Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-04-11

moa - IS clerk or weieher or drov.
sit no an1 ne Is known among those who
nn near MN clear back in the church
900 me galleries, and at the ferry
Snow sn nie ne comes in knocking the
arms oronm us SHOES and threshing his
t;on oun MS BODY to revive c%irculn-
.ton, oh some january morninp R,,t ;f
ne should die tomorrow thera wa,1i
not De q hundred people who wouid
now about it. He will never have h;s
thaa ~ the newspapers but once. ana
LUZ. WIZ De the announcement of his
uea.n' II some one will pay for the in.
serolon, SO much q line for the two live
b9t he will come up g~loriously on tha
other side, and the God who has watchaI
nm all through will give him a hipher
seat n a better mansion and n erander
eeeIhltv mat many a man who had on
ea,.n' oeiore his name, the word honor
aDle' and after his name LII. ID. and r.
Il. :. christ said in Luke, the sixth
:; I.nh%p1si, 'nat IN Heaven some who had
II hard here would laugh there.
And think a laugh of delight and
cengratulation will run around tbs
heavenly circles when the humble one
OF whom l spoke shall go up and take
the precedence of many Christians who
IN this world felt themselves to be OF
,n,nety,nlne per cent. more Importance.
whisper will go round the galleries
OF the upper temple: Can it be possi-
ole that that was the weigher in on,
store!' Can it be possible that that
was the car driver on our street," Can
II be possible that was the sexton of our
church?" Can it be possible that is
tue man that heaved coal into on,
cellar Il never could have thought
II. what a reversal of things! We were
clear ahead of him on earth, but he is
clear ahead of us in Heaven. Why, we
had ten times more brains han he had,
we mad a thousand times more money
than he had, we had social position =
mile higher than he had, we had in
Vulnerable opportunities more than he
had, but it seems now that he accom-
Pllshed more with his one talent thar
we did with our ten;" while Solomon,
standing among the thrones, overhears
the whisper, and sees the wonderment
md will, with benignant and all-sug-
gestive smile, say, yes, it is as 1 told
the world many centuries ~ago-better is
small faculty actively used than great
talent unemployed. better is a living
dog than a dead lion.'"
The simple fact is that the world has
been, and the world is now, full of dead
hons. They are people of great capac-
lty and large opportunity, doing moth
ing Tor the improvement of society,
nothing forthe overthrow of evil, moth
ing for the salvation Of souls. Some
OF them are monetary lions. They have
accumulated SO many hundreds of thou
sands OF dollars that you can feel theil
tread when they walk through any street
or come into any circle. They can by
one financial move upset the money
| marEat- Incfnnl Of fla los, o.-oax II
their income which the Bible lays down
as the proper proportion OF the contri-
button to the cause of God, they do not
give five per cent, or three per cent.
or two per cent. or one per cent, or q
nal1 Fer cent, or a quarter per cent
mat they are lions. no m doubts
When they roar. Wall street, State
street. Lombard street, and the Bourse
tremble.
In n few years they will lie down and
die. They will have a great funeral
and a long row of fine carriages, ant
mightiest requiems will roll from the
organ, and polished shaft of Aberdeen
granite will indicate where their dus'
lies, but for all use to the world tina
man might MS we'll have never lived
AS an experiment as to how much he
can carry with him, put 1t ten cent piece
in the palm of his dead hand. and five
years after open the tomb, and you will
find that he has dropped even the ter
cent piece A lion! Yes, but a deac
lion! He left all his treasures on earth
and has no treasures in Heaven. What
shall the stone cutter put upon the
obelisk over him? I suggest, let it be
the mans name, then the date of his
birth, then the date of his death, then
the appropriate Scripture passage.
Better is q living dog than q deaG
lion"
But 1 thank God that we are having
just now an outbust of splendid beneti-
cence that is to increase until the earth
is girdled with it. 1: is spreading with
the speed of an epidemic, but with jus:
the opposite effect of an epidemic. Dc
you not notice how wealthy men are
opening free libraries and building
churches in their native village? Have
you not seen how men of large means,
instead of leaving great philanthropies
in their wills for disappointed heirs to
quarrel about and the orphan courts to
swamp, are becoming their own exc
cutors and administrators? After put
ting aside enough for their families (fol
He that provideth not for his own.
and espe cially those of his own house
hold, is worse than an intidel",, they are
saying: What can I do, not after / am
dead, but while living and in full pos
session of my faculties, to properly di-
rect the building of the churches, or the
hospitals, or the colleges, or the libra
ries that l design for the public well
fare. and while yet | have full capacity
to enjoy the satisfaction of seeing the
good accomplished" There are bad
fashions and good fashions, and,
whether good or bad, fashions are
mighty.
One of the good fashions now starting
will sweep the earth-the fashion for
wealthy men to distribute, while yet
alive, their surplus accumulation. 1t is
being helped by the fact that SO many
large estates have, Immediately after the
testator's death, gone into litigation.
Attorneys with large fees are employed
on both sides, and the case goes on
month after month, and year after year,
and after one court decides it ascends to
another court and is decided in the OPP
posite direction, and then new evidence
is found, and the trials are all repeated.
The children. who atthe fathers funeral
seemed to nave an uncomfortable grief.
| after the will is read go into elaborate
process to prove that the father was
crazy, and therefore incompetent to