Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1904-12-08

THE GOOD SON OF A BAD
X

THE GOOD SON OF A BAD
I
The plains about the, bad sons OF
tsoo1 f5thers is corn,non; but what
about The Other side? What of the
Worthy parental example and training,
and an inhelitance OF general worth
iesSness. If not of actual viciousness ;
and who, Notwithstanding. have
achieved nobility of character and SER
vice? There have been. and are. thou
sands of such. and some of them have
given the western world it's most illus
was such n one: SO markedly so that
Of Good King ieaekiah:* His Father
was. such y ieprobate that nothing IN
his lifs BECAME, him so well as leaving
"; and when he died he was, not
Inferred with the other kings of David's
line.
There is Il vital present day truth in
the old story, IL truth for the boy or
man who thinks himself foredoomed
to failure because his forebears were
failures. Ii is the lesson that every
living soul is greater than it's dead
Isl dIItlttIltI. itul, Is LlOlt PONC
full than He was The human will
cannot overcome human heteditV. God
sends 40 mortal hating through life
with the bail and chain of Irresistible
inherited tendencies fastened 70 his
foot. The libe.ty of the individual soul,
To achieve it's own destiny of glory or
Of shame, is Gods mark of divinity
upon 1t.
THE USES Of ADVERSELY.
III. 49,. u -. ..-.:A-l =. l-aI:.
Ing business. the officeholder who has
succeeded an incompetent predecessor,
and the workman VINO is called upon
to do over anotfler's botched job. can
sympathize with young King Hezekiah.
When he assembled the throne of Judah
the kingdom was in Il sorry way. His
father and his fathers fathers, had
run after false Gods. mud hard lines
had followed soft living. Many of the
people had been take EN- captives. The
tribes of Israel to the north We're on
the verge of total extinction. The holy
temple had been polluted, deflled and
robbed. Religion and the national spirit
were at a low ebb.
Yet adversely has its uses. TIL
teaching run through scripture that
In their prosperity men are prone to
forget God. So Hezekiah found the
people ready to repent-perhaps a little
too ready for a sound conversion.
If those Jews had gone astray less at
the instigation of bad rulers, and more
from personal impulse, they would not
have been SO prompt to turn back to
the path of rectitude ut a new kings
bidding: but at least their footing
would have been surer.
Be that as 1t may, the whipcOrds OF
temporal adversely We're turning them
back to God. And anything which ac-
complishes that end Is u blessing to a
nation OF to an Individual. That pros
perity Is "A curse. and not a blessing,
which dims a peoples vision Of things
spiritual.
STARTING RIGHT.
A revival was in order, civic as well
as religious. A grand cleaning up was
Judah's need, as Isaiah had declared
Since the present is the revival season
throughout the churches of America
this story may be read with interes,
for the light 1t sheds on the charac-
teristics of a genuine revival.
Hezekiah began with h temple. A
clean church is the first essential t.
the cleansing of a community or 4
nation. Right relations with God are
prerequisite to right relations with
man. Only when n life is in accord
with the divine will can it have power
OF Joy in human service. In these day.
we lay great stress Upon ethics. per s.
being strangely blind to the fact tina
poor. rotten China has had a sublim,
code of ethics as long as the Christian
has had 4 bible. To give vitality to any
rules of conduct there must be som
such glowing principle as is supplied
by Il mans sense of the divine auth.
GRITTY.
So long as there Ia corruption in the
church. or in the first tabernacle O.
Jehovah. the human heart, other things
exterior relations. cannot be made
right. Many a person is franticall,
pursuing pleasure and mere goods
thinking therein to find peace. wherea.
his n all comprehensive need is simp.
ly God. Wise Is he to straighten gu
his own life. and his own neighborhood
by following Hezekiah's plan. and Civ.
ing first attention to the things tina
concern God.
A REAL REVIVAL.
There Is a great deal OF ceremonial
and ritual about this story which Ii
of but minor interest or Importance
The kernel OF the nut Is what we ar,
after. and not the curious shape o
he shell. 1t will be seen then, by
little study. that this national reviva
instituted by King Hexekiah had thre'
outstanding characteristics. of broat
and general application to a church o.
to nm individual.
The first OF these was sacrifice
Without the shedding Of blood there Ii
no remission of sin" Let no mar thinl
that he car enter the portals of a deeI
experience of religion or of life withou
paying the price Of sacrifice. TIL,
principle is eternal and universal.
Life evermore is fed by DEATH"
At the center OF the throne is tn,
Lamb slain from before the founda'
tions Of the world There il no regnan
life NJ purity or power which has no
at its heart a mighty sacrifice. Thes'
slaughtered beasts of which the tex
tells were but types OF the grea
truth. and prefigurations of the sacri
Ace made once for all, and by one /,
behalf OF all. on h crest Of calvary.
A REJOICING CHURCH.
After sacrifice comes song. There /
no joy equal to that purchased by tn,
blood Of sacrifice. A mothers deli9h
in her child. which 10 perhaps the hi9h
est form Of Happiness known to mortal
II due to her having given OF her lii
AAeninal Convarno. Our Dask n.,a..