Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-08-03

WHIPS n bound with ship cable, an
thrown into the track Of bone breskin
Juggernauts! During the wal of 181
, there was a ship set on fire just abov
Niagara Falls, and then, cut loose fror
its %moorings, it came on down throug'
the night and tossed over the falls. |
was said to have been a scene brillian
| beyond all description. Well, there ar
thousands of men on fire Of evil habit
coming down through the rapids ant
through the awful night of temptation
toward the eternal plunge. Oh, how
hard ii is to arrest them. God only cal
arrest them.
suppose a man after five or ten, o.
twenty years of evil doing, resolves to d.
right2 Why, all the forces of darkness
are allied against him. He cannot sleeI
nights. He gets down on his knees in
the midnight and cries, God hep me y
lie bites his lip, He grinds his teeth
he clentches his fist in his determinati N
to keep his purpose. He dare not look
al the bottles in the window of a wine
store. 1t was one long, bitter, oXhaus.
tive, hand to hand fight, with intlamed,
tantalizing and merciless habit. When
he thinks he is entirely free, the old in
clinations pounce upon him like a pack
or hounds with their muzZles tearing
away at the TANKS of one poor reindeer.
In Paris there is a sculpured representa-
ton OF Bacchus, the god Of revelry. He
is riding on a panther at full leap. Oh,
how suggestive! Let every one WAC is
speeding on bad ways understand he is
not riding n docile and well broken
steed. but he is riding a monster, wild
n bloodthlrsty, going at a death leap.
How many there are who resolve on a
better life and say, "When shall |
awaken But seized on by their old
habits, cry, Il will try it once more; l
will seek it yet again. Years ago there
was some Princeton students who were
skating, and the ice was very thin, and
some one warned the company back from
the air hole, and finally warned them en-.
tlrely 10 leave the place. But one young
man with bravado, after all the rest had
stopped, cried out; Zone round moreI'
He swept around and went down, and
was brought on a corpse. My friends,
there are thousands and tens of thousands
OF men losing their souls in that way. 1t
is the n round more.
have also to say ths: if a man wants
to return from evil practices society re-
pulses him. Desiring to reform, he says:
Now | will shake of my old associates
and will find Christian companionship."
And he appears at the church door some
Sabbath day, and the usher greets him
with a look, as much as to say why.
you here? You are the last man | ever
expected to see at church, Come, take
this seat down by the door, Instead of
saying: Good morning, ! am glad you
are here. Come; ! will give you a first
rate seat. right up by the pulpit" Well,
the prodigal, not yet discouraged, enters
the prayer meeting, and some Christian
man, with more zeal than common sense,
says: Glad to see you. The dying
thief was saved and suppose there is
mercy for YOU The young man dis
gusted, chilled, throws himself back on
his dignity, resolved he never will enter
the house of God again. Perhaps not
quite fully discouraged about reforma.
ton, he sides up by some highly respect
able man he used to know going down
the street, and Immediately the respect
able man has an errand down some other
street! Well, the prodigal, wishing to re-
turn, takes some member of a Christian
association by the hand. or tries to-. The
Christian young man looks at him, looks
at ,he faded apparel and the marks of
dissipation, and instead of giving MIN a
warm grip Of the hand offers him the tip
end of the long fingers Of the left hand,
which is equal to striking a mar in the
face.
Oh, how few Christian people under
stand how much force and gospel there
is in a good, honest handshake! Some
times, when you have felt the need of
encouragement, and some Christian man
had taken you heartily by the hand, have
you not felt that thrilling through every
fiber of your body, mind and soul, an en-
couragment that was just what you
needed? You do not know anything at
all about this unless you know when a
man tries to return from the evil courses
OF conduct, he runs against repulsions
innumerably. We say Of some man, he
lives a block or two from the church, or
half a mile from the church. Vast des-
erts of indifference between them and
the house Of God. The fact is, we must
keep our responsibility, though thous-
ands and tens OF thousands perish. Christ
sat with publicans and sinners. But if
there a man to the house Of God
a man with marks Of dissipation upon
him, people throw up their hands in
horror, as much as to say. Isn't itshock-
ing?" How these dainty, fastidious
Christians in all our churches are going
to get into heaven l don't know, unless
they have a special train Of cars, cush-
toned and upholstered, each II a car to
himself! They cannot go with the great
heard Of publicans and sinners. Oh, we
who curl your lip Of scorn at the fallen,
l tell you plainly. if you had been sur
rounded by the same influences, instead
Of sitting today amid the cultured and
the refined and the Christian, you would
have been a crOuching wretch in stable
or ditch, covered with filth and abomi-
nation! 1t is not because you are nat
urally any better, but because the mercy
of God has protected you. Who are you,
that brought up in Christian circles, and
watched by Christian paren'age, you
should be SO hard on the fallen?
| think men also are often Murdered
from return by the fact that churches are
too anxious about their membership and
too anxious about their denomination. |
and they rush out. when they see a man
about to give up his sin and return to
God, and ask him how he is going to be
baptized, whether by s~prinkling or by
immersion, and what kind of a church he |
is going TO join. Oh, my friends! 1t is
q moor time to talk abOut PRESBYTERIAN |