The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-09-03
fels it would be imbseile for me to choose
Chemosh above Jehovah.

happy bond that seals my VOWS
To Him who merits all my lovei
Let cheerful anthems fill His house,
While to His sacred throne move.
High Heaven, tnat heard the solemn vow,
That vow renewed shall daily hear;
TIL in life's latest hour bow,
And bless in death q bond so dear.
3 Again, if we want TO be Christians,
like Ruth in the text, we must take the
Christians path:
Where thou goest, will go,
cried out the beautiful AIoabitess to Naomi,
the mother-in-law. Dangerous promise
that. There were deserts to be crossed.
There were jackals that came down
through the. wilderness. There were ban
dts. There was the Dead Sea. Naomi
says:
''Ruth, you must so back You are too
delicate to take this journey. You viii
give out in the first five miles. You can
not go. You have not the physical stam-
ina or the moral courage to go with me-"
Ruth res ponds:
Mother, am going anyhow. If stay
in this land I will be overborne OF the
iIolators; If I 30 along with you 1 shall
serve God. Give me that bundle Let me
carry it. 1 am going with you mother,
ANYHOW"
And if we want to serve God, we must
do as Ruth did, crying out:
Where thou goest, Will go.
Never mind the De Sea. Afoot or
horseback. If there be rivers to ford, we
must ford them. If ther be mountains to
scale, must scale them. If there be
enemies to fight we must fight them. 1t
requires grit and pluck to get from Moab
to Judah. Oh, how many Christians
there are who can be diverted from the
rath by qulver of the lip, indicative Of
scorn? They do not surrender to tempta-
ton, but they bend to it. And if in
company there e those who tell unclean
stories they will 60 so far as to tell some
thing on the margin between the pure and
the impure. And if there be those who
swear III the room and use the rough word
"dRmn," they will go so far as the word
"darn, and look over the fence, wishing
they could go farther; but as to any de-
termination like Ruth's TO go the whole
road of all that is right, they have not the
grace 10 do it. They have not in all their
body as much courage as Ruth had in her
little finger. Oh, my friends, let us
start for Heaven and 60 clear
through In the river that runs 10y
the gate Of the city we shall wash OF all
OuI VI uleths w ubl LII CtltltAtiS tIlubcG
his astronomical discourses, they were
were read in the haylofts, in the fields, in
; the garrets ami in the palaces. hecause
! they advocated tho idea tlat the stars
were inhabited. O, hearer, does not your
| soul thrill with the thought that thero is
another world beautifully inhabited? Nay,
more, that you by the grace of God may
/ become one of its glorious citizens?
3. Again 1 remark: If we want to ba-
come Christians, like Ruth in the text, we
must choose the Christians habitation.
Where thou lodgest, will lodge,
cried ruth to Naomi. She knew that
| wherever Naomi stopped, whether it were
hovel or mansion, there would lie a Chris
tian home, and she wanted to lie in it.
! What do 1 mean by Christian home? l
mean home in which the Bible is the
| chief book; n home in which the family
! kneel in prayers; a home in which father
! and mother are practical Christians; a
! home n which on Sabbath, from sunrise
! to sunset, there is profitable converse, and
/ cheerful song, and suggestions Of a better
world. Whether the wall lie frescood or
not, or only a ceiling of unplaned rafters;
whether the marble lions be couchant at
the front entrance, or a plain
! latch is lifted Ly tow-siring-tha
! NOME Is lue anbe- -eUdI3DGT OF
/ Heaven. A man never gets over
having lived in such an early home. It
! holds you in an eternal grip. Thou gh
! your parents may have been gone forty
years, the tears Of penitence and gladness
! that were wept at the family altar still
! glitter in your memory. Nay, do you not
now feel warm and hot on your hands the
! tears " hich that mother shed thirty years
ago, when, one cold winter night, she
came and wrapped you up in the bed and
! prayed for yodr welfare here and for
! your everlasting welfare before the throne?
o, ye who are to set up your OWE home,
see that it he Christian home! Let Jesus
make the wine at that wedding. A homo
without God is an awful place, there are
so many perils to threaten il, and God
bimself is so bitterly against it; but
Tho Lord encampeth around about the
! haDitation of the just.
What a grand thing It is to have God
stand guard at that door, and the Lord
Jesus the family physicians; and the wings
Of angels the canopy over the pillow, and
/ the Lord Of Glory perpetual guest. You
| say it is important that the wife and the
mother be a Christian. ! say to you IL is
! just as important that the husband and
father be a Christian. Yet how many
clever men there are who say:
sMy wife does all the religion of my
house. L am worldly man, but / have
c nfdence in her, and I8think she will
bring the whole family up all right"
1t viii not do, my brother. The fact
| that you ere not Christian has more in
! fuence on your family than the fact that
/ your wife is a Christian. Your children
will say:
| "Father's a very good man; he is not a
/ Christian, and If be risk the future, /
] can risk the fu ure."
G father and husband join your wife
on the road to Heaven, and at night gath
/ er your family at tho altar. D. you say:
! Il can't pray. am a man Of few words
1 and l don't think / could put half a dozen
! sentences together in such prayer"
! You can pray; you can. IL your child
were down with scarlet fever, and the
next hour were to decide its recovery or
+ its death, you would pray in sobs and
/ groans and paroxysms of earnestuess.
! Yes, you can pray. When the eternal
! life of your household may depend upon
! ycur supplcation, let your knees limbo
/ and 20 down; but il you still insist that
| you can not compose a prayer, then buy
| or lorrow praye book Of the Episcopal
/ church, and gather your family, and put
/ Your prayer book on chair, and kueel
| down lefOre it, and in the solemn and
/ hushed presence of God gather up all your
! sorrows, and temptations, and sins, and
/ cry out:
Good Lord, deliver US"
4. Again, remark, IL we want to be-
come Christians, ike Ruth in the text, we
must choose Christian associations.
Thy people shall be my people
cried out Ruth 30 Naomi.
FrEIr
associate with. They viii come and see
me, and I win 60 and see them. / want to
move ia the highest of all circles-the cir
als Of Gad,s eleet: and. therelora. naolhe..