The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-10-13

They are not weeds. They are immor-
tai flowers. Down in the deep sea of
woe, but flowers When society and
the church of God come to appreciate
their eternal value there will be more
C. L. Braces and more Van Meters and
more angels of mercy spending their
fortunes and their lives in the rescue.
Hear it, oh, We philanthropic and Chris
tian and nerciful souls; not weeds, but
flowers. adjure you as the friends of
all newsboys' lodging houses, of
all industrial schools, of all homes
for friendless girls, and for the
many reformatories and humane
associations now on foot How
much have they already accom-
plished? Out of what Indebtedness,
into what good home. Of twenty-one
thousand of these picked up out of the
street and sent into country homes,
only twelve children turned out badly
In the last thirty years a number that
no man can number of the Migrants
have been lifted into responsibility
and usefulness and Christian
life. Many of them have homes
of their own. Though ragged
boys once and street girls, now at
the head of prosperous families, hon
ored on earth and to be glorious in
Heaven. Some of them have been gov
ernors of states. Some of them are
ministers of the Gospel. IN all depart
ments of life those who were thought
to be weeds have turned out
to be flowers. One of these res
cued lads from the streets wrote
to another, saying: 81 have heard
you are studying for the minis
try; so am l." My hearers, / implead
you for the newsboys of the streets,
many of them the brightest children of
the city, but no chance. Do not step
on their bare feet. Do not, when
they steal ride, cut behind. When
the paper is three cents once in
awhile give them five cent piece, and
tell them to keep the change. like
the ring of the letter the newsboy sent
back from Indiana, where he had been
sent to a good home, to a New York
newsboys' lodging house: Boys, we
should show ourselves that we are no
fools, that we can become as respecta-
bic as any of the countrymen, for
Franklin and Webster and Clay
were poor boys once, and even
George Law and Vanderbilt and
Aston. And now, boys, stand up and let
them see you has got tde real stuff in
you. Come out here and make respect
able and honorable men, so they can
say: There, that boy was once news
boy My hearers, join the Christian
philanthropists who are cha nging or
gan-grinders and bootblacls and news
boys and street Arabs and cigar girls
into those who shall be kings and
queens unto God forever. 1t is high
time that Jonah finds out that that
which is about him is not weeds but
flowers
There is great comfort that rolls
over upon us from this study of the So
called sea weed, and that is the demon
strated doctrine of particular Provi-
dence. When find that the Lord pro-
vides in the so-called sea-weed the pas
turage for the thronged marine world,
so that not a fin or scale in all that
oceanic aquarium suffers need, con-
clude He will feed US, and if He suits
the Alg8 to the animal life of the deep,
He will provide the food for our phys
zeal and spiritual needs. And if He
clothes the flowers of the deep with
richness of robe that looks bright as
fallen rainbows by day and at night
makes the under world look as though
the sea were on FIRE, surely He will
clothe you. ''Oh, We of little faith!''
And what fills me with unspeabable
delight is that this God of
depths and heights, of ocean and
of continent, may, through Jesus
Christ, the divinely-appointed means,
be yours and mine, to help, to cheer,
to pardon, to save, to enparadise
What matters who in earth or hell is
against us, if he is for us? Omnipo-
tence to defend us, omnipresence to
companion us. and infinite love to en-
fold and uplift and enrapture us. And
when God does. small things so well,
seemingly taking as much care with
the coil of sea-weed as the out-branch-
ing of Lebanon cedar, and with the
color of a vegetable growth which is
hidden fathoms out,of sight as He does
with the solferino and purple of
sunset, we will be determined
to do well all we are called to do,
though no one see or appreciate us.
Mighty Godl Roll in upon our admira
ton and holy appreciation more of the
wonders of this submarine world. My
Joy is that after we are quit of all
earthly hindrance we may come back
to this world and explore what we can
not now fully investigate. If we shall
have power to soar into the atmos-
pheric without fatigue / think we shall
have power to dive into the aqueous
without peril, and that the pictured
and tessellated sea-foor will be as ac-
cessible as now is to the traveller the |
floor of the Alhambra, and all the |
gardens of the deep will then swing |
open to us their gates as now to the |
tourist Chatsworth opens on public |
days its cascades and statuary and con- |
for our entrance. sit doth |
not yet appear what we shall be-" You
IAN not make me believe that God hath |
spread out all that garniture of the
leep merely for the polyps and
,rustacea to look at.
And if the unintelligent creatures of /
the Mediterranean and the Atlantic
ocean He surrounds with such beauti-
full grasses of the deep what Heaven
we may expect for our uplifted and
souls when we are unclaimed |
IF the flesh and rise to realms beatifc.
Of the flora OF that ''sea of
rlass mingled with fire" l have
no power to speak, but / shall
always be glad that when the prophet