The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-09-16
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Celestial Sympathizers with the
Christians Conflict with sin.
Those who Have Gone Before Ever ON the
watch TO Note How the Battle
Goes with Those They Loved
An This Life.


week IL is based on the text:
Seeing we also are compassed about with so
great cloud OF witnesses.-I Corinthians, Nv,
Crossing the Alps by the Mont Cents
pass, or through the Mont Cents tunnel,
you are In few hours set down at We
roma, Italy, and in few minutes begin
examining one Of the grandest ruins Of
the world-the Amphitheater. The
whole world sweeps around you in
circle. You stand in the arena where
the combat was once fought on the
race run, and on all sides the seats arise,
tier above tier, until you count forty
elevations, or galleries, as shall see fit
TO call them, in which sat the senators,
the kings and twenty-five thous-
and solicited spectators. At the
sides of the arena, and under the
galleries, are the cages in which the
lions and tigers are kept without food
until, frenzied with hunger and thirst,
they are let out upon some poor victim,
who, with his sword and alone. is con-
demned to meet them. / think that
Paul himself once stood in such place,
and that it was not only figuratively,
but literally, that he had fought with
beasts at Ephesus-"
The gala day has come. From all
the world the people are pouring into
Verona. Men, women and children,
orators and sena tors, great men and
small, thousands upon thousands come,
until the first gallery Is full, and the
second, the third, the fourth, the fifth
all the way mp TO the twentieth, all
49, Il ~
up TO the fortieth. Every place is filed.
immensely of audience sweeping the
great circle. Silencel The time for the
contest has come. A Roman official
leads forth the victim into the arena.
Let him get his sword, with firm grip,
into his right hand. The twenty
FIVE thousand sit breathlessly
watching. hear the door at
the side of the arena creak open. Out
plunges the half-starved lion, his
tongue athirst for blood, and, with a
roar that brings all galleries to their
feet, he rushes against the sword of
the combatant Do you know how
strong stroke a man will strike when
his life depends upon the first thrust of
his blade? The will beast lame and
bleeding. sinks back toward the side
of the arena; then. rallying his wasting
strength, he comes up with fiercer eve
and more terrible roar than ever, only
to be driven back with fatal wound,
while the combatant comes in with
stroke after stroke, until the monster
Is dead at his feet, and the twenty-five
thousand people clap their hands and
inter shout that makes the city trem-
BILE.
Sometimes the audience came to see
a race; sometimes to see gladiators
fight each other. until the people, com
passionate for the fallen, turned their
thumbs down as an appeal that the.
vanquished he spared; and sometimes
the combat was with wild beasts. To
one of the Roman amphitheatrical audi
ences of one hundred thousand people
Paul refers when he says: "We are
compassed about with so great a
crowd of witnesses" The direct ref
erence in the last passage is made to
race; but elsewhere, having dis
cussed that, take now PauTs favorite
idea of the Christian life as a combat.
The fact is that every Christian man
has lion to fight. Yours is a bad
temper. The gates of the arena have
been opened and this tiger lras come
to destroy your soul. 1t has lacerated
you with many a wound. You have
been thrown by it time and again, but
in the strength of God you have arisen
20 drive II back. ] verify believe You
viii conquer. think that the tempta-
ton is getting weaker and weaker
You have given it so many wounds
Tn at the prospect is that it will die,
and you shall be the victor, through
Christ. Courage, brotherl Do not let
the sands of the arena drink the blood
of your SOUL
Your lion is the passion for strong
drink. You may have contended
against it twenty years; but it is
strong of body and thirsty of tongue.
You have tried to fight it back with
broken bottle or empty wine-fask.
Nayl that is not the weapon. With the
horrible roar he will seize thee by the
throat and rcnd thee limb from limb.
Take this weapon, sharp and keen
reach up and get it from Gods armory;
the Sword of the Spirit. With that
thou mayest drive him back and con-
querl
and woman has a lion to fight If
there be one here who has no besetting
sin let him speak out, for MIN have
offended. If you have not found the
lion, it is because you have let the lion
eat you up. This very moment the
contest goes on. The Trajan celebra-
ton, where ten thousand gladiators
fought, and eleven thousand wild
beasts were slain, was not so terrible
struggle as that which at this moment
goes on in many a soul. The combat
was for the life of the body; this is for
the life of the soul. That was with
wild beasts from the jungle; this is
with the roaring lion of hell
Men think, when they contend
against an evil habit, that they have to
fight it all alone. No. They stand in
they center of an immense circle of
sympathy. Paul had been reciting the
names of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham,
Sarah, Isaac, Joseph, Gideon and
Barak, and then says: Being COM
passed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses"
Before / get through will show you
that syou fight in an arena, around
which circle, in galleries above each
other, all the kindling eyes and all the
sympathetic hearts of the ages; and at
every victory gained there comes down
the laundering applause of a great
multitude that no man can number.
Being comprised about with so great
a cloud of witnesses
On the first elevation of the ancient
amphitheater, on the day Of the cele-