The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-02-19

Al
and finding her only'delight in batteries
of brainless men. and midnight schot-
tische and debauched novelties, say:
There is one who might have been a
queen unto God forever. yet eating
straw like an OK" / look over the pas
ture fields Of folly and sin, and find
many groveling who ought to be erect
Oh, men and women, 60 back to your
thrones! A young man ran away from
home and broke his widowed mothers
heart Fourteen years passed and he
returned, and came to the window at
which his old mother was sitting. She
looked up and Immediately recognized
him, and said: "Oh, Robert, Robert!
Come inr' NO" said he. mother, /
shall never come in till hear you say
you forgive me-" Her answer was,
Robert! have forgiven you long ago.
There is nothing to forgive now ex-
cept that you staid away SO long" My
nearer, forgiveness has been ready
for you good while. With more than
mothers tenderness God will take
you back. They are waiting for you
in the palace. Nebuchadnezzar was
the son of Nabopollasar, who ruled be-
fore him. and you are the child of a
kingI
The next thought that presses into
my mind from the contemplation of this
incident is that conviction 10 not con-
version. Who in that monarch that
makes the boast about Babylon2 The
very man who, under the revelation of
dreams that Daniel made from Heaven,
deeply humbled himself, while he con-
fessed that God is a God of gods and a
Lord of lords, yet, behold that hum
bling and arousing which he before felt
did not result in radical change.
There is no mistake more frequent
than of supposing conviction asynonym
for conversion. Conviction is merely a
sight of sin; conversion is view
of pardon. Conviction is merely
an alarm; conversion is confidence.
Conviction is dissatisfaction with de-
pravity; conversion is turning away
from it. Conviction is sword wound;
conversion is the healing. Conviction
is the fever of thirst; conversion is the
shaking of that thirst. Conviction is
the pain; conversion is the medicine
that cures it. Thousands have expert
enced the former and never expert
enced the latter. There are multitudes
who think that as soon as man is seri-
Gus he is fit for profession of religion.
What II man should only think seri-
ousiy of being a merchant; would that
make him a merchant? What if man
should only think seriously of being a
lawyer; would that make him law
yer? What if a man should only
think seriously of being q Christian;
would that make him Chris
tian? Felix was convicted, but
not converted. The jailer was con-
victed before he got out of bed, but not
converted until at the advice of Paul
he believed in Christ Are you con-
victed, but not converted? I tell you
what you make me think of. You have
made up your mind for proper consid-
Grafton to deed away property. You
have drawn the deed. The seal is af-
fixed opposite where you are to write
your name. The commissioner of deeds
is present to witness. You have your
pen in hand. There is ink in the pen.
There is only one thing for you to do,
and that is to sign your name. Sup
pose you stop now without singing your
name, what does it all amount to?
Nothing. So you have resolved to give
yourself up to God. You propose to
sign off to Him your body, your
mind, your soul. You have all things
necessary for the transfer. The angels
of God are here to witness the eternal
tranfer. Why do you not now with
your will complete the work? Halt
where you are and all goes for nothing.
Sign your name to this spiritual trans
fer. Prof. Arago, the mathematician,
got woefully discouraged in his work
and was about to give up, when he saw
some words on the paper which had
been used to stiffen the cover Of his
book, and the words being indistinct,
he dampened the cover until he could
take it off and saw the words plainly,
and he found they were words of advice
given by D'Alembert to a student, and
the words were: go on, sir; go onr'
Oh, We who are convicted. go on!'' You
must take one more step, or all the
steps you have taken will amount to
nothing. Go on!
Learn also from my subject that
pride is the precursor of overthrow.
Pride is commander well plumed and
caparisoned, but it leads forth dark
and frowning host. pride goeth be-
fore destruction, and naughty spirit
before a fall" The arrows from the
Almighty's qu1ver are apt to strike a
man when on the wing. Goliath
shakes his great spear in defiance. but
the smooth stones from the brook make
him stagger and fall like an OK under a
butchers bludgeon. He who is down
can not fall. Vessels scudding under
bare poles do not feel the force of the
storm. What are those three sleds that
have just gone into the yard of mis-
cradle hotel in Warsaw, Poland, on
the cold night of December 10. 1912?
Who are they? Who from these sleds
have entered? and the servant is
trying to build for them a fire with
some green wood? Napoleon, with six
on retreat from Moscow.
The fire amid the green wood has gone
out, and the emperor is walking the
floor to keep from freezing. Then
bounding into his sled, the thermome
ter twenty-slx degrees below zero, he
in the darkness. He, who
a little before had an army under his
together with troops offered
by other nations, in all 1857, 900 men,
now retreating through that December
night with three sleds, and those of
his army not dead under the snow re-
duced for food to handful of rye
dough, seasoned with gunpowder for
lack of salt, and a mouthful of horse
l. A.