Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-06-08

/ ttltl[t tHEiA Win SLot, Out WIN iAty
tried to steal your immortal soul, you
placidly submitted TO it. These bad fel.
lows have a cup of fire TO drink; do not
pour your cup into 1t. In this matter OF
he soul, every man for himself. Tina
those persons are not fully responsible
for your sin, ! prove by the fact that you
still consort with them. You cannot get
off by blaming them. Though you
gather up all these apologies; though
there were a great flood of them, though
they should come down with the force of
the melting snow from Lebanon, they
| could not wash out one stain Of your I'm.
mortal soul.
Still further, some persons apologize
for their sins by saying: I'VE are a
great deal better than some people. You
see people all around about w that are a
| great deal worse than we" You stand
up columnarin your integrity, and look
down upon those who are PROSTATE
in their habits and crimes. What Of
that, my brother? If l failed through
recklessness and wicked imprudence for
$40, 600, is the matter alleviated at all by
the fact that somebody else has failed
for 800, 600, and somebody else for 5000
00OY Oh, no. II have the neuralgia,
shall | refuse medical attendance because
my neighbor has virulent typhoid fever
The fact that his disease is worse than
mine-does not cure mine? II |, through
my f0olhardiness, leap off into ruin, does
it break the fall to know that Others leap
of a higher cliff into deeper darkness2
When the Hudson river rail train went
through the bridge at Spuyten Duyvil,
did 1t alleviate the matter At all that in
.stead. of two. OK three people being hurt
there were seventy-hve mangled and
crushedf Because others are de-
praved, II that any excuse for
my depravity? Am I better
than they? Perhaps they had
worse temptations than | have had. Per
haps their surroundings in life were more
overpowering Perhaps, o man, If you
had been under the same stress Of tempta-
ton, instead of sitting here today, you
would have been looking through the
bars Of a penitentiary. Perhaps, o
woman, if you had been under the same
power of temptation, instead Of sitting
here today, you would be trampiny the
street, the laughing stock Of men and the
grief of the angels Of God, %dungeoned,
body, mind and soul, in the blaCKness of
despair. All, do not let US solace our-
selves with the thought that other people
are worse than we. Perhaps in the fu.
ture, when our fortunes may change, I'm
less God prevents it, we may be worse
than they are. Many a man after thirty
years, after forty years, after fifty years,
after sixty years, has gone to pieces On
our time in hypercritism about Others, let
nj nuIy ~, rnntuac tbn nrnttnnu. iNhnrn
do we stand? What are our sinsI What
ere our deficits? What are our perils?
What our hopes? Let each one say to
himself: Where will | be? Shall /
range in summary fields, or grind in the
mills of a great night? Where? Where?"
Some winter morning you go out and
see a snow bank in graceful drifts, as
though by some heavenly compass it had
been curved; as the sun glints it the lus-
ter is almost insufferabJe, and ii seems as
if God had wrapped the earth in a shroud
with white plaits woven in looms celes'
tial. And you say: "Was there ever
anything SO pure as the snow, SO beauti-
full as the SNOWY But you brought a
pail Of that snow and put il on the stove
and melted il; and you found that there
was q sediment at the bottom, and every
drop of that now water was riled; and
you found that the snow bank had gath.
cred up the impurity Of the field and that
after all ii was not tit 70 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
10 wash ont the sins Of your heart and
life. I. will be an unsuccessful ablutiOn.
Such snow water will never wash away
a single stain of ah immortal soul,
But | hear some one say: II will try
something better than that. | will try
the force Of Il good resolution. That will
be more pungent. more caustic, more eX-
tirpating, 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 viii liqui-
date the past? Suppose | owed you
s., 600 and | should come 10 you tomor-
row and say: 'Sir, / will never run in
debt to YOU again; if should live thirty
years, ! will never run in debt to you
again will you turn to me and say: IF
you will not run in debt in the future, !
will forgive yCu the So, 900" VIII you
do that? No! Nor will God. We have
been running up a long score Of indebt-
edress with God. If for the future we
should abstain from sin, that would be
no Gefrayment Of past Indebtedness.
Though you should live from this time
forth pure as an archangel before
the throne, that would not redeem the
past. God, in the Bible, distinctly de-
clares that he will require that which is
~past'-past opportunities, past neglects.
past wicked words, past impure magma
tons, past everything. The past is a
great cemetery, and every day is buried
in it. And here is a long row Of 3G5
graves. They are the dead days Of 1883.
Here is a long row of 365 more graves,
and they are the dead days Of 1887. And
here is a long row Of 365 more days, and
they are the dead days of 1886. 1t is a
vast cemetery Of the past. But God will
rouse them all up with resurrectionary
blast, and as the prisoner stands face to
face with juror and Judge, SO you and
will have to come up and look upon those
departed days face to face, exulting in
their smile or covering in their frown.
Murder will out" is a proverb that
stops too short. Every sin, however
small, as well as great, will out. In hard
times in England, years ago, ii is authen-
tically stated that a manufacturer was on
the way, with a bag OF money, TO pay off
his hands. A man infuriated with hun
ger met him on the road, and took a rail
with a nail in it from a paling fence and