Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-04-26
Is there anything in prophecy to

But with utmost reverence / take up all
the prophecies and hold them toward
Heaven and say God never has and never
will stop consecrated effort and holy de-
termination and ma gniticent resolve, and
that if the church of God will rise up to
its full work il can make Daniels time
twenty wears and his half time ten years.
Neither Isaiah, nor Ezekiel. nor Micah,
nor Malachi, nor jeremiah, nor any of
the major or minor prophets VIII hinder
us second. Suppose the Bible had an
nounced the millennium to begin the
year 1889, that would be no hindrance.
In one sense God never changes His
mind, being the same yesterday, to-day,
and forever. But in another sense He
does change His mind and times without
number every day, and that is when His
people pray. Didn't He change His
mind about Nineveh? By Gods COM
mand Jonah. at the top of mis- voice,
while standing Oh the steps of the mer-
chants exchange and the palatial resi-
dences of that city, cried out. Yet forty
days and Nineveh shall be overthrown."
Was it overthrown in forty days? No:
The people gave up their sins and cried
for mercy and though Jonah got mad
because his whole course of sermons
had been spoiled aud went into q dis
sublime cannot read it without feeling
nervous chill running through me,
God saw their works that they turned
from their evil way and God repented of
the evil that He had said He would do
unto them, and He did it not" God Isl
fat her. and some of us know what that
means, and some time when We have
promised chastisement and the child de-
served it. the little darling has put her
arms around our neck and expresses
such sorrow and such promises OF doing
better that her tears landed on the lips
of our kiss, and we held her q half hour
after on our knee and would as soon
think of slapping an angel i'll the face
as of even striking her with the weight
of our little finger. God is father, and
scourgings, though they were to be for
a thousand years or five thousand years,
he would, if the world repented. sub
stitute benediction and divine caress.
God changed his mind about Sodom six
times. He had determined Oh its de-
struction. Abraham asked him if he
would not spare it if fifty righteous
people We're found there; and, narrow
ing down the numer, if forty five people
were found there; if forty people; if
thirty people; if twenty people; if ten
people were found there. And each of
the six times the Lord answered yes.
Oh why didn't Abraham go on just two
steps further and say if five be found
there and if one be found there, for
then for the sake of Lot. its one good
citizen, think Sodom would have been
spared. Eight times does the Bible say
punishments and withheld the stroke.
Was it a slip of Paul's pen when he
spoke of Gods cutting short the work
in righteousness? No. Pauls pen never
slipped. There is nothing in the way
of prophecy to hinder the crusade have
proposed for the last decade of the
Nineteenth century.
The whole trouble is that we put off
the completion of the worlds redemp-
ton to such long and indefinite dis
tances. The old proverb that what is
everybody's business is nobody's bust
ness, might be changed little and be
made truthfully to say what is the Cos
pei business of all the ages is the Cos
pei business of no age. We are so con-
stituted we cannot get up much en-
years from now or thousand years
from now. We are fighting at too long
q range. That gun called the Swamp
Angel" was nuisance. 1t shot six
miles, but it hardly ever hit anything.
1t did its chief destructive work when it
burst and killed those who were setting
it off. Short range is the effective kind
of work, whether it be for worldly or re-
ligious purpose. Some man with his
eyes half shut drones out to me the
Bible quotation: "A thousand years are
| as one day; that is, ten centuries are not
long for the Lord. But why do you not
quote the previous sentence, which says
that one day is with the Lord as thou
sand years? That is, he could do the
work of ten centuries in twenty four
tian work is the impression that the
worlds evangelization is away off. And
! we take the telescope and look on and
1 on through centuries until We see two
| objects near each other and we strain
! our vision and guess what they are and
we call great conventions to guess what
! they are, and we get down our heaviest
theological works and balance our tele-
scope on the lid and look and look and
finally conclude that they are two beasts
that we see, and the one has hair and
the other has wool and we guess it must
be the lion and the lamb lying down to-
gether. In that great cradle of post
ponement and somnolence we rock the
euuicu as euouSu IL were an lnpatleut
child, and say, Hush, my dear, don't be
impatient! Don't get excited by revivals!
Don't cry! Your Fathers coming! Don't
get uneasy! He will be here in
two or three or ten or twenty
thousand years. And we act as
though we thought that when Macau-
lays famous New Zealander in the
far distance is seated Oh broken arch
of London fridge sketching the ruins
of ST. Paul his grandchild might break
in and jolt his pencil by asking him if
he thought the millennium ever would
appear. Men and women of the eternal
God! Sons and daughters of the Lord
Almighty! We may have it start in the
decade that is soon to commence and it
will be done if we can persuade the
people between now and then to get
ready for the work.
What makes nc think it can be done?
First, because God is ready. He needs
no long persuasion to do His work, for
if He is not willing that any should
perish, He is not willing that any of the
people of the next decade shall perish;
and the whole Bible is a chime of bells
ringing out, Come, come, come." and
you need not go round the earth to
find how much he wants the world to
come, but just to walk around one
| stripped and bare and leatless tree with