Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-09-28
manner in which they have reared their

children. Every pleasant Sunday after
noon take carriage ride and stop at the
hotels on either side of the road for
Sabbath refreshments. Do not let the
cold fogy prejudices against Sabbath
breaking dominate you. Have Il mem
bership in some club where libertines go
and tell about their victorious sins, and
laugh as loud as any of them in derision
of those who belong to the same sex as
Bible overheard as old fashioned and
tit only for women aud children. Read
oil the magazine articles that put Chris
tianity at disadvantage. and go to hear
all the lectures that malign Christ, who,
they say, instead of being the Mighty
One he pretends to be, was an impostoi
and the implanter of great delusion.
Go. at first out of curiosity, to see alltha
houses of dissipation and then 60 be.
cause you have felt the thrall Of THEN
fascination. Getting along splendidly
now!
Let me see what further can I suggest
in that direction. Become more defiant
of all decency, more loud mouthed in
your atheism. more thoroughly alcho-
holized, and instead of the small stakes
that will do we'll enough for games of
chance in lady's parlor, put up some
you have. We'll done! You have sue
ceeded. You have made q chain-the
tobacco habit one link. the rum habit
one link, the impure club another link,
infidelity another link, Sabbath desecra-
ton another link, and altogether they
make a chain on your foot and a chain
J on your tongue and chain on your eye
on your property and chain on your
soul. Some day you wake up and you
} say: Il am tired of this, and 4 am going
to get loose from this shackle." Yon
pound away with the hammer of good
resolution but you cannot break the
thrall. Your friends join you in con-
spiracy of help but fall exhausted in
} the attempt. Now you begin, and with
} the writhing of LAGOON, to try to
break away. and the muscles are dis
! tended, and the great beads of perspira-
\ stand out from the sockets, and with all
the concentrated energies of body, mind,
' and soul you attempt to get loose but
j have only made the chain sink deeper.
g All the devils that encamp in the wine
t flask and the rum jug and the decanter-
9 for each one has devil of it's OWN
Y come out and sit around you and chat
!; ter. In some midnight you spring from
e your couch and cry: Il am fast. . God,
let me loose! Oyepowers of darkness, let
me loose! Father and mother and broth
l ers and sisters, help me to get loose!'
And you turn your prayer to blasphemy,
e and to all the din and uproar there is
: played an accompaniment, not an ac-
S compartment by key and pedal, but the
e accompaniment is rattle, and the rattle
e is that of chain. For five years, for
S ten years, for twenty years, you have
r been making chain.
e But here take a step higher, and tell
e you there is power that can break any
u chain, chain of body, chain of mind,
6 chain of soul. The letters that the
! hammer of the Gospel have broken off
a if piled together, would make mount
(. ain. The captives whom Christ has
: set free, if stood side by side, would
(. make an army. Quicker than a ship
e chandler's furnace ever melted cable
quicker than key ever unlocked {
o handcuff, quicker than the bayonets OF
e revolution pried open the Bastile, yor
is NAV be liberated and made free son Of
1t free daughter of God. You have onl.
" to choose between serfdom and enamel
j. patton. between chain and q coronet
r. between Satan and God. Make up you
re mind and make it up quick. When tn
r King of Sparta had crossed the Helles
u pOnt anu was itoout W AhaAon VnA o"?
1T Thrace, he sent word to the people IL
10 the different regions asking thel.
l. whether he should march through thei
is countries as friend or an enemy. b.
lie all means as friend" answered mos
if of the regions, but the King Of Macedo,
ct replied: II will take time to conside
10 it, Then" said the King of Sparta
,P .let him consider it. but meantime, w
Te march-we march, So Christ, GU
&c King, gives us our choice between Hi
&c friendship, and His frown. and man
ar of us have long been considering VIVA
e. we had better do; but meantime II
al marching by. And We shall be tn
e. loving subjects of His reign, o
or the victim Of our own obduracy. So
ae urge you to precipitancy, rather tina
ut slow deliberation, and 1 will write al
D. over your soul the words of Christ sal
inscribed on the monument of Princes
ly Elizabeth in the Isle Of Wight, the word
III to which her index finger pointed in tn
open Bible when she was found dead i
d. her bed after a lifetime of trouble
II, Come unto me, all We who are wear
j. and heavy laden, and 1 will give 70
ok rest" Is there drunkard here? 70
it may, by the Saviour's grace have tn;
OF fire of thirst extinguished. Is there
IN defrauder here? You may be saint.
e there libertine here? You may be mad
ut as pure as light. When a minister in a
nd outdoor meeting in Scotland was eulc
as giving goodness, there was hangin
o. around the edge of the audience som
of the most depraved men and wome1
It. and the minister said nothing abo'
n? mercy to prodigals. And a deprave
OH woman cried out: Your rope is NJ
n long enough for the like of u.s." B]esse
he be God, our Gospel can fathom tt
ey deepest depths end reach to the farthe
ce wanderings, and here is rope that
nd long enough to rescue the worst: "Wh'
Sc soever will.
to Rise my SOUL and stretch thy wing,
IS! Thy better portion trace.
in There have been chains famous in tn
3 worlds history, such as the chain whic
nd fastened the prisoner of Chillon to tt
w. pillar, into the staple of which l ha'
use thrust my hand, on the isolated rock
St the Lake of Geneva; such as the chat
a which the Russian exile clanks on b
tn, way to the mines of Siberia; such as tt
IN. chain which Zenobia, the captive queer
ks wore when brought into the presence
I'd? Aurelian. Aye, there have been races
rst chains and nations in chains; but, thai