Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-11-24

died at about 40, and that another
learned man who proved ~conclusively
that if we observed ali the laws of health
we need never die. expired before he got
his book on that subject published. Sa-
tan meets another man who has gone
through a long course of protligacy and
is beginning to pray God for forgiveness,
and Satan says to the man: You are
too late; the Lord will not help such a
man as you, you might as well brace up
and fight your own way through" And
50 with a spite and an acuteness and a
velocity that have been gaining for 5000
years, he ranges up and down battling
Disappointing, defeating, affecting, de-
stroying the human race. Through his
W hand or delegated infernalism he has
pursued and hurt us all. and cursed every
heart and cursed every home and cursed
every nation and cursed every continent.
dc has l~nstigated every war. He has re-
joiced i'll every pestilence. He has started
every groan. He has pressed out every
sigh. he has hurled every shipwrcct.
Lasarettoes, insane asylums, commercial
panlcs, plaques, destroying angels, cont.
mental earthquakes, and world wide dis
asters are to him a perfect glee. Can
you look upon the Communism and the
MOrmonism and the Northumberland
and the wide sweep of drunkenness
and fraud and libertinism. the Franco
German war and Crimean war, the North
South United States war, and rivers of
blood flowing across continents OF misery
into oceans Of wretchedness, without
realizing the power of the Evil One, who
reported To the Lord Almighty, and
when asked
Whence CONTEST thou? answered From
going 10 and fro in the earth and from
going up and down in it.
II END or sATAN's POWER.
But, blessed be God! J may substitute
anthem fer requiem and Hallcluiah
chorus for the Dead March in Saul. The
New Testament says: The Son of God
was manifested that he might destroy the
works OF the devil" 1t prophesied that
an angel would come down from heaven
with key and chain and inCarcerate and
shut up the Old dragon. 1t says that
Christ came to destroy him that had the
power Of death-that is the devil And
from the way Christ drove the devil out
Of those possessed by him until he was
glad to hide under the bristles of
the swine Of Gadara and from other VIC
lent eiectments, we know that there is in
existence a power a million fold mighticr
than the diabolic. The old lion of death
shall 60 down under the stroke and roar
of the Lion of Judah's tribe" Yea,
my text shows that Satan was compelled
TO report'to theAlmighty and give account
Of himself. When God said to him:
Whence contest thou'" he was forced
TO answer. What means that scripture
which says that Christ shall bruise the
s%erpent's head? If you have ever killed
a snake the passage ought TO be plain to
you. You see this old serpent, the devil,
has crawled across the nations, poisoning
whole generations and leaving its trail on
everything, but after a while it will be
%cornered, and kissing and writhing in
rage and with crest lifted and forked
tongue shot out it will make final
attack on Christ, and Christ will
advance upon it, and lifting his omni-
potent foot, that foot strong enough to
crush a world, lifting that foot right over
the head Of the reptile, will put down his
heel with a crushing power that shall
leave the monster breeding and mashed,
never to hiss again or bite again or shake
his old rattle again. Thank God he has
already received a stunning blow. Hear
you not the rumbling Of the Christian
printing presses and the whirling of the
gospel chariot wheel? AS many souls
have been added to the Christian church
in the last eighty years as in the previous
eighteen centuries and that is a ratio of
increase acclamatory with %gladness. The
kingdom is coming, and | am so sure of
it that | do not propose to fret and worry
because il has not already come. | may
Jump ia get on a boat that is going OF,
but | DO not propose to jump for a boat
that is coming in. The sharp attacks Of
infdelity and sin are a good sign that
especial blessing is coming in showers
over all the earth. Flies bite sharp just
before rain.
If we 90 not see the full consumma-
ton our children WI see it. In the time
of the French revolution a great process
sion of boys carried through the street a
banner with the inscription: "Tremble
tyrants, we shall grow up!' Though we
may fail to DO our duty, there is n rising
generation being gospelized ard coming
by the hundreds Of thousands from our
Sabbath schools and Christian homes who
might properly have OF their banners:
''Tremble, We powers of darkness and sin,
for we are growing up We may not
amount to much in ouselves, but if we
put ourselves in the right place
we can do great exploits. Two
under two make only four; but
placed beside two make twenty-five. Yet
what you and | most need is power to
drive back this Apollyon, this Asmodeus,
this Ahrimanes from our hearts and lives.
And we can do it not by our own
strength but by
DIVINE w
afforded. for here is a passage emblazon-
ed with encouragement which says: Re
sist the devil and he will flee from you"
Remember ii is no sin at all to be tempt
cd: The best and mightiest have been
tempted. Milton describes a toad squat
at the ear of Eve. The sin is in surren-
dering. Do not feel SO secur in your
self as to think cannot be oyerthrown.
How do you account for the fact that
there are so many old men in Sing Sing
and Auburn and the other penitentiaries,
serving out their protracted sentences for
frauds committed in middle life or adj.
vanced ages, although their early
life had been good, and nothing
bad been suspected Of them until
at SO or 60 years Of age the whole land
was struck dumb at their forgery or en-
bezzlement. The clock in the steeple OF
old Trinity church striking the hours