The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-02-26

L C~'e RoI - 0CAhb thAhHo III WIG
churches, but know the way we are
doing now is not the best way, or the
world would be nearer its salvation
than it seems to be-" SO feel; so we all
feel, that there needs to be change.
The point at which we all come short
is not presenting Christ on the plain,
Christ on the level with all the worlds
woes and wants and necessities.
The full change will have to come
from the rising ministry. We now in
the field are too set in our ways We
are numbered up with technicalities-
We have too many cOncordances, and
dictionaries, and encyclopedias. and
systems of theology in our head to get
down on the plain Our vocabulary is
too frosted. We are too much under
the domination Of customs vegnant for
many centuries
The universal trouble of the world is
bereavement One may escape all the
other troubles, but that no soul es-
capes Out of that bitter cup everyone
must take a drink. For instance, in
order that all might know how lie
| sympathizes with those who have lost
a daughter, Christ comes to the house
of Jairus. There is such big crowd
around the door, lie and His disciples
have to push their way in. From the
throng of people / conclude that the
girl must have been very popular; she
was one of those children whom every
body likes After Christ got in the
house there was such loud weeping
that the ordinary tones of voice could
not be heard. i sdo not wonder. The
dead daughter was twelve years of age.
1t is about the happiest time in most
lives Very little children suffer many
injustices because they are children.
and childhood is not desirable part
of human existeDce-they get whacked
or set on. But. at twelve years of age,
the child has come to self-assertion
and is apt to make her wants known.
And, then, twelve years of age Is too
early for the cares and anxieties of life.
So this girl was, think, the merriment
of the household. She furnished for
them the mimicry, and the harmless
mischief, and reused the guffaw that
often rang through that happy home.
But, now she is dead, and the grief at
her departure is as violent as her pres
ence had been vivacious and inspiring
OH the bereavement was so sharp, so
! overwhelming How could they give
} her up! / suspect that they blamed
themselves for this or for that. Obi if
they had had some other doctor. or
; taken some other medicine, or had been
more careful of her health, or if they
J had not given her that reproof some
; time when she had not really deserved
it. Oh, if they had been more patient
, with her hilarities and, instead of hush
ing her, had participated in it! You
know there are SO many things that
! parents always blame themselves for at
) such times. Only twelve years of age!
: So fair. SO promising, SO full of life a
! few days ago, and now so still Oh,
what it is to have a daughter dead!
The room is full of folks. but yonder is
the room where the young sleeper is.
, The crowd can not go in there Only
: six persons enter-five besides Christ
three friends and, of course, the father
and mother. They have the first right
: to go in. The heaviest part of the grief
: was theirs All eyes in that room are
on the face of this girl There lay the
beautiful hand, white and finely shapen,
but it was not lifted in greeting to any
of the group. Christsteppedf forward and
took hold of that hand and said, with a
! tone and accentuation charged with
tenderness and command: "Damsel,
say unto thee, ariser' And, without a
moments delay, she arose, her eyes
lwide open, her cheeks turning from
white lily to red rose, and the parents
cry: 'She livesl she livest' and in the
: next room they take up the sound:
, 'She liyesl she livesl'' and the throng
, 4 =. - Il "a.
: lives! she livesl" VIII not all those who
: have lost daughter feel that such a
Christ as that can sympathize?
: On another occasion, lie showed how
He felt about the loss of a son. Here
are the obsequies- A long professions;
a widowed mother following her only
son. 1 know not how long the hus-
! band and father had been gone. but
upon this son, who had now come to
be a young man, the leadership of that
: HOUSEHOLD had fallen. 1 think he had got
) to be the bread winner. He was proud
of his mother, and she should never
} lack anything as long as he lived. And
; there is no grander spectacle on earth
than a young man standing between
; want and widowed mother. But that
; young man had fallen lifeless under &C
: cident or disaster, and he was being car
ried out Only a very few hours in that
: land are allowed to pass between de-
: cease and burial. 1t is the same day
: or the next. And there they move on.
: Christ meets the procession. His eye
, picks out the chief mourner. He puts
} his hand on the bier, as much as to say
to the pall-bearers: ''Stopl There will
be no burial to-day. That broken
: heart must be healed. That mother
, must have her home rebuilt" And
) then looking into the face of the young
(for in those lands the face is always
exposed in such a procession), Christ
speaks one sentence, before which
death fell prostl tie under the bier:
Young man, say unto thee, arise. I"
J He sat up, while the overjoyed
| mother wrapped him in her arms,
and well-nigh smothered him with
} her caresses, and the air
J was rent with congratulations.
Can anyone who has ever lost a son
! doubt that Christ sympathizes with
such woe? And how many there are
) who need that particular comfort 1t
: was not hollow sentiment when, after
} Edmund Burke, the greatest orator of
his time, had lost his son, and the be-
reaved father, crossing the pasture
field, met the horse that had belonged
} to that deceased son, that the orator
threw his arms around the horses neck
and kissed the dumb brute. 1t was not
1 l. IL