The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-06-17

| they have had enough Divine philosophy
TO cast off the annoyances, and they
have kept themselves in the sunlight of
Gods favor, and have. realized that
these oppositions and hinderances are
part of mighty discipline, by which
they are to be prepared for usefulness
and Heaven. The secret of II an is they
have by the help of the Eternal God
learned how to forget
Another practical thought: When
our thoughts are reported of let them
90 out of mind. If God forgets them
we have a right to forget them Hav-
ing once repented of our infelicities
and misdemeanors there Is no need of
our reopening Of them again. Suppose
/ owe you a large sum of money and
you are persuaded am incapacitated
to pay, and you give me acquita1 from
that obligation. You say: 81 cancel
that debt. All is right now. Start
again" And the next day 4 come in
and say: You know about that big
debt owed You. have come in to get
you to letme'off. feel 50 bad about it
can not rest. Do let me off. You re-
ply with little impotence: 81 did let
you of. Don't GOsher yourself and
bother me with any more of that dis
cussion." The following day come in
and say; my. dear sir, about that debt
can never get over the fact that i
owed You that money. 1t is something
that weighs on my mind like a mill
stone. Do forgive me that debt"
This time you clear lose your patience
and say: You are a nuisance. What
do you mean by.this reiteration of that
affair? am alm0s. sorry j forgave you
that debt. Do you- doubt my veracity,
or do you not understand the plain Ian.
guage in which I told you that debt was
canceled?'' Well, my friends, there
are many Christians guilty sof worse
folly than that. While it is right that
they repent of newgsins and OF. recent
sins, what is the use OF bothering your-
self and Insulting God by asking Him to
forgive sims that long agoNvere forgiyen?
God has forgotten them. Why
do you not forget them2 No; you darg
the load ON with you, and three hun
dred and sixty-five times year, if you
pray every day, you ask God to recall
occurrences which He has not only for,
given, but forgotten. Quit this folly.
do not ask you less TO realize the tur-
/ FANhuG Vi NlAs DAli \ dSh W .d~4nlBllGI
faith in the promise of God and the full
deIivcrance of His mercy. He does
not give a receipt for part pay
ment, or so much received on account,
but receipt in FULL God having for
Christ's sake 8decrced, your sins and
your iniquities viii remember no
more" As far as possible let the dis
agreeables of life drop. We have
enough things in the present and there
win be enough i'm the future to disturb
MS without running special train into
the Gone-By to fetch us as special
| freight things left behind. Some ten
years ago, when there was great rall-
| road strike, remember seeing an along
the route. from Omaha to Chicago and
from Chicago to New York hundreds
and thousands of freight. cars switched
on the side tracks, those cars loaded
with all kinds of perishable material,
decaying and wasting. After the
strike was over, did the railroad com
panies bring all that persisted material
down to the markets? No, they threw.
itsoff, where it was destroyed and loaded
up with something else Let the long
train of your thoughts throw off the
worse than useless freight of corrupt
and destroyed past, and load up with
gratitude and faith and holy .determin-
alton. We do not please God by the
cultivation of the miserable. He would
rather see us happy than to see us de-
pressed. You would rather see your
children laugh than to see them cry,
ness for Mysteries.
| -
gressions, but allow others to forget
/ them. The chief stock on hand of
many people is to recount in prayer
meetings and pulpits what big scoun-
drels they once were. They not only
| will not forget their forgiven deficits,
but they seem to be determined that
the church and the world shall not for
get them. If you want to declare that
| YOU have been the chief of sinners and
extol the grace that could save such a
wretch as You were, do so, but do not
go into particulars. Do not tell how
many times you got drunk, or to what
bad places you went, or how many
free rides you had in the prison van
before you were converted. Lump
1t, brother; give it to US in bulk. If
you have any scars got in honorable
warfare show them, but if you have
scars got in ignoble warfare do not dis
play them. 1 know you will quote the
| Bible reference to the horrible pit from
which you were digged. Yes, be thank
full for that rescue, but do not make
displays of the mud of that horrible pit
or splash it over other people. Some
times have felt in Christian meetings
diScomftted and unfit for Christian ser
vice because had done none of those
things which seemed to be in the esti-
nation of many necessary for Christian
usefulness, for / never swore a word,
or ever got drunk, or went to COM
| promising places, or was guilty. of as
sault and battery, or ever uttered
slanderous word or ever did anyone a
hurt, although 1 knew my heart was
sinful enough; and i said to myself:
There is no use of my trying to doany
| good for / never went through those
derraved experiences" but afterward 1
saw consolation in the thought that no
ore gained any ordination by the lay
| ing on of the hands of dissoluteness
and infamy. And though an ordinary
moral life, ending in a Christian life,
may not be as dramatic a story to tell
about, let us be grateful to God rather
| than worry about It, if we have never
| plunged into outward denominations.
1t may be appropriate in a meet
! ing of reformed drunkarCfs or re-
formed debauchees to qnote for
those not reformed how desper-
ate and nasty you once were, but