The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-07-16
NO. 43.

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went up the song Of praise and triumph
from the dying martyrs. John Bradford
came out In the presence of the instrument
of torture that was to put MIN to death
and said: ST am Chris tian now. have
never been before" And so, again and
again, the Lion of Judah's tribe has torn
to pieces the wild beasts of martyrdOm.
This grace is also a restorative for the
baclIslider. Who do you mean by that?
you say. mean you who used TO fire.
quent the house of God, but seldom so
there now; you who once used to pray,
but never pray now; you who once sat at
the holy communion, but take not the
Lords cup now; L mean you who once re-
joiced in Christian society, but now sit
amid scoffers. Backsliderl Oh, what a
suggestive word Backsliderl From what
have you slid back? You have slid
back from your fathers faith, from
your early good habits. You have
been sliding back from Christ, from
the cross-sliding back from Heaven.
When a man begins to slide he
knows not where he viii go. You have
been sliding back toward darkness. You
have been sliding back toward en-
blessed grave, toward precipice, the first
10000, 900 miles of which downward are
only a small part Of the eternal plunge.
You were, perhaps, professors 10 the
country; you have made shipwreck IN the
town. It may be that the club blasted
you; it may be that fashionable society
destroyed you; it may be the kind cf wife
whom you married. You have no more
hope for heaven now than If you bed lived
in Central Asia and never heard oS Christ
and the Judgment. Oh, where Is that
Bible you use to readP Whera Is that
room where you used to prayf What
have you done with that Jesus whose
voice you once heard? Oh, mur-
dered hours Oh, massacred privileges
Oh, dead opportunities Wake up now
and shrek in that mans ear until he shall
rouse himself from the horrible scmnan-
bulism, walking, as he does, fast asleep,
within an inch of hell. Oh, that he might
cry out now: "GoIden Sabbaths, come
back Communion seasons, come backi
Wooings of the Holy Ghost, come backp
But they will not come. Gonel gonel
gonel Sorrow will come, but not they.
Oh, that you might save the few remain
ing years of your life and consecrate them
to Christi l have seen sad sights, I have
heard sad sounds; but, / toll you, the
ghastliest thing outside the gates of tbs
damned is a backslider's death bed. Do
you not feel like having applied TO your
soul this divine prerogative? Do you
not feel like crying out with David: "Re-
store unto me the joys of Thy salvationW
For great sin, great pardon. For deep
wounds, omnipotent surgery. For deaf
ears, divine aurist. For blind eyes, a
heavenly oculist. For the dead in sin, the
upheaval of great resurrection.
But in the heavenly world we shall feel
the chief restorative power of religion.
This is planet of weeping we are living
on. We enter upon life with cry and
leave it with a long sigh. If 1 could gath
er up the griefs of this audience and put
them In one sentence, and then utter it, it
would make every thing between here and
the throne of God shudder and
howl. The earth is gashed deep
with graves. AS at the close Of the
war, sometimes we saw a regiment of one
hundred and fifty men, the fragment of
the thousand men that went out; so, as
stand before you l can not but realize the
fact that you are the fragments represents
ing hundreds of regiments of joyful assoc
Citations that have been broken up forever.
o, this is a world of sorrowl But, blessed
be God, there will be no sorrow in Heaven!
The undertaken will have TO have some
other business there. In the summer time
our cities have bills of mortality which are
lght1ul-Some etimes in New v Ork thou
sand deaths in a week, sometimes it has
been two thousand I'm London; but
in that great heavenly city there
will be not single case Of sick
ness or death; not one black dress of
mourning, but plenty of white robes of
joy; Misunderstanding of welcome, but none
of separation. Why, If one trouble should
attempt 10 enter Heaven, the shining po-
lice of the city would put it under ever
lasting arrest. II all the sorrows of life,
mailed and sworded under ApolIyon,
should attempt to force that gate, one
company from the tower would strike them
back bowling to the pit Room In Heaven
for all the raptures that ever knocked at
the gate, but no room for the smallest
annoyance, though slight as a summer in
sect Doxology, but no dirge; banquot-
ing, but no funeral baked meats"
No darkness at all; no grief at all; no
sickness at all; no death at all. soul
waking up in that place viii say "Can 10
be that 1 here? viii my head never
ache again2 Shall never stumble over q
grave agRinY win / never say good by
to loved ones again? Can it be possible
that the stream Is past; that the bank is
gained; that the glory is begun Show
me Jesus that may kiss his feet" When
the clock of Christian suffering has run
down, it will never be wound up again.
Amid the vineyards Of the heavenly En-
gedi; that will be restoration without any
relapse; that viii be day without any sue
ceedng night; that will be "the saints
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