The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1890-09-12

change for Havre de Grace, and the next
for Charleston, and the next for Boston,
and the next for Liverpool These men
on the sea of life, everlastingly lacking
ship and making no Roadway. Or they
are like a man who starts to build a
house in the Corinthian style, and
changes it to Doric, and then completes
it in the Ionic, and is cursed by all
styles of architecture.
Young man! start right, and keep on.
Have decision of character. Chara cter
is like tho goldfinch of TONG UNIT is
magnificent while standing firm, but
loses all its beauty in flight How much
decision of character in order that these
young men may be Christians Their
old ssociates make sarcastic filings at
them. They go on excursions and they
do not invite them. They prophesy
that he will give out They wonder if
he is getting wings. AS he passes they
| grimace, and wink, and chuckle, and
say: There goes saint"
o young man! have decision OF char
acter. You can afford, in this matter
of religion, to be laughed at What do
you care for the SCOTS of these men VIII o
are affronted because you will not 60 to
ruin with them? Whom the grave
cracks open under their feet, and grim
messengers put them into it, and eter-
nifty comes down hard upon their spirit,
and conscience stings, and hopeless
ruin lifts them up to hurl them down,
will they laugh then?
/ learn also from my subject that men
may take religion into their worldly
| sol 10
do to occupy six men. All the affairs of
state were in his hands-questions of
finance, questions of war, OF peace, all
international questions were for his set
Element or adjustment. He must have
had correspondence vast beyond all
computation. There was not a man
in all the earth who had more to do
than Daniel, the Secre tary of State,
and yet we find him three times day
bowling before God in prayer. There
are men in our day who have not hun
dredth part of Daniels engagements,
who say they are too busy to DO re-
| ligious. They have an idea somehow
that religion will spoil their worldly
occupation, that it will trip the ac-
countants pen, or dull the carpenters
saw, or confuse the lawyers brief, or
disarrange the merchants store-shelf.
They think religion is impertinont.
They would like to have it very well
seated beside them in church on the
Sabbath, to find the place in the psalm
book, or to nudge them awake when
they get sleepy under the didactic dis
courses; or they would like to leave it
in the pew on Sabbath evening as they
go out closing the door saying: Good
night, religion; I'll be back next Sun
day." But to have religion go right
by them all through life, to have re-
ligion looking over their shoulder when
they are making a bargain, 10 have
religion take up bag of dishonest
gold and shake it, and say: "Ha! ha!
where did you get that?" They
think that is an impertinent religion.
They would like to have a religion to
help them whom they are sick, and
when the shadow of death comes over
them they would like to have religion
as sort of night-key with which to
open the door of Heaven; but religion
under other circumstances they take to
be an impertinence. Now, my frien Dis,
religion never robbed a man of a dollar.
Other things being equal, mason will
build a better wall, a cabinet-maker
will make better chair, plumb Der
will make better pipe, a lawyer will
make better plea, merchant will sell
better bill of goods.
1 say other things being equal OF
course when religion gives a man a new
heart it does not propose to give him a
head, or to intellectualize him, or to
change mans condition when his or
binary state is an overthrow of the
philanthropical theory that total
vacuum is impossible; but the moro let
tiers you have to write, the moro burdens
you have to carry, the more miles you
have to travel, the more burdens you
have to lift the more engagements you
have to meet, the more disputes you
have to settle, the more opportunity
| you have of being Christian.
If you have a thousand irons in the
fire, you have a thousand more oppor-
tunities of serving God than if you had
only one iron in the fire. Who so busy
as Christ? And yet who a millionth
part as holy? The busiest men tho best
men. All the persons converted in
Scripture busy at the time of their be-
1
his custom-house duties; the prodigal
son feeding swine; Lydia selling pur-
pie; Simon Peter hauling in the net
from tho sea; Saul squirting his horse
toward Damascus, going down on his
law business, Busy! busy. Danielwith
all the affairs of State weighing down
upon his soul, and yet three times day
worshipping the God of Heaven.
Again, learn from this subject that
man may take religion into his poll
tics. Daniel had all the affairs of State
on hand, yet Christian. He could not
have kept his elevated position unless
he had been a thorough politician; and
yet all the thrusts of officials and all
the danger of disgrace did not make
| him yield one iota of his heightened
religious principle. He stood before
that age, he stands before all ages,
specimen of a Christian politician.
So there have been in our day and in
the days of our fathers men as eminent
in the service of God as they have been
eminent in the service of the State.
Such was benjamin f. Butler, Attor-
ney General of New York in the time
of your fathers. Such was John Nc
Lean, of Ohio. Such was George
Briggs, of Massachusetts. Such was
Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey.
Men faithful to tho State, at the same
time faithful to God.
1t is absurd to expect that men who
have been immersed in political wick
cdness for thirty or forty years shall