Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-04-20

lage but can give an illustration of man
struck down at the moment of imprecation.
A couple of years ago. briefly referring to
this in sermon, l gave some instances in
which God had struck swearerS dead at
the moment of their profanity. Thnt SER
mon brought to me from many parts of
this land and other lands statements of
similar cases of instantaneous visitation
from God upon blasphemers. My opinion
is that such cases occur somewhere every
day, but for various reasons they are not
reported.
In Scotland club assembled every week
for purposes of wickedness, and there was
a competition as to which could use the
most horrid oath, and the man who sue
ceeded was to be President of the club.
The competition went on. A man uttered
an oath which confounded all his COM
rades, and he was made President of the
! club. His tongue began to swell, and it
protruded from the mouth, and he could
not draw it in, and he died, and the physi-
clans said: ".rhis is the strangest thing we
ever saw; We never saw any account in the
books like unto il: we can't understand it. :"
understand it. He cursed God and died.
I At Catskill, N. Y, group OF men stood
in blacksmith's shop during violent
thunder storm. There came a crash of
thunder and some of the men trembled.
One man said, "Why, don't see what
you are afraid of. 1 am not afraid to go
out in front of the shop and defy the AL
mighty. l am not afraid of lightning"
And he laid a wager on the subject, and he
went out, and he shook his fist ut the
Heavens, crying: "Strike, if you dare!"
and instantly he fel! under Colt. What
destroyed him? Any MYSTERY about it? On,
no. He cursed God and died.
Oh, my brother, God will not allow this
sin to go unpublished. There are styles of
writing with manifold sheets, so tina, a man
writing on one leaf writes clear through
ten, fifteen, or twenty sheets, and SO every
profanity we utter goes right down through
! the leaves of the book Of Gods remem-
brance. 1t is no exceptional sin. Do you
suppose you could count the profanities of
last week-the profanities Of Office, store,
shop, factory? They Cursed God. they
cursed His word, they cursed His only be-
gotten Son.
One morning, on Fulton street, as was
passing along, heard a man swear by the
name of Jesus. My hair lifted. My blood
ran cold. Ny breath caught. My foot
halted. Do you not suppose that God is
aggravated? Do you not suppose that God
knows about it? Dionysius used to have
cave in which his culprits were incar-
cerated, and he listened at the top of that
cave. and he could hear every groan, he
could hear every whisper of those who
were imprisoned. He was tyrant. God
is not tyrant; but He bends over this
world and He hears everything-every
voice of praise--every voice of imprecation.
He hears it all. The oaths seem to die on
the air, but they have eternal echo. They
come back from the ages to come.
Listen! Listen! Call blasphemers shall
have their place in the lake which burneth
with fire and birthstone, which is the sec
ond DEATH" And if, according to the the
| DRY of some, man commits in the next
world the sins which he committed in this
world-if unpardoned, ungenerated-think
God to all eternity!
The habit grows. You start with
small oath, you will come to the large oath.
saw man die witRan oath between his
teeth. Noltaire only gradually came to
his tremendous imprecation; but the habit
grew on him until in the last moment, sup.
posing Christ stood at the bed, he ex-
claimed: "Crush that wretch! Crush
that wretch" Oh, my brother, you begin
to swear and there is nothing impossible
for you in the wrong direction.
Who is this God whose nams you are
using in swearing? Who is He? Is He
tyrant? Has He pursued you all your life
long? Has He starved you, frozen you.
tyrannized over you? No. He has loved
you, He has sheltered you, He watched you
last night, He will watch you tonight. He
wants to love you, wants to help you, wants
to save you, wants to comfort you. He
was your fathers God, your mothers
God. He has housed them from the blast,
and He wants to shelter you. Will YOU
spitin His face by All imprecation? Will
you ever thrust Him back by an oath?
| Who is this Jesus whose name 1 heard
in the imprecation? Has He pursued you
all your life long? What vile thing has
He done to you that you should so dis
honor His name? Why, He was tho lamb
whose blood simmered in the fires of sac
rihce for you. He is the brother that took
off his crown that you might put it on. He
mercy. He wants you to love Him, wants
you to serve Him. He comes with stream
ing eyes and broken heart and blistered
feet to save you. On the craft of our
doomed humanity He pushed out into the
sea to take You off the wreck.
! Where is the hand that will ever be
lifted in imprecation again? Let that hand,
now blood tipped, be lifted that may SEQ
it. Not one. Where is the voice that will
ever be uttered in dishonoring the name of
that Christ? Let it speak now. Not one.
Not one. Oh, am glad to know that all
these vices of the community, and these
crimes of our city will be gone. Society
is going to be bettered. The world by the
power of Christs gospel is going to be
saved, and this crime, this iniquity, aud all
the other iniquities will vanish before the
rising of the sun OF righteousness upon
the nation.
It seemed insignificant for Moses to
stretch his hand over the Red Sea. What
power could that have over the waters?
But the east wind blew all night; the
waters gathered into two glittering pail
sades on either side. The pillows reared
as Gods hand pulled back upon their crys-
tai bits. Wheel into line, oh Israel.
March! March! Pearls crash under the
feet. The shout OF hosts mounting the
beach answers the shout of hosts mid sea;
until, as the last line of the Israelites have
gained the beach, the shields clang, and
the cymbals clap; and as the waters
whelm the pursuing foe, the swift
fingered winds on the white keys
of the foam play the grand march of
Israel delivered, and the awful dirge of
Egyptian overthrow. SO we go forth; and
stretch out the hand of prayer and Chris
tian effort over these dark, boiling waters
of crime and sin. "Aha! Aha" SAYS the
deriding world. But wait. The winds of
divine help will begin to blow; the way