The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-08-06
70 mercy. and my text comes IN with mar,

no mercy, and my text comes In with mar,
velous appositeness.
With what measure ye mete, tt shall DO
measured to you again.
In the study of society have come to
this conclusion. that the most OF the peo-
pie want to be good, but they do not ex-
actly know how to make it out. They
make enough good resolutions to lift them
into angelhood. The vast Majority Of
people who fall are victims of circum-
stances; they are captured by ambuscade.
II their temptations should come out in a
regiment and fight them in fair field,
they would so out In the strength and the
triumph Of David and Goliath. But they
do not see the giants and they do not see
the regiment. Suppose temptation should
come up to man and say: ssHere is alcos
hol; take three tabIespoonfuIs of it a day
until you get dependent it; then, after
that take half glass three times day
until you get dependent upon that amount,
then go on increasing the amounl until
you are saturated from morning until
night and from night until morning." Do
you suppose any man would become a
drunkard in that way? Oh. no! Tempta,
ton comes and says: "Fake these bitters,
ia Ike this nefvine. take this aid to diges-
ton, take this night cap" The vast ma.
jority of men and women who are de-
stroyed by opium and by rum first take
them as medicines. In making up your
dish of criticism in regard to them, take
from the caster the cruet Of sweet oil and
not the cruet Of cayenne pepper. Be easy
on them.
Do you know how that physician, that
lawyer, that Journalist becaEae til e victim
of dissipation?
Why. the physician was kept up night
by night on professional duty. Life and
death lowered in the balance. His nerv-
Gus system was exhausted. There came a
time of epidemic, and whole families were
Frustrated and his nervous strength was
gone. He was all worn out in the service
of the public. Now he must brace himself
up. Now he stimulates. The life of this
mother, the life of this child, the life of
this father, the life of this whole family
must be saved, and he stimulates, and he
does it gain and again.
You may criticise his Judgment, but re-
member the process. 1t was not selfish
process by which ne went down. 1t was
ma gnificent generosity through which he
fell.
That attorney at che bar Tor weeks has
been standing in a poorly ventilated
COURTROOM listening to the testimony and
conresting in the dry technicaIities of the
law, and now the time has come for him
to wind up, and he must plead for the life
of his client, and his nervous system is all
gone. If be fails in that speech his client
perishes. 1t he have eloquence enough in
TIA hour his client is saved. He stimu-
tates. He must keep up. He says: "I
must keep up" Having a large practics
you see how he is enthralled. You may
criticise his judgment, but remember the
process. Do not be hard.
That journalist has had exhausting mid.
night work. He has had to rapport speeches
and Orations that keep him up Sill a very
late hour. He has gone With much ex-
posure working up some case of crime in
company with a detective. He sits
down at midnight to write ont
his notes from mem orandum scrawled on
a pad under uafavorable circumstances.
His strength is gone. Fidelity to
the public intelligence, fidelitytO his own
livelihood demand that he keep up. He
must keep up. He stimulates. Again and
agian he does that, and he goes down. You
may criticise his judgment in the matter,
but have mercy. Remember the process.
Do not be hard.
Ny friends, this text will come to fulfill
ment in soma cases in this world. The
unknown person. Twenty years after the
sen of the huntsman was in the same
forest, and he accidentally shot man,
and the man in dying said: ''God is just;
! shot your father just here twenty years
ago" A bishop said to Louis XII. of
France: "Make an iron cage for all those
who do not think as we do-an
iron cage in. which the captive can neither
lie down nor stand straight up" It was
fashioned-the awful instrument of pun
ishment. After awhile the bishop offend
ed Louis XII, and for fourteen years he
was in that same cage, and could neither
lie down nor stand up. 1t is a poor rule
that will not work both wayV.
With what measure ye mets. it RhaIl Be
measured to you again.
Oh, my friends, let US be resolved to
scold less and pray more. That which in
the Bible is used as the symbol of all gra-
cious influences is the dove, not the porcu-
pine. We may so unskillfully manage
the life boat that we shall run down those
whom we want to rescue. The first
preparation for Christian usefulness
is warm hearted common sense,
practical sympathy for those whom we
want to save. What Roadway will we
make in the judgment if in this world we
have been hard on those who have gone
astravP What Roadway will you and I
make in the last great Judgment, when we
must have mercy or perish? The Bible
says:
They shall have Judgment without mercy
that showed no mercy.
see the scribes of Heaven looking up
into the face of such man, saying;
"Whatl you plead for mercy you, whom
in all your life never had any mercy on
your fellowsI DON'T you remember how
hard you were in your opinions of those
who were astraY2 Don't you remem-
Der when you ought to have given
a helping hand you employed a hard heel?
Mercy! You must misspeak yourself
when you plead for mercy here. Mercy
for others, but no mercy for you"
Look" say the scribes of Heaven, 'Iook
at that inscription over the throne of
judgment-the throne of Gods judg
ment." See it coming out, letter by let
ter, word by word. sentence by sentence,
until your stsrtled vision reads it, and
your remorseful spirit appropl iates it:
With what measure ye mete, Il shall b
measured 70 you again. Depart, go cuTssdl
DEAaONEn