The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1878-04-25
Contribution for the Bulletin.
From TOOnS.
APRIL 10th, 1878.
By REV. T. J. BAKER.

In every age and under every trial, Chris
tianity has steadily asserted her supremacy
of control and influence, frightening and
expanding from the earlier types and first
limitations of prophecy-but eminently after
the resurrection of Christ-into larger and
final accomplishment; the grand Interior
contamination at which she aims as the
Alpha and Omega of a regenerated world.
With sin and ignorance, earth and hell,
she has maintained a conflict which has
grown keener and keener with the lapse Of
centuries In this conflict she has WithstoOd
and disarmed, for ages, the brutal, imPul-
sive malignity of barbarism, and the more
facile and effective tactics of civilization.
As by the preaching of the cross" she
sent her shines out into the world" the
continents of the earth and the islands of
the sea alike refused her law and swore
hostility to her spread. Whenever her
voice was heard, it was the signal of strug-
gle and warfare. Deep and dark was the
approbrium which rose up about her. The
world met her mission and movements with
disdain Nations jeered her claims. The
scowl of kingdoms resisted her approach.
Everywhere reproach and derisiOn were up
on her path. She suffers the last oppres-
sion of the world. And yet she lives and
asserts her supremacy over every Opposi-
ton. And fame thus living, upon the
very bosom of the deep, assailed by every
wind of Heaven, yet rising above and shed
ding its effulgenee on wave and elements,
everywhere battling against its existence, and
with every form of resistance, still enlarg-
ing the circle of its radiance from age to
age, must be sustained by Heavens own
fires, and rendered by the breath of that
Everlasting Ancient One" whose word
endureth forever.
Now, dear reader, with the deep-seated,
impulsive power of grave and irresistible
conviction, that, without an interest in the
Gospel of the crucifxion, lin which is en-
bodied the very origin of Christianity itself,
and which is destined to one day sway the
mind of the world,) eternity is lost to man
and its hopes a curse. Gazing on the visions
of its excellence and listening to the echo of
its triumphs, sublimely borne upon the wings
of ages, the question recurs, what part will
you take in the acceleration of its spread
Will you blend your hopes and your destiny
with its fortunes and It's claims? viii yon
now and irrevocably strike for its glory,
! and do OF die in the conflict? Will you
perpetuate the impulse already given to the
extremities of the earth ? Will yOu combine
every element of success and all the means
of varied assistance. by an action without
blank or pause, full, systematic and con-
tinued, until the accumulated and confu.
ent resources Of the Gospel and the virtues
Of Christianity shall in every place be brought
to bear upon the moral conquest OF earth
and the glories OF the same burst forth
efulgently upon the nations ripening fol
and eIpectant OF the change; like the rega
brow Of the sun, high in Heaven, dia
) DENIED with light and rolling his hanneres
splendor to the gaze Of all +?
Now. God grant that Its burden may Gle
vste your affections, your hopes and you
ein,s, 70 things sbyve. Nay it open up an,