Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-12-19

moral disaster. Tho moral world, tho
religious world, the political world. the
commercial world arc quaking with the
fall of Lebanon cedars. 1t is awful. We
are compelled to cry out with Zachariah.
the prophet, "Howl, fir trees, for the
cedar is fallcn!' Some of the smaller
1rees arc glad of it. When some great
dealer in stocks goes down the small
dealers clap their hands and say. ''Good
Tor him!' When great political leader
gees down the small. politicians clap
their hands and say, Just as / en-
pected.' When great minister of re-
ilgion falls many little ministers laugh
up their sleeves and think themselves
somehow advantagcd. All, beloved
moral shipwrcck.
Not a willow by the rivers of Da-
mascns, not sycamore on the plains of
Jericho, not an olive tree in all Palestine
is helped by the fall of IL Lebanon cedar.
Better weep and pray and trcmblc and
listen to Paulis advice to the Galatians
when he says, considering thyself lest
thou also he tempted: No man is safe
until he is dead unless he be divinely
protected. A greater thinker than Lord
Francis Bacon the world never saw, and
he changed the worlds mode of thinking
for all time, his ''Novum Organum," u
miracle of literature. With S3s, 900 salary
and estates worth millions and from the
highest judicial bench of the world he
goes down under the power of bribery,
and confessed his crime and was sem
fenced to the Tower and the scorn of
centuries. Howl fir tree, for the cedar
is fallen!
Warren Hastings, rising until he be-
Governor General of India and the envy
of the chief, public men of his day,
plunges into cruelties against the bar
barrie people he had been sent to rule,
until his name is chiefly associated with
the criminal trial in Westminster Hall,
where came upon him the anathemas of
Sheridan, Fox, Edmund Burke, the En-
glish nation, and all time. Howl, fir
tree, for the cedar is fallen! AS eminent
instances of moral disaster arc found in
our own land and our own time, instances
that do not recite lest wound the
feelings OF those now alive to mourn the
shipwrcck. let your indignation against
the fallen turn to pity.
judge in one of our American courts
gives this experience: In respectable
but poor family, daughter was getting
q musical education. She needed one
more course of lessons to complete that
education. The fathers means were ex-
hausted, and so great was his anxiety to
help his daughter that he feloniously
took some money from his employer, and
going home to his daughter, said, s'There
is money to complete your musical cdu-
cation The wife and mother suspected
something wrong, and obtained from her
husband the whole story, and that night
went around with her husband to the
merchants house and surrendered the
| whole amount of the money and asked
forgiveness. Forgiveness was denied
and the man was arrested.
The judge, knowing all the circum-
stance, and that the money had all been
returned, suggested to the merchant he
had better let the matter drop for the
sake of the wife and daughter. No! He
would not let it drop, add he did all he
could to make the case conspicuous and
blasting. The judge says that after
ward the same memorable merchant was
before him for breaking the law of the
land. 1t is poor rule that will not work
both ways. Let him that standeth take
heed lest he fall. Not congratulation
| UltF lCiIIS Wucu IL CsuuI Is ldIicL.
| Yet there is one cedar of Lebanon
that always has and always will overtop
all others. 1t is the Christ whom Ezekiel
describes as a goodly cedar, and says,
''Under it shall come all fowl of every
wing" Make your nest in that great
cedar. Then let the storms beat and the
earth rock, and time end, and eternity
begin, all shall be we'll.
| Tn INV innrOav N n and 6Own pa1pctina
and Syria nothing more impressed me
than the trees-the terebinths, the syca-
mores, the tamarisks, the oleanders, the
mulberrys, the olives, the myrtles, the
| palms, the cedars-all of them explana-
| tory of so much of the Scriptures. And
the time is coming when, through an
| improved arboriculture, the round world
shall be circumference, engirdled en-
bosomed, emparadised in shade trees and
| fruit trees and flower trees. Isaiah de-
clares in one place. ssThc glory of lie
banon shall be given unto it," and in all
other place, ''All the trees of the field
shall clap their hands. Instead of the
/ thorn shall come up the fir tree; instead
briar shall come up the myrtle tree. .
| Oh. grandest arborescencc of all time!
Begin! Begin!
| Oh, am so glad that the Holy land of
Heaven, like the Holy land of Palestine
and Syria, is a great place for trees-an
orchard of them, grove of them, a
forest of them! st. John saw them along
the streets and on both sides of the
river, and every month they yielded a
great crop of fruit. You know what an
imposing appearance trees give to a city
on earth, but how it exaults my idea of
/ Heaven, when St. John describes the
city on high as having its streets and its
rivers lined with them. Oh, the trees!
the trees! The jasper walls, the foun-
tains, the temples were not enough.
There would have been something want
ing yet. So to complete all that pomp
and splendor behold the upbranching
trees of life.
Not like those stripped trees now
around us, which like banished mini
strels through the long winter nighl
utter their dolorous lament, or in thu
blast moan like lost spirits wandering
up and down the gale, but leaf sha1
never wither. Whether you walk OF
the banks of the river you will be undef
trees, or by the homes of martyrs nndef
trees, or by the heavenly temple unddr
trees, or along the palace of the king
immortal under trees. "Blessed ais
they that do His commandments thjt
they may have right to the tree of lifeF'
! So 1yip ,,f%oro yy{o