't
, ind;mi,.iiii
The Sioux County Journal,
VOLUME VI.
HAKKLSOX, NEBRASKA, THURSDAY, .MARCH 8, 1894.
NUMBER 26.
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
DISCOURSE ON THE LIGHT
NINQ OF THE SKA.
In Coa.nally Attractive and Eloquent Ser
mon The I'.thvi.y of the Almighty An
Irradlstd Ware of UUdntu-Tlia Glow
of Good leed.
A Path That Shine
In the Hrooklyn Tabernaole last Sun
flay Key. Dr. Talmajfe preached an un
umially attractive and eloquent KOnel
lermon to a crowded audience. The !
ubject was "The Lightning of the
Sea," the txt wlected beinff Job xli,
32, "He maketh a path to ohino after
Him."
If for the next tiouHand years min
Utem of religion should preach from
this Bible, there will yet be texts un
exKunded and unexplained and unap
preciated. What little has been said
concerning' this chapter in Job from
which my text is taken bears on the
controversy as to what was really the
leviathan described us disturbing the
tea. What creature it was I know not.
Borne say it was a whalo. Some say it
was a crocodile. My own opinion is it
was a sea monster now extinct. No
creature now floating in Mediterranean
or Atlantic waters corresponds U Job's
description.
Lightning of the Kea.
What most interests rae is that as it
moved on through the deep it left the
waters liaUinjf and resplendent. In
the words of the text, 'lie maketh a
path to shine after him." What was
that Illumined path? It was phosphor
escence. You find it in the wake of a
ship in the night, especially after
rough weather. Phosphorescence is
the lightning of the sea. That this
figure of sHjech is correct in desvrib
inif its appearance I am certified by an
incident. After crossing the Atlantic
the first time and writing from Hasle.
Switzerland, to an American magazine
an account of my voyage,' in which
nothing' more fascinated tue than the
phosphorescence in the ship s wake, I
called it the lijfhtninir of the sea. Re
turning to my hotel, I found a book of
John Htiskin, and the llrst sentence
my eyes fell upon wm his description
of phosphorescence, in which ho called
it "tho lightning of the sea."
Down to tho postotllce 1 hastened to
get the manuscript and with great
lalor and some expense jfot possession
of the lnana.ine article and put quota
tion marks around that one sentence,
although it was as original with me as
with John Kuskiti. 1 suppose that nino
tenthsof you living so near the sea
coast have watched this marine ap-
tiearanco called phosporoseence, and I
opo that the other one-tenth may
some day bo so happy as to witnoss it.
it is the waves of the sea diamonded;
it Is the inflorescence of tho billows;
tho waves of the sea crimsoned as was
the deep after the sea light of Le panto;
the waves of tho sea on fire.
There are times when from horizon
to horizon the entire oceuu seems in
conflagration with this strange splendor
as it changes e'.ery moment to tamer
or more da..ling color on all sides of
you. You sit looking over the tailrail
of the yacht or ocean steamer, watch
ing anu waiting to see what new thing
the God of lxiauty will do with the At
lantic. It is the oecun in transfigura
tion; it is the murine world casting its
garments of glory in the pathway of
tho Almighty in he walks the deep; it
is an inverted firmament with ail its
stars gone down with it. No picture
can present it, for photographer's cam
era cannot le successfully trained to
catch it,, and before it tho hand of the
painter dro its pencil, overawed and
powerless.
This phosphorescence is the appear
ance of m.vriuds of the animal kingdom
rising, fulling, playing, flashing, liv
ing, dying. These luminous animalcu
les for nearly 1") yeuis have been the
study of naturaiists and the lascination
and soleuiniallonof all who have brain
enough to think. Now, (Jod who puts
in his Bible nothing trivial or uselesH,
calls the attention of Job, the greatest
scientist of his day, to this phosphor
escence, and as the letjiathan of the
deep sweeps past points out the fact
that "he maketh a path to shine after
him."
Wake Matle by a Had Nan.
Is that true of us now, and will it Imj
true of us when we have gone? Will
there be sulwequont light or darkness?
Will there bo a trail of gloom or good
cheer? Can anyone between now and
the next loo years sav of us truthfully
as the text says of tLo leviathan of the
deep, "lie maketh a path to shine after
Him?" For wo are moving on. While
we live in tho same house, and transact
business in the same store, ami write on
tho same table, and chisel in the same
studio. and thrash in the same burn, and
worship in tho sumo church, we are in
motion ond are in many respects mov
ing on, and we are not where we were
ten veai-s ago, nor where we will Imj tun
years hence. Moving on!
