The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1890-07-11

feelings OF a shepherd If he saw wolf
in the same fold with his hocks, how
ever quiet he might seem to lie, or a
General if among his troops he saw one
wearing the appointed uniform who
nevertheless really belonged to the
opposing host Thus must the heav-
emily shepherd look upon those who,
though they are not His sheep,
have climbed up some other way,
and thus must the Lord of hosts
look upon those who pretend
to be soldiers of the cross while they
are His armed enemies. If any of you
find yourselves deficient in the great
tests of Christian character, do not, L
beg of you, look upon your profession
of religion as any thing consolatory. If
you have taken your present position
from a view that you have of Christ
and your need of Him, rejoice with Joy
unspeakable and full of glory and clap
your hands for gladness, but If you find
yourself with nothing but the name of
life, while dead in trespasses and sins,
arouse before the door is shut. That
gilded profession-the world may not
DO able to see through it, but in the
day of Divine reckoning it will be found
that you have no cloak for your sin.
Furthermore: Outward morality will
be no covering for the hidden iniquity
of the spirit. The Gospel of Christ
makes no assault upon good works.
They are as beautiful in Gods eyes as
in ours. Punctuality, truthfulness,
aims giving, affection and many other
excelences of life that might be men
toned will always be admired OF
God and man, but we take the POI
sition that good works can not be
the ground of our salvation. What
we do right can not pay for what we
do wrong. Admit that you have
all those traits Of character which give
merely worldly responsibility and in
fluence, you must at the same time
acknowledge that during the course of
your life you have done many things
you ought not to have done. How are
these difficult matters to be settled?
All, my friends, we must have an
atonement. No Christ, no salvation.
The Great Redeemer comes in and says,
81 will pay your indebtedness" So
that which was dark enough before, is
bright enough now. The stripes that
we deserve are fallen upon Christ On
the scourged and bleeding shoulders He
carries us up over the mountain of our
sins and the hills of our iniquities.
Christs good works accepted are suffici-
emit for US, but they who reject them,
| depending upon their own, must per-
ish. Traits of character that may make
US influential on earth will not neces-
sarily open to us the gate of Heaven.
The plank that will be strong enough
for house floor would not do for q
ships hulk. Mere morality might be
enough here, but can not take you
through deaths storm into Heavens
harbor. Christ has announced for all
ages: 81 am the way, the truth and
the life, him that cometh unto Me L will
in no wise cast out" But pitiablo in
the day of accounts will be the condi-
tion of that man, though he may have
given all his estate to benevolent
purposes and passed his life in the Wis
iting of the distressed and done much
to excite the admiration of the good
and the great, if h have no intimate
relation to Jesus Christ. There is a
pride and depravity in his soul that
he has never discovered. A brilliant
outside will DO no apology fol- a de-
PRAYED inside. 1t is no theory of mine,
but an announcement of God, who can
not lie: by the deeds of the law shall
no flesh living be Justified" Open the
door of Heaven and look in. Howard is
| there, but he did not secure his en-
! trance by the dungeons he illumined
and the laZzarettos into which he car
ried the medicines. Paul is there, but
! he did not earn his way in by the ship
wrecks and imprisonments and scourg-
ings. On a throne overlapping perhaps
all other, except Christ's, the old mis-
sionary exclaims: by the grace of God
am what am" -...' --. . p ..-.. --
Again: Exalted social position will
be no cloak for sin. Men look through
the wickets of prisons, and seeing the
| incarcerated wretches exclaim: 'Oh,
how much vice there is in the world!'
And they pass through the streets of a
| degraded city, and looking into the
d oors of novels and dens of corruption
they call them God-forsaken abodes.
But you might walk along avenues
through which the opulent roll in their
flourishing pomp and into mansions
elegantly adorned, and find that even
in the admired walks of life Satan
works mischief and death. The first
temptation Satan wrought in garden,
and he understands yet most
thoroughly how TO insinuate him
self into any door of ease and
splendor. Men frequently judge of sin
by the places in which it is committed,
but iniquity in satin is, to God as loath-
| some as iniquity in rags, and in the
day of Judgment the sins of Madison
avenue and Elm street will all be
driven in one herd. Men can not es-
cape at last for being respectfully sim
full. You know Dives were clothed in
| purple and fine linen and Jared sumpt-
uously every day, but his fine clothes
and good dinners did not save him. He
might on earth have drunk something
as rich as champagne and cognac, but
at last he asked for one drop of water.
You can not trade off your attractive
abodes hero for a house of many
mansions on high and your ele-
CANT shade groves here will not
warrant you seat under the tree of
life. When God drove Adam and Eve
out of Eden, lie showed that merely
living in a garden of delights and COM
| forts will never save a man or n woman.
BY giving you 50 much earthly luxury
and refinement, He intimated that He
would not have you enjoy yourselves,
but He would not have you wrap your
selves up in them as a cloak to hide
your sins. God now walks in your
garden as lie did in Eden, even in the
we'll as He did by a we'll in Samaria,
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