The Red Cloud chief., 1894-03-02

or @ no he decided some ones eternity.
In time Of temptation he gave an affirm
alive or q negative to some temptation
which another, hearing Of, was induced
to decide in the same a
Clear on the other side Of tho next
million years may be the first you hear
of the long reaching influence of that
yes or no, but hear of it you will. Will
that father make a path to shine after
him? Will that mother make a path to
shine after herr You will be walking
along these streets or along that country
road 200 years from now in the character
Of your descendants. They will be affect
ed by your courage or your cowardice,
your purity or your ~depravity, your holt
ness or your sin. You will make the path
to shine after you or blacken after you.
Why should they point out to us on
some mountain two rivulets, one Of
which passes down into the rivers which
pour out into the Pacific ocean, and the
other rivulet flowing down into the rivers
which pass out into the Atlantic ocean,
Every man, every woman, stands at q
point where words uttered, or deeds
done, or prayers offered, decide opposite
destinies and opposite e~ternities. We see
q man planting a tree, and treading sod
firmly on either side Of it, and watering
it In dry weather, and taking a great
care in its culture, and he never plucks
any fruits from its bough. But his chill.
dren will. We are all planting trees
that will 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 o ship that l have
sometimes watched for a long while and
have seen nothing on 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 the FREELY;
not a white scroll of surf; not a taper to
illuminate the mighty sepulchers of dead
ships; darkness 5000 feet deep, and more
thousands of feet long and wide. That
is the kind of wake that a bad man leaves
behind him as he plows through the
ocean Of this life toward the vaster ocean
Of the great future.
THE GROWTH OF SIN.
Now, suppose a man seated in q cor.
ner grocery or business Office among
clerks gives himself to jolly skepticism.
He laughs at the Bible, makes sport OF
the miracles, speaks Of perdition in
Jokes and laughs at ~revivals as q frolic,
and at the passage of a funeral process
sion, which always solemnizes sensible
people, says, "Boys, let's take a drink
There is in that group q young man who
is making a great struggle against temp
tation and prays night and morning and
reads his Bible and is asking God fol
help day by day. But that guffaw
against Christianity makes him lose hi
grip Of sacred things, and he gives W
Sabbath and church and morals ant
goes from bad to worse, till he falls un
der designations, dies in q lazar hous,
snd'is buried in the potter's field.
Another young man who heard thai
jolly skepticism made up his mind tina
cit makes no difference what we do O.
say, for we will all come out at last at tn,
right place." and began as a consequence
to purloin. Some money that came int
his hands for others he applied to hi
own uses, thinking perhaps he woult
make 1t straight some other time, an.
all would be well even il he did no
make it straight. He ends in the peni
Tertiary. That scoffer who uttered tn
jokes against Christianity never realize,
what bad work he wac doing, and h
passed on through life and out Of il an,
: into q future that l am not now going h
, depict,
do not propose with a searchlight +
; show the breakers of the awful coast o.
which that ship is wrecked, for my bust
: ness now is to watch the sea after tn
keel has plowed it. No phospherescenc
: in the wake Of that ship, but behind !
2 two souls struggling in the wave-tw,
!, young men destroyed by reckless sker
T ticism, an unillumined ocean beneatl
I and on all sides Of them. Blackness 0
: darkness.
You know what a gloriously good ma,
s Rev. John Newton was the most of hi
0 life, but before his conversion he was
very wicked sailor, and on board the shi
q Harwich instilled infdelitX and vice 4
the mind Of a young man-priRcipls
g which destroyed him. Afterward tn
two met, and Newton tried to undo hi
bad work, but in vain. The young ma
became worse and worse and died y pro-
ligate, h~orrifytng with his profanitie
n those who stood by him in his last INT
d ments.
d. Better look out what bad influenc
y you start, for you may not be able I
le Stop it. 1t does not REQUIRE yssx gre:
IT force to ruin others. Why was II thu
Ia many years ago q great food nearly d
ct stroyed New OrleansS A crawfsh ha
burrowed into the banks Of the river VI
10 til the ground was saturated and Il
i'd banks weakened until the food burst.
in Ill SHINING PATH.
But ! find here a man Wao starts o.
in life with the discrimination that he w
10 never see suffering but he will try to 6
~leyiate it, and never see discourageme'
H. but he will try to cheer it, and new
ny meet with anybody but he will try to
in him good. Getting his strength fro
NJ God, he starts from home with high pr
pose of'doing all the good he can possih
ed do in one day.