Daily Yellowstone journal., 1889-06-02

hire 10 drink; do not pour your cup
into it In this matter Of the soul,
every man for himself. That those
persons are not fully responsible for
your sin, | prove by the fact that you
still ~consort with them. You canno,
get off by blaming them. Though you
gather up all these apologies; though
there were a great food Of them
though they should come down with
the force Of the melting SHOWS from
Lebanon, they could not wash out one
stain Of your immortal soul.
I'VE ARE BETTER THAN OTHER PEOPLE
Still further, some persons apollo
gize for their sins by saying; 1--WE are
a great deal better than some people.
You see people all around about us
that are a great deal worse than we.
You stand up columnar in your integ.
rity, and look down upon those who
are PROSTATE in their habits and
crimes. What Of that, my brotherl
If | failed through recklessness and
wicked imprudence for ten thousand
dollars, is the matter alleyiated at all
by the fact that somebody else has
failed for one hundred thousand dol.
lars, and somebody else for two hun,
dred thousand dollarsi Oh, no. If
have the neuralgia, shall | refuse
medical attendance because my neigh
Dor has virulent typhoid feyeri The
fact that his disease is worse
than mine-does hat cure minei If /,
through my foolhardiness, leap off into
ruin, does it break the fall to know
that others leap off a higher cliff into
deeper darknessl When the Hudson
river rail train went through the bridge
at Spuyten Duyvil. did il alleviate the
matter at all hat instead of two or
three people being hurt there we're
seventy-five mangled and crushedl
Because others are depraved, is that
any excuse for my depravityl Am i
better than theyl Perhaps they had
worse temptations than | have had.
Perhaps their surroundingsin life were
more overpowering. Perhaps, o man,
if you had been under the same stress
Of temptation, instead of sitting here
today, you would have been looking
through the bars Of a penitentiary.
Perhaps, o woman, il you had
been under the same power of
temptation, instead of sitting here
today, you would be tramping the
street, the laughing stock of men and
the grief Of the angels of God, dun
geoned, body, mind and soul, in the
blackness Of despair. All, do not LEI
US solace ourselves with the thought
that other people are worse than we.
Perhaps in the future, when our for
tunes may change, unless 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 the
sand bars. OH instead of wasting
our timein Eypercriticismabo others,
let US ask ourselves the questions,
Where do we standl What are our
sinsi What are our deicitsl What
are our perilsl What our hopesl Let
each one say TO himself: Where will
| bel Shall range in summary fields.
or grind in the mills of a great nightl
Wherel WhereT'
Some winter morning you 90 out
and see a snow bank in graceful
drifts, as though by some heavenly
compass it had been curved; and as
the sun glints it the luster is almost
insufferable, and it seems as if God
had wrapped the earth in a shroud
with white plaits woven in looms ce.
lestial. And you say: Was there
V e anything so pure as the snow, SC
beautiful as the snowi" But you
brought a pail of that snow and put il
upon the stove and melted il; and YOU
found that there was a sediment at the
bottom, and every drop of that snow
water was riled; and you found that
the snow bank had gathered up the
impurity of the field, and that after
all il was not tit TO wash in. And so ]
say it will be if you try 10 gather up
these contrasts and comparisons with
others, and with these apologies at.
tempt TO wash out the sins of your
heart aud life. II will be an unsuc.
cessful ablution. Such snow water
will never wash away a single stain OF
an immortal soul.
GOOD RESOLUTIONS"
But | hear some one say: II will
try something better than that. Twill
try the force Of a good resolution.
That will be more pungent, more caus,
tic, more extirpating, more cleansing.
The snow water has failed, and now
will try the alkali Of the good, strong
resolution Ny dear brother. have
you any idea that a resolution about
the future will liquidate the paste Sup
pose | owed you five thousand dollar,
and ! should come TO you tomorrow
and say: Sir, | will never run il
debt TO you again; if | should liv,
thirty years, | will never run in deb
10 you again." will you turn TO m,
and say: IF you will not run in deb
in the future, | will forgive you th,
five thousand dollars" Will you d,
thatl MOI Nor will God. We hav'
been running up a long score o
indebtedness with God. II for tn,
future we should abstain from
sin, that would be no defray
ment Of past Indebtedness. Thougl
you should live from this time fortl
purse as an archangel before thu
throne, hal would not redeem th,
past. God, in the Bible. distinctly
declares that he will require tina.
which is past" past opportunities
past neglects, past wicked words
past impure imaginations, past every
thing. The past is a great cemetery
and every day is buried in il. An,
here is a long row Of three hundre,
IL as.., Gyn nra,,aa THAI aua an.