The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-08-12

and the voice and the start of an actor;
overwhelmed his auditory. It would
have been different thing IL Jonathan
Edwards had tried to write and dream
about the pilgrims progress to the ce-
lestial city, or John Bunyan had at
tempted an assay on the human will.
Brighter than the light, fresher than
the fountains, deeper than the seas
are all these'Gospel themes Song has
no melody, flowers have no sweetness,
sunset sky has no color compared with
these glorious themes. These harvests
of grace spring up quicker than we can
sickle them. Kindling pulpits with
their fire, and producing revolutions
with their power, lighting up dying
beds with their glory, they are the
sweetest thought for the poet, and
they are the most thrilling illustration
for the orator, and they offer the most
intense scene for the artist, and they are
to the ambassador of the sky all en-
thusiasm. Complete pardon for direst
guilt. Sweetest comfort for ghastliest
agony. Brightest hope for grimmest
death. Grandest resurrection for dark
est sepulchre. Oh, what a gospel to
preachI Christ over all in it. His birth,
His suffering, His miracles, His par
ables, His sweat. His tears, His blood,
His atonement, His intercession-what
glorious themes! Do we exercise faith?
Christ is its object. Do we have love?
1t fastens on Jesus. Have we a fond
ness for the church? 1t is because
Christ died for it. Have we hope of
Heaven? It is because Jesus went
ahead, the herald and the forerunner.
The royal robe of Demetrius was SO
costly. so beautiful, that after he had
put it off no one ever dared put it on;
but this robe of Christ, richer than
that, the poorest and the wanest and
the worst may wear. "Where sin
abounded grace may much more
abound"
'Oh, my sins, my SINS" said Martin
Luther to Staupitz, my sins, my sins!''
The fact is, that the brawny German
student had found Latin Bible that
had made him quake; and nothing else
ever did make him quake; and
when he found how, through Christ, he
was pardoned and saved, he wrote to a
friend, saying: "Come over and join
us great and awful sinners saved by
the grace of God. You seem to be only
a slender sinner, and you don't much
extol the mercy of God; but we who
have been such very awful sinners
praise His grace the more now that we
have been redeemed" Can it be that
you are so desperately egotistical
that you feel yourself in frst-rate
spiritual trim, and that from the
root of the hair to the tip of the toe you
are scarless and immaculate? What
you need is looking glass, and here it
is in the Bible. Poor, and wretched,
and miserable, and. blind, and naked
from the crown of the head to the sol e
of the foot, full of wounds and putre-
flying sores. No health in us. And
then take the fact that Christ gathered
up all tbs notes against us and paid
them, and thtu offered us the receipt.
Again I remark that Christ is above
all in dying alleviations. have not
any sympathy with the morbidity
abroad about our demise. The en-
peror of Constantinople arranged that
on the day of his coronation the stone
mason should come and consult him
about his tombstone that after awhile
he would need And there are men
who are monomaniacal on the subject
of departure from this life by death,
and the more they think of it the less
they are prepared to go. This is an
unmanliness not worty of you, not
worthy of men.
Saladin, the greatest conqueror of bis
day, while dying ordered the tunic he
had on him to be carried after his death
on a spear at the head of his army, and
then the soldier ever and anon should
stop and say: "Behold, all that is left
of Saladin, the emperor and conqueror!
OF all the states he conquered, of all
the wealth he accumulated, nothing did
he retain but this shroud." / have no
sympathy with such behavior or such
absurd demonstration, or with much
that we hear uttered in regard to de-
parture from this life to the next.
There is a common-sensical idea on this
subject that you and need to consider
that there are only two styles of de-
parture.
thousand feet underground, by
light of torch, toiling in a miners shaft,
ledge of rock may fall upon us, and we
NAV die a miners death. Far out at
sea, falling from the slippery ratlines
and broken on the halyards, we may
die sailors death. On mission OF
mercy in hospital, amid broken bones
and reel<ing leprosies and raging fevers,
we may die a philanthrophist's death.
On the field of battle, serving God and
our country, slugs through the heart,
the gun carriage may roll over us, and
we die patriots death But, after all.
| there are only two styles of departure:
| the death of the righteous and the death
of the wicked, and we all want to die
the former.
God grant that when that hour comes
we may be at home! You want the
| hand of your kindred in your hand.
You want your children to surround
you. You want the light on your pill
low from eyes that have long reflected
your love. You want the room still.
You do not want any curious strangers
standing around watching you. You
want your kindred from afar to hear
your last prayer. I think that is the
wish of all of US. But is that all? Can
earthly friends hold us when the bill
lows of death come up to the girdle?
| Can human voice charm open Heaven's
gate? Can human hands pilot us through
the narrows of death into Heavens
harbor? Can an earthly friend
| ship shield US from the arrows OF
death and in the hour when Satan
shall practice upon US his internal
archery? No, no, no, no. Alas? poor
soul, is that is all. Better die in the
wilderness, far from tree shadows, and
4 .4Tr