St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-04-21
A Picture of the Seer and
the Early Indiana
Girls.
He Discourses Upon the Sub
ject Of Debt in It's AS
poets,
With Practical Conclusions
That Are Good Out Of
Dakota.

une teller, pr0pQeSled That some day /
would preach.
Whether she based her prophecy on
my religious look, or regularity in at
tending church, | cannot say.
AS there are great many prophecies,
written and unwrltten, which have
here and inquire if any of the prophets
ever made mistakes. Or haven't we a
right to do this? AS development is ex-
tremely slow in some cases, Judgment
can't be passed before the end of time.
Only waiting till the last moment will
decide. Prophecy is like everything
else in the distance. 1t is not perfectly
clear till we get to it; then, sometimes,
it is too clear.
must either preach before | die, or
Mrs. Summers must record blank in
her book of predictions. Put down a
black mark against her record-wOuld
it be right to allow woman to do this?
| had almost forgotten her until re-
ceiving the following letter.
Sock Town, Ind, April l, 1o90.-Budd
Reeve-Dear Sir: am now over ninety
years old, and not in the best of health.
All my prophecies have either come
wholly or mostly true, excepting in your
case. And as you have quite number
of years left yet, in the ordinary run of
human events, am still hopeful of not
missing the mark altogether in your
case.
shall beninety-One next Sunday. and
as my record as prophecies is about all
shall have to leave in this world or
take to the next, | wish [ could know
whether you ever feel anything like
preaching. Yours sincerely.
MATILDA SUMMERS.
If this doesn't put fellow in COM
plicated nice fix and force religion on to
him, what could?
1 must either preach OF leave scar
on Mrs. Summers reputation as a
prophecies.
If | should get swallowed up by
whale. or blown away by cyclone on
the prairie, it would probably be said
it was because | rebelled against the
law and prophecies. | wish to he
honest and fair. and speak respectfully
of Mrs. Summers. and do all possible to
help preserve her professional reputa-
ton. But as l look back, can see
where, possibly, she might be mistaken,
especially If she based her prophecy on
my regularity In attending church. 1t
pigs in the garden and the COWS in the
corn to get there early.
This was considered unusual devotion
in one SO young. But regularity in at
tending church is not always positive
proof OF pure and permanent religion.
l wish it were.
Religion is considerably like every
thing else. 1t comes and goes and
keeps making new and different i'm
pressions. There has to be a constant
Watch and Fight
kept up all the time to keep it from get
ting away, and with all the singing,
preaching and praying that can be
done sometimes it will leave man.
This, perhaps, is because he is too
slippery to hold it,
Some people doubt whether every
thing in the Bible was inspired or not.
There Is one thing certain-it aims to
tell the truth. Whatever took place is
put down for or against every one, ire
spective of birth or rank, just as it hap
pened. There is no covering up or doc
misrepresent the lOw-the faults of the
rich and wise are pointed out as we'll
as the poor and humble. The Bible re-
cords the faults and sins of every one
alike. This is merit and virtue of the
highest order, if notinspiration, and en-
titles it to place above all other books.
We can't lie when we come down to
religious matters and the Bible.
While my attendance at church was
something phenomenal in regularity at
young and tender age, it would not be
honest not to state that there were
others there besides myself and the
preacher. The belle of Sock Town at
tended just as regularly as | did--and
she was belle, too.
Thirty years ago young girls and old
maids didn't dress as they do now.
You could tell then whether female
on long dresses before about twenty
one. And the old-fashioned sun-bonnet
and pantalets were not shed for a
church dress till after she was sixteen.
a full-6edged, old-fashioned Indiana
sun-bonnet, such as the belle of Sock
Town appeared in at church, fixed out
with paStebOardi stays, would have
made respectable cover for modern
baby carriage. And the pantalets gave
the lower eXtremitieS something of the
appearance of well-deyeloped arctic
owl.
When I went to church early and
often it was supposed to be all religion.
But oh how my heart goes back to the time
When 1 piously listened for the bell chime.
1t was signal. not to forget,
To meet on the corner the girl In pantalets.
If Mrs. Summers had known this, per-
hapS she would have prOphesied differ
emily. [ trust these remarks will not
be construed to reflect any discredit
upon the Sock Town prophecies, for |
may preach yet-Stranger things have
happened. will not attemptit through
the pulpit, but see how short sermon
will look in newspaper first.
The text may be found from the first
to the seventh verse of the fourth chap
ter of Second Kings: "There cried
certain woman unto Elisha. The creditor
is come to take unto him my two sons
to be boudsmen. And thine handmade
hath not anything in the house save
pot of OIL And he said, Go borrow thee
vessels of all thy Deighbors, even
out into all those vessels, and set aside
those which are FULL And it came to
pass, when the vessels were full, she
said unto her son, Bring me yet YES
SELL And he said, There is not YES
sci more And the oil stayed. Then
she came and told the man of God, and
He said, Go. sell the Oil, and pay thy
debt. and live, thou and thy children, off
the rest"
How many creditors are standing to-
day, not only to take the SONS, but the
old man, and the old woman. and the
whole family as
Bondsmen for Debt?
And where is the oil. OF the man of
God to bring it forth to redeem the
debtors? The great oppression and
everlasting cloud hanging over ma
jority of people to-day is debt.
1t is dWarfing more souls and destroy
ing more of the finer elements of human
nature than all the other causes of evil
combined. The kindness of the creditor
and the low rate of interest does not
always relieve. A state of debt is
state of slavery. The Bible says: THE
rich ruleth over the poor, and the bor-
rover is servant to the lender" What
would give men and women such I'M
bounded happiness, such great Joy, as
to tell them all they were out of debt?