The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-08-09
SUBSCRIPTION: sl.OO Per Year.

''ROcK or Ages" ana Dullb Dy LnS dTCu~
itecture Of the whole universe, spanning
the dark gulf between sin and righteous
ness, and all God asks you is to walk
across it; and you start, and you come to
it and you stop, and you go little way on
and you stop, and you fall back, and you
experiment.
You say, "How do know that bridge
will hold mel" instead of marching on
with firm step, asking no questions, but
feeling that the strength of the eternal
God is under you. Oh, was there ever a
prize profered so cheap as pardon and
Heaven are offered to you? For how
much? A million dollars? It is certainly
worth more than that But cheaper than
that you can have it. Ten thousand doll
lars2 Less than that. Five thousand
dollars? Less than that One dollarI
Less than that. One farthing? Less than
that without money and without
price," No money to pay. No journey
to take. No penance to suffer. Only just
one decisive action of the soul:
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be saved.
Shall I try to tell you what it is to be
saved? can not tell you. No man, no
angel can tell you. But 1 can hint at it.
For my text brings me up to this point.
Thou shalt be saved" 1t means hap
py life here and peaceful death and
blissful eternity. 1t is q grand thing to
go to sleep at night and to get up in the
morning and to do business all day feel
ing that all is right between my heart and
God. No accident no sickness, no perse-
cution, no peril, no sword can do me any
permanent damage. l am a forgiven
child Of God, and He is bound to see mo
through. The mountains may depart,
the earth may burn, the light of tho stars
may be blown out by the blast of the
judgment hurricane; but life and death,
things present and things to come, are
mine. Yea, further than that-it means
a peaceful death.
Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Sigourney, DR..
Young and almost all the poets have said
handsome things about death. There is
nothing beautiful about it. When we
stand by the white and rigid features OF
those whom We love, and they give no
answering pressure Of the hand and no
returning kiss of the lip, we do noO want
any body poetizing around about us.
Death is lOathsomeness, and midnight,
and the wringing of the heart until the
tendrils snap and curl in the torture, I'M
less Christ should be with US. confess
to you an infinite fear, consuming hor-
rOr OF death, unless Christ shall DO with
me. would rather go down into cave
Of wild beasts or a jungle of reptiles than
into the grave unless Christ goes with
carried out from my bright home and put
away in the darkness? 1 can not bear
darkness. At the first coming of the
evening l must have the gas lighted, and
the further on in life l get the more l
like to have my friends about me.
And am 1 to be put off for thousands of
years in a dark place with no one to
speak to? When the holidays come and
the gifts are distributed, shall | add no
or bn
'Happy New Year?' All, do not point
down to the hole in the ground, the grave,
and call it a beautiful place. Unless
there be some supernatural illumination
1 sbudder back from it. My whole nat
ure revoIts at it. But now this glorious
lamp is lifted above the grave, and all
the darkness is gone, and the way Is
clear. l look into it now without single
shudder. Now my anxiety is not about
death; my anxiety is that 1 may live
Alright, for l know that if my life is con-
sistent when / come to the last hour, and
these hands with which / beg for your
eternal salvation to day are folded over
the still heart then l shall only begin to
live.
70 be saved is to wake up in the pres
e4ce of Christ You know when Jesus
was upon earth how happy He made every
house He went into, and when He brings
us up to His house in Heaven how great
shall be our glee. His voice has moro
music in it than is to be heard in all tho
oratorios Of eternity.
Talk not about banks dashed with ef-
forescence. Jesus is the chief bloom of
Heaven. We shall see the very face that
beamed sympathy in Bethany, and take
the very hand that dropped its blood from
the short beam of the cross. Oh, want
to stand in eternity with Him. Toward that
harbor I steer. Toward that goal / run.
| shall be satisfied when / awake in His
likeness.
Oh, broken hearted men and women,
how sweet it will be in that good land to
pour all Of your hardships and bereave-
ments and losses into the loving ear OF
Christ, and then have Him explain why it
was best for you to be widowed, and why
it was best for you to be tried and have
him point to an elevation proporti onate
to your disquietude here saying;
''You suffered with me on earth; como
up now and be glorihed with me in
Heaven"
Some one went into a house where there
had been a good deal Of trouble and said
to the woman there:
s'You seem to be lonely"
"Yes," she said, 81 am lonely"
"How many in the family"
"Only myself"
'.Have you had any children"
81 had seven children"
"Where are theyp
"Gone."
'sAll gonep
"AlLD
''AIl dead?"
Call"
Then she breathed a long sigh into the
loneliness, and said; "Oh, sir, i have
been a good mother to the grave"
And 50 there are hearts here that arc
utterly broken down by the bereavemeHts
Of life. point you to-day TO the eter-
nal balm OF Heaven. Arc there any here
that I am missing this morning? Oh,
you poor, waiting maidi your hearps
sorrow poured in no human ear, lonely
and sad how glad you will be when
Christ shall disband all your sorrows and
crown you queen unto God and the Lamb
forever Aged men and women, fed by His
love and warmed by the grace for three
score years and ten! will not your
decrepitude change for the leap
Of a hart when you come to look face to
face upon Him whom, having not seen,
you love? That viii be the Good Shep-
herd, not out in the night and watching to
keep off the wolves, but with the lamp
reclining on the sunlit hill. That VIII be
the Captain OF our salvation, not amid the
roar and crash and boom OF battle, but
amid His disbanded troops keeping vfcto-
rious fcstivity. That Will be the Bride
groom of the Church coming from afar,