Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-08-31


is a sharp rock ON the one side, and
sharp rock on the other side" What
are sach to do? Somehow, let them
climb up into the heights of the glorious
promise: Leave thy fatherless chill
dren; 1 will preserve them alive, and
let thy widows trust in me-" Or get up
into the heights of that other glorious
promise: The Lord preserveth the
stranger and relieveth the widow and
the fatherless." o. We sewing woman on
staa"lng wages. o! ye widows turned
out from the once beautiful home. o!
ye. female teachers, kept on niggardly
stipend. o! We despairing woman, seek
ing in vain for work, wandering along
the docks, and thinking to throw your
self into the river last night. o! ye
women of weak nerves and aching sides,
and short breath and broken heart, you
need something more than human sym
patty; you need the sympathy of God.
Climb up into His arms. He knows it
all, and He loves you more than father,
or mother, or husband ever could or ever
did; and instead of sitting down, wiring
inf. your hands in despair, you had bet
ter begin to climb. There are heights of
consolation for you, though now there
is sharp rock on the one side, and
sharp rock on the other side"
Again, that man is in the crisis of the
text who has wasted life on the one
side and IN unillumined eternity on the
other. Though man may ali his life
have cultured deliberation and self
poise, if he gets into that position all his
self possessioni is gone. There are oil the
wrong thoughts of his existence, all the
wrong deeds, oil the wrong words
strata above strata, granitic. ponderous,
overshadowing. That rock call Bozez.
On the other side are all the retributions
OF the future, the thrones Of Judgment,
the eternal ages, angry with his long de-
fiance. That rock 1 call Seneh. Be-
tween these two rocks Lord Byron per-
ished, and Alcibiades persisted, and
Henod persisted, and ten thousand times
ten thousand have persisted. o! man
immortal, man redeemed, man blood
bought, climb up out. of those shadows.
Climb up by the way of the cross. Have
your wasted life forgiven; have your
eternal life secured. This morning just
take one look to the past and see what
it has been, and take one look to the
future and see what it threatens to be.
You can afford to lose your health, you
can afford to lose your property, you can
afford to lose your regulations; but you
cannot afford to lose your soul. That
bright, cleaning, glorious, precious,
eternal possession you must carry aloft
in the day when the earth burns up and
the heavens bursts.
You see from my subject that when a
man goes into the safety and peace of
the Gospel, he does not demean himself.
There is nothing in religion that leads
to meanness or unmanliness. The
Gospel of Jesus Christ only asks you to
climb as Jonathan did-climb toward
God, climb toward Heaven, climb into
the sunshine of Gods favor. To be-
come Christian is not to 60 meanly
down; but it is to come glori-
ously up-up into the communion of
saints, up into the peace that passeth all
understanding, up into the companion
ship of angels. He lives up; he dies up.
O!then, accept the wholesale invita-
ton which l make this morning to all
the people. Come up from between
your invalidism and financial embarrass-
ments. Come up from between your be-
reavements and your restitution. Come
up from between wasted life and an
unillumined eternity. Like Jonathan,
climb with all your might, instead of
sitting down to wiring your hands in the
shadow and the darkness-"a sharp rock
on the one side, and sharp rock on the
other side"