The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-09-29

it has changed my entire nature, sa.rs
one. 1T brought me from drunken
ness and poverty TO sobriety and a
good home" says another. 1T sol
aced me when lost my child, y says
another. 1T gave me hope of fu-
ture treasures when my property was
swept off by the last panic" says
another. ''It has given me peace
and satisfaction more to me than all
the world beside" says another. 1T
has been to me light, and music, and
fragrance, and radiant anticipation, ="
says another. Ali stop the procession
of witnesses. Enough! Enough! All
those voices of the past and the present
have nightly increased our faith.
But come to the height of my sub
ject when say the way to reinforce
our faith is to pray for it. So the dis
ciples in my text got their Astounding
faith: Lord increase our faith"
Some one suggests: ''Do you really
think that prayer amounts to any
thing?" L might as well ask you is
there line of Geographic poles from
New York to Washington, is there
line of Geographic wires from
Manchester to London, from Co
logne to Berlin. As those peo-
pie who have sent and received
messages on those lines know of their
existence, so there are millions of
souls who have been in constant COM
munications with the capital of the uni
verse, with the throne of the Almighty,
with the great God Himself, for years
and years and years. There has not
been day when supplications did not
flash up and blessings did not fash
down. Will some ignoramous, who has
never received a telegram or sent one,
come and tell us that there is no such
thing as Geographic communication?
VIII someone who has never offered a
prayer that was heard and answered
come and tell us that that there is
nothing in prayer? 1t may not come as
we expect it, but as sure as an honest
prayer goes up merciful answer will
come down. During the blizzard of
four or five years ago, you know that
many of the telegraph wires were pros
trated, and 1 telegraphed to Chicago by
the way of Liverpool, England, and
the answer, after awhile, came round
by another wide circuit, and so the
prayer we offer may come back in a
way we never imagined, and if we ask
to have our faith increased, although
it may come by a widely different proc
ess than that which we expected, our
confidence will surely be augmented.
Oh, put it in every prayer you ever
make between your next breath and
your last gasp: Lord, increase our
faith'-faith in Christ as our personal
ransom from present guilt and eter-
nal catastrophe. Faith in the ON
nipotent Holy Ghost. Faith in
the Bible, the truest volume fever
dictated or written or printed or read.
What frightful time we had few
days ago down on the coast of Long
Island, where / have been stopping.
That archangel of tempest, which,
with it's awful wings, swept the At
lantic coast from Florida to Newfound
land, did not spare our region. A few
miles away. at Southampton, saw the
bodies of four men, whom the storm
had slain and the sea had cast up. As
1 stood there among the dead bodies,
said to myself, and l said aloud:
"These men represent homes. What
will mother and father and wife and
children say when they know this?"
Some of the victims were unknown,
only the first name of two of them was
found out-Charley and William. 1
wondered then and / wonder now if
they will remain unknown. and if
some kindred far away may be waiting
for their coming and never hear of the
rough way of their going. 1 saw also
one of the three who had come in alive,
but more dead than alive. The ship
had become helpless six miles out,
and as one wave swept the deck
and went down on the furnaces till
they Kissed and went out, the cry was,
"Oh, my God, We are lostp' Then the
crew put on life-preservers, one of the
sailors saying to the other: ''We will
meet again on the other shore, and, if
not, we'll, we must all go sometime"
OF the twenty-thr ee men who put on
the life-presevers only three lived to
reach the beach. But what a scene
it was as the good and kind
people of Southampton, led on
by DIR. Thomas, the great and
good surgeon of New York, stood
watching the sailors struggling in the
breakers. "Are you still alive?" shout
ed DR.. Thomas to one of them out in
the breakers, and he signaled yes, and
then went into Inconsistencies. Who
should do the most for the poor fellows
and how to resuscitate them were
the questions that ran up and down
the beach at Southampton. How the
men and women on the shore stood
wringing their hands impatiently wait
ing for the sufferers to come within
reach, and then they were lifted up and
carried indoors and waited on with as
much kindness and wrapped as warm
Iy as though they had been the princes
of the earth. "Are they alive?"
Are they breathing?'' do you think
they will live?" "What can we do for
them?'' were the rapid and intense
questions asked, and so much money
was sent for the clothing and equip
ment of the unfortunates that DIR.
had to make proclamation
that no more money was needed. In
other words, all that day it was resus-
citation.
And that is the appropriate word for
us this morning, as we stand and look
off upon this awful sea of doubt and
on which hundreds are this
being wrecked Some of then
were launched by Christian parentage
On smooth seas and with promise for |
prosperousvoyage, but a voltaire cyclone
struck them on one side and Tom
Payne cyclone struck them on the |
0ther side, and a bad-habit cyclone |
struck them on all sides, and they have |
foundered far away from shore, far