Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1894-03-01

Iiyulets. u OF these pa SseS GOWN Nto
the rivers which pour out into the Pa
cifc Ocean and the other riyulet flow
ing down into the rivers which pass
out into the Atlantic Ocean? Every
man, every woman. stands at a point
where words uttered. or deeds done,
or prayers offered. decide opposite des-
TIMES and opposite eternities. We see
a man planting a tree, and treading
the sod firmly on either side Of IL, and
watering il in dry weather, and taking
a great care in its culture, and he ~
! piucks any fruit from its bough; but
his children viii We are al planting
trees that win yield fruit hundreds Of
years after we are dead; orchards OF
/ golden fruit. or groves of deadly upas.
I am so fascinated with the phosphor-
escence in the track Of n ship that /
have sometimes watched for a long
while. and have seen nothing N the
face OF the deep but blackness. The
mouth of watery chasms that looked
like gaping Jaws of hell. Not a spark
as big as a firefly; not q white scroll
of surf; not n taper TO illuminate the
mighty sepulchers of dead ships: dark
ness 5000 feet deep, and more thou
saIds Of fctt long and wide. That is
the kind If wake that a bad M leaves
behind him as he plows through the
ocean OF this life toward the yaster
ocean OF the great future.
No, suppose u man seated in a cor
ner grocer. or business Office among
clerks, gives himself TO jolly SknnticiSin.
He laughes at the Bible. makes sport
or the miracles. speaks OF perditiOn
In jokes. and laughs at reviyals as a
frolic. n nj the passage Of . funeral
procession. which always ~scleuniZcs
sensible people. says, Boys. let's take
4 drink" There is In that group a
yCOng man who IL making a great
struggle against temptation. and prays
night and morning. and reads his Bible
and is asking God for help day by
day. But that guffaw against Christi
anity makes him lose his gfip of ST.
cred things and he gives up Sabbath.
aad church. and morals. and Gpes from
bad 10 worse. until he fails into dis
sipations, CeS in n laZar house and Is
buried in the pOttcr's field. Another
young man who heard that jolly skep-
ticism made III his mind that 1T makes
no difference what we do or say, for
we will ell come u at last at the
right place" began, as n consequence,
TO purloin. Some money that came into
his hands for others he applied to his
WI uses, thinking perhaps he would
make IL straight some other time. and
all would be well even IL he did not
make 1t straight. He ends in the peni-
tertiary. That scofTar who uttered the
jokes against Christianity never real
lied what bad work he was doing. and
he passed on through life. and out of
IL, and into a future that I am not
now going TO depict. / do not propose
with n search light 10 show the break
ers or the awful coast on which that
ship Is wrecked, for my business now
Is TO watch the sea after the keel has
plowed IL. No phosphorescence in the
wake OF that ship. but behind il two
souls struggling in the wave; two young
men destroyed by reckless skepticism:
an unillumined ocean beneath, and on
all sides Of them. BlackHess Of dark
ness. You know what a gloriously
good man Rev. John Newton was. the
most OF his life. but before his CONVEX
sion he was a very wicked sailor, and
on board the ship Harwich. instilled in
fidelity and vice in the mind of q young
man, principles which destroyed him.
Afterward the two met and Newton
tried 10 undo his bad work. but In vain.
The young man became worse and
worse, and died a pr~ofigate. horrify-
ing with his p~rofanities those who
stood by him in his last moments. Bet
ter look out what bad influence you
start, for you may not be able to stop
IT. 1t does not require very great
force TO ruin others. WHY was Ii that
many years ago a great food nearly
destroyed New Orleans? A crawfsh
had burrowed into the banks of the
river until the ground was saturated.
and the banks weakened until the
flood burst.
But l find here n man who starts
out In life with the determination that
he VIII never 9 suffering but will
try to alleviate II: and never see dis
enlargement but he will try to cheer Ii:
n never meet with ANYBODY but he
viii try 10 do him good. Getting his
strength from God. he starts from
home with high purpose of doing all
the good he can possibly do in a day.
whether standing behind thu counter.
or talking In the business office with
a pen behind his ear. or making a
bargain with a fellow trader, or out In
'he fields discussing with his next
neiEhEor h wlsest rotation of crcps,
or in the shoemaker's shop pounding
sole leather, there Is something in his
face, and in his ~phraseolOgy, and IA his
manner that demonstrates the grace Of
God in his heart. He can talk on re-
ligion without awkwardly dragging it In
by h ears He loves God. and loves
the souls Of all whom he meets. and
IS interested in their present and eter-
nal destiny. For fifty or sixty years he
lives that kind of life and then gets
through with il and COS into heaven
a ransomed soul. But | am not going
TO describe the port into which that
ship has entered. L aln not going TO
describe the pilot who met BIN outside
at the 'lightship." 1 am not going TO
say anything about the crowds of
fiiends who met him on the crystalline
wharves up which he goes on steps
or chrysopraseS. For God in his words
TO Job calls me TO look at the path
of foam In the wake of that ship, and
l tell YOU IL Is all a-gleam with splen-
doris of kindness done and rolling with
iilumined tears that were wiped away,
and a-dash with congratulations, and
clear out to the horizon in all directions
Is the sparkling, flashing. billowing
phosphorescence Of a Christian life.
x maketh a path 10 shine after him.