Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-11-23

diers who went up r. God from the
Crimean battlefieids forgotten Flor
ence Nightingale? Through all eternity
will the Northern and Southern soldiers
forget the Northern and Southern
women who administered to the dying
boys In blue and gray after the awful
fights in Tennessee and PENNSYLVANIA
and Virginia and Georgia, which turli-
ed every house and barn and shed into
a hospital and inc~arnadined the Sus-
quehanna and the James and the Chat
tahoochee and the Savannah with brave
blood! The kindness you do to others
viii stand as long In the appreciation
Of others as the gates of heaven will
stand, as the House of Many Man
sions" will stand. as long al the throne
of God will stand.
Another defect of oblivion will be
found in the character of those whom
we rescue, uplift or save. Character
Is eternal. Suppose by a right infiu-
ence we aid in transforming a bad man
into IA good man, a ~disheartened man
into q courageous man. every stroke OF
that work done will be immortalized.
There ma never be so much as II
line in a newspaper regarding it, or no
/ tIlplA Al WING uC ihdJ SNIt WiiSi'tt ~ iiSo
human ear, but wherever that soul
shall go, your work upon it shall go;
wherever that soul rises, your work
ON it will rise. and so long as that soul
will last, your work on 1T will last. Do
you suppose there will ever come such
an idiotic lapse in the history of that
soul in heaven that it shall forget that
you invited him to Christ, that you, by
prayer or gospel word, turned him
round from the wrong way to the right
way? No such insanity will ever smite
n heavenly citizen. 1t is not half as
well on earth known that Christopher
Wren planned and built st. Paurs as
it will be known in all heaven That you
were the instrumertality of building
a temple for the sky.
There is another, and a mere com.
plete defeat for oblivion. and that Is
IL the heart of God himself. You have
seen n sailor roll up his sleeve and
slow you his arm tattoed with the
figure of a favorite ship, perhaps the
first one in which he ever sailed. You
have seen a soldier roll up his sleeve
and show you his Srm tattoed with the
fiLdre of a fortress where he was gar
risoned or the face of a great general
III der whom he fought. You have seen
many a hand tattoed with the face of
n loved M before or after marriage.
This tattooipg is almost as old as the
world. At is some colored liquid pune
tured into the flesh so indelibly that
nothing can wash it out. 1t may have
been there fifty years, but when the
man goes into his coffin that picture will
go with him on hand or arm. Now,
God says that he has tattoed us upon
his hands, There can be no other
meaning in the forty-ninth chapter of
Isaiah, where God lays: Behold, L
have craven thee on the palms of my
hands, 1t was as much as TO say:
Il cannot open my hand TO help, but
/ think of you. l cannot spread abroad
I&y hands to bless, but l think of you.
Wherever | go up and down the heav-
ems | take these two pictures of you
with me. They are so inWrought into
ny being that 1 cannot lose them AS
long IA my hands last the memory of
you will last. Not on the back of my
hands, as though to announce you to
others, but on the palms of my hands
for myself to look ut and study and
love. Not en- the palm of one hand
alone, but on the palms of both hands,
for while | am looking upon one hand
and thlnkiI g of you, / must have the
other hand free to protect you, free
to strike. back your enemy, free to lift
IL you fall. Palms of my hands indeii-
bly, tattooed. And though l hold the
winds in my fist, no cyclone shall uproot
the inscription Of your name and your
face, and though | hold the ocean in
the hollow of my hand, its billowing
shall not wash out the record of my
remembrance. Behold [ have grayen
thee on the palms of my hands,"
What joy. what honor can there be
comparable to that of being remem-
bered by the mightiest and kindest and
most affectionate being in the universe.
Think of it. TO hold an everlasting place
in the heart of God. The heart OF
God. The mos beautiful palace in the
universe. Let the archangei build some
palace as grand as that il he can. Let
him crumble up all the stars of yester-
night and tomorrow night. and put
them together ms mosaics for such d
palace floor. Let him take all the sun
rises and sunsets of all the days, and
the auroras Of all the nights, and hang
them as upholstery ut it's windows.
Let him take all the rivers and all the
lakes and all the oceans, and toss them
into the fountains of this palace court.
Let him take all the gold of all the
hills and hang il in It's chandeliers.
and all the pearls of all the seas and
all the diamonds of all the fields, ana
with them arch the doorways of that
palace, and then invite into 1t all the
glories that Esther ever saw Mt a Per
sian banquet. or Daniel ever walked
amongst in Babylonian castles. or 10
seph ever witnessed in Pharaoh's throne
room, and then yourself enter this
castle of ~archangelic construction, and
see how poor a palace it is compared
with the greater palace that some of
you have already found in the heart of
a loving ard pardoning God. and into
which all the music and all the pray
ers and all the sermonic considerations
of this day are trying IT, introduce
you through the blood of the slain lamb
oh. where Is Oblivion now? From
the dark and overshadowing word that
it seemed when L began, 1t has be-
come something which 10 mar or wo-
man or child who loves the Lord need
| ever fear. Oblivion defeated. Obliy-
ion dead. Oblivion sepulehred. But l
must not be so hard on that %devouring
monster, for into its grave go all our
sins uhan fhn ORD For Cbr;St., .,I,