Ijook at the family record,-or the
almanac, or into the mirror, and see if
anyone of you is where you wore. All
in motion. Other feet may trip and
stumble and halt, but the feet of not
one moment for the lust sixty centuries
lias tripped or stumbled or halted.
Moving on! Society mov ing on! The
world moving on! Heaven movmgon!
The universe moving on! Time mov
ing on! Kternity moving on! There
fore it is absurd to think that wo our
selvcs cun stop, as we must move with
all tho rest. Are we like the creature
of tho text, making our path to shino
after us? It may bo a peculiar ques
tion, but my text suggests it.
What inlluoneo will we leavointhls
world after we have gone through it?
"None," answer hundreds of voices;
"we are not one of the immortals.
Fifty years after we are out of the
worm ft will be as though we never
Inhabited It." You are wrong in say
ing that. I pass down through this
audience and up through these gal
leries, and I am looking for tome one
whom I cannot find.
I am looking for one who will have no
Influence in this world loo years from
now. But I have found the man who
has the least influence, and 1 inquire
into his history, and 1 tind that by a yes
or a no he decided some one's eternity.
In time of temptation he gave an
affirmative or a negative to some temp
tation which another hearing of, was
induced to decide in the same way.
Clear on the other side of the" next
million years may be the first you hear
of the long reaching influence of that
yes or no, but hear of it you wili. Will
that father make a path to shine after
him? Will that mother make a pat h
to thine after her? You will be walk
ing these streets or along that country
roud ax) vears from now in the char
acter of your descendants. They will
be affected by your eourage or your
cowardice, your purity or your deprav
ity, your holliness 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 1'aciflo Ocean
and the other rivulet flowing down
into the rivers which pass out into the
Atlantic Ocean? Kvery min, every!
woman, stands at a point where words j
uttered, or eeds done, or prayers !
offered, decide oi)site destinies and I
opposite eternities. We see a man !
planting a tree, and treading sod firmly
on either side or it, and watering it in
dry weather, and taking a great care
in its culture, and he never plucks any
fruits from its Isiugh. But his children
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 phos
phorescence in the track of a ship that
1 have sometimes watched for a long
while and have seen nothing on tho
face of the deep but blackness. The
mouth of watery chasms that looked
like gaping jaws of hell. Not a spark
as big us the firefly; not a white scroll
of surf; not a taper to illuminate tho
mighty sepulchers of dead ship: dark
ness .'1,000 feet deep, and more thou
sands of feet long and wide. That is
the kind of wake that a bad man leaves
behind him as he plows through tho
ocean of this life toward the vaster
ocean of the great future.
The lirowth of Hln.
Now, supM)se a man seated in a cor
ner grocery or business ofllco among
clerks give himself to jolly skepticism.
Ho lauirhs ut tho Bible, makes siiort of
the miracles, speaks of terdition in
jokes and laughs at revivals as a frolic,
and at the passage of a funeral proces
sion, which always solemnizes sensible
people, says, "Boys, let's take a drink."
There is in that group a young man
who is making a great struggle agaitut
temptation and prays night and morn
ing and reads his bible and is usking
God for help day by day. But that
guffaw against Christianity makes him
lose his grip of sacred things, and he
gives up Sabbath and church and
morals and goes from bad to worse, till
he falls under dissipations, dies in a
laar house und is buried in tho let
ter's field.
Another young man who heard that
jolly skepticism made up his mind that
"it makes no difference what wo do or
say, for we will all come out at last at
the right pla 'e," and began asaconse
quenco to purloin. Some money that
came into his hunds for other.-, ho ap
plied to his own uses, thinking perhaps
he would make it straight some other
time, and all would be well even if ho
did not make it straight, lie ends in
the penitentiary. That scoffer who
uttered tho jokes against Christianity
never realized what bad work ho was
doing and he passed on through life
and out of it und into a future that I
urn not now goin' to depict.
1 do not propo-e with a searchlight
to show the breakers of tho awful coast
on which thut ship is wrecked, for my
business now is to watch tho sea after
tho keel has plowed it. No phosphor
escence in tho wake of that hhip, but
lie hind it two sonls struggling in the
wave two young men destroyed by
reckless skepticism, an nnillumined
ocean beneath und on all sides of them.
Blackness of darkness.
