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

MONDAY Of his glorious promises sna me
dlhcult thing for a man to sso1 - ~; rs
SSee pP END upon God when he has
slu,ooo IN the bank, and $50, oU1 in o n~s
eminent securities, and a bleck of store.
| ana three ships. WE'LL" thu man savs
70 70, himself, 1t is silly for mo =" ,, saSs
Give me this day my daily mead p Why,
my pantry is full, and the canals from
Tue west are crowded with hrea dstnffs
ee -. Tor my storehouses." Oh. nv
arlends, II the combined misfortunes
ana disasters of life have made Won
elino up into the arms of sympathetic
a at compassionate God, through all
eternity you will bless Him that in this
"oaia mere was sharp rock on the
one side, and sharp rock on the other
side" VI ''ne o'nef
Again. that man is in the crisis of the
text who has home troubles and outside
persecution at the same time. Tie
world treats man we'll just as long as
II pays best to treat him we'll. AS long
as II can manufacture success out Of
MS bone, and brain, and muscle. il
ftavors him. The world fattens the
horse it wants to drive. But let a man
see 1t his duty to cross the track of the
world, then every bush is full of horns
ana and tusks thrust at him. They will be-
little him. They will caricature him.
They will call his generosity self-ag-
grandlzement, and his piety sanctimeni-
business. The Very worst persecutionwill
some time come upon him from those
who profess to be Christians.
John Milton-great and good John
Milton-so forgot himself as to pray, in
SO many words, that his enemies might
be eternally thrown down into the
darkest and deepest gulf of hell. and be
the undermost and most detected and
the lowest down vassals of perdition!
And Martin Luther SO far forgot himself
as to say, in regard to his theological
opponents: Put them in whatever
sauce you please, roasted, or fried, or
baked, or stewed, or boiled, or hashed,
they are nothing but asses!" All, my
friends, if John Milton or Martin
Luther could come down to such sour
less elevated opponents? Now, the
world sometimes takes after them; the
newspapers take after them; public
opinion takes after them; and the I'M
fortunate man is lied about until all the
dictionary of Billingsgate is exhausted
on him. You often see man whom
you know to be good, and pure, and
honest, set upon by the world, and
mauled by whole communities, while
vicious men take on supercilious air
in condemnation of him; as though
Lord Jetfreys should write an essay on
gentleness, or Henry VIII. talk about
purity. or Herod take to blessing little
children.
Now, certain amount Of persecution
rouses a mans defiance, stirs his blood
for magnificent battle, and makes him
fifty times more a man than he would
| hor
it was with the great reformer when he
said: Il will not be put down; will be
heard" And SO it was with Willard, the
preacher, in the time of Louis XI. When
Louis NJ. sent word to him that unless
he stopped preaching in that style he
would throw him into the river, he re-
piled: Tell the King that I will reach
Heaven sooner by water than he will
reach it by fast horses" A certain
amount of persecution is tonic and in
spiration, but too much of it, and too
long continued, becomes the rock Bozez,
throwing dark shadow over a mans
life. What is he to do then? Go home,
you say. Good advice, that. That is
just the place for man to go when the
world abuses him. Go home. Blessed
homes. But there is many o man who
has the reputation of having home
when he has none. Through unthink-
ingness or precipitation there are many
matches made that ought never to have
been made. An officiating priest cannot
alone unite couple. The Lord AL
mighty must proclaim banns. There is
many home in which there is no hap
piness and no good cheer. The clamor
of the battle may not have been heard
outside, but God knows, notwithstand-
ing all the playing Of the Wedding
March and all the oder of the orange
bloss oms and the benediction of the Of
fciating pastor, there has been no mar
riage.
Sometimes men have awakenedto find
ton, and on the other side the rock of
domestic infeliety. What shall such on
one do? Do as Jonathan did-climb.
Get upthe heights of Gods consolation,
from which we may look down in tri-
umph upon outside persecution and
home trouble. While good and great
John Wesley was being si]enced by the
magistrates, and having his name writ
ten on the board fences of London in
doggerel, at that very time his wife was
making him as miserable as she could
acting as though she Were possessed OF
the devil, as I suppose she was, never
doing him Kindness until tne day sne
ran away, so that he wrote in his diary
these words: Il did not forsake her; l
have not dismissed her: will not recall
her." Planting one foot. John Wesley
did, upon outside persecution, and the
other foot on home trouble, he climbed
up into the heights of Christian joy,and
after preaching forty thousand sermons,
and tray cling two hundred and seventy
thousand miles, reached the heig hts OF
Heaven, though in this world he had it
hard enoug hS"a sharp rock on the one
side, and sharp rock on the other.
Again, that woman stands in the crisis
of the text who has bereavement and q
struggle for livelihood at the same
time. Without mentioning names, ]
speak from observation. All, it is hard
thing for woman to make an honest
living, even when her heart is not
troubled, and she has fair cheek and
the magnetism of an exquisite presence.
But now the husband, OF the father, is
dead. The expenses of the obsequles
have absorbed all that was left IN the
savings bank; and wan and wasted with
weeping and watching, she goes forth
grave. hearse, a coffin, behind her
to contend for her existence and the ex-
.I.,a 30 bor cbi11re0 When L see