Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-12-21
cutting its way out toward the surface

be burned up. when all scientists will
tell YOU that it has for ages been on
fire. Why. there is only crust be-
tween Us and the furnaces inside rag
ing to get out. Oh ivion. The world
itself will roll into it as easily as q
schoolboy's India rubber ball rolls
down hill, and when our world goes
1t is SO interlockcd by the law of gavita-
ton with other worlds that they will
go, too, and SO far from having our
memory perpetuated by monument
of Aberdeen granite in this world.
there is no world in sight of our strong
est telescope that will be sure pedi-
ment for any slab of commemoration
of the fact that we ever lived or died
at all. Our earth is struck with death.
The axletree Of the consultations will
other worlds. Stellar, lunar. solar
mortality. Oblivion. 1t can swallow
and will swallow whole galaxies of
worlds as easily Us crocodile takes
down a frog.
Yet oblivion does not remove or
swallow anything that had better not
be removed or swallowed. The old
monster is welcome to his meal This
world would long ago have been over
crowded If it had not been for the
merciful removal of nations and gen.
eratiOns.
A few days ago, visiting the place OF
my bOyhood, met one whom had not
seen since we played together at 10
years of age, and had peculiar pleas.
ure in puzzling him little as to who
| was, and l can hardly describe the
sensation as after awhile he mumbled
out: Let me see. Yes, you are De
Witt" We all like to be remembered.
Now, | have to tell you that this OBJ
livion Of which l have spoken has its
defeats, and that there is no more rea-
son why we should not be distinctly
and wildly and gloriously remembered
quadrillion quintillion years from now
than that we should be remembered
six weeks. l am going to tell you how
the thing can be done.
Something That Cannot lie Enaced.
We may build this "everlasting re-
membrance, as my text styles it, into
the supernal existence of those to
whom we do kinGnesses in this world.
You must remember that this infirm
and treacherOus faculty which we now
call memory is in the future state to DO
complete and perfect. "Everlasting
remembrance" Nothing will slip the
stout grip of that celestial faculty.
Did you help q widow pay her rent?
prison place to get honest work? Did
you pick up a child fallen on the curb
stone, and by stick of candy put in his
hand stop the hurt on his scratched
knee? Did you assure a business man,
swampcd by the stringency Of the
money market. that times after awhile
would be better?
Did you lead Magdalen of the street
into midnight mission, where the
Lord said to her, "Neither DO l con-
denim thee; go and sin no more?"' Did
you tell a man, clear discouraged in his
waywardness and hopeless and plotting
suicide, that for him was near by u
LAYER in which ne might wash and a
corOnet of eternal blessedness he mi light
wear? What are epitaphs in grave
yards, what are euIogiums in presence
of those whose breath is in their nos
trils. what are unread biographies in
the alcOves of a city library. compared
with the imperishable records you
have made in the illumined memories
OF those to whom you did such kind
nesses? Forget them? They cannot
forget them.
notwithstanding all their might and
splendor, there are some things the
gloritied of Heaven cannot do, and this
is one of them. They cannot forget
an earthly kindness done. They have
no cutlass to part that cable. They
have no strength to nurl into oblivion
that benefaction. Has Paul forgotten
the inhabitants of Malta who extended
the island hospitality when he and
others with him had felt, added to a
shipwreck, the drenching rain and the
sharp cold? Has the victim of the
highwayman on the road to Jericho
forgotten the Good Samaritan with u
medicament of oil and wine and free
ride to the hostelry? Have the En-
glish soldiers who went up to God
from the Crimean battlefields forgot
ten Florence Nightingale?
Through all eternity will the North
ern and Southern soldiers forget the
Northern and Southern women who
administered to the diving boys in blue
and gray after the awful fights in Ten
nessee, and Pennsylvania and Virginia,
and Georgia, which turned every house
and barn and shed into hospital and
incarnadined the Susquehanna. and
the James, and the ChattahOoc hee and
the Savannah with brave blood? The
kindness you do to others will stand as
long in the appreciation of others as
the gates of Heaven will stand, as the
House of Many Mansions will stand
~ long as the throne of God will stand
Character is Eternal.
Another defeat Of oblivion will be
found in the character of those whom
We rescue, uplift, or save. Character
Is eternal. Suppose by right influ-
ence we aid in Transforming bad man
into good man, a dolOrous man into a
happy man, disheartened man into a
courageous man-every stroke of that
work done will be immOrtalized. There
may never be so much as one line in a
newspaper regarding it, or no mortal
tongue may ever whisper it into hui
man ear, but wherever that soul shall
go, your work upon it shall go, wher-
ever that soul rises your work on it
will rise, and so long as that soul will
last your work on it will last
Do you suppose. there will ever come
such an idiotic lapse in the history of
that soul in Heaven that it shall for
get that you invited him to Christ: that