Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1898-09-22

My f~our-year-old child got III and
did not cry until hours after, when her
mother came home, and then she burst
into weeping, and some of the domes-
tics, not understanding human nature,
said to her. why did you not cry
before?" She answered: There was
no one to cry to-" Now. | have to tell
you that while human sympathy may
be absent. Divine sympathy Is always
accessible. Give God your love, and
get his love; your service, and secure
his help; your repentance, and have
his pardon. God a friend? Why. that
means all your wounds medicated. all
your sorrows soothed, and If some sud-
den catastrophe should hurl you out Of
earth it would only hurl you into
heaven.
II God Is your friend. you cannot go
out of the world too quickly or sud
denly, SO far as your own happiness is
concerned. There were two Christians
who entered heaven; the one was
standing at a window in perfect health,
watching a shower, and the lightning
instantly slew him; but the lightning
did not flash down the sky as swiftly
as his spirit flashed upward. The Chris
tian man who died on the same day
next door had been for a year or two
failing in health, and fer the last
three months had suffered from a dis
ease that had made the nights sleep
less and the days an anguish. DO you
not really think that the case of the
n who went instantly was mor de-
sirable than the one who entered the
shining gate through a long lane Of
insomnia and congestion? In the one
case it was like your standing YEARLY
at a door, knocking and waiting, and
wondering Ii it will ever open. and
knocking aid waiting again, while in
the other case il was a swinging open
or the door at the first touch Of your
knuckle. Give your friendship to God.
and have Gods friendship for you, and
even the worst accident will be a vic
tory.
How refreshing a human friendship;
I'M true friends, what priceless treas
ures! When sickness comes, and trou-
BILE comes, and death comes, we send
for our friends first of all, and their
appearance in our doorway in any
crisis is reinforcement, and when they
have entered, we say: Now it is all
right" Oh, what would we do with
ou personal friends, business friends,
family friends? But we want some
thing mightier than human friendship
in the great e~xigencies. When Jona-
than Edwards. in his final honr, had
given the last goodbye to all his
earthly friends, he turned on his pill
low and closed his eyes. confidently
saying: Now where is Jesus of Naz-
areth, my true and neyer-failing
Friend?" Yes, | admire human friend
ship as seen in the case Of David and
Jonathan, of Paul ana Onesiphorus, OF
Herder and Goethe, of Goldsmith and
Reynolds, of Beaumont inc Fletcher.
of Cowley and Harvey. of Erasmus
and Thomas More, of LEASING and
Mendelssohn, of Lady Churchill and
Princess Anne, of Orestes and Pylades,
each requesting that himself might
take the point OF the dagger, so the
other might be spared; of Epamin-
ondas and Pelopidas. who locked their
shields in battle, determined to die to-
gether; but the "grandest, the might
lest, the tenderest friendship in all the
universe is the friendship between
Jesus Christ and a believing soul. Yet,
after all l have said, / feel / have
only done what James Marshall, the
miner, did in 1848 in California, be-
fore its gold mines were known. He
reached in and put upon the table OF
his employer, Captain Suffer, a Thin
bleful of gold dust. Where did you
get that?" said his employer. The re-
ply was: Il got it this morning from
a mill race from which the water had
been drawn eff" But that gold dust.
which could have been taken up be-
tween the finger and the thumb, was
the prophecy and specimen that re-
vealed CALIFORNIA; wealth to all ma
tions. And today / have only put be-
fore you a specimen of the value OF
divine friendship, only a thimbleful
of mines inexhaustible and infinite.
though all time and all eternity go ON
with the exploration.