Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-07-20
;me maintaininc their faith in God.

any pains worse than Christ's. The
sharpnesses that stung through HIS
brains through His hands through HIS
feet, through His heart, We're as great as
yours, certainly. He was as sick and as
weary. Not nerve. or muscle. or liga-
ment escaped. All the pangs of all the
nations of all the ages compressed INTO
one sour cup. He took the vinegar!
There is also a sourness of poverty.
goings. and that always gives an honest
man anxiety. There is no sign of desti-
tuition about you-pleasant appearance
and cheerful home for you; but God
only knows what time you have had to
manage your private finances. just as
the bills run up the wages seem to run
down. But you are not the only one
who has not been paid for hard work.
The great Wilkie sold his celebrated
piece. The Blind Fiddler for fifty
guineas. although afterwards it brought
it's thousands. The world hangs in adj
miration over the sketch of Gains
borough. yet that very sketch hung for
years in the shop window because there
smith sold his Vicar of Wakefield" for
a few pounds, in order to keep the
bailiff out of the door; and the vast ma
jority of men in all occupations and
professions are not fully paid for their
work. You may say nothing, but life to
you is hard push: and when you sit
down with you wife and talk over the
expenses, you both rise up discouraged.
You abridge here, and you abridge there.
and you get things snug for smooth sail
ings, and 10! suddenly there is a large
doctors bill to pay, or you have lost
your pocket-book, or some creditor has
failed, and you are thrown abeam end.
Well, brother, you are in glorious COM
pany. Christ owned not the house i'll
which He stopped. or the colt on which
He rode OF the boat on which He sailed.
He lived in a borrowed house: He was
buried in borrowed grave. Exposed to
all kinds of weather, yet He had only
one suit of clothes. He breakfasted in
the morning, and no one could possibly
tell where He could get anything to eat
before night. He would have been pro-
nounced a financial failure. He had to
perform miracle to get money to pay
tax bill. Not a dollar did He own. Pri-
walton of domesticity; priyation of
nutritious food; privation of a comfort
able couch on which to sleep; privation
of all worldly resources. The kings of
the earth had chased chalices out Of
which to drink; but Christ had nothing
but a plain cup set before Him, and it
was very sharp and it was very sour He
took the vinegar.
There also is the sonrness of bereave-
ment. There were years that passed
along before your family circle was in
vaded by death; but the moment the
charmed circle was broken everything
seemed to dissolve. Hardly have you
put the black apparel in the wardrobe
before you have again to take it out.
Great and rapid changes in your family
record. You got the house and rejoiced
in it, but the charm was gone as soon as
the Grape hung on the door bell. The
one upon whom you most depend was
taken away from you. A cold marble
slab lies on your heart too day. Once, Us
the children romped through the house,
you put your hand over your aching
head, and said: "Oh, if I could only
have it still" Oh, it is too still now.
You lost your patience when the tops,
and the strings, and the shells were left
amid floor; but oh, you would be willing
to have the trinkets scattered all over the
floor again. if they were scattered by the
same hands. With what ruthless
plowshare bereavement rips the heart.
But Jesus knows all about that. You
cannot tell Him ANYTHING new in regard
to bereavement. He had only few
friends, and when He lost one it brought
tears to His eyes. Lazarus had often en-
tertained Him at his house. Now LaZ-
breaks down with emotion-the convul-
sion Of grief shuddering through all the
ages of bereavement. Christ knows what
it is to go through the house missing a
familiar inmate. Christ knows what it
is to see an unoccupied place at the
table. Were there not four Of them
Mary and Martha and Christ and Laz
arus? -Four of them. But where is Laz-
arus? Lonely and afflicted Christ, His
great loving eyes filled with tears, which
drop from eye to cheek, and from cheek
to beard, and from beard to robe, and
from robe to hocr. Oh yes, yes, He
knows all about the loneliness and the
heartbreak. He took the vinegar!
Then there is the sourness of the death
hour. Whatever else we may escape.
that acid sponge will be pressed to our
lips. l sometimes have a curiosity to
know how will behave when l come to
die. Whether Iwillbe calm or excited
whether 1 will be filled with reminis-
cence Or with anticipation. l cannot
say. But come to the point must and
you must. In the six thousand years
that have passed only two persons have
got into the eternal world without death,
and do not suppose that God is going
to send Il carriage for us with horses Of
flame to draw us up the sleeps of Heaven;
but suppose wewill have to go like the
preceding generations. An officer from
the future world will knock at the door
of our heart and serve on us the writ of
ejectment, and we will have to sur
render. And We will wake up after these
autumnal and wintry and vernal and
summary glories have vanished from our
vision-we will wake up into realm
which has only one season, and that the
season Of everlasting love. But you say:
Il don't want to break out from my
present associations. 1t is so chilly and
SO damp to go down the stairs Of that
vault. don't want anything drawn so
tightly over my eyes. Ifthere were only
some way of breaking through the par
tition between worlds without tearing
this body all to shreds. wonder if the
surgeons and the doctors cannot COM
pound mixture by which this body and
soul can all the time be kept together?
Is there no escape from this separation?"
None; absolutely none. SO look over
this audience to-day-the vast majority
OF you seeming in good health and