The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-05-21
NO.38.


"when dsd you hrEt become ssriour
about your souI?"
And they told me:
Tonight"
And said TO others:
"When did you give your heart Oo
God?"
And they said:
Tonight"
And said to stlll others:
"when did you resolve to serve the Lord
all the days of your lifeG"
And they said:
"To-night."
saw by their apparel that when the
grace Of God struck them they were de-
vouring the prey; but saw also in the food
of joyful tears and in the kindling rap
lures on their brow, and IN their eEhil-
arant and transporting utterances, that
they were dividing the spoil. At night
with one touch of electricity. all these
lights blaze. Oh, / would to God that
the darkness of your souls might be
broken up, and that by one quick, over
whelming, instantaneous flash of ilum
inaton you might be brougt into the
light and the liberty of the sons of God
You see that religion is a different thing
from what some of you people supposed.
thought religion was emaciation; you
thought it was highway robbery; that it
struck one down and left him half dead;
that it plNcked out the eyes; that il
plucked out the plumes of the soul; that it
broke the wing and crushed the beak as It
came clawing with its black talons through
the air. No, that is not religion. What is
religion9 It is dividing the spoil. 1t is
taking a defenseless soul and pRnoplying
it for eternal conquest. 1t is the distribu-
tion of prizes by the kings hand, every
medal stamped with coronation. It lie
an exhilara tion, an expansion. Il Is inn
paradisation. 1t is enthronement. Re-
ligion makes a man master of earth, and
DEATH and hell. 1t goes forth TO gather
the medals of victory won by Prince Em-
manuel, and the diadems of heaven and
the glories of realms terrestrial and celes-
tial and then, after ranging all worlds for
everything that is resplendent, is divides
the spoil.
What was it that James Turner, the
famous English evalgelist, was doing when
in his dying moment he said: "Christ is
all Christ is all 20 Why, he was enter
ing into light; he was rounding the Cape
of Good Hope; he was dividing the spoil.
What was the aged Christian Quakeress
doing when at eighty years of age she
arose in the meeting one day and said:
"The time of my departure is come. My
grave clothes are falling off," She was
dividing the spoil.
She longed with wings 60 fly away,
And mix with that eternal day.
What is Daniel now doing, the lion,
tamer2 and Elijah, who was drawn by the
flaming coursers? and Paul, the rattling of
whose chains made kings quake? and all
the other victims of food, and fire, and
wreck, and guillotine? Where are they2
Dividing the spoil.
Ten thousand times ten thousand,
In sparkling raiment bright,
The armies Of the ransomed saints
Throng up the sleeps of light.
'Tis finished, all Is finished,
Their fight with death and sinI
Lift high your golden gates
And let the victors in.
Oh, what a grand thing it is to be q
Christianl We begin on earth to divide
the spoil, but the distribution will not be
completed to all eternity. There is pow
erty-struc soul, there is g business de-
spoiled soul, there is "a sin-struck soul, there
is a bereaved soul-why do you not come
and get the spoils of Christian character,
the comfort, the joy, the peace, the saliva
tion that I am sent to offer you In my
masters name2 Though your knees
knock together in weakness, though
your hand tremble in fear, though your
eyes rain tears of uncomfortable weeping
come and get the spoils. Rest for all the
weary. Pardon for all the guilty. Labor
for all the bestormed. Life for all the
dead. verify believe that there are some
who have come in here outcast because the
world is against them, and because they
feel God is against them, who win 60
away to-day saying:
came to Jesus as was,
Weary, and worn, and sad;
found in him a resting place.
And He has made me glad.
Though you came in children OF the
world, you may go away heirs Of Heaven.
Though you were devouring the prey, now,
all worlds witnessing, you may divide the
spoil.