The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1890-07-04

Cens because Oh tno nome WHICH Nc
adorned and beautifed, until there
probably never has been so bright spot
since the Garden of Eden as what he
loved to call ''the Leasowes." In adj
dition to the marvels which nature had
wrought, he added the perfection of art
Arbor and terrace and slope and rustic
temple and reservoir and urn and fount-
ain here had their browning. Oak and
yew and hazel put on their glory Of
vendure. What the greenness of deep
grass and the foam of cascade, and the
glitter of still lake could give of beauty
we're added. No life was more diligent
and no soul more ingenious than those
of Shenstone, and all that genius and
diligence were directed to the adorne-
ment of that treasured spot. What more
could one want to make home happy?
Yet there is one man who sits signing
in those bowers, and casting gloomy
looks upon those parks, and the mirth
of leaping waterfalls makes no melody
in his ear. 1t is Shenstone. the owner
of the Leasowes. 81 have lost my road
to happiness" says the respondent man.
II am angry and envious, and detected
and frantic, and disregard all present
things, just as it becomes a mailman to
do" My friends, there is no solid hap
piness in any thing but religion, care
not how bright a home; Orpah has her
Moab-when she turns away from duty
she turns away from peace. Amid the
bacchanalia of BelShazzar's feast and
the glitter of chalices there always will
come out handwriting on the wall
fearfully ominous: "Tekel-weighed
in the balance and found wanting"
When you reap harvests off bare rocks
and gather balm out of night-shade,
and make sunlight sleep in the heart of
sepulchers, and build firm house on a
rocking billow, then can an unpardoned
soul find firm enjoyment amid its trans
gressions. Then can Orpah go back to
Moab without weeping.
Again: This subject suggests to me
two of the prominent reasons why peo-
pie refuse the Kingdom of Christ There
may have been many other reasons why
Orpah left her sister and mother-in-law
and went back home, but there were
two reasons which, ! think, we're more
prominent than the rest. She had been
brought up in idolatries. She loved the
heather gods which her ancestors had
worshipped, and, though these blocks
of wood and stone could not hear, she
thought they could hear, and, though
they could not see, she thought they
could see, and, though they could not
feel, she thought they could feel A
new religion had been brought to her
attention. She had married godly
man. She must often have heard her
mother-in-law talk of the God of Israel.
She was so much shaken in her original
belief that she concluded TO leave her
| idolatries, but coming to the margin OF
the land of Bethlehem, her determine
ton failed her, and speedily she return
ed to her gods. This is the very reason
why multitudes of persons never be-
come Christians. They can not bear to
give up their gods. Business is the
American Juggernaut that brushes more
men than the great car of the Hindoos.
To it they say their morning and even
ing prayers. A little of Christ's relig-
ion may creep into the Sabbath. but
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thurs
day, Friday and Saturday are the days
devoted to this American idol. Every
hour there is sacrifice on the altar.
uubltSs VI
strength and immortal affections must
all burn in this holocaust. Men act as
though they could take their bonds,
and mortgages, and saws, and trowels,
and axes, and pay-bo oks with them into
the Kingdom of Heaven.
But it was not only the gods of Moab
that made Orpah leave her sister and
mother-in-law. She doubtless had
dread of the hardship to which they
would be exposed on the journey to
Bethlehem, and Orpah was not alone in
the fear Doubtless some of you have
been appalled, and driven back by the
self-denial of the Christian life. The
taunt of the world, the charge of n.y.
pocrisy which they would sometimes be
obliged to confront has kept many
away from the land of Bethlehem.
They spend their life in counting the
cost, and, because Christian life de-
mands so much courage and faith, they
dare not begin to build. Perhaps
they are courageous in every
other respect. They are not tim
i'd in presence of any danger ex-
cept that of trusting in the infinite
mercy of Christ The sheep are more
afraid of the shepherd shan of the
wolves. They shrink away from the
presence of Christ as though He were
tyrant rather than friend who sticketh
closer than brother. They feel more
safe in the ranks of the enemy whore
they suffer infinite defeat than in the
army of Christ, which shall be more
than conquerors, through Him that hath
loved them. Men shiver and tremble
before religion as though they were
commanded to throw their life away, as
though it were surrender of honor and
manliness, and reason and self-respect,
and all that is worth keeping.
What has God ever done that His
mercy should DO doubted? Was there
He did not pity? Was there ever soul
that He left unhelped in the darkness?
Was there ever a martyr that He did
not strengthen in tho flames? Was
there ever a dying man to whose relief
He did not come at the cry of Lord
Jesus, receive my soul?" Aye, my soul,
what has God done that so basely thou
| hast doubted Him? Did He make the
whole earth a desert? Are all the
skies dark and storm-sweptP Is life
all sickness? Is the air all
plague? Are there nothing but rods
and scorpions and furnaces? God
knows how many suspicious and un-
beliefs men would entertain in regard
to Him and therefore, after making a
multitude of plain and precious prom
| Uses, He places His hand on His own
heart and swears by bis own existence: