Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-08-14


tcsseIated, and its wall was picture
gallery. [ found his death chamber
adorned with tapestry until it seemed as
if the clouds of the setting sun had set
tied in the room. The man had given
forty years to the world-his wit, his
time, his genius, his talent, his soul.
Did the world come in to stand by his
deathbed and clearing off the Walls OF
bitter medicine, put down any compen-
sation? Oh, no! The world does not
like sick and dying people, and leaves
them in the lurch. 1t ruined this man,
and then left him. He had magnifi-
cent funeral. All the ministers wore
scarfs, and there were forty-three car
riagcs in a row; but the departed man
appreciated not the obseqGies.
want to persuade my audience that
this world is poor investment;
that it does not pay 90per cent. of salts
faction, nor so per cent, nor 20 per cent,
nor per cent, nor L; that it gives no
solace when dead babe lies on your
lap; that it gives no peace when con-
science rings its alarm; that it gives no
explanation in the day of dire trouble,
and at the time of your decease it takes
hold Of the pillow case and shakes out
the feathers, and then jolts down in the
place thereof signs and groans and exc
crations, and then makes you put your
head on it.
Oh, we who have tried this world, is it
a satisfactory portion? Would you ad-
wise your friends to make the invest
ment? No. Eye have sold yourselves
for naught?" Your conscience went.
| Your hope went Your Bible went
Your Heaven went Your God went.
When sheriff under writ from the
court sells man out, the officer gener-
ally leaves few chairs and bed, and a
few cups and knives; but in this awful
vendue in which you have been engaged
the auctioneer's mallet has come down
upon body, mind and soul. Going!
Gone! Eye have sold yourselves for
naught."
How could you do so? Did you think
that your soul was mere trinket which
for few pennies you could buy in toy
shop? Did you think that your soul, If
once lost, might BIZ found again If you
went out with torches and lanterns?
! Did you think that your soul was short
lived, and, that painting, it would soon
| lie down for extinction? Or had you no
idea what your soul was worth? Did
you ever put your fore-ingers on eternal
| pulses? Have you ever felt the culver
of its peerless wing? Have you not
known that, after leaving the body, the
first step Of your soul reaches to the
stars, and the next step to the farthest
outposts of Gods universe, and that it
will not die until the day when the ever,
lasting Jehovah expires? Oh, my
brother, what possessed you that you
should part with your soul so cheap?
eye have sold yourselves for naught."
But have some good news to tell you.
want to engage in litigation for the
recovery of that soul of yours. Iwant to
show that you have been cheated out of
it. I want to prove, as will, that you
were crazy on that subject and that the
world, under such circumstances, had no
right to take the title deed from you,
and If you will JON me l shall get de-
cree from the High Chancery Court of
Heaven reinstating you into the posses
sion of your soul. ''Oh," you say, 81 am
afraid of lawsuits; they are so expensive,
and cannot pay the cost" Then have
you forgotten the last half of my text?
''Ye have sold yourself for naught; and
We shall be redeemed without money!
Money is good for great many things,
but it cannot do anything in this matter
OF the soul. You cannot buy your way
through. Dollars and pounds sterling
mean nothing at the gate of mercy. II
you could buy your salvation. Heaven
would be great speculation, an ex-
tension of Wall street. Bad men would
go up and buy out the place, and leave
us to shift for ourselves. But as money
is not a lawful tender, what is? will
answer, Blood! Whose? Are we to go
through the slaughter? Oh, no; it wants
richer blood than ours. 1t wants a
kings blood. 1t must be poured from
royal arteries. 1t must be sinless tor
rent.
But where is the king? see great
many thrones and great many occu-
pants, yet none seem to be coming down
to the. rescue. But after awhile the
clock of night in Bethlehem strikes
twelve, and the silver pendulum of a
star swings across the sky, and see the
King of Heaven rising up, and he de-
sends, and steps down from star to star,
and from cloud to cloud, lower and
lower, until He touches the sheep-co7-
cred hills, and then on to another hill
this last skull-shaped, and there, at the
sharp stroke of persecution, rill in
| carnadine trickles down, and we who
could not be redeemed by money are re-
deemed by precious and imperial blood
We have in this day professed Chris
tians who are SO raretied and ethereal
lied that they do not want a religion of
blood. What do You want? You seem
to want religion of brains, The Bible
says, SIN the blood is the life" No
atonement without blood. Ought not
the apostle to know? What did he say?
Eye are redeemed not with corruptible
things, such as silver and gold, but by
the precious blood of Christ" You put
your lancet into the arm of our holy re-
ligion and withdraw the blood, and YOU
leave it mere corpse, fit only for the
grave. Why did God command the
priests of old to strike the knife into the
kid, and the goat, and the pigeon, and
the bullock, and the lamb? 1t was so
that when the blood rushed out from
+! these animals on the floor of the ancient
tabernacle the people should be COM
PEELED to think of the coming carnage of
the Son of God No blood, no atone
| ment.
think that God intended to impress
us with vividness of that color. The
green OF the grass, the blue of the sky.
would not have started and aroused us
| like this deep crimson IT is as If God