Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-12-05

must go thoroughly armed, and as 1
never shot any one and have no am
billion to be SHOT, said, LET us stay by
the western Shore"
Pull away, We Arab oarsmen! And we
! come along the shore near by which
stand great precipices of brown and red
and gray limestone crowned by basalt,
in the sides of which are vast cayerns,
sometimes the hiding place of bandits,
and sometimes the home of honest shep-
nerds. and sometimes the dwelling place
of pigeons and vultures and eagles
During one of Herods wars his enimies
hid in these mountain caverns, and the
sides were too steep for Herod's army to
descend, and the attempt to climb in the
face of armed men would have called
down determination. So Herod had
great cages ta wood. ironbound, made
and filled them with soldiers and let
them down from the top of the prec-
ipiccs until they gave signal that they
were level with the Governs, and then
from these cages they stepped out to the
mouth of the cavcrns and having set
enough grass and wood on fire to fill the
caverns with smoke and strangulation,
the hidden people would come forth to
die: and if not coming forth voluntarily,
Hcrod's men would pull them out with
long iron hooks, and Joscphus says that
one father rather than submit to the at
lacking army flung his wife and seven
children down the precipice and then
lcaped after them to his own death.
Now, We Arab oarsmen, row on with
swifter stroke, for we want before noon
to land at Capcrnaum, the three years.
home of Jesus. But before arrival there
we are to have a new experience. The
lake that had been a smooth surface be-
gins to break up into roughness. The
air which all the morning made our sail
| almost useless suddenly takes hold of
our boat with a grip astonishing, and
our poor craft begins to roll and pitch
and tumble, and in five minutes we pass
from a calm to violence. The contour of
this lake among the hills is an invitation
to hurricanes. used to wonder why it
was that on so limited sheet of water
a bestormed boat in Christ's time did not
put back to shore when a hurricane was
coming. wonder no more. On that
lake an atmospheric fury gives no warm
ing, and the change we saw in five min
utes made me feel that the boat in which
Christ sailed may have been skillfully
managed when the tempest struck it and
the wild importunate cry went up,
ssLord save US or we perish! had all
along that morning been reading from
the New Testament the story of occur
rences on and around that lake. But
our Bible was closed now, and it was as
| wish for the land.
tinued to increase in violence the fol-
lowing fifteen minutes in the same ratio
Us in the first five, and we had been still
at their mercy, our bones would have
been bleaching in the bottom of Lake
Gennesaret instead of our being here to
tell the story; but the same Power that
rescued the fishermen of old to-day safely
landed our party. What Christ for
! rough weather! All the sailor boys
ought to fly to Him as did those Galilean
| mariners. All you in the forcaStle and
all you who run up and down the Slip
perry ratlines, take to sea with you Him
who with a quiet word sent the winds
back through the mountain gorges.
Some of you Jack Tars to whom these
words will come need to 'stack Ship and
change your course if you are going to
get across this sea of life safely and gain
Ready AAR sl%s ss s,ry Mainsail
haul!
! Star of peace! beam DER the billo0
Bless the soul that signs for thela
Bless the sailors lonely pillow,
| Far. fur at sea.
Here at Capernaum, the Arabs having
i'll their arms carried us ashore to the
only place where our Lord ever had a
pastOrate, and we stepped amid the ruins
OF the church where he preached again
and again and again, the synagogue,
\ ipI Mt, low g
! when others see it in spring time covered
with weeds and loathsome with reptiles,
but in that December weather completely
uncovered to our agitated and intense
gaze. On one stone of that synagogue is
the sculpturing of pot of mama, an
artistic commemOration of the time when
the Israelites were fed by mama in the
wilderness, and to which sculpturing nc
doubt Christ pointed upward while He
was preaching that sermon on this very
| spot in which He said: 'sNot as your
fathers did eat mamma and are dead; He
| that eateth of this bread shall live for.
ever" Wonderful Oapernaum. Scene
OF more miracles than any place in all
| the earth! Blind eyes kindling with the
| morning. Withercd arms made to pull
safe. Lepers blooming into health The
dead girl terminated
These Arab tents, which on this De.
cember day find i'll Palestine, disap.
pear. and see Capernaum as it was
when Jesus was pastor of the church
here. Look at that wealthy home, the
architecture, the marble front, the up
holstery, the slaves in uniform at the
doorway. It is the residence of cour.
tier of Herod, probably Chuza by name,
his wife Joanna, Christian disciple.
But something is the matter. The slaves
arc in great excitement, and the courtie1
living there runs down the front steps
and takes a horse and puts him at full
run across the country. The boy of that
nobleman is dying of typhoid fever. ALI
the doctors have failed to give relief
But about five miles up the country, at
Cana, there is a divine doctor, Jesus by
name. and the agonized father has gone
for him, and with what earnestness
those can understand who have had a
dying child in the house. This courtier
| cries to Christ, "Come down ere my
child die!''
While the father is absent, and at !
o'clock in the afternoon, the people
| watching the diving boy see a change in