You know what a gloriously good
man Kev. John Newton was tho mo-t
of his life, but Isjfore his conversion
he was a very wicked sailor, and on
Ixmnl the ship Harwich instilled Inli
delity and vice in the mind of a young
man principles which destroyed him.
Aftel ward tho two met, und Newton
tried to undo his bad work, but in vain.
The young man became worse und worse
died a prolligate, horrifying with bis
profanities those who stood by him in
liis last moments.
Better look out what bad influence
you start, for you may not be able to
stop it. it does" not require very great
force to ruin others. Why was it that
many year.i ago a groat flood nearly de
stroyed New Orleans? A crawfish hail
burrowed into tho banks ol the river
until tho ground was saturated and
tho bunks weakened until tho Mood
burst.
The Mhlnlnic I'uth.
But I find hero a man who starts out
in life with the determination that he
will never see suffering but ho will try
to alleviate it: und never see discour
agement but he will try to cheer it,
and ne, or meet with anybody but he
will try to do him good, (letting his
strength from God, he starts from homo
with high purpose of doing all the
good ho can possibly do in one day.
Whether studding behind tho
counter, or talking in the business
office with a lion behind his ear, or
milking a burguin with a fellow trader,
or out in tho fields discussing with his
next neighbor tho wisest rotation of
tho crops, or in tho shoomaker s shop
pounding solo leather, there is some
thing in his face, and In his phrase
ology, and In his manner, that demon
strates tlio grace of god in his heart.
Ho can talk on religion without awk
wardly dragging it in by tho ours. He
loves God and loves the souls of all
whom he meets and is Interested in
their present and eternal destiny.
For fifty or sixty years ho lives that
kind of life and then gets through with
it and goes into Heaven a ransomed
soui But I am not going to describe
the poi-t into which that ship has en
tered. 1 am not going to describe the pilot
who met him outside at the
"lightship." I am not going to say
anything about the crowds of friends
who met him on the crystalline
wharves up which he goes on
steps of chrysoprases. For God in his
words to Jo'j eal.s me to look at the
path of foam, in the wake of that ship,
and I tell you it is all a-gleam. with
splendors of kindnessdone, and rolling
with illumined tears that were wiped
away, and a-dash with congratulations,
and clear out into the horizon in all di
rections iB the sparkling, flashing, bil
lowing ohosphorescence of a Christian
life. "He maketh a path to shine af
ter him." '
And here I correct one of the mean
notions which at some time takes pos
session of all of us, and that is as to the
brevity of human life. When I bury
some very nseful man, clerical or lay,
in his thirtieth or fortieth year, I say:
"What a waste of energies! It was
hardly wortn while for him to "get
ready for Christian work, for ho had s
soon to quit it." But the fact is that!
may insure any man or woman who
does any good on a large or small
scale for a life on earth as long as the
world lasts. Sickness, trolley car ac
cidents, death itself, can no more de
stroy his life than they can tear down
one of the rings of Saturn. You can
start one good word, one kind act, one
cheerful smile, on a mission that will
last until tho world becomes a bonfire,
and out of that bla.e it will pass into
tho Heavens, never to halt as long as
God lives.
What Ordinary Peraonn Can Io-
There were in the seventeenth cen
tury men and womon whoso names you
never heard of who are to-day Imluenc
lng schools, colleges, churches, nations.
You can no more measure tho tho gra
cious results of their lifetime than you
could measure tho lenirth and breadth
und depth of the phosphorescence last
night following the ship of the White
Star Line l,5uo miles out at sea. How
the courage and consecration of others
inspire us to follow, as ageneral in the
American army, cool amid tho Hying
bullets, inspired a trembling so!dier,
who said afterward, "I was nearly
scared to dcatn, but I saw the old
man's white mustache over his shoul
der and went on." Aye, we are afl
following sonioliody either in right or
wrong directions
A few days ago I stood beside the
garlanded casket of a gospel minister,
and in my remarks had occasion to re
call a snowy night in a farm house whon
I was a loy and an evangelist spending
anight at my father's house, who said
something si) tender and beautiful and
impressive that it led me into the king
dom of God and decided my destiny for
this world and tho next. You will, be
fore twenty-four hours go by, meet
some man or woman with a big pack of
euro und trouble, and you may say
someihimg to him or her that will en
dure until l his world shall have been
so far lost in the oast that nothing but
the stretch of angelic memory will be
ablo to realize that it over existed
ut all.
