Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-05-09
the wickedness OF its disciples. We admit
some charges against those who profess re-

ligion.
Some of the most gigantic swindles of the
present day have been carried on by mem
beers of the church. There are men stand
ing in front rank in the churches who would
not be trusted for five dollars without good
collateral security. They leave their bust
ness dishonesties in the vestibule OF the
church as they go in and sit at the com
munion. Having concluded the sacrament,
they get up. wipe the wine from theirlips. go
out and take up their sins where they left
off. To serve the devil is their regular
work; to serve God, a sort OF play spell.
With a Sunday sponge they expect to wipe
off from their business slate all the past
| weeks Inconsistencies. You have no more
rightto take such a mans life as a specimen
ofrcligion than you have to take the twisted
irons and split timbers that lie on the beach
at Coney Island as a specimen of an Amer
lean ship. 1t is time We draw a line be-
tween religion and the ~frailties of those
who profess it.
Do YOU not feel that the Bible, take it all
in all, is about the best book that the world
| has ever seem? Dc you now any book that
has as much in it? Do you think, upon the
whole that its influence has been beneficial?
l com to you with both hands extended
toward YOU. In one hand 1 nave the Bible,
in the other l have nothing. This Bible in
one hand l will surrender forever just as
soon as in my other hand you can put a
book that is better. To-day ! invite you
DIck 1nIO llG SOOu on religion Oh your
fathers-to the God whom they worshiped,
to the Bible they read, to the promises on
which they learned, to the cross on which
they hung their eternal expectations. You
ave not been happy a day since you swung
off; you will not be happy a minute until
you swing back.
Again: There may be some of you who,
in the attempt after Il Christian life. will
have to run against powerful passions and
appetites. Perhaps it is a disposition to
anger that you have to contend against,
and perhaps. while in a very serious mood.
you hear of something tina makes you feel
that you must swear or die. l know &
Christian man who was once so eNasper-
ated that he said to a mean customer, Il
cannot swear at you myself. for ! am a
member of the church,: but if you go down
stairs my partner in business will swear at
you" All your good resolutions heretofore
have been torn to tatters by explosion of
temper. Now there is no harm in getting
mac if you only get mad at sin. You need
to bride and saddle those hot breathed
tee and wrong. There are Il Thousand
things in the world that we ought to be mad
at. There is no harm in getting red hot if
you only bring to theforge that which needs
hanmcring. A man who has no power of
righteous Indignation is an imbecile. But
be sure it is a righteous indignation. and
not a %petulancy that blurs and unravels and
depletes the soul.
There is a large class of persons in mid
life who have still in them appetites that
were aroused in early manhood, at a time
when they prided themselves on being a
little fast" high livers,' free and easy
hail fellows we'll met They are now pay
ing. in compound interest, for troubles they
collected twenty years ago. Some of you
ARE trying to escape. and you will-yet very
God and your OWL soul only know what the
struggle is. Omnipotent grace has pulled
out many a soul that was deeper in the mire
than you are. They line the beach of
heaven-the multitude whom God has
rescued from the thrall of suicidal habits.
and start anew God will help you. Oh. the
weakness of human help! Men will SYM
pathize for awhile and then turn you off. If
you ask for their pardon they will give it
and say they will try you again; but, falling
away again under the power Of temptation,
they cast you off forever. But God for
gives seventy times seven: yea, sever
hundred times; yea. though this be the ten
thousandth time. He is more earnest, more
sympathetic, more helpful this last time
than when you took YOU first misstep.
If. with all the influences favorable for a
right life, men make so many mistakes, how
much harder is it when, for instance, some
appetite thrusts its iron grapple into the
roots OF the tongue, and pulls a man down
with hands of destruction! If. under such
"a III way Will
be no sport in the undertaking, no holiday
enjoyment, but Il struggle in which the
wrestlers move from side to side, and pend
and twist. and watch for an opportunity to
get in aheavier stroke. until with one final
effort. in which the muscles are distended.
and the veins stand out. and the blood
starts, the swarthy habit falls under the
knee OF the victor-escaped at last as with
the skin Of his teeth"
The ship Emma, bound from Gottenburc
IN II ~ HHiySr .Vync ~ II, @~, I,,,l a.
on the lookout saw something that he pro-
nounced a vessel bottom up. There was
something on it that looked like a sea gull,
but was afterwards found to be a waving
handkerchief. In the small boat the crew
pushed out to the wreck, and found that il
had been digging their way out through
the bottom of the ship. When the vessel
capsized they had no means of escape.
The Captain took his penknife and dug
away through the planks until his knife
broke. Then an old nail was found, with
which they attempted to scrape their way
out OF the darkness. each one working un-
til his hand was well nigh paralyzed, and
he sank back faint and sick. After long
and tedious work. the light broke through
was hoisted. Help came. They were taken
on board the vessel and saved. Did ever
men come SO near a watery grave without
dropping into it? How narrowly they es-
capeu!Iescaped MY with the skin of
their teeth"
There are men who have been capsized
OF evil passions, and capsized mid-pccan,
and they are a thousand miles away from
any shore of help. They have for years
been trying TO dig their way out. They
have been digging away and digging away,
but they can never be delivered unless they
hoist the signal of distress. However weak
and feeble they may be, Christ will see it,
and bear down upon the helpless craft and
take them on board: and it will be known
in earth and in heaven how narrowly they
escaped-"escaped as with the skin Of their
teeth"
There are others who. in attempting to
come to God, must run between a great
many business perplexities. If a man 90
over to business at 10 o'clock in the morn
ing and comes away at 3 O'Clock in the al
ternoon. he has some time for religion: but
how shall you find time for religious con-
temptation when you are driven from sun
rise TO sunset, and nave been for five wears
going behind in business. and are fire.
qnently dunned by creditors whom YOU can
not pay, and when. from Monday morning
until Saturday night, you are lodging bills
that you annot meet? You walk day Inv
day in uncertainties that have kept YOUR
brain on fire for the past three wears. Some
with less business trouble than you have
nv