Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-08-07

Onc-the heroine OF my lcAt. Ole-'to
solutelv one. ] suppose whens Naomi
husband was living, and they had plcnt!
of money. and all things went we'll. they
had great many callers; but suppos,
thai after her husband died, and her prop
erty went, and she got old and poor, sht
was not troubled very much with callers
All the birds that sang in the bower
while the sun shone have gone to thell
nests, now the night has fallen.
Oh, these beautiful suntlowcrs tina!
spread out their color in the morning
hour but they are always asleep when
the sun is going down. Job had plenty
of friends when he was the richest man
in Uz; but when his property went and
the trials came, then there were none
so much that pestcred as Eliphez the
Temanitc. and Bildad the Shuttle, and
Zophar the Naamath!tc.
Life often seems to be a mere game,
where the successful player pulls down
all the other men into his own lap. Let
suspicious arise about a mans character
and he becomes like a bank in a panic,
and all tho imputations rush on him and
break down in a day that character
which in due time would have had
strength to defend itself. There are
regulations that have been half century
in building which go down under some
moral exposure, as a vast temple is con-
sumed by the touch of Il Sulphurous
match. A hog can uproot a century
plant.
In this world, so full of hcartlessness
and hypocrisy, how thrilling it is to find
some friend as faithful in days
of adversely as in days of pros
perity! David had such a friend in
Hushai: the Jews had such a friend in
Mordecai who never forgot their cause;
who visited him in Jail; Christ had such
a friend in the Marys, who adhered to
him on the cross: Naomi had such a one
in Ruth, who cried out, ''Entreat ne
not to leave thee, or to return from fol-
lowing after thee; for whittier thou go
est, will go; and where thou lodgcst, l
will lodge; thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God; where thou diest
will die, and there will be buried: the
Lord do so to me, and more also, if
aught but death part thee and me-"
Again. l learn from this subject that
paths which open in hardship and dark
ness often come out in places of joy.
When Ruth started from Moab toward
Jerusalem to go along with her mother
in-law, l suppose the people said: "Oh
what foolish creature to go away from
her fathers house, to go off with poor
old woman toward the land of Judea!
They won't live to get across the desert.
They will be drowned in the sea, or the
jackaIs of the wilderness will destroy
them" 1t was very dark morning
when Ruth started off with Naomi, but
behold her in my text in tho harvest
field OF BoaZ, to be atlianced to one of the
lords of the land, and become one of the
grandmothers of Jesus Christ, the Lord
of Glory. And so it often is that a path
which starts very darkly ends very
brightly.
When you started out for Heaven, oh,
how dark was the hour of conviction
how Sinai Numbered and devils torment
ed, and the darkness thickened! All tho
sins of your life bounced upon you, aud
it was the darkest hour you ever saw
when you first found out Your sins. AZ
ter awhile you went into the harvest
field of Gods mercy, you began to CLEAN
in the fields of divine promise, and you
had more sheaves than you could carry,
as the voice OF God addressed you, say
ing: "Blessed is the man whose trans
gressions are forgiven and whose sins
are covered" A very dark starting in
a very bright ending in the
pardon, and the hope, and the triumph
OF the Gospel!
So, very often in our worldly business
or in our spiritual career, we start off on
a very dark path. We must 20. The
flesh may shrink back, but there is a
voice within, or voice from above, say
ing, 'You must go;'' and we have to
drink the gall, and we have to carry the
cross, and we have to traverse the desert,
and we are pounded and failed of mis-
representation and abuse, and we have
to urge our way through ten thousand
obstacles that have to be slain by our
own right arm. We have to ford the
river, we have to climb the mountain,
we have to storm the castle; but, blessed
be God, the day Of rest and reward will
come.
On the tiptop of the captured battle
ments we will shout the victory; if not
in this world, then in that world where
there is no gall to drink, no burdens to
carry, no battles to fight. How do I
know it? Know it, I know it because
God says so. '"They shall hunger no
more, neither thirst any more, neither
Shall the sun light on them, nor any
heat, for the Lamb which is in the midst
OF the throne shall lead them to living
fountains of water, and God shall wipe
all tears from their eyes,"
1t was very hard for Noah to endure
the scoifing of the people in his day
while he was trying to build the ark,
and was every morning quiZzed about
his old boat that would never be of any
practical use; but when the deluge came,
and the tops of the mountains disap-
peared like the backs of sea monsters,
and the elements, dashed up in fury,
clapped their hands over drowned
world, then Noah in the ark rejoced in
his own safety and in the safety of his
family. and looked out on the wreck of a
ruined earth.
Christ, bounded of prosecutors, denied
a pillow, worse maltreated than the
thieves on either side of the cross, hu.
man hate smacking its lips in satisfaction
after it had been draining his last drop
OF blood, the sheeted dead bursting from
the sepulchers at his crucifXion. Tell
me, 0 Gethsemane and Golgotha! were
there ever darker times than those:
Like the booming of the midnight sea
against the rocks, the surges OF Christ's
anguish beat against the gates of eternity