The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-11-04

from CAREFUL ana constant study OF the
Bible. and look up and look out and
look around. and see if you can find the
finger of God.
1t il remarkable thing that some
times no one can see that finger but
yourself A year before Abraham Lin
coin signed the Proclamation of Eman-
cipation, the White House was thronged
with committees and associations, min
listers and laymen, advising the presi-
dent TO make that proclamation. But
he waited and waited, amid scott and
anathema, because he did not himself
see the finger of God. After awhile,
and at just the right time he saw the
Divine pointing and signed the procla-
nation The distinguished confeder-
ates, Mason and Slidell, were taken off
an English vessel by the United States
government. Don't give them up"
shouted all the northern states Let us
have war with England rather than sur
der them, was the almost unanimous
cry of the north. But William III.
Seward saw the finger of God leading
in just the opposite direction, and the
confederates were given up, and we
that time would have been the demoli-
ton of the United States government
In other words, the finger of God. as it
directs you, may be invisible to every
body. Follow the Divine pointing, as
you see it, although the world may call
you fool. There has never been a
man or a woman who amounted to any
thing that has not sometimes been
called fool. Nearly all the mistakes
that you and have made have come
from our following the pointing of
some other finger instead Of the finger
of God
But now, suppose all forms of disease
close in upon a man. Suppose his bus
mess collapses. Suppose he buys
goods and can not sell them. Suppose,
by new invention, others can fur
nish the same goods at less price. Sup
pose cold spring or late autumn or
the coming of an epidemic corners
man, and his notes come due and he
can not meet them, and his rent must
be paid, land there is nothing with
which to pay it, and the wages of the
employees are due and there is nothing
with which to meet that obliga ton,
and the bank will not discount, and
the business friends to whom he
goes for accommodation are in the same
predicament, and he bears up and strug
giles on, until, after awhile, crash goes
the whole concern. He stands wonder
ing and saying: 81 do not see.the mean
ing of all this. have done the best /
could. God knows I would pay my
debts If could, but here l am hedged
in and stopped" What should the man
do in that case? Go to the Scriptures
and read the promise about all things
working together for good and kindred
passages? That is well. But he needs
do something beside reading the Scrip
lures. He needs to look for the finger
of God that is pointing toward better
treasures, that is poin ting toward eter-
nal release, that is urging him to high
er realms. No human finger ever poin E.
ed 20 the east or west or north so GER
tainly as the finger of God is pointing
that troubled man to higher and bet
ter spiritual resources that He has ever
enjoyed. There are men of vast wealth
who are as rich for Heaven as they are
for this world, but they are sxcep-
tons. If a man grows in grace, it is
generally before he gets one hundred
thousand dollars or after he loses it.
If a man have plenty of railroad securi-
ties and has applied to his banker for
more; if the lots he bought have gone
up fifty per cent. in value: if he had
hard work to get the door of his fire.
proof safe shut because of a new roll of
securities he put in. there just before
locking up at night; if he be speculat-
ing in falling market or rising mar
l1et, and things take for him a right
turn, he does not grow in grace very
much that week. Do you know what
made the great revival of 1857, when
more people were converted to God,
probably, than in any year since Christ
was bon? IT was the defalcation and
bankruptcy that swept American pros
perity so fiat that it could fall no fiat
ter am speaking of whole-souled men.
Such men are so broken by calamity
that they are humbled and fly to God
for relief. Men who have no spirit and
never expect anything are not much
by financial changes. They
are as apt to go into the kingdom under
one set of circumstances as another.
The only way to get rid of them is to
lend them dollar and you will never
see them again. I-have tried that plan
andit works we'll. But am speaking
Of the effect of misfor tune on high
spirited men. Nothing but trial will
turn such from earth to Heaven. II is
only through clouds and darkness and
vhirlwind of disaster such man can
see the finger of God.
most interesting, as well as most
useful, study is to watch the pointing
Of the finger of God. In the seventeenth
century South Carolina was yielding
rosin and turpentine and tar as her
chief productions. But Thomas Smith
noticed that the ground near his house
n Charleston was very much like the |
places in Madagascar where he had |
-aised rice, and some of the Madagascar |
-ice was sown there. and grew so rap
dly that South Carolina was led to |
make rice her chief production. Can |
you not see the finger of God in that |
Incident? Rev. John Fletcher, of En- |
gland, many will know, was one of the |
most useful ministers of the Cos |
he Joined the army |
Ind had bought his ticket |
IN the ship for South America. The |
morning he was to sail some one |
spilled on him kettle of water, and he |
vas so scslded he could not go. He |
was very much disappointed, but the |
ship he was going to sail on went out |
md was never heard of again. Who |