Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-02-22
he fell on Sleep" oh, what good thing

the WEAKNESS out of the limbs and all
the smarting out of the eyes. From it
we rise in the morning and it is a new
world. And if we, like David, serve our
generation, We will ut life's close have
most desirable and refreshing sleep. In
it will vanish our last fatigue of body,
our last worriment of mind, our last sor-
row of soul. To the Christians body
that was hot with raging fevers SO that
on the blankets, it will be the cool sleep.
To those who are thin blooded and shiv-
erlng with agues, it will be the warm
sleep. To those who, because of phys
ical disorders, were terrified with night
visions, it will be the dreamless sleep.
10 nurses and doctors and mothers who
were wakened almost every hour of the
night by those to whom they ministered,
or over whom they watched, it will be
the undisturbed sleep. To those who
could not get to bed till late at night
and must rise early in the morning and
before getting rested, it WILDE the long
sleep.
Away with all your gloomy talk about
departure from this world. If we have
served our generation it will not be put
the fight with the King of Terrors; it
will be going to sleep. A friend writ
ing me from Illinois says that Rev. DR..
Wingate, President of Wake Forest Col
lege, North Carolina, after most USE
full life, found his last day on earth his
happiest day, and that in his last mo-
ments he seemed to be personally talk
ing with Christ, as friend with friend,
saying: ooh, how delightful it is. 1
knew you would be with me when the
time came, and I knew it would be
sweet, but did not know it would be
as sweet as it is" The fact was he had
served degeneration in the gospel min
istry, and by the will of God he fell on
sleep. When in Africa, Majwara, the
servant, Looked into the tent Of David
Livingstone and found him on his knees,
he stepped back, not wishing to disturb
him in prayer, and some time after went
in and found him in the same posture,
and stepped back again; but after while
went in and touched him, and 10! the
great traveller had finished his last
journey and he had died in the grandest
and mightiest posture man ever takes
on his knees. He had served his gen.
Grafton by unrolling the scroll of q con-
tinent, and by the will of God fell on
sleep. Grimshaw, the evangelist, when
asked how he felt in his last moments,
responded: AS happy rs I can be on
earth and as sure of glory us if I were
in it. have nothing to do but to step
out of this bed into Heaven" Having
served his generation in successful
evangelism by the will of God, he fell
on sleep.
In the museum of Greenwich Hos
pital, England, there is fragment of q
book that was found in the Arctic re-
gions amid the relics of Sir John Frank
lin, who had persisted amid the snow
and ice, and the leaf of that piece of
a book was turned down at the words,
when thou passest through the waters
1 will be with thee" Having served his
generation in the cause of science and
discovery by the will Of God, he fell on
| sleep.
Why will you keep US all so nervous
talking about that which is only a
dormitory and pillowed slumber, can
opted by angels wings? Sleep! Trans
porting sleep! And what glorious
been thoroughly bewiidered after long
stopped at friends house for the
night, and after hours of complete
Inconsistencies we have opened oul
eyes, the high-risen sun full in oul
faces, and, before we conld fully col
lect our faculties, have said: Where
am I, whose house is this, and whose
are these gardens?" And then it has
flashed upon us in glad reality. And
1 should not wonder if after we have
served our generation and by the will
of God, have fallen on sleep, the deep
sleep, the restful sleep, we should
awake in blissful bewilderment and for
little while say: Where am I? What
tossing in the light? Why, this looks
is a building grander than all the
castles of earth heaved into a
mountain of splendor, that must
be the palace of Jesus. And.
with foliage more beautiful than any
thing I ever saw before, and see those
who are walking down those aisles of
verdure. From what I have heard of
them those two arm in arm must be
Moses and Joshua, him of Mount Sinai
and him ofthe hating sun over Ajalon.
And those two walking arm in arm must
be John and Paul, the one SO gentle
and the other SO mighty. And those
two with the robes as brilliant as
though made out ofthe cooled off flames
of martyrdom, must be John Huss and
Hugh Latimer.
But 1 must not look any longer at
those gardens of beauty: but examine
this building in which have just awak-
ened. look out of the window this
way and that and up and down, and I
find it is mansion of immense size in
which am stopping. All its windows
of agate and its celonnades of porphyry
and alabaster. Why, I wonder if this is
not the house of many mansions"
of which 1 used to read? 1t is.
it is. There must be many Of my
kindred and friends in this very
mansion. Hark! whose are those voices,
whose are those bounding feet? I open
the dooriand see, and lo they are COM
ing through all the corridors and up and
down ali the stairs, our long absent kim
dred. Why there is father, there is
mother, there are the children. All
we'll again. All young again. All of us
together again. And as we embrace each
other with the cry, Never more to part!
never more to part!" the arches, the
alcoves, the Railways echo and re.echo
the words, Never more to part. Never
moro to part. Then our gloritied
friends say: "Come out with us
and see Heaven" And, some of them
bounding ahead of us and some of them