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

righteous! ana again / say, rejoice
HOIST the window Of your soul in this
the twelve O'Clock ofyour spiritual night.
Put the gun to your shoulder, and aim at
the black jungle from which the hooting
comes, pull the trigger, and drop that
croaking, loathsome, hideous owl of re-
ligious melancholy into the bushes.
Again: taking the suggestion Of the
text, drive out the vulture from your
soul. God would not allow the Jews to
eat ii. 1t lives on carcasses; it fattens
among the dead with leaden wing it
circles about battle-tields. Wilson, the
American ornithologist, counted two
hundred and thirty -seven vultures around
one carcass. If crossing the desert when
there is no sign of wing in the air, a
camel perish out of the caravan, immed-
lately The air begins to darken with vul-
lures. There are many professed Christ.
lans who have IA vulture in their souls.
They prey upon the character and feel.
ings Of others. A doubtful reputation is
a banquet for them. Some rival in trade
or profession falls, and the vulture puts
out its head. These people revel in the
details of a mans ruin. They say: n
told you So" They rush into some store
and say: Have you heard the news?
Just as | expected, Our ncighbor has
gone all to pieces, Good for him.
II GOSSIP.
That professedly Christian woman,
having heard of the wrong doing Of some
sister in the church, instead of hiding the
sin with a mantle of charity, peddles it
all along the streets. She takes the after
noon TO make her long neglected calls.
She tells the story ten times before sun
down, and every time tells it larger. She
rushes into the parlors to tell it, and into
the nursery to tell il, and into the kitch-
ems to tell it. She says: Would you
have thought it? Well, | always said
there was something wrong about her.
Why, | should not speak TO her if | saw
her in the street. Is il not horrible? But
better not say anything about il, because
there may be some mistake. | do not
want my name involved in the matter. |
guess | will just 20 over and ask them at
No. 2G3 whether they have heard it.
Guess it must be SO. for Mary Ann says
that her husband saw IA man who heard
from his business partner that his blind
old grandmother had seen something that
looked very suspicious
The most loathsome, miserable, God
forsaken wretch on earth is a gossip. |
can tell her on the street, though | have
never seen her before She walks fast,
and has her bonnet strings loose, for she
has not had time to tie them since she
heard that last scandal. She looks both
ways as she passes, hoping to see new
evidences of depravity n the windows.
| think that when Satan has q job SO in
finitely mean that in all the pit he canno
find a devil mean enough TO do it, and all
brides and threats have failed to get one
willing for the internal crusade, he says
to one of his seggeants: Go up to Brook
Ign, and in such a street, on such n corner,
get that
GOssIPPING WOMAN,
and sho will be glad to do it, And sure
enough, like a hungry fish, she takes the
hook in her mouth, and Satan slackens
the line, and lets her run out farther and
farther, until after awhile he says: 1T is
time to haul in that line, and with a few
strong pulls he brings her TO the beach of
fire. What do you say? That she was a
member of the church? | cannot help
that. When Satan goes atshing he does
not care what school the fish belong to.
whether it is a Presbyterian mack
erel or an ~Episcopalian salmon.
Amidst the thunder crash of Sinai. God
said: Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy %neigbbor." And in Leviticus,
he says: Thou shalt not go up and
down as a tale bearer Take not into
ear that scum of hell that people call
tit,le.tattle. WhOsoever willingly listens
TO a SANDER is equally guilty with the one
who tells il, and an old writer says they
ought both TO be hung, the one by the
tongue and the other by the ear. DO not
smile upon such a spaniel, lest, like a
pleased dog, he put his dirty paw upon
you. Throw back the shutter Of your
soul, on Christian men and women, and
see if there be within you a vulture with
filthy taloRs and cruel beak. Let not this
u~nclean thing roost in your soul. for my
text SAYS: "Ie shall hold in abomin-
alton among the fowls, the vulture."
WHAT TIE sYMBOLIZES.
Again: taking the suggestion of the
text, drive out the bat from your o
God set this bird among the unclean. 1t
is an oifense to every one. Let 1t fy into
the window of a summcr night, and all
the hands, young and old, are against it.
1t is half bird and half mouse. 1t seems
made partly to walk and partly TO fly,
and does neither well; and becomes an
emblem of those Christians who try TO
cling to earth and heaven at the same
time. They want TO walk on earth III
worldliness, and yet fly toward heaven in
spirituality; and their soul, between feet
and wings, is constantly perpleXed. Oh,
my brethren, be II thing or the other!
Choose the world, if YOU prefer it; and
see how many dollars you can win, and
how much applause you can gain, and
how large a business you can establish,
and how grand a house you can build.
and how fast a span of horses you can
drive. You may be prospered until you
can tail for five hundred thousand dollars,
instead Of having the disgrace of failing
for only ten thousand as some, unenter-
prising people do. 1t is quite a reward TO
be able for ten or twenty years to be
called one of the solid men Of Brooklyn
or Boston; and then, to make your for
tune last as long as possible, we will
give you a splendid funeral, and
you shall have twenty five carriages fol
lowing You, with somebody in the most
of them, anG your coffin shall have silver
handles on the sides, and we will mourn
for you in splendid pocket handkerchiefs
bound with Grape, and With bomba2ire
twenty full yards long, trailing half
across the parlor, so that ali the company
may stand upon it, and we will write our
letters for the lex six months on paper
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