The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1891-10-23

<tS uC went OUT 10 The COuD1cb hC w 10
so anxious for the victory he forgot
himself, and that hilt might go never
SO deeply into the palm of his hand it
could not disturb him. His hand clave
unto the sword" O, my brothers ami
sisters, let us 20 into Christian conflict
with the spirit of self-abnegation. Who
cares whether the world praises us or
denounces us2 What do we care for
Misrepresentation, or abuse, or perse-
cution i'm conflict like this? Let us
forget ourselves. That man who is
afraid of getting his hand hurt will
never kill Philistine. Who cares
whether you get hurt or not If you get
the victory? Oh, how many Christians
there are who are all the time worry
ing about the way the world treats
them They are so tired. and they are
SO abused, and they are So tempted,
when Eleazer did not think whether he
had hand, or an arm, or a foot All
he wanted was victory.
We see how men forget themselves
in world achievement. We have often
seen men who in order to achieve
worldly success will forget all physical
fatigue and all annoyance and all OBJ
stacle. Just after the battle of York;
town in the American revolution, a
musician, wounded, was told he must
have his limbs amputated. and they
were about to fasten him to the sur
yeon's table-for it was long before the
merciful discovery of anasthetics- He
said: mo, don't fasten me to that Ia
BILE; get me violin" A violin was
- L., L.
to work as l begin to play" and for
forty minutes, during the awful pangs
of amputation, he moved not a muscle
nor dropped note, while he played
some sweet tune. Oh, is it not strange
that with the music of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, and with this grand march
of the church militant on the way to
become the church triumphant, we can
not forget ourselves and forget all
pang and all sorrow and all persecu-
ton and all perturbation.
We know what men accomplish under
worldly opposition. Men do not shrink
| back for antagonism, or for hardship.
You have admired Prescott's Conquest
of Mexico" as brilliant and beautiful
a history as was ever written. but some
advantages it was written-that Con-
quest of Mexico-for Prescott was to-
tally blind, and he had two pieces of
wood fastened parallel to each other, and
with his pen between those pieces of
wood he wrote, the stroke against one
piece of wood telling how far the pen
must go in one way, the stroke against
the other piece of wood telling how far
the pen must go in the otherway. Oh,
now much men will endure for worldly
knowledge and for worldly success,
and yet how little we endure for Jesus
Christ. How many Christians there
are that go around saying, ooh, my
hand, my hand, my hurt hand: don't
you see there is blood on my hand, and
there is blood on the sword?" while
Eleazar, with the hilt imbedded in the
flesh of his right hand, does not know it.
Must be carried to the skies
On fiow'ry beds of ease.
While Others fought to win the prize
Or sailed through bloody seas?
What have we suffered in comparison
with those who expired with suffoca-
ton. or were burned, or were chopped
TO pieces for the truths sake? We talk
of the persecution of olden times
There is just as much persecution GO
ing on now in various ways. In 1S49,
in Madagascar, eighteen men were put
| to death for Christ's sake. They were
| to be hurled over the rocks, and before
they were hurled over the rocks, in
order to make their death more dread
full in anticipation, they We're put in
baskets and swung to and fro over the
precipice, that they might see how many
hundred feet they would have to be
dashed down, and while they were
swinging in these baskets over the
rocks they sang:
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the pillows near me roll,
While the temptest still is high.
Then they were dashed down to
death. oh, how much others have en-
dured for Christ, and how little we en-
dure for Christ We want to ride to
Heaven in a Pullman sleeping-car, our
feet on soft plush, the bed made up
early SO that we can sleep all the way,
the black porter of death to wake us
up only in time to enter the golden
city. We want all the surgeons to fix
our hand up. Let them bring on all
the lint and all the bandages and all
the salve, for our hand is hurt, while
Eleazar does not know his hand is
hurt. His hand clave unto the sword. Z"
As look at, Eleazar's hand come to
the conclusion that he has done n great
deal of hard hitting. / am not surprised
when I see that these four men-Elea-
Ear and his three companions-drove
back the army of Philistines, that Flea
Ears sword clave to his hand, for every
time that he struck an enemy with one
end of the sword the other end of the
sword wounded him When he took
hold of the sword the sword took hold
of him. Oh, we have found an enemy
who can not be conquered by rose
water and soft speeches. 1t must be
sharp stroke and straight thrust. There
is intemperance, and there is fraud, and
there is gam bling. and there is lust, and
there are ten thousand battaliOns of in
EQUITY, armed Philistine iniquity. How
are they to be captured and ovcrthrown?
Soft sermons in morocco cases laid down
in front OF. an exquisite audience will
not do il. You have got to call things
by their right names.
We have got to expel from our
churches Christians who eat the sacra-
ment on Sunday and devour widows
houses all the week. We have got to
stop our Indignation against the Hit
tites and the Jebusites and the Gergi-
shites, and let those poor wretehes go.
and apply our indignation to the mod