The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1888-12-07

ways as Sne p9sSes hoping to see new evil
| denees of depravity in the windows. /
think that when Satan has job so infin-
itely mean that in all the pit no can not
find a devil mean enough to do IL, and all
| brides and threats have failed to get one
| willing for the Internal crusade, he says
| to one of his sergeants: t'Go up to Brook
l lyn, and in such q street. on such q cor
ner, get that gossiping woman, and she
will be glad to do it." And sure enough,
/ like hungry fish, she takes the hook in
| her mouth, and Satan slackens the line
/ and let's her run out farther and farther
/ until after awhile he says: SIT is time
| to haul In that line" and with a few
strong pulls he brings her to the beach of
/ fire. What do yousay? can not help that
| When Satan goes a-f fshinG, he does not
| care what school the fish belong to,
/ whether it is q Presbyterian mackereI or
4 au Epfscopalfan salmon. @fThou shalt not
| bear false witnesses against thy neigh =
/ bor." And in Leviticu5 He says: Thou
shalt not go up and down as tale bear =
| er." fake not into your ear that scum of
| hell that people call tittle-tattle. Who :
! soever willingly listens to a slander IS
equally guilty with the one who tells It,
and an old writer says they ought both to
be hung, the one by the tongue and the
othor by the ear. Do not smile upon such
3 spaniel, lest, like a pleased dog, he put
shutter of your soul, OH Christian men
and women, and see if there be within
you vulture with filthy talons and cruel
beak. Let not this unclean thing roost in
your soul, for my text says: I'VE shall
hold in abominatIon among the fowls, the
vulture."
Again, taking the suggestion Of the
text, drive out the bat from your soul.
No wonder God set this bird among the
] IL
| Let it fly into the window of a summer
night and all the hands, young and old,
are against it. It is half bird and half
mouse. 1t seems made partly to walk
| and partly to fly, and does neither well,
! and becomes an emblem of those
| Christians who try to cling to earth and
! Heaven at the same time. They want to
walk on earth in worldliness, and yet fly
! toward Heaven in spirituality, and their
| souls, between feet and wings, is con-
stantly perplexed. o, my brethren, be
one thing or the otherI Choose the world
| if you prefer it. and see how many doll
lars you can win, and how much applause
| you can gain, and how largo business
| you can establish and how grand
house you can build, and how fast a span
of horses you can drive. You may be
prosperous until you can fail for half
million dollars instead of having the
dollars, as some unenterprising people
do. It is quite a reward to be able for ten
or twenty years to be called one Of the
solid men of Brooklyn or Boston; and
then, to make your fortune last as long
as possible, we will give you a splendid
funeral, and you shall have twenty five
carriages following you, with somebody
in the most of them, and your coffin shall
have silver handles on the sides, and we
will in Ernt
handkerchiefs bound with Grape, and
with bombazine twenty full yards long,
trailing half across the parlor so that all
the company may stand upon it, and we
will write our letters for six months on
paper edged with black. But, my friends,
your worldly fortunes will not last. / will
buy out now all that you will be worth in
worldly estate seventy-fv years from
now. I have the money in my pocket
with which to do it. Here it isl Two
centsI 1t is a large sum to offer for all
you will possess at the end of seventy
five years. Choose the world, if you want
to, but, if not then choose Heaven. That
estate lies partly on this side of the river,
but mostly on the other. 1t is ever ac-
cumulating. The prospect of it makes
one independent of earthly misfOrtunes;
so that Rogers, the martyr, slept so
soundly the night before his burning, they
violently shook him in order to get him
awake in time for the execution, and
Paul exults at the thoughtof the 'joy un-
speakable and full of glory" Oh, choose
earth or Heavenl Make up your mind
whether you will walk in earthly joy, or
fly with Heavenly expectations. Be not a
bat fit neither to walk nor fly, having
just enough of Heaven to spoil the world,
and so much of the world as to spoil
Heaven. Christ says that your present
condition nauseates Him to pos tive sick
ness. because thou art neither cold nor
hot 1 will spew thee out of my mouth !"
In the ruins of Pompeii there was found
a petrihed woman, who, instead OF trying
to fly from the destroyed city, had spent
her time in gathering up her Jewels. She
saved neither her life nor her jewels.
There are multitul les making the same
mistake. In trying to get earth and
Heaven they lose both. eye can not serve
God and Mammon." Be one thing or the
other. Tread the earth like a lion, or
mount the air like the eagle, for my text
says: "Ye shall have In abomination
among the fowls, the bat"
Again: Taking the suggestion Of the
text. drive out the chameleon from your
soul. There is some difference among
good men as to the name of this Keeping
thing which God pronounced unclean, but
/ shall take the opinion which seems best
suited to my purpose, The chameleon Is
a reptile, chiefly known by it's change
ableness of color, taking the color of the
thing next to il, sometimes brown, some
times gray, but always the color Of it's
surroundings, type OF that class of
Chri itians who are now one thing in re-
ligious faith and now another, just to
suit circumstances, always taking their
color of religious belief from the man
they are talking to. They go to one place.
and are hrst-rate Unitarians ''Jcsus was
a good man, but nothing more" They
go to Princeton, and they are Trinita-
rians, almost willing to die for the di-
vinity OF Jesus. Among the Univer-
salists they refuse the idea of future
punishment; and going among those Of
opposite belief, announce that there is a
hell with gusto that makes you think
they are glad of it. Drive out that un-
clean chameleon from your soul. Do not
be ever changing the color Of your faith
My friends, liberal Christianity, falsely
so called, believes in nothing. God is
any thing you want to make Him. The
Bible to be believed in 80 far as you ike
IL. Heaven grand mixing up OF Neros
and Pauls. The man who dies by suicide
IN his right mind in 1888, beating
into glory by ten years the Chris
tian man who dies Christian
death in 1898, the suicide proving
himself wiser than the Christian.
Oh, my friends, let us try to believe in
something. An infdel was called TO the
bedside Of his daughter. The daughter
said: Father, which shall believe, you
or mother? Mother took the religion Of
Christ and died in its embrace. You say
that religion is n hHmbug. Now, l am
going to die and I ana very much per-
picked; shall [ believe yoa or take the
belief Of my motheFi" The father said:
Choose FOR yourself" sac said: NO,
am too weak 20 choose for myself; want
Won 10 choose for me-" Well" said the
father, after muca hesitation and embar-
rassmeut: MARY. think yoa had be-
ter taka the rellgLo. ot your nother.| |