The Opelousas courier., 1891-01-03

1.0t u Sue valley IS plenty of waterr'
~ Iepled Jacob, that is all true. but
suppose my n%elghbors should get angereJ
AGAINST me and cut off my supply of mount
an beverage, what would I do, and what
"ouId my family do, and what would INV
hooks and herds do? Forward, We brigade os
plckaxes and erowbars, and 90 down into fine
uepbns OF these rocks and make me indenend-
Z 81 AL except him who fills the bottles of
Ols clouds must have my own wellp'
5ouns man., drop cigars and cigarettes
au9 VINE cups and the Sunday excursions.
nna ouu1 your own house, and have your
""h wardrobe, and be your own capitalist
why, have only five hundred dollars in
come a Year, says some one. Then spend
r LOU nundred dollars OF it in living, and ten
per cent. OF 1t, or fifty dollars, In beneyo-
fence, and the other fifty in beginning to
Dug your w well Or if you have a thou
a dollars a year spend eight hundred
collars OF 1t in living, ten per cent, or one
hundred dollars, in benevo1ence, and the re-
manning one hundred in beginning to dig your
" Well. The largest bird that ever few
through the air was Matched out of one egg.
ana Ghe greatest estate was brooded out Of
one dollar.
l suppose when Jacob began to dig this
Wen, on whose curb we are now seated this
december noon,it was a dry season then as
now, and some one comes up and saws:
Now Jacob, suppose you get the well fifty
feet deep or two hundred feet deep and thera
should be no water to fill it. would Won not
feel siilvF" People passing along the road
and loo4ing down from Mount Gerizim or
Q Ebal near by would laugh and saw.
h is Jacobs well, a great hole in the
rocK, Illustrating the mans folly.n Jacob
replied: There never has been a well in
Palestine or any other country that once
thoroughly dug was not sooner or later filed
from the clouds, and this win be no excen-
tion.i'
FOR months after Jacob had completed the
we'll people went by, and out Of resuect for
the deluded old man put their hand over
Their mouth to hide a smoker, and the well
remained as dry as the bottom Of a kettle
That mad been hanging over the fire for three
hours. But one day the sun was drawing
water, and the wind got round to the east
II 1T began to drizzle, and then great drops
splashed all over the well curb. and the
heavens opened their reservoir and the rainy
season poured its foodsfor six weeks. and
there came maidens to the well with empty
pals and carried them away full. and the
canels thrust their mouths into the trourhs
and were satisfied, and the water was in the
well three feet deep, and fifty feet deep, and
" hundred feet deep, and all the Bedouins
OF the neighborhood and all the passersby
realized that Jacob was wise in having his
" well. MY nearer, it is your part to dig
your own well, and it is Gods part to ELL it.
You do your part and He will do His part.
Much is said about good luck" but peo-
pie who are Industrious and 81 denying all
most always have good luck. You can af-
ford to be laughed at because of your appli-
cation and economy, for when you get your
well dug and filled it viii be your turn to
laugh.
But look up from this famous well and
see two mountains and the plain between
them, on which was gathered the largest
religious audience that ever assembled on
earth, about five hundred thousand people,
Mount Gerizim, about eight hundred feet
high, on one side, and on the other Mount
Ebal, the former called the Mount of Bless
ing and the latter called the Mount of
Cursing. At Joshuas command six tribes
stood on Mount Gerizim and read he
blessings for keeping the law, and six
tribes stood on Mount Ebal reading the
curses Tor DreaR1ng the law, while the hvs
hundred thousand people on the plain cried
Amen with an emphasis that must v
made the earth tremble. II do not believe
that, says some one, stfor those
tops are two miles apart, and how could a
voice be heard from top to top?' My answer
isthat while the tops are two miles apart,
the bases of the mountains are only half a
mile apart, and the tribes stood On the sides
of the mountains, and the air is SO clear and
the acoustic qualities of this great natural
amphitheatre SO perfect that voices can be
distinctly heard from mountain to mount
ain, as has been demonstrated by travellers
fifty timesin the last fifty years.
Can you imagine anything more thrilling
and sublime and overwhelming than what
trauspired on those W mountain sides. and
in the plain between, when the responsive
service went on and thousands of voices on
Mount Gerizim cried, Blessed shalt thou be
I'm the city, and blessed shalt thou be In the
fields, blessed shall be thy basket and thy
store and then from Mount Ebal, thousands
of voices responded, CRYING: Cursed be he
that removeth his neighbours landmark
Cursed be he that maketn the blind to wan.
der out of the way and then there rolled up
from all the spaces between the mountains
that one word with which the devolt OF earth
close their prayers and the glorided OF heaven
finish their doxologies, "Annenl
that scene only to be surpassed BY the
times which are coming, when the churches
and the academies of music and the audi
forums of earth, no longer large enough to
hold the worshipers of God; the parks, the
mountain sides, the great natural amphlthe-
atresof the valleys, shall be filled with the
~outpouring populations OF the earth and
mountain shall reply to mountain. as Mount
Gerizim to Mount Ebal, and all the people
between shall ascribe riches and honor and
glory and dominion and victory to God the
lamb. and there shall arise an amen like the
booming of the heavens mingling with the
thunder of the seas.
On and o. we ride, until now we have
come to Shiloh, a dead city on a hill sur
rounded by rocks, sheep, goats, olive gardens
and VINEYARDS. Here good Eli fell backward
and broke his neck, and lay dead at the news
from his bad boys. Phineas and Hophni; q
life is rot worth living after ones children
have turned out badly, and more fortunate
was Eli. instantly expiring under such It'd
ings. than those parents who, their children
recreant and profiigate, live on with broken
hearts to see them going down into deeper
and deeper plunge. There are fathers and
mothers here to-day to whom death would 20
happy release because of their recrea1t SOFAS.
And If there be recreant sons mere pTesenLs
and your parents be far away, why nob DOW
vonr head in repentance, and at the close OF
this service cote the telegraph ONCE and pup
it on the wing Of the lightning that You nave
turned from your evil wayS? Before anoDhar
twentY-four hourshave passed take your fess
off the sad hearts OF the old nomestea1.
Home to thy God, o prodigali
Many, many letters DO ! ges u puE Loya aos
heard from him for some time; we tear some.
fhing il wrong: hunt him up and say a good
word to him: his mother is almost crazy ABOUT
him. ia a q child of many prayers. But now
can + hunt him up unless he be IN TINS aual
ence? Where are you, my boyg IN we hiaLn
floor. or on this platform. or IN these ooAes;
or in these great galleries! Wnsle 80 80,
lift outright hand. Ihayea message from
homa. Your father is anxious about 9
yo11r mother is prayiug for you. our eoa
i callinu for you. Or will you wait until ~
sslIs hsehk 1isS!s sss ss1 as lie sf - bear ssss'ass n y J
story to tel in eternity that You killed nerl
NV fsodi Avert that catastrophe! !.
but / turn from this Shiloh OF ELS sud