The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1890-01-10

y
two to do nothing but attend to religion
things, would be great deal bette
! than l am now" You are mistaken
Generally the best people are the busy
| people. Elisha was plowing in the field
when the prophetic mantle fell ON him
| Matthew was attending to his custom
house duties when Christ commanded
him to follow. James and John were
mending their nets when Christ called
them to be fishers of men. Had they
! been snoring in the sun Christ would not
have called their Incidence into the
! apostleship. Gideon was at work with
the fail on the threshing-foor when he
| saw the angel. Saul was with great
| fatigue hunting up the lost asses when
he found the crown of Israel The
prodigal son would never have reformed
and wanted to have returned to his fa-
theirs house if he had not first gone into
business, though it was swine-feeding.
Not once out of a hundred times will a
lazy man become a Christian. Those
who have nothing to do are in very un-
favorable circumstances fci the receiv-
ing of divine manifestations. 1t is not
when you are in idleness, but when you
are, like the Bethlehem shepherds,
watching your focks, that the glory de-
scends and there is Joy among the angels
of God over your soul penitent and for
igven.
My subject also strikes at the delu-
sion that the religion of Christ is dolor-
GUS and grief infusing. The music
which broke through the midnight
heavens was not dirge, but an anthem.
1t shook joy over the hills. 1t not only
dropped upon the shepherds, but it sprang
upward among the thrones. The robe
of Saviour's righteousness is not black.
The Christian life is not made up of
weeping and cross-bearing and war
waging. Through the revelation of
that Christmas night l find that religion
is not a groan, but a song. In world
of sin and sick bed and sepulchers, we
must have trouble; but in the darkest
night the heavens part with angelic
song. You may, like Paul, be ship
wrecked, but l exhort you to be of good
cheer, for you shall all escape safe to
the land. Religion does not show itself
in the elongation of the face and the cut
of the garb. The Pharisee who puts his
religion into his phylactery has none
left for his heart Fretfulness and COM
planning do not belong to the family of
Christian graces which rlove into the
heart when the devil moves out. Chris
tianity does not frown upon amusements
and recreations. 1t is not a cynic, it is
not shrew, it choEes no laughter, it
quenches no light, it defaces no art.
Among the happy, it is the happiest. 1t
is just as much at home on the play
ground as it is in the church. 1t is just
as graceful in the charade as it is in the
psalm book. 1t sings just as we'll in
Surrey Gardens as it prays in st. Paul's.
Christ died that we might live. Christ
walked that we might ride. Christ
wept that we might laugh.
Again, my subject impresses me with
the fact that glorious endings sometimes
have very humble beginnings. The
straw pallet was the starting point, but
the shout in the midnight sky revealed
what would be the glorious cOnsumma-
tion. Christ on Mary's lap. Christ on
the throne of universal dominion. What
an humble starting! What glorious
ending! Grace begins on small scale
in the heart. You see only men as
trees walking. The grace of God in
the heart is feeble spark, and Christ
has to keep both hands over it lest it be
blown out. What an humble beginning!
But look at the same man when he has
entered Heaven. No crown able to ex
press his royalty. No palace able toex-
press his wealth. No scepter able to
express his power and his dominion.
Drinking from the fountain that drips
from the everlasting rock. Among the
harpers harping on their harps. On sea
of glass mingled with fire. Before the
throne of God. to go no more out forever.
The spark of grace that Christ had to
keep both hands over lest it come to ex-
tinction, having famed up into honor,
and glory, and immortality. What
humble starting! What glorious con-
summation.
My subject also impresses me with the
effect of Christ's mission upward and
downward Glory to God, peace to man.
When God sent His Son into the world,
angels discovered something new in
God, something they had never seen be-
fore. Not power, not wisdom, not love.
They knew all that before. But when
God sent His Son into this world then
the angels saw the spirit of self-denial
in God, the spirit of self-sacrifice in
God. 1t is easier to love an angel on
His throne than thief on the cross, a
seraph in his worship than an adulteress
in her crime. When the angels saw
God-the God who would not allow the
most insignificant angel in Heaven to
be hurt-give up His Son, His Son, His |
only, only Son, they saw something |
that they had never thought of before, |
and / do not wonder that when Christ |
started out on that pilgrimage the an
gels in Heaven clapped their wings in |
triumph and called on all the hosts of |
Heaven to help them celebrate it, and |
sang so loud that the Bethlehem shep- |
herds heard it: ''Glory to God in the |
highest"
BUTT was also to be mission of peace |
to man. Infinite holiness-accumulate |
depravity How could they ever come |
together? The Gospel bridges over the /
distance. 1t brings God to US. 1t takes |
us to God. God in us, and we in God. |
Atonement! Atonement! Justice sat
isfied, sins forgiven, eternal life secured, |
Heaven built on manger. But it was |
also to be the pacification of all in
dividual and international animosities, |
What sound this word of peace had in
the Roman empire that boasted of the
number of people it aad massacred, that
prided itself on the number of the
slain, that rejoiced at the trembling |
provinces. Sicily and Corsica and Sar-
dinia and Macedonia and Egypt had
bowed to her sword and crouched at the
cry of herwar eagles. She gave her chief