Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-06-07

.,hlough Inc bridge at Spuyten DuyvIl,
dld 1t alleviate the matter ut oil that in
stead 81 OF two or three people being hurt
.Eere were seventyfve lnangled and
csushed? Because others are depraved.
IS 81 ehas any excuse for my depravity2
Am l better than they? Perhaps they
hau worse temptations than have had.
Perhaps their surroundings in life were
mere empowering. Perhaps, o man,
II you had been under the same stress of
temptation, instead of sitting here to-
day You would have been looking
through the bars of penitentiary.
Perhaps, woman, if you had been UNI
der the same power of temptation, in
stead OF sitting here to-day. you would
be tramping the street. the laughing
stock of men and the grief of the angels
OF God. dllngconed, body, mind and
soul, in the blackness of despair. All,
40 not let us solace ourselves with the
thought that other people are worse
than we. Perhaps in the future, when
our fortunes may change, unless God
prevents it, we may be worse than they
are. Many man after thirty years,
after forty years, after fifty years, after
sixty years, has gone to ,pieces on the
sand bars. Oh! instead of wasting our
time in hypercriticism about others,
let MS ask ourselves the questions,
Where do we stand? What are our sins?
| What are our deficits? What are our
perils? What our hopes? Let each one
say to himself: Where will 1 be-"
Shall | range in summe-y fields, or
grind in the mills of a great night?
Where? Where?"
Some winter morning you go out and
see snow bank IN graceful drifts, as
though by some heavenly compass it had
L I,oI Il 4
it the luster is almost insutferable, and
earth in a shroud with white plaits
woven in looms celestial. And you say:
Was there ever anything so pure as the
snow, so beautiful as the snow" But
you brought pail of that snow and put
it upon the stove and melted it; and you
found that there was sediment at the
bottom, and every drop of that snow
water was riled; and you found that the
snow bank had gathered upthe impurity
of the field and that after all it was not
fit to wash in. And so say it will be if
you try to gather up these contrasts and
comparisons with others, and with these
apologies attempt to wash out the sins
of Your heart and life. 1t will be an
unsuccessful ablution. Such snow water
will never wash away single stain of
an immortal soul.
But hear some one say: Il will try
something better than that. Iwilltry the
force of good resolution. That will
be more pungent, more caustic, more
eXtlrpatlng, more cleansing. The snow
water has failed. and now [ will try the
alkali of the good, strong resolution.
My dear brother, have you any idea that
q resolution about the future will liqui-
date the past? Suppose l owe you five
thousand dollars and should come to
,. you tomorrow and say: Sir. l will
never run IN debt to you again; if
! should live thirty years, will never run
in debt to you again; will you turn te
, me and say: IF you will not run il
debt in the future, will forgive yor
/. the five thousand dollars" Will you dc
r been running up long score of indebt
4 edness with God. If for the future WE
e should abstain from sin. that would b.
Q no defrayment of past Indebtedness
d Though you should live from this TIM
Q forth pure as an archangel before tn
d throne, that would not redeem the past
S God in the Bible, distinctly declare
n that He will require that which is past
d past opportunities, past neglects. pas
!. wicked words, past impure imaginationt
d past everything. The past is greet
t cemetery. and every day is buried in i
d And here is a long row of three hun
bred and sixty-fve graves. They are til
g dead days Of 1885, Here is a long TO,
4 of three hundred and sixty-tive NOR
9 graves, and they are the dead days o
[ 1887. And here is a long row of thre
, hundred and sixty-fve more graves, an,
! they are the dead days of 1886. 1t is
! vast cemetery of the past. But Co
will rouse them all up with resurrection
Y airy blast, and as the prisoner stand
3 face to face with juror and judge, s.
I you and will have to come up and lool
} upon those departed days face to face
exulting in their smile or covering il
, their frown.
Murder will out" is proverb tina
stops too short. Every sin, howeve
small, as we'll as great, will out. Il
) hard times in England, years ago, it i
authenticity stated that manufacture
was on the way, with bag of money, t.
with hunger met him on the road, anc
| took rail with nail in it from pal
ing fence and struck him down, ane
, the nail entering the skull Instant,
! slew him. Thirty years after that thu
murderer went back to that place. HI
passed in the grave yard, where the sex
ton was digging grave, and while hi
stood there the spade of the sexto1
, turned upa skull, and, 10! the murderer
} saw nail protruding from the bacl
part Of the skull; and as the sexton
turned the skull, it seemed with hol
low eyes to glare on the murderer; ant
he, first petriied with horror, stood il
silence, but soon cried out, Guilty
, guilty! O Goal" The mystery of the
crime was over. The man was tried ant
, executed. My friends, all the unpar
doned sins of our lives, though we ma!
, think they are buried out of sight ant
, gone into mere skeleton of memory
/ will turn up in the cemetery of the past
and glover upon us with their nlisdo
, ings. I say all our unpardoned sins
, Oh, have you done the preposterou
thing of supposing that good resolu
| tions for the future will wipe out the
past? Good resolutions, though they
may be pungent and caustic as alkali
have no power to neutralize sin, hav.
no power to wash away trans ression
1t wants something more than earthl,
chemistry to do this. Yea, yea, though
Il wash myself with snow water. ant
should cleanse my hands in alkali, We
shalt thou plunge me in ditch, ant
mine own clothes shall abhor me.
You see from the last part of this tex
that Jobs idea of sin was very different