The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-02-15
whera salnts immortal reIgn.

Death like narroN stream divides
That Heavenly land from ours.
Oh, it is q great religion to live by, and
IL is a great religion to die bys There is
only one heart throb between you aud
that religion this morning. Just look into
the face of your pardoning God, and sur
render yourself for time and eternity, and
He is yours, and Heaven is yours, and all
is yours. Some of you, ike the young
man 5f the text, have gone far astrey. l
know not tho ist0rY, but you know il,
you know it. When young man went
forth into life, the legend says, his guards
ian went forth with him, and getting him
into q field the guardian angel swept
circle clear around where the young
man stood. 1t was circle of virtue and
honor, and he must not step beyond that
circle. Armed foes came down, but were
obliged to halt at the ciFcle-they could
not pass. But one day a temptresss with
diamonded hand, stretched forth and
crossed that circle with the hand, and the
tempted soul took it, and by that one fell
grip was brought beyond the circle and
died. Some of you have stepped beyond
| that circle, Would you not like this day
| by the grace of God to step backg This, l
say to you, is your hour Of salvation.
There was in the closing hours Of Queen
Anne what is called the clock scene. Flat
down on the pillow in helpless sickness,
| she could not move her head or move her
hand. She was waiting for the hour when
| the ministers of state should gather in
| angry contest and, worried and
worn out by the coming hour,
| and in momentary absence of the nurse,
| in the power, the strange power which de-
lirium sometimes gives one, she arose
and stood in front Of the clock and stood
| there watching the clock when the nurse
returned. The nurse said; "Do you see
any thing peculiar about that clock?" She
made no answer, but soon died. There is
a clOok scene in every history. If some
/ of you would rise from the bed of lethargy
| and come out from your delirium of sin,
| and look on the clock of your destiny this
| morning, you would see and hear some-
thing you have not seen or heard before,
and every tick of the minute, and every
| stroke Of the hour, and every swing Of the
| pendulum would say: "Now, now, now,
nowP Oh, come home to your Fathers
house. Come home, oh, prodigal, from
the wilderness. Come home, come home
2. But notice that when the prodigal
| came there was a fathers joy. He did not
| greet him with any formal Chow do you
/ dol" He did not come out and say: "You
are unfit to enter; go out and wash in the
! trough by the well, and then you can come
/ in; we have had enough trouble with
| you" Ahl no. When the proprietor of
that estate proclaimed festival, it was
an outburst of fathers love and 9
| father's Joy. God is your father. have
not much sympathy with that description
| of God sometimes hear, as though He
were a Turkish Sultan, hard and unsympa-
| thetic, and listening not to the cry of his
subjects. A man told me he saw in one
Of the Eastern lands q King riding along,
/ and two men were in alteration, and one
| charged the other with having eaten his
| rice, and the King said: 'Then slay the
man. and by a post-mortem examination
| find whether he has eaten the rice" And
| he was slain. Ahl the cruelty of a scene
like that. Our God is not Sultan, not a
! Gar, not a despot, but a Father-kind,
loving, forgiving, and He makes all Heav-
en- ring again when a prodigal comes
back. 81 have no pleasure" He says, Gin
the death of him that dieth."
IF a man does not get to Heaven it is be-
| cause he will not go there. No difference
/ the color, no difference the history, no
| difference the antecedents, no difference
| the surroundings, no difference the sin.
| When the white horses Of Christ's victory
| are brought out to celebrate the eternal
| triumph you may ride one of them, and as
God is greater than all, His joy is greater,
and when soul comes back there is in
| His heart the suFging of an infinite ocean
] of gladness, and to express that gladness
| 1t takes all the rivers of pleasure, and all
the thrones of pomp, and all the ages of
eternity. It is a joy deeper than all depth,
and higher than all height, and wider
than all width, and vaster than all i'm
mensity. 1t overtops, it undergirds, ii
| outweighs all the united splendor and JOY
Of the universe. Who can tell what Gods
/ joy isH
You remember reading the story of 6
King who on some great day Of festiyity
| scattered silver and gold among the peo-
pie, and sent valuable presents to his
courtiers; but methinks when a soul
comes back, God is so glad that to ex-
press His joy He hings out new worlds
into space, and kindles up new
suns, and rolls among the white-robed
anthems of the redeemed a greater halle
luiah, while with a. voice that reverber-
ates among the mountains of franklin
cense and IS echoed back from the ever
lasting gates, He cries: This, my son,
was dead, and he is alive again."
| At the opening of the Exposition in
| New Orleans, / saw a Mexican hutist, and
he played the solo, and then afterward
the eight or ten bands of music, accom-.
/ panied by the great organ, came in; but
the sound Of that one flute as compared
| with all the orchestra was greater than al
the combined joy Of the universe wher
compared with the resounding heart oi
Almighty God.
FOR ten years a father went three times
day to the depot. His son went of in
| agQravating circumstances, but the IA.
ther said: ''He will come back" The
strain was too much, and his mind parted,
and three times "A day the father went. In
the early morning he watched the train,
its arrival, the stepping out of the pas
sengers, and then the departure of tho
train. At noon he was there again
watching the advance Of the train, watch
ing the departure. At night, there again
watching the coming, watching the goinl
for ten years. He was sure his son wouls
come back. God has been watching anc
waiting for some Of you, my brothers
ten years, twenty years, thirty years
forty years, perhaps fifty years-waiting
waiting, watching, watching, and if thi
morning the prOdigal should come home
what a scene Of gladness and festivity
and how the great Fathers heart woulC
rejoice at your coming home. You vii
come some Of you, will you not? Yol
win, you viii.
9. I notice also that when a prodiga
comes home there is the JOY Of the minis
ters Of religion. Oh, IL is a grand thin
20 preach this gospel. / know there ha
been great deal said about the trials an,
hardships Of the Christian ministry.
wish somebody would write good, rous.
| ing book about the joys Of the Christia
ministry. Since ! entered the professio
have seen more Of the goodness Of Go
than viii be able to celebrate ia a.
eternity. I know some boast about thei
: equilibrium, and they do not rise into en-
, thusiasm, and they do not break dow
/ with emotion; but / confess to you plain
2 II that when / see a man coming
4 God and giving up his sin, / feel
body. mind and soul a transport Whe
3 I see a man who is bound hand an
3 foot in evil habit emancipated / rejoic
D over it as though it were my own emanci
) nation. When to-day in our commun1o
I / service such fhrongs Of young and Oh
stand at these affairs, and IN the presene
3 of Heaven and earth and hell attest thei
4 aza "a 81