The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-09-15

wv nat are You doing down there IN the
grass, poor little violet? Nobody
knows you are here. Are you not
afraid nights? You will die with thirst;
nobody cares for you; you will suffer,
you will PERISH NO" says star,
''I'n watch over it tonight" NO"
say the cloud, ''I'll give it a drink. :"
NO." says the sun, ''I'll warm it in my
BOSOM" And then the wind rises, and
comes bending down the grain, and
sounding it's psalm through the forest,
and l say: ''Whither away, o wind! on
such swift wing?" and it answers: ST
am going to cool the cheek of that vio-
let" And then L see pulleys at work
in the sky, and the clouds are drawing
water, and say: "What are you doing
there, o clouds?'' They say: I'VE are
drawing water for that violet" And
theI | look down into the grass,
and say: "Can it be that God
takes care of poor thing like
you?' md the answer comes up: Eyes,
yes; God clothes the grass of the field,
and He has never forgotten me, poor
violet" Oh, my friends, if the heavens.
bend down to such insignificant minis
try as that, tell you God is willing to
bend down to your case, since He is
just as careful about the construction
of spiders eye as He is in the confor-
nation of flaming galaxies.
Plato had a table which | have now
nearly forgotten, but it ran something
like this: He said spirits Of the other
world came back to this world to find
a body and find sphere of work. One
spirit came and took the body of a
king, and did his work. Another spirit
came and took the body of poet, and
did his work. After awhile Ulysses
came, and he said: "Why, all the fine
bodies are taken, and all the grand
work is taken. There is nothing left
for me-" And someone replied: ''Ah,
the best one has been left for you"
Ulysses said: ''What's that?" And the
reply was: 1.-THE body of common
man, doing common work, and for a
common reward" A good fable for
the world, and just as good fable for
the church.
We must see blind man led along
by his dog before we learn what
grand thing it is to have ones eye
sight. We must see man with st.
Vitus' dance before we learn what
grand thing it is to have the use of our
physical energies. We must see some
soldier crippled, limping along on his
crutch, or his empty coat sleeve pinned
up. before we learn what a grand
thing it is to have the use of all our
physical faculties. In other words,
we are so stupid that nothing but the
of others car wake us up
to an appreciation of our common bless
ings
We get on board train and start for
Boston, and come to Norwalk bridge,
and the ''draw" is off, and crash goes
the train. Fifty lives dashed out We
We come home in great ex-
and call our friends around
us, and they congratulate us; and we
all kneel down and thank God for our
escape while SO many persisted. But
tomorrow morning you get on train
for Boston. You cross that bridge at
Norwalk. You cross all the other
bridges. You get to Boston in safety.
Then you return home. Not an ac-
cident, not an alarm. No thanks. In
other words, you seem to be more
grateful when fifty people lose their
lives and you get off, than you are
grateful to God when you all get off,
and you have no alarm at all. Now
you ought to be thankful when you es-
cape from accident, but more thankful
when they all escape. In the one case
your gratitude is somewhat selfish; in
the other it is more like what it ought
to be.
OH these common mercies, these
common blessings, how little we APP
preciate them and how soon we forget
them! Like the OK grazing, with the
clover up to its eyes, like the bird pick
ing the worm out of the furrow-never
to thank God who makes the
grass grow, and who gave life to every
living thing, from the animalcule in
the sod to the seraph on the throne.
on the 27th of November,
in the autumn of the year; but bless
ings, hour by hour and day by day,
and no thanks at all. COM
pared our Indifference to the brute,
but perhaps ] wronged the brute.
I do not know but that, among
it's other instincts it may have an in
stinct by which it recognizes the Di-
vine hand that feeds it. do not know
but that God is, through it, holding
with what we call sir
creation" The cow that
stands under the willow by the water
course, chewing its cud, looks very
thankful; and who can tell how much
a bird means by its song? The aroma
of the flowers smells like incense, and
the mist arising from the river looks
like the smoke of morning sacrifice.
Oh, that we were as responsive
But l remark again: We ought to
bring the religion of Jesus Christ into
our ordinary blessings. Every autumn
the president of the United States and
the governors make proclamation, and
we are called together in our churches
to give thanks to God for His goodness.
and every day ought to be a thanks
giving day. We take most of the
blessings of life as matter of course.
We have had ten thousand blessings
this morning. Before the night comes
we will have thousand more blessings
you will never think of mentioning be-
fore God.
Who thinks of thanking God for the
water gushing up in the well, foaming
in the cascade, laughing over the rocks,
pattering in the shower, clapping its
hands in the sea? Who thinks to thank
God for that? Who thinks to thank
God for the air, the fountain of life,
the bridge of sunbeams, the path OF
sound. the great fan on hot summer
day? who thinks to thank Tod for this
wonderful physical organism. this
sweep of vision, this chime of harmony