The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-03-24

You know this is so with regard to
the acquisition of knowledge. The an
clients used to say that Vulcan struck
Jupiter on the head. and the goddess of
wisdom jumped out, illustrating the
truth that wisdom comes by hard
knocks There was river of difficulty
between Shakespeare, the boy holding
the horses at the door of the London
theater, and that Shakespeare, the
great dramatist, winning the applause
of all audiences by his tragedies. There
was a river between BENJAMIN Frank
lin, with loaf of bread under his arm,
| walking the streets of Philadelphia,
and that same Benjamin Franklin, the
philosopher. just outside of BOSTON, fly
ing kite in the thunderstorm. An
idler was cured of his bad habit by
looking through his window, night
after night. at a man who seemed
sitting at his desk turning off one
sheet of writing after another, until
| almost the dawn of the morning.
The man sitting there writing until
morning was industrious Walter Scott;
| the man who looked at him through
the window was Lockhart, his illustri-
GUS biographer afterward. Lord Mans
field, pursued by the press and by the
| populace because of certain line of
duty, went on to discharge the duty,
and while the mob were around him,
demanding the taking of his life, he
shook his fist in the face of the mob
and said: ''Sirs, when ones last end
comes, it can not come to soon if he
falls in defense of law and the liberty
4 0f ~ :z
| friends, tug. a tussle, q trial, a push,
an anxiety, through which every man
must go before he comes to worldly
| achievement. You admit it. Now be
wise enough to apply it in religion
Eminent Christian character is only
gained by the Jordanic passage; no
man just happened to get good.
Why does that man know so much
about the Scriptures? He was study
ing the Bible while you were reading
novel. He was on fire with the sub
limities of the Bible, while you were
sound asleep. BY tug, tussle, pushing
and running in the Christian life that
man got SO strong for God; in a hun
dred Solferinos he learned how to fight;
in hundred shipwrecks he learned
how to swim. Tears over sin, tears
over lions desolation, tears over the
impenitent, tears over the graves made,
are the Jordan which that man had
passed. Sorrow pales the cheek, and
fades the eye, and wrinkles the brow,
and withers the hands; there are
mourning garments in the wardrobe,
and there are deaths in every family
record, all around are the relics of the
dead.
The Christian comes down to this
raging torrent, and he knows he must
pass out; and as he comes toward the
time his breath gets shorter; and his
last breath leaves him as he steps into
the stream, and no sooner does he touch
the stream than it is parted, and he
goes through dryshod, while all the
waters wave their plumes, crying: 30,
death, where is thy sting? o, grave,
where is thy victory?" God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes, and
there shall be no more weeping, and
there shall be no more de ath.
Some of your children have already
gone up the other bank You let them
down on this side of the bank; they
will be on the other side of the bank to
help you up with supernatural
strength. The other morning at my
table, all my family present, 1 thought
to myself how pleasant it would be if
could put all into boat, and then go
in with them, and we could pull across
the river to the next world, and be
there all together. No family parting,
no gloomy obsequies; it wouldn't take
five minutes to go from bank to bank,
and then in that better world to be to-
gether forever. Wouldn't it be pleas
ant for you to take all your family
into that blessed country if you could
all go together? / remember my moth
er, in her dying hour. said to my fa-
ther: Father, wouldn't it be pleasant
if we could all go together?" But we
can not all go together. We must go
one by one, and we must be grateful if
we get there at ALL What a Heaven it
will be if we have all of our families
there, to look around and see all the
children are present! You would
rather have them all there, and you go
with bare brow forever, than that one
should be missing, to complete the gar
lands of Heaven for your coronaL The
Lord God of Joshua, give them safe
Jordanic passage.
Why was there SO much joy in certain
circles in New York when people heard
from friends who were on board that
belated steamer? 1t was feared that
vessel had gone to the bottom of the
sea; and when the friends on this side
heard that the steamer had arrived !
safely in Liverpool. had we not right |
to congratulate the people in New
York that their friends had got |
safely across? And is it not |
right this morning that 1 congratu- |
late you that your departed friends are |
safe on the shore of Heaven? Would |
you have them back again? Would you
have those old parents back again? |
You know how hard 1t was sometimes |
for them to get their breath in the |
stifled atmosphere of the summer; |
would you have them back in this |
weather? Didn't they use their brain |
long enough! Would you have your
children back again? Would you have |
them take the risks of temptation |
which throng every human pathway? |
Would you have them cross the Jordan |
three times? In addition to crossing it |
already, cross it again to greet you |
now, and then cross back afterward. |
For certainly you would not want to |
keep them forever out of Heaven.
Pause and weep, not for the freed from pain,
But that the sigh of love would bring them /
back again.
If ask you what shall be the glad |
hymn of this morning. / think there
would be thousand voices that would |
- z~~~ xL~ ~,~no u Luuon-%hn bvT,,u that