I am not talking of remarkable men
und women, but of what ordinary folks
can do. I am not speaking of the phos
phorescence in the wake of a Cam
pania, but of the phosphorescence ia
tho track of a Newfoundland fishing
smack. God makes thunderbolts out
of shirks, and out of the small words
and deeds of a small life he can launch
a power that will Hash and burn und
thunder through the eternities.
How do you like this prolongation of
your earthly life by deathless in
fluence? Many a bubo that died at it
months of ago by tho anxiety created
in tho parent's heart to meetthatchild
in realms seraphic is living yet in the
transformed heart and life of those
parents and will live on forever in the
history of thut family. If this be tho
opportunity of ordinary souls, what is
the opportunity of those who huve
especial Mitel lectuul or social or mo
netary equipment?
Hav e you any arithmetic capable of
estimating tho iulluenco of our good
and gracious friend who a few days
ago went up to rest - George W. Childs
of I'hiladel hiu? From a newspajsir
that was printed for .10 years without
one word of dcfam ition or scurrility or
scandal, and putting chief emphasis
on virtue and charity and clean intelli
gence, ho reaped u fortune for himself
and then distributed a vast amount of
it among tho pour und struggling, put
ting his invalid and aged reiorters on
Mansions, until his name stands every
where for largo lioartedness and sym
pathy and help und highest stylo of
Christian gentleman.
In nri era which had in the chairs of
its journalism a Horace Greeley, and u
Henry J. Huymond, und a James Gordon
Bennett, and un Krastus Brooks, and a
George William Curtis, und a Irenueus
Prime, none of them will bo longer re
mcmlierol than George VV. Childs.
Stuying away from the unveiling of
the" monument ho had reared at largo
expense in our Greenwood in memory
of Professor Proctor, tho astronomer,
lost I should say something in praise of
the man who hud paid for tho monu
ment. By all acknowledged a repre
sentative of the highest American
ournalism.
If you would calculate his influence
for good,' you must count how many
sheets of his newspapers have leen
published in tho last quarter of a cen
tury, und how many people huvo road
them, und the effect, not only noon
those readers, but upon all whom tfiey
shall influence for all time, while you
ttid to all that tho work of the churches
ho help build and of tho lnstitntions.of
mercy ho holpcd found. Better givo
up before you start tho measuring of
tho phosphorescence in tho wake of
that ship of the Celestial lino; Who
can toll tho post mortem inlluenco of
a Savonarola, a Winkolrled, a Guten
berg, a Marllwrough, a Decatur, a
Toussaint, a Bolivar, a Clarkson, a
Holier t ltaikes, a Harlan Page, who
had 12.') Sabbath scholars, M of whom
became Christians, and six of them
ministers of the gospel.
Let Tour Light Shine.
But murk you that the phosphores
cence has a glow that the night mo
nopolizes, and I ask you not only what
kind of intiuence you are going to
leave In the world as you pass through,
it, but what light are you going to
throw across the world's night of sin
and sorrow? People who are sailing1
on smooth sea and at noon do not need
much sympathy, but what are you go
ing to do for people In the night of
misfortune? Will you drop on them
shadow, or will you kindle for them
phosphorescence?
At this moment there are more peo
ple crying than laughing, more people
on the round world this moment hun
gry than well fed, more households be
reft than homes unbroken. What are
you going to do about it? "Well,"
says yonder soul, "I would like to do
something toward illumining the
great ocean of human wretchedness,
but I cannot do much."
Can you do as much as' one of the
phosphori in the middle of the Atlantic
Ocean, creatures smaller than theX)in
of a sharp pin? "Oh. yes," you say.
Then do that. Shine! Stand before
the looking glass and experiment to
see if you ennot get tiiatscowl of your
forehead, that peevish look out of your
lips. Have at least one bright ribiion
in your bonnet. Embroider at least
one white cord somewhere in the mid
night of your apparel. Do not any
longer impersonate a funeral. Shine!
Do say something cheerful about so
ciety and about the world. Put a few
drops of Heaven into yo ir disposition.
Once in awhile substitute a sweet
orange for a sour lemon.
Kemembc r that pessimism is blas
phemy and that optimism is Christi
anity. Throw some light on the night
ocean. If you cannot be a lantern
swinging in tho rigging, be ono of the
tinv phosphori back of tho keel
Shine! "Let yo ir light so shine bo
fore men that others seeing your good
works may glorify your Father which
is in Heaven."
Make one person happy every day,
and do that for twenty years, and you
will have made 7, .'too happy. You know
a man who has lost all his property by
an unfortunate investment or by put
ting his name on tho back of a friend's
note. After you have taken a brief
nap, which every man and woman is
entitled to on a Sunday afternoon, go
and cheer up that man. You can, if
God helps you, say something t hat will
do him good after lioth of you have
been dead a thousand years.
