The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-05-21

| G1db man saws
"What fool 1 was to be enchanted with
this world! Why, have more satiSfac-
tion in FIVE minutes in the service of God
| than had in all the first years Of my life
while was gain getting. like this even
ing of my day a great deal better than
/ did the morning. In the morning L
/ greedily devoured the prey; but now it is
| evening, and I am gloriously dividing the
/ SPOIL"
! My friends, this world is a poor thing to
hunt. It is healthful to go out in the woods
and hunt. 1t rekindles the luster of the
| eye. 1t strikes the brown of the autumnal
/ leaf into the cheek. 1t gives TO the
rheumatic limbs strength to leap like the
roe. Christopher North's pet gun, the
mueke-mouthed Meg, going off in the
| summer in the forests, had its echo
| in the winter time in the eloquence that
rang through the university hall of Edin-
| burg. 1t is healthy TO go hunting in the
/ field; but tell you that it is belittling and
| bedwarfing and belaming for man TO
hunt this world. The hammer comes down
on the gun-cap and the barrel explodes
and kills you instead of that which you
are pursuing. When you turn out to hunt
/ the world, the world turRs out to hunt
you; and as many a sportsman aiming his
! gun at panther's heart has gone down
| under the striped claws, so while you have
/ been attempting to devour this world, the
/ world has been devouring you. So it was
/ with Lord Byron. So it was with Cole
| ridge. So it was with Catherine of Rus
/ sia. Henry II. went out hunting for this
| world and it's lances stuck through his
| heart. Francis 1. aimed at the world, but
the assassin's dagger put an end to his
| ambition and his life with one stroke.
Mary, Queen of Scots, wrote on the win
| dow of her castle:
From the top of all my trust
| Mishap hath laid me in the dust
The Queen dowager of Navarro was Of
fered for her wedding day a costly and
beautiful pair of gloves, and she put them
| on, but they were poisoned gloves and they
| took her life. Better bare hand of cold
| privation than warm and poisoned glove
| of ruinOus success.
"Oh," says some young man in the au-
| dience, II believe what you are preaching.
I am going to do that very thing. In the
morning of my life am going to devour
| the prey, and in the evening I shall divide
| the spoil of Christian character. I only
want little while to SOW my wild oats
| and then I will be good"
Young man, did you ever take the GEN.
sus of all the old peoplel How many old
] people are there in your house? One, two
| or none? How many in a vast assemblage
| like this? Only here and there a bald
head, like the patches Of snow here and
there in the fields on late April day.
| The fact is that the tides of the years are
so strong that men go down under them
! before they get TO be sixty, before they
! get to be fifty, before they get to be forty,
before they get to be thirty; and if you,
my young brother, resolve now that you
viii spend the morning of your days in
! devouring the prey, the probability is that
/ you viii never divide the spoil in the eve
ming hour.
He who postpones until old age the reli-
gion of Jesus Christ, postpones it forever.
| Where are the men who, thirty years ago,
resolved to become Christians in old age,
! putting it off certain number of years?
! They never got to be old. The railroad
/ collision or the steamboat explosion or the
| slip on the ice or the falling ladder or the
sudden cold put end to their oppOrtuni
| ties. They have never had an opportunity
since and never will have an opportunity
| again. They locked the door of Heaven
against their soul and they threw away
| the key, and if they could now break jail
and come up shrieking to this audience I
not do think they would take two minutes
| to persuade us all to repentance. They
| chased the world and they died in the
chase. The wounded tiger turned on them.
! They failed to take the game that they
| pursued. Mounted on a swift courser they
leaped the hedge, but the courser feE on
them and crushed them. Proposing to
barter their soul for the world, they lost
10th and got neither.
While this is an encouragement to old
/ ybo rd0 Ia N
encouragement to the young who are put
ting off the day of grace. This doctrine
| that the old may be repentant is TO be
taken cautiously. 1t is medicine that kills
! or cures. The same medicine given to diff
| ferent patients in one case saves life and
in the other destroys it. This possibility
of repentance at the close of life may cure
the old man while it kills the young. Be
| cautious in taking it.
Again, my subject is descriptive of those
who come to a sudden and radical change.
| You have noticed how short a time it is
from morning to night in the winter
eight or ten hours. You know that a win
ter day has a very brief life. The heart
of the longest day beats twenty -four times
and then it is dead. How quick the tran
sit1on in the character of these Benjamin
ites
In the morning they shall devour the prey
and at night they shall divide the spoil.
Is it possible that there shall be such a
Transformation in any of our characters2
Yes, man may be at seven O'Clock in
the morning an all-devouring wording
and at seven O'Clock at night he may he n
peaceful distributive Christian. Conver-
sion is instantaneous. A man passes into
the Kingdom of God quicker than down
the sky runs the zig-zag lightning. A
man may be anxious about his soul for a
great many years; that does not make
him a Christian. A man may pray a
great while; that does not make him q
Christian. man may resolve on the
reformation of his character and have
that resolution going on a great while
that does not make him a Christian. But
the very instant when he fiings his soul on
the mercy of Jesus Christ, that instant is
lustration, emancipation, resurrection.
Up to that point he is going in the wrong
direction; after that point he Is going in
the right direction. Before that moment
he is a child of sin: after that mo-
ment he is a child Of God. Before that
moment, hellward; after that moment,
heavenward. Before that moment, devour-
ing the prev; after that moment, dividing
the spoil Five minutes Is as good as five
years.
My hearer, you know very well that the
best things you have done you have done
in q fash. You made up your mind in an
instant 10 buy OF TO sell, or to invest, or to
stop or to start. If you had missed that
one chance, you would have missed il
| forever Now just as precipitate and
quick and spontaneous viii be the ransom
of your soul. This morning you are max
ing a calculation. You are on the track
of some financial or social game. With