daughter said;
Father, which shall | believe, you or
mother2 Mother took the religion Of
Christ and died in its embrace. You say
that religion is "A humbug. Now, | am
going TO die and | I'm very much per-
picked; shall | believe you or take the
belief of my mothcr?'' The father said:
Choose for yourself" She said: NO,
| am too weak to choose for myself; |
want you to choose for me" "WeE. .
said the father, after much hesitation and
embarrassment, Mary, think you
had better take the religion
of your mother" The time will
come when we shall have TO believe
something. We cannot afford to be on
the fence in religion. Truth and error
are set opposite to each other. The one
is infinitely right, and the other infinitely
wrong. In the judgment day we must
give an account Of what we believed as
well az for what we acted. The differ
ence between believing truth and believ-
ing error is the difference between para
disc and perdition. | beg you, in the
light of the Bible, and on your knees be-
fore God, to form your religious opinion
and then stick to it, though business
companions scott, and wits caricature,
and the air crackles with the fires Of mar
tyrdom. Surely truths in behalf of
| which Christ died, and angels Of God
| trooped forth, and the whole universe is
marshaled, are worth living for and
worth dying for. Amidst the most un-
| clean things is this overchanging chame-
leon of religious theory. Away with the
reptilel God abhors il with an all con
Stunning adherence.
IN~yERTEBRATE AND SI.OTHFUL.
Once more: take the suggestion Of the
text, and drive out the snail from your
soul. God has declared il unclcan. 1t
is animal TO be found every where be
tween the coolest north and the hottest
south. There are 800 species of the
snail. They nave no backbone, and they
are SO slow that their movement is almost
imperceptible. You see a snail in one
place today; 60 tomorrow and you will
find it has advanced only a few inches.
1t becomes an emblem Of that large class
Of Christian people who go to work with
a slowness and sluggishness that is won
derful. They are stopped by every little
obstacle. because, like the snail, they
have no backbone. Others moun up on
eagles wings, bat they go at "A snaiPs
pace.
O. child of God, aroused We have
apothcsi2ed Prudence and Caution long
enough. Prudence is a beautiful grace,
but Of all the family of Christian grace
like her the least, for she has been mar
| ried SO long to L~aziness, SlCth and Stu
| pidity. We have a million idlers in the
| Lords vineyard who pride themselves on
| their prudence. "Be prudent" said the
| disciples to Christ, and stay away from
Jerusalem;' but he went. "Be prudent"
said Paul's friends, and look out for
| what you say to Felix" but he Numbered
| away until the rulers knees knocked to-
| gcther. In the eyes Of the world, the
| most i%mprudent men that ever lived were
Martin Luther, and John Oldcastle, and
Wesley, and Knox. My opinion is that
| the most imprudent and reckless thing is
to stand still. Ii is well to hear our Com
mander's voice when he says 'Haltt'
| but quite as important to hear ii when he
| saws "Forwardl' This
COsPE SHIP
made 10 plough the sea a iifteen knots an
hour, is not making three. Some times
it is most prudent to ride ,Jur horse
slowly and pick out the way for his feet,
! and not strike him with tie sDuTs; but