The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-09-03
NO. so.

mirth and the worlds laughter ana the
worlds innuendo and the worlds paraph-
ernalia."
Well, this is a free country and you shaE
have the right of choice, but let me tell you
that the purest mirth, and the most un-
trammeled glee, and the greatest rosn-
ience of soul are inside the Christian COM
panonship, and not outside of it, I have
tried both stvles Of compauonship-the
companionship of the world and the COM
panionship Of Christ, and know by ex-
perience. 1 have been now so long in the
sunshiny experience and society Of
Christian people that when I am COM
PEELED to to so for a little while amid in
tense worldly society feel depressed 1t
is like going out Of June garden into an
ice-house. Men never know fully how to
laugh until they become Christians. The
worlds laughter has jerk of dissatisrac-
tion at the end, but when man is conse-
Grated to God, and he is all right for the
world to come, then when he laughs, bOdys
mind and soul cracl,le. Let group OF
ministers Of the Gospel, gathered from all
denominations of Christians, be together
in dining-hall, or in a social circle, and
you know they are proverIialIy jocUnd.
o ye unconverted people! l know not
how you can stand it down in that
mopiug, bilious, Saturnine, worldly assoc
citation. Come up into the sunlight of
Christian scciety-those people for whom
all things are working right now, and
will work right forever tell you that
the sweetest japouicas grow in the Lords
garden; that the largest grapes are from
the vineyards of Canaan; that the most
sparkling floods break forth from the
Rock OF Ages. Do not too much pity this
Ruth o. my text; for she is going to be-
COME Joint owner of the great harvest
fields of Boaz.
3. Once more: If We want to become
Christians, we must, like Ruth in the text,
choose the Christians death AMI burial.
She exclaimed:
Where thou diost, viii die, ana there viii
/ be buried.
l think we all, when leaving this world,
would like to be surrounded by Christian
influences. You would not like to have
your dying pillow surrounded by carica-
turists, and punsters and wine-bibbars.
How would you like to have John Leech
come with his London pictorials, and
Christopher North with his loose fun, and
Tom Hood with his rhyming jokes, when
you are dying? Mol no! no? Let mo
have a Christian nurse in my last sickness.
Let me have Christian physician TO adj
minister the medicines. Let il be a Chris
tian wife, or parent, or child, that watches
the going out Of tho tides of my mortal
existence. Let Christian men come in the
room and read of the Illuminated valley,
and the extinguishment of grief, and
drown the hoarse blasts of death with tho
strains of 'Nount Pisgah" and "Saint
Martini
In our last moment we win all 30 chill
dren. Said Dr.. Guthrie, the famous Scotch
clergyman, when dying:
"Sng me a bairn's hymn"
Yes, we will all be children then. In
that hour the world viii stand c9nfounied
around us. Our friends may cry over us;
I tears will not help us. They may look
| sad; what we want is radiat on in the last
/ moment, thinllin IL will help them TO lie.
| In our last moments we want that broad
| which came down from heaven. Who viii
| give it to us? Oh, we want Christian poo-
! pie in the room, so that if our hope begins
to struggle they may say:
Courage, brother! All is wcIIl Cour-
aee"'
In that expiring moment I want to hear
the old songs that we used to sing in
church and prayer-meeting. In that last
moment 1 want to hear the voice Of some
Christian friend pleading that tie sins
and shortcomings Of my life may be for
given and the doors Of Heaven may be
opened before my entrance spirit.
Come Sing to me Of Heaven
When Pm about to die;
Sing songs Of holy ecstasy,
To watt my soul on hieh
Yes; Christian people on either siIo the
bed and Christian people at the foot Of the
bed, and Christian people to close my
eyes, and Christian people to cnuy mo
out, and Christian people t. look after
those whom J leave iehind, AMI Christian
people to remember mo n little whlo after
1 am gone.
Where thou diest viii I die, and there VIII
1 be buried.
Sometimes an epitaph covers up moro
I than it expresses. Walking through Green
wood cemetery 1 have sometimes seen an
inscription which impressed me how hard
the sculptor and friends were tryine to
make out a good story in stone. L saw
from the inscription that the man or vom-
an buried there had died with ut hope.
The inscription told me- tho man was
member of Congress, or bank president,
or some prominent citizen, but said Moth
ing about his SOULS destiny. The body
is nothing. The souli The soul And
here by this inscription ! sec that this
man was born in 1870 and died iu 1870.
I y
Christian hoIe! Oh if IN all tho ccma-
teries Of your city the graves Of those vino
have gone out Of This world unprcp1rcd
should sigh on the wind, who would have
he nerve to drive through sush pucc?
If al those who have gone out ut this
world unprepared could come bgci, to-day
and font through this air, telling the story
Of their discontinue, this audience would
faH fIat on its face, asking to be rescued
from the avalanche OF horror.
Ny hearers, do you wonder that this
Ruth Of my text made the Chris ian's
choice and closed 20 with tho ancient form
OF imprecation upon her own soul, il she
ever forsook EaomiY
The Lord do 80 TO me, and m ore also, if
aught but death part thee aud me.
They were living together. Como the
jackals, come tho bandits, roll on Dead
sea! Ny hearers, would YOU not ike 70 be
with your Christian friends 10 ever? Have
there not gone out persons from your
household whom you would like tJ spend
eternity with? They were mild. and low
ing, and gentle, and beautiful while here.
You have no idea that the joys Of heaven
have made them worse. Choose their
Christ, and you may have their heaven.
They went in washed THROUGH tho Hood
Of the lamb, and you must have fhc samo
glorious ablution. with holy violence
put my hands ON you to-day, 10 pU you
on toward tic Immediate choice OF thi5
only Saviour. Have him you must, or per-
ish world without end. Elect This mo-
ment IS the ono Of contrition aud trans-
port. Oh, give one intense, earnost, Le-
lieving, loving gaze into the wounds
opened for your eternal salvationl
Some Of you I con rout for the FIRST aud
the last time until tho judgement, and
then we shall meet. VIII you le reuly2
suayity Of an Iowa Burelar-
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