The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-08-31
OUR EATHE NATIVE
AND IMPORTED.
BY Rev. Alfred TAYLOR.

sermon, mat ne intended IN a rev days
10 go on a mission to the heather. At
ter the congregation was dismissed, ~
number of the members waited for
their pastor, and. %crowding around
him. expressed their establishment at
the new turn in his affairs, asking
where he was going, and how long
they would be deprived of his minis
trations. He said to them:
Nj good friends, don't be alarmed
I'm not going II of town"
Verify, one need not go out of town
either from New York or anywhere
else. if his object is to reach the
heathen. New York. from its character
as metropolis and seaport. gathers a
class of population combating the
greatest variety from every country
on the face of the earth. But in our
inland towns. and even in the small
est villages, there are some heather
equal TO my in quality If not in guam
tity and variety.
A wealthy merchant, who was bored
by the collecting agent of u society
whose object was the conversion of
/ very distant heather, go1 rid OF him
by saying;
Well. my mind is made up. won't
send n money to the Fiji islands;
but just send me a cannibal or two
here, If You choose, and IN see what
L can do to convert them.'
We have now no cause for complaint
because of u inability to ueach spec
linens of the far off heather. The
ocean has become a great ferryway.
and hundreds of sample heather from
the very ends of the earth are daily
ferried over. John Chinaman sells CT
CARS at our street corners and dill
gently does his duty as a washerman
at B~elleville, or a shoemaker at North
Adams. Scandinavian. Russ, Pole and
German are daily dumped down by the
cargo at our emigrant stations in the
port Of New York.
1t is cheap and easy to hold public
meetings, make speeches and pass res
olutions in favor of evangelizing the
heather of distant nations. The Hon
orable N. A. Bobb can easily be per-
suaded to lend his influence to the
cause by taking the chair; and a list
of respectable names for vice presi-
dents is obtained without difficulty,
even though not more than half the
gentlemen who bear the names happen
TO be present at the meeting, or to give
of their substance to the cause which
the meeting is intended to refresh. The
Reverend Doctor SpreadfunguS and
others thrill the hearts of the audience
with their eloquence concerning the
spiritual necessities of the dwellers in
the far-off land. The house echoes
when h meeting is over, and the work
is done: at least all of it that is likely
to be done for awhile.
While 1t is a common error to sup
pose that the heather are all at a dis
lance from us, it is another common
one. and one equally mischievous, to
p that the heather in our midst
are only those who are in very lowly
pecuniary circumstances. 1t is easier
to look on the unwaslled ~inhabitant
of a back room on the sixth floor of a
Cherry street tenement house, as a
tstr,y Il r~~, f1-, Xh-
wealthy and hard-hearted s%coundrel
h ruins scores or hundreds of his
fellow-beings by working up a cor
ner' in Amalgamated Copper, or some
other stock. The ~peripatetic distribute
er of tracts has no hesitation in adj
ministering the comfort conveyed in
his printed pages to poor Mr.. PigG,
who, with his family and their effects,
is found on the sidewalk. having been
turned out of doors for inability to pay
the rent. But it is we'll known that
Mr.. G%ripicuss. Pigg's landlord, who
wears a fur-lined o and a hat of
dazzling silky luster. and who fares
sumptuously every day, would indig-
nantly repel anybody who might un-
dertake, With tract or personal dis
course, to be a means of grace to his
simple soul. Mr.. and Mrs. Pigg and
the little Piggs are safely spoken of as
unfortunate impenitents," destitute of
grace as they are of groceries. Gripi-
cuSS may be, outwardly, a burning and
a shining light in some sanctuary that
is redolent with the odor of respect
ability, and dim with the religious
light which struggles through stained
window glasses. But the heart Of the
Srasping usurer may be as needy in
the matter Of divine favor and saving
grace, as that of the victim of his
%tyrannical cupidity.
Before we go into paroNysms Of grief
over the spiritual necessities of tho
trouserless dwellers of Patagonia, let
us make q strong push for the reli-
gious betterment of the d~runllards, and
thieves, and gamblers, and other male
factors who are at our very DOORS. We
need to carry the gospel to the starv-
ing and the filthy and the depraved,
who are fully as bad, within reach of
US, as anywhere else on this planet.
The enlightenment of the vicious
and the ignorant of our w popula-
ton will do more to make the Chris
tian light from our nation, as that of
"a city set upon a HILL" extend to the
other nations of the earth.
1t is true that sectarian and denom-
national differences present some OBJ
stacles. It is true that there are
many excellent people who will not
work at all, unless the work can be
done exactly in their own way, and
according To their own directions. But
it is equally true that wretched ~squalor
burrows under ne very foundation
! stones of our churches; that untaught
vice ncstles in the shadows of our
steeples; that men who are old enough
to know better, use the name of God
only to add force to their oaths, and
that of Christ only to emphasize their
pointless jests.
If our theological views are more
correct than those of other people. let
us prove their correctness by the holy
and useful life they enable us to lead.
If our creed is better tnan the creed of
others, let us believe it so earnestly
and thoroughly as to live it to some
coed purpose. If other people are per-
| versely and heretically heterodox, the
way to convert them to our way of
thinking is not to call them hard
names, to scratch their eyes out, or
| otherwise to Inconvenience them. If
society is in a bad way, let it be our
business to try to make it better. If
the world is dark, let our lights burn
the more brightly. If it is cold. let it
| be ours to help keep up the fires to
make it warmer. If poor, tumble
down, heather humanity, is flat on
| its face in the mire, be it our joy to