St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-09-26
Pen Picture Of a Peculiar In
Stitution in q Great Me- 4
tropolis. =
Tale Of a Wanderer Who Had
Dpifted to a Safe 81
Harbor. =
The Parable Of the Prodigal
Realized and Its Lessons
Applied. 3f

lell III necessary 10 make some account
of it for his congregation. He described
a trip down street of the city of San
Francisco on one night of the past sum
mer-a street brilliantly lighted and
well lined in the basement quarters
with SaloonS-where he found the an
nouncement painted on the windows,
"The Salvation Dive" Struck by curl
Osity, he went down and found there
motley aSsembiage of people, who were
attending meeting of the Salvation
Army. After noting the various people
who were there-the miner. the sailor
and the adventurer-and after listen
ing to their rude experience. it
seemed to the preacher that these peo-
pie were telling over again the expert
ence of the prodigal, and he felt the
force all the more as he listened to the
young woman VINO led the meeting. and
who constantly appealed to the memo
rieS that these men carried with them
of happier days, when life was kinder.
when nature, friends and conditions did
more for them, and when they, too, were
responsive to the calls of the nobler in
StinctS of humanity.
The Quiekened interest of the preacher
once awoke, followed closely the his
tory of each mimi, and it seemed to him
that there was marked and remark
able uniformity in all that was said;
but his interest centered in gray
haired EngliShman, who rose toward
the close of the meeting, and gave his
experience, which was wide one, in a
clear manner and in such way as to
impress one with the idea that he was a
representative of the entire company.
He had been one of those
Restless Boys
who are like the Arne of BjornStern,
always singing, what Shall | See if
] Ever Go Over the Mountains High?'
One of those who think the home cage:
where the bird-wingS are clipped and
| his fight hlndered-one of the restless
kind who must travel distant lands and
distant seas until he finds his Eidorado,
or his dinner of huskS. lie carried US
with him 10 the Liverpool docks. We
boarded the ship and saw his mother as
she kissed the strong-limbed. full
cbested, handsome boy. We watched
the ship drop down the river. and saw
her sailors among the ShroudS; we
waited until she headed for the ocean,
and was on her way to distant Austria
liza.
Then he asked us to pause with him
and become acquainted with his home
sickness. He related all the emotions
he felt as memory brought back his
| past lapseS from kindness. He felt very,
deeply the separation that he saw be-
fore him, and counted the rolling seas
that :nuSt hereafter stand as lock and
key to the door Of home. But he
showed us how these feelings died
away, and how he grew eager to see the
strange, distant land, with its forests
of trees peculiar to itself. its strange
animals and birds, its many things Pc
cullar and attractive.
Landing us with him he tried to show
us the peculiar manner in which the
! gold-craZe affected every one; especially
OH account of the fact that gold was
from the finding of it elsewhere,
the nuggets being detached and often
hidden in loose soil. He was inf1amed
by the fortune of the men who with one
stroke of the pick unearthed a nugget
worth $4,000. aud soon was eagerly fol-
lowing the rough ways of the rude
camps. Then he related the Influence
that men had Oh him who had been con-
nected with the penal colonies. Many
of them sent there had married the
transported women, and so
A Strange Population
had grown up. And this population was
bitter against the great world because
| it was OutcaSt, and was strong by its
| training and inherent gifts. All these
| influences carried him to the point
where he was against all civilized order;
! where he was reckless and took pride
| in defying established laws; and where
he boldly defed all the powers
| that might come against him to do
their worst. He tasted of all
dissipation. He supposed he was flint
| and steel against all good influences.
The first consciousness he had of any
| thing that was not as it should be in his
| relation to conditions came III the feel
| ing of disgust with his accomplishment.
! Then in one way or another he had con-
| ccived pity for those who, like him.
self, were madly rushing into life tue
end OF which they did not fully appre-
ciate, and so he was willing for these
| reasons to stand up and give his teSti-
! mony.
Such was the history, said the
| speaker, and such the conclusions of
| the man: and the speaker felt that it
was also found, word for word, in the
New Testament parable: and he felt
| that It was something worthy Of study.
And then he sat down to see if there
was any confederation of this idea i'll
other lines of research. He was glad
TO believe that the truth is written in
the very constitution of the world, and
! that every one who is willing to teach
| the young the ways of righteousness
| could find that history written on all
! the pages of human experience. For"
said the speaker, there is law that is
| called by modern scholars the
Law OF Rhyti.mIcal Action,
| that fully bears out the experience of
| these men who never heard of it, and of
| the Biblical parable that declared it out
| of the instructive knowledge of the
| author. The steel cruiser lifts her flag
| as she passes the guns of the fortress:
exposes it to the breeze, and the breeze
| gently waves it, showing the rhythm
| OF motion. The tue that flows In to-
! day, comes with musical reg
| uiarity. and it is moved also
| by lunar and solar attraction. The
| movement OF population has its period
/ OF action and repoSe. or action and re-
action. Prices are Influenced in the
! same way. Our joy seems b0undleSs,
| but it Will most likely be followed by
! misgiving and by depression. Our
grief comes in waves, in storms like the
sand storms of the desert. Then we are
quiet until it breaks out again. So, as
Mr.. Spencer mas shown, is all our life
all our experience. And he has shown
us again that when there comes the re-
turn OF the past, as it always does come,
there comes with it always modificd-
tion-the Skepticism of OAR century diff
ferRg entirely fr0ul that of the former
century-the idea OF monarchy coming
! to the surface, but greatly modified.
And here we want 10 make the apps
| plication to our present conditions.
There is time when man doing and
living wrong is like man freezing in
the snow. He is unconscious of the
deatll-proeesseS that are going On within
him. But the great law of rhythmical
action and reaction, grounded in his
very constitution, that man keeps in his
insensibiliiy until he gets 10 swine-feed-
i,,Ir 1,nlif L.. A1,ill .rIalI,. ON FIN