Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-09-04

now-present help. l come to those OF
YOU who have lost dear friends, and say:
..Try to forget them. Do not keep the
departed always in your mind" How
can YOU forget them when every figure
in the carpet, and every book, and every
picture. and every room calls out their
name.
Suppose come to you and say by wav
of coincidence, "God is wise" ooh"
Won say, that gives me no help" Sup.
pose come to you and say. God, from
all eternity, has arranged this trouble.
"Ah.' you say, that does me no good,
Then | say, "Nith the swift feet OF
PRAYER go direct to the corncrib for
heavenly supply" You go. You say,
"Lord, help me; Lord, comfort me"
But no help yet No comfort yet 1t is
all dark. What is the matter? l have
found. You ought to go to God and
say: "Hcrc, o Lord, are the wounds OF
my soul, and | bring with me the
wounded Jesus. Let His wounds pay
for nv bereavements, His loneliness for
my loneliness, His heart break for my
heart break. o God! for the sake of the
Lord Jesus Christ-thc God. the man,
the Benjamin, the brother-dclivcr my
agonized soul. o Jesus of the weary
foot. ease my fatigue. o Jesus OF the
aching head, heal my aching head. o
Jesus of the Bethany sisters, roll away
the stone from the door of our grave"
That is the kind OF prayer that brings
help: and yet how many Of you are get
ting no help at all, for the reason that
there is in your soul, perhaps, a secret
trouble. You may never have mentioned
it to single human ear, or you may
have mentioned it to some one who is
now gone away. and that great sorrow is
still in your soul. After Washington
Irving was dead. they found little box
that contained braid Of hair and
miniature, and tho name of Matilda
Hoffman, and memorandum of her
death, and remark something like this:
1.-The world after that was blanx to
me. l went into the country, but found
no peace in solitude. tried to 20 into
society, but found no peace in society.
There has been . horror hanging over
me by night and by day, and l am afraid
to be alone"
How many unuttered troubles! No
human ear has ever heard the sorrow.
o troubled soul, want to tell you that
there is one salve that can cure the
wounds OF the heart, and that is the
salve made Of the tears Of sympathetic
Jesus. And yet some Of you will not
take this solace; and you try choral and
you try morphine and you try strong
drink and you try change of scene and
you try new business associations and
everything and anything rather than
take the divine companionship and SYM
pathy suggested by the words of my
text when it says, ''You shall not see my
face again unless your brother be with
YOU" Oh, that you might understand
something Of the height and depth and
length and breadth aud immensity and
infinity of Gods eternal consultations.
20 further and find in my subject o
hint as to the way Heaven opens to the
departing spirit. We are told that
Heaven has twelve gates, and some peo-
pie infer from that fact that all the peo-
pie will go in without reference to their
past life. But what is the use of having
a gate that is not sometimes to be shut?
The swinging of gate implies that our
entrance into Heaven is conditional. 1t is
not monetary condition. If we come
to the door of an exquisite concert we
are not surprised that we must pay a
fee, for we know that fine earthly music
is expensive; but all the oratorios of
Heaven cost nothing.
Heaven pays nothing for its music. It
is all free. There is nothing to be paid
at that door for entrance, but the con-
dition of getting into Heaven is our
bringing our divine Benjamin along with
us. Do you notice how often dying
people call upon Jesus? 1t is the usual
prayer offered-the prayer offered more
than all the other prayers put together
"Lord Jesus. receive my spirit" One of
our congregation, when asked in the
closing moments Of his life, "Do you
know us?" said: ooh, yes, l know you.
God bless you. Goodby. Lord Jesus re-
ceive my spirit" and he was gone. Oh,
yes, in the closing moments of our life
we have Christ to call upon.
II Jacobs sons had gone toward
Egypt, and had gone with the very finest
equipage, and had not taken Benjamin
along with them, and to the question
they should have been obliged to answer,
"Sir, we didn't bring him, as father
could not let him 20; we didn't want to
be bothered with him." voice from
within would have said: ''Go away
from US. You shall not have any Of
this supply. You shall not see my face
because your brother is not with you"
And ii you come.up toward the door of
Heaven at last, though we come from
all luxuriance and brilliancy of sur
roundings, and knock for admittance,
and it is found that Christ is not with
us, the police of Heaven will beat US
back from the breadhouse saying, DE
part, l never knew you.''
II Jacobs sons, coming toward Egypt,
had lost everything on the way; if they
had expended their last shekel; if they
had come up utterly exhausted to the
corncribs of Egypt, and it had been
found that Benjamin was with them all
the storehonses would have swung open
before them. And so, though by fatal
casualty VIC may be ushered into the
eternal world; though we may be weak
and exhausted by protractcd sickness
if, in THAI last moment, we can only just
stagger and faint and fall into the gate
OF Heaven-it seems that all the corn
cribs OF Heaven will open for our recep-
ton; and the Lord Of that place, seated
at His table, and all the angels of God
seated at their table, and the martyrs
seated at their table, and all our gori-
fed kindred seated at our table, the King
shall pass portion from His table to
ours, and then, while We think of the
fact that it was .IoSus who CT .%ol no -,