Shine! You know of a family with a
bod lioy who has ran away from home.
Go liefore night and tell that father
and mother the parable of the prodigal
sun, and that some of the illustrious
and useful men now Inchurch ond State
had a silly passage in their lives and
ran away from home. Shino! You
know of a family that has lost a child.
and the silence of t se nursery glooms
the whole house from cellar to garret.
Go before night and tell them how
npch thut Ciiild hag happily escaped,
since the most prosperous life on earth
is a struggle.
Shino. You know of some invalid
who is dying for lack of an appetite.
She cannot get well because she can
not eat. Broil a chicken and take it
to her before night and cheat her poor
appetite into keen relislr. Shine! You
know of somo ono who likes you, and
you like him, and he ought to be a
Christian. Go tell him what religion
has done for you, and ask him if you
can pray for him.
'the Failure of Knloify.
Shine! Oh, for a disposition so
charged with sweetness and light that
we cannot help .nit shine! Kemember
if you cannot be a leviathan lashing
tho ocean imo fury you cun be one of
the phosphori, doing your part toward
making a path of phosphorescence.
Then 1 will toll you what impression
you w'll leuvo us you pass through this
life and after you are gone. 1 will tell
you to your face and not leave it for
the minister who officiates at your ob
80 plies.
The failure in all eulogium of tho de
parted is that they cannot hear it. All
hear it except tho one most interested.
Tim, in substance, is what I or somo
ono else will suy of you on such un oc
cusion: "Wo gather for offices of re
spect to this departed ono. it is im
possible to tell how many tears he
wiped away, how many burdens he
lifted, or how many souls he was,
under God, instrumental in saving.
His inlluenco will never cease. We
are all bett r for having known him.
"That pillow of (lowers on the casket
was presented oy his babbath school
ciass.tillof whom he brought to Christ.
That cross of Mowers at tho head was
presented by the orphan asylum which
he befriended. Those three single
flowers - ono was sent by a poor woman
for whom ho bought a ton of coal, and
ono was by a waif of the street wh im
ho rescued through tho midnight, mis
sion, and tho other was from the
pr.son coll which he had often visited
to incourago repentance in a young
man who had done wrong.
"Tlioso three loose llowers mean
quite as much us the costly garlands
now breathing their aroma through
this saddened homo crowded with sym
pathizers. 'Blessed are the dead who
die in tho Lord. They rest from their
lalsirs, and their works do follow
them."
Or if it should bo tho more solemn
burial at sea, let it be after tho sun has
gone done, and tho captain bus road
tho appropriate liturgy, and the ship's
boll has tolled, und you are let down
from tho stern of tho vessel into the
resplendent, phoophoresconro at the
wake of the ship. Thon let some ono
say, in tho wrods of my text, "He
maketh a pnth to shine al'tor him."
Onk way of being unfair Is to com
pel a merchant to buy tickets you are
selling because you trade with him.
When a man gives his boys skates
for Christmas h s wlfo says: "You
don't care if they do get drowned."
Heavy plaid shawls and fur jackets
are being used everywhere by iuoths
THE
COMMERCIAL BANK.
ESTABLISHED 1868.1
Harrison,
B. B. Bowstkr,
President.
D. H. GRISWOLD, Cashier.
AUTHORIZED CAPITAL $50 000.
Transacts a General
CORRESPONDENTS:
Akteioah Exchange National Bank, New York,
Ui.ted States National Bank. Omaha,
First National Bank, Chadrot.
Interest Paid on Time Deposits.
tVDRAFTS SOLD ON ALL PABTS OF EUROPE.
THE PIONEER
Pharmacy,
J. E. PHINNEY, Proprietor.
Pure Drugs, Medicines, Paints,
Oils and Varnishes.
WARTISTS' MATERIAL.
School Supplies.
Prescriptions Carefully Compounded
Day or Night.
SILICONS & SMILEY,
Harrison, Nebraska,
Real Estate Agents,
Have a number of bargains in
choice land in Sioux county.
Parties desiring to buy or sell real
estate should not fail to
call on them.
School
leased, taxes paid for
non-residents; farms rented, ota
CORRESPONDENTS SOLICITED.
Nebraska.
C. F. Corro,
Vice-Prwtfwi
Banking Business.
IVBBTJSHES.
Lands
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