The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-05-26
work. what rood thing He lodged .hs / !

work. Whata good thing He lodged The
crowd on the rocks back of Nazareth
Likewise at Jerusalem one day. while
He was sauntering up AMI down or
Solomon's porch waiting for m oppor
tunity to say kind words or go Isefu'
deed, the people proposed u pay Him
for His self-sacri6ces by stoning Him
to death, but the record is: He es
capped out of their hands"
See also in my subject the unreason
able attitude of javelin toward harp
What had that harp in David's hand
done to the javelin in Saul's handi
Had the vibrating strings of the ons
hurt the keen edge of the other? Was
there an old grudge between the two
families of sweet sound and sharp cutf
Had the triangle ever insulted the
polished shaft? Why the deadly aim
of the destroying weapon against
the instrument of soothing, calm.
ing, healing sound. Well, ] vii.
answer that if you will tell why thu
hostility of so many to the Gospel, why
the virulent attacks against Christian
religion, why the angry antipathy OF
so many to the most genial, most in.
all the heavens? Why will men give
their lives to writing and speaking
and warning against Christ and
the Gospel? Why the javelin
of the worlds hatred and rage
against the harp of Heavenly lovef
You know and 1 know men who get
wrathfully red in the face and foaming
at the mouth and use the gesture of the
clenched fist and put. down their feet
with indignant emphasis and invoke
all sarcasm and irony and vituperation
and scorn and spite at the Christian
religion. What has Christian re-
ligion done that it should be SO as
sailed? Whom hath it bitten and left
with hydrophobiac virus in their veins
that it should sometimes be chased as
though it were a maddened canine?
To head off and trip up and down and
corner our religion was the dominant
thought in the life of David Hume and
Voltaire and Shaftesbury, and even the
earl of Rochester until one day in
princely house, in which they blasphem
ously put God on trial, and the earl OF
Rochester was the attorney against
God and religion and received the ap-
plause of the whole company, when
suddenly the earl was struck under
conviction, and cried: "Good God,
that man walks uprightly, who sees
the wonderful works of God and has
the use of his senses and reason should
use them in defying his Creator! /
wish had been crawling leper in a
ditch rather than have acted toward
God as l have done"
Javelin of wit, javelin of irony,
jaVelin of scurrility, javelin OF sophis-
try, javelin of human and diat Ollie hos
tility, have Eeen flying for hundreds
of years, and are flying now. But
aimed at what? At something that
has come to devastate the world? At
something that Stays nations? At some
thing that would maui and trample
under foot and excruciate and crush
the human race? No, aimed art the Cos
pei harp. Harp on which prophets
played with sublime certainty, and
martyrs played with somewhat
lingering and uncertain fng-
ers, but harp on which apostles played
while their fingers were on fire. Harp
that was dripping with the blood OF
Christ, out of whose heart strings the
harp was chorded and from whose dy-
ing groan the strings were keyed. Oh,
Gospel harp! All Thy nerves a-tremble
with stories of se1f-sacriEce. Harp
thrummed by fingers long ago turned
to dust. Harp that made Heaven listen
and will yet make all the world hear.
Harp that sounded pardon to my
sinful soul and peace over the
graves where my dead sleep. Harp
that will lead the chant of the blood
washed throng redeemed around the
throne. May a javelin Stay me before
/ fling javelin at that. Harp which
it seems almost too sacred for me to
touch, and so I call down from their
thrones those who used to finger it, and
ask them to touch it now. Come down,
William Cowper, and run your fingers
over the strings of this harp" He says,
81 will" and he plays:
There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins.
''Come down, Charles Wesley, and
touch the string" He says: 81 will"
and he plays:
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly.
"Come down, Augustus Toplady, and
sweep your fingers across the Gospel
harp. He says, 81 WILL" and ne plays:
Rock of ages. cleft fof roe,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
"Come down, Isaac Watts, and take
this harp" He says, II will" and he
plays:
Alas, and did my Saviour bleed,
And did my Sovereign die.
'P P. Bliss, come down and thrum
this Gospel harp" He says, II will,
and he plays:
Hallelujah, It's done,
/ believe on the Son.
Ineffable harp! Transporting harpi
Harp of earth! Harp of Heaven! Harp
sanity and seraphic! Harp of God!
Oh, like the idea of that old monu-
ment in the ancient church at Ullard,
near Kilkenny, Ireland. The sculpture
on that monument, though chiseled
more than thousand years ago, as ap
propriate to-day as then, the sculpture
representing harp upon cross. That
is where l hang it now, that is where
you had better hang it. Let the jave
lin be forever buried, the sharp edge
down, but hang the harp upon the
cross.
And now upon our souls let the harps