Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-07-13
Why did you moi
before?' She answered

nel WY qua you not
cry before?' She answered;
There was no one 10 cry to-" Now ]
have TO tell you that while human SYM
pathy may be absent, divine sympathy is
always accessible. Give God your love
and get his love; your service and secure
his help; your repentance and have his
pardon. God q friend? Why, that means
all your wounds medicated, all your sor.
rows soo.hed, and if some sudden catas-
trophe should hurl You out Of earth it
would only hurl you into heaven. If God
is your friend, you cannot go out Of the
world too quickly or suddenly, SO far ss
your own happiness is concerned. There
were two Christians lost Tuesday who
entered heaven; the one vas standing at
a win low in perfect health watching a
shower, and the lightning instantly slew
him; but the lightning did not flash down
the sky as swiftly as his spirit flashed up
ward. The Christian man who died on
the same day next door had been for O
year or two failing in health, and for the
asst three months had suffered from dis
ease that made the nights slcepless and
the lays an anguish. DO you not really
think that the case of the one who went
instantly was more desirable than the one
who wen! instantly was more desirable
than the one who entered the shining
gate through a long lane of insomnia and
congestion? In the one case il was like
your standing YEARLY at a door, knock
ing and waiting, ard wondering if it will
ever open. and knocking and waiting
again, while in the other case il WAS a
swinging open Of the door at the first
touch Of your Enuckle. Give your friend
ship TO God, and have Gods friendship
for you, and even the worst accident will
be a victory.
How refreshing is human friendship,
and true friends, what priceless treas
ures! When sickness comes, and trouble
comes, and death ONE we send for our
friends first Of all, and their appearance
in u doorway in any crisis is re.en-
forcement, and when they have entered,
we say: Now it is all right Oh,
what would we do without friends, per
sonal friends, business friends, family
friends2 But We want something
mighticr than human friendship in the
great exigencies. When ~Johnathan Ed
wards in mis- final hour had given the last
good-by to al lis earthly friends, he
turned on MS PILLOW and closed his eyes
confidently saying; Now where is
Jesus OF Nazareth, my true and never
failing friend?" Yes, | admire humG
friendship as seen in the case Of David
and Jonathan, of Paul and Onesiphorus,
of Herder AID Goethe, Of Goldsmith and
Reynolds, OF Beaumont and Fletcher, Of
Co9ley and Harvey, OF Erasmus and
Thomas More. of Lessing and Mendel-
ssohn, Of Lady Churchill and Princess
Anne, Of Orestes and Pylades each
requesting that himself might
take the point of the dag
ger 80 the other might be spared,
of E~paminondas and Pelopidas, who
locked their shields in battle determined
10 die together; but the grandest, the
mightiest, the tendereSt friendship in al
the universe is the friendship between
Jesus Christ and a believing soul. Yet
after all | have said | feel ! have only
done what James Marshall, the miner, did
in 1913 in California, before its gold
mines were known. he reached in and
put upon the table Of his employer,
q thimblc full Of gold dust. Where did
you get that, sad his employer. The
reply was: II got it this morning from
a mill race from which the water had
been drawn off, But that gold dust
which could have been taken up between
prophecy and specimen that revealed
CALIFORNIA; wealth 10 ali nations. And
today have only put before you a speci-
men Of the value OF divine friendship,
only a thimbleful Of mines i~nexhaustib.e
aud infinite, though ali time and all ctcr-
nifty go on with the exploration.