The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-07-02

| or year Is from ravens. 30 your supply
is going to come from an unexpected
source. You think some great-hearted,
| generous man viii come along and give
/ you his name on the back of your note, or
he win go security for you in some great
enterprise. No, he viii not. God will
| open the heart of some ShyIock toward
i you. Your relief viii come from the most
unexpected quarter. The providence
which seemed ominous will be to you more
| than that which seemed auspicious. 1t
| will not be a chafinch with breast and
| wing dashed with white and brown and
/ chestnut. it win be black raven.
| Here is where we all make our mistake,
and that is in regard 70 the color Of Code
| providence. A white providence comes to
US and we say: ''Oh, it is mercy" Then
black providence comes toward us, and
we say: "Oh, that is disaster!" The white
/ providence comes to you, and you have
! great business success, and you have $50
/ goo, and you get proud, and you get indie
| pendent of God, and you begin to feel that
the prayer, "Give me this day my daily
| bread" is inappropriate for you, for you
| have made provisions for a hundred years.
| Then a black providence comes, and it
| sweeps every thing away, and then you
| begin to pray, and you begin to feel your
!
/ God, and you cry out for treasures in
Heaven. The black providence brought
/ you salvation. The white providence
/ brought you ruin. That which seemed
! to be harsh and fierce and dissonant was
/ your greatest mercy. It was a raven.
! There was a child born in your house
! All your friends congratulated you. The
| other children of the family stood amazed
| looking at the newcomer, and asked a
| great many questions, genealogical and
| chronological. You said-and you said
truthfulIy-that a white angel nov
through the room and left the little one
there. That little one stood with its tw O
feet in the very center of your sanctuary
of affection, and with its two hands it
took hold of the altar of your soul But
one day there came one of the three
scourges of children-scarlet fever, or
Group, or diphtheria-and all that bright
scene vanished. The ehattering, the
strange questions, the pulling at the
dresses as you crossed the floor all ceased.
AS the great friend of children stopped
down and leaned toward that era lie, and
took the little one in his arms, and walked
away with it into the bower of
eternal summer, your eye began to
follow him, and you followed the
treasure he carried, and you have been
following them ever since; and instead of
thinking of Heaven only once a week, as
formerly, you are thinking of it all the
time, and you are more pure and tender
hearted than you used to be, and you are
patiently waiting for the daybreak. 1t is
not self-ri ghteousness in you to acxnowI-
edge that you are a better man than YOU
used to be--you are a better woman than
you used to be. What was it that brou ght
you the sanctifying blessing? On, it was
the dark shadow on the nursery; it was
the brooding of q great black trouble; it
was raven-it was a raven! Dear Lord,
teach this people that white providences
do not always mean advancement, and
that black providences do not always
mean retrOgression.
Children of God, get up out of your de-
spondency. The Lord never had so many
ravens as he has this morning. Fling
your fret and worry to the winds. Some
times under the vexations of life you feel
like my little girl of four years, who said
under some childish vexation: Cob, I wish
could go to Heaven and see God and
pick flowers !" He win LEI YOU go when
the right time comes to pick flowers. I'm
til then, whatever you want. pray for. [
suppose Elijah prayed pretty much all
the time. Tremendous work behind him.
Tremendous work before him. God has
no spare ravens for idIers or for people
who are praverIess. I put it in the bold est
sh ape possible and I am willing to risk
my eternity on it; ask God in the right
way for what you want, and you shall
have it if it is best for you. Mrs. Jane
| Pithey, of Chicago, a welI-znown Christian
woman, was left by her husband a widow
with one half dollar and cottage. She
IL. 81
years of age to support. The widowed
soul every day asked God for all that was
needed in the household, and the servant
even was astonished at the precision with
which God answered the prayers of that
woman, item by item, item by item. One
day, rising from the family altar, the
servant said: "Ycu have not asked for
coal, and the coal is out.'' Then they
stood and prayed for coal. One hour after
that the servant threw open the door and
said: "The coal has come" A generous
man whose name I could give you had
sent-as never before and never since-a
supply of coal. You can not understand
it. do. Ravens! Ravens!
Ny friend. YOU have a right to argue
from precedent that God is going to take
care of you. Has He not done it two or
three times every day? That is most mar
velous. I look hack and I wonder that God
has given me food three times a day reg
III arly all my lifetime, never missing but
once, and then / was lost in the mount
aims; but that very morning and that very
night / met the ravens.
o, the Lord is so good that I wish all
this people would trust Him with the two
hves-the lie you are now living and that
which every tick of the watch and every
stroke of the clock inform you is approach
ing. Bread for your immortal soul comes
to-day. See They alight the plat
form. They alight on the lacks of all the
pews. They swing among the aches. RAJ
vensl Ravens.
Blessed are they that hunger after right
eousness for they shall be filled.
To all the SHINING and the sorrowing
and the tempted deliverance comes this
hour. Look down and you see nothing
but your spir tuaI deformities. Look back
and you see nothing but wasted oppor-
tunity. But look up and you behold the
whipped shoulders of an interceding
Christ and the face of a pardoning God
and the irradiation of an opening heaven.
hear the whirr of their wings. Do you
not feel the rush of the air On your cheek2
Ravens Ravensi
AnSfe - OnAy one question: " ans - ttaiA'
How many of this audience are willing to
trust God for the supply of their bodies,
and trust the Lord Jesus Christ for the re-
demptIon Of their imJn Mortal souls? Amid
the chatter of the hoofs and the clanq of
the wheels OF the judgment chariot the
whole matter viii be demons trated.
TOUCHING, IF TRUE.