Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-05-04

ter. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only
sweetening power that is sufficient. 1,
sweetens the disposition. Itsweetens the
manners. 1t sweetens life. 1t sweetens
mysterious Providences. It sweetens
affections. 1t sweetens death. 1t sweet.
ems everything. 1 have heard people asked
in social company: "If you could have
three wishes gratified what would your
three wishes be?" If could have three
they would be: First: More of the grace
of God. Second: More of the grace of
God. Third: More of the grace of God.
In the door-yard Of my brother John,
missionary in Amboy, China, there is
tree called the emperor tree, the two
characteristics of which are that it always
| grows higher than IFS surroundings and its
leaves take the form of a crown. Il this
! emperor tree be planted by rose bush it
grows little higher than the Lush, and
spreads out above it crowns # it be
grows little higher than that tree and
spreads above it crown. Would God that
this religion of Christ, more wonderful
emperor tree, might overshadow oil young
lives; are you lowly in ambition or cireum-
stance, putting over you its crown; are you
high in talent and position, putting over
you its crown. Oh, for more of the
haccharine in our lives and less of the
wormwood! a.
What is true of individuals is true of
nations. God sets them up to revolve as
stars, but they may fall NORWOOD.
Tyre-the atmosphere of the desert fra
he fairs; all seas cleft into foam BY the
keels of her laden merchantmen; her mar
kets rich with horses and camels from
Togarman, her bazars filled With uphol..
stery from Dodan, with emeralds and
coral and agate from Syria, with wines
from Helbon, with embroidered work from
Ashur and Chilmad. Where now the
CLEAN of her towers, where the roar of her
chariots, where the masts of her ships?
Let the fishermen who dry their nets where
once she stood, let the sea that rushes
upon the barrenness where once she chal-
lenged the admiration of all nations, let
where once her palaces glittered, answer
the question. She was star, but by her
own sin turned to NORWOOD and has
fallen.
Babylon, with her $50 towers and her
brazen gates and her embattled walls, the
splendor of the earth gathered within here
palaces, her hanging gardens built by
Nebuchadnezzar 10 please his bride
Amyittis, who had been brought up in q
mountainous country and could not en-
dure the fiat country round Babylon, these
hanging gardens built, terrace abovs ter
race, till at the height of 400 feet there
the verdure, the foliage, the glory looking
as if mountain were on the wing. On
the tip.top king walking with his queen,
among statutes snowy white, looking up at
birds brought from distant lands. and
drinking out of tankards of solid gold, or
looking off over rivers and lakes upon
nations subdued and tributary, crying: els
not this great Babylon which have buil.9"
What battering ram smote the walls? What
plowshare upturned the gardens? What
army shattered the brazen gates? What
long, fierce blast of storm put out this
light which illuminated the world? What
that poured from palace window and gar
den grove and called the banqueters to
their revel and the dancers to their feet?
walk upon the scene of desolation to find
an answer and pick up pieces of bitumen
and brick and broken pottery, the remains
of Babylon, and, as in the silence
of the night hear the surging of
that billow of desolation which rolls over
the scene. hear the wild waves saying:
Babylon was proud. Babylon was i'm
pure. Babylon was star, but by sin she
luIu0O W WOIluWOOu anu HIS ldIleus
From the prosecutions of tine Pilgrim
fathers and the Huguenots in other lands
God set upon these shores nation. The
council fires of the aborigines went out in
the greater light of free government. The
sound Of the war whoop was exchanged
for the thousand wheels of enterprise and
progress. The mild winters, the fruitful
summers, the healthful skies charmed
from other lands Il race of hardy men who
loved God and wanted to be free. Before
the woodlands ak forests fell and rose
again into ships masts and churches
pillars. Cities on the bank of lakes be.
quakes with the rush Of the rail car and
the waters are churned white with the
steamers wheel. Fabulous bushels of
Western wheat meet on the way fabulous
tons of Eastern coal. Furs from the
north pass on the rivers fruits from the
south. And trading in the same market
is Maine lumbe1man and South Carolina
rice merchant aud Ohio farmer and Alaska
fur dealer. And chul ches and schools and
asylums scatter light and love and mercy
and salvation upon sixty millions of people.
pray that our nation may not copy the
crimes of the nations that have perished.
and our cup OF blessing turn to norwood
and like them We go down. I am by ma
ture and by grace an optimist, and I ex-
pect that this country will continue 10 adj
vance until the world shall put on millen-
NAL era, and then when Christ comes again
he will set his throne somewhere between
the Alleghanies and the Sierra Nevadas
But be not deceived! Our only safety is in
righteousness toward God and Justice
toward man. If we forget the goodness of
the Lord to this land and break His Sab
baths and improve notify the dire disasters
that have again and again come to us as
people, and we learn saving lesson neither
from civil war nor raging epidemic, nor
drought, nor mildew, nor scourge of locust
and grasshopper, if the political
corruption which has poisoned the
fountains of public virtue, and be-
slimed the high places of authority, maxi
ing free government at times kissing
and byword in all the earth, if the drunk
enness and Righteousness that stagger and
blaspheme in the streets of our great cities
as Though they were reaching after the
fame of a Corinth and Sodom, are not re-
pented of, we will yet see the smoke of our
nations ruin; the pillars of our national
and State capitals will fall more disas-
trously than when Sampson pulled down
Dagon; and future historians will record
upon the page believed with generous
tears the story that the free nation of the
west arose in splendor which made the
world stare. 1t had magnificent possibili-
ties. It forgot God II hated iuafice IT,