The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-07-28

man III he gain the whole world and
lose his soul2'' However fine your APP
parel, the winds of death will fiutter it
like rags. Homespun and thread
bare coat have sometimes been the
shadow of coming robes made white in
the blood of the Lamb. The pearl Of
great price is worth more than any
gem You can bring from the ocean,
than Australian or Brazilian mines
strung in one carcanet- Seek after
God; find His righteousness, and all
shall be well here; all shall be well
hereafter.
| But I must have word with those
who during the present commercial ca
lamities have lost heavily, or perhaps
lost all their estate. If man lose his
property at thirty or forty years of age,
1T is only a sharp discipline generally,
by which later he comes to larger sue
cess. 1t is all folly for man to sit
down in mid-life discouraged. The
marshals of Napoleon came to their
commander and said: 1--WE have
lost the battle and we are be-
ing cut to pieces" Napoleon took
his watch from his pocket and
said: ut is only two o'clock in the
afternoon. You have lost that battle,
but you have time enough to win an
other. Charge upon the foer' Though
the meridian of life has passed with
you, and you have been routed in many
conflict, give not up in discourage
ment. There are victories yet for you to
gain. But sometimes monetary dis
aster comes to a mon when there is
something in his age, or something in
his health, or something in his sur
roundings, which make him know well
that he will never get up again. In 1857
| it was estimated that, for many years
previous to that time, annually there
had been thirty thousand failures in
the United States. Many of these per-
sons never recovered from the misfor-
tune. But let me give word of COM
fort in passing. The sheriff may sell
you out of many things, but there are
some things of which he can not sell
you out. He can not sell out your
health. He can not sell out your fam
lily. He can not sell out your Bible.
He can not sell out your
God. He can not sell out your Heaven.
You have more than you have lost.
Sons and daughters of God, children of
an eternal and ALLOWING Father,
mourn not when your property goes.
The world is yours, and life is yours,
and death is yours, and Immortality
is yours and thrones of imperial
grandeur are yours, and rivers of
gladness are yours, and shining
mansions are yours, and God is
ID 10 !
and every time you doubt it you charge
the King of Heaven and earth with
perjury. Instead of complaining how
hard you have it, go home, take up
your Bible full of promises, get down
on your knees before God and thank
Him for what you have, instead of
spending so much time in complaining
about what you have not.
Some of you remember the ship
wreck of the Central America. This
noble steamer had, | think, about five
hundred passengers aboard. Suddenly
the storm came and the surges trampled
the decks and swung into the matches,
| and there went up a hundred-voiced
death-shriek. The foam on the jaw of
the wave, the pitching of the steam
er as though it were leaping mount
ain, the dismal fare of the signal
rockets. The long cough of the steam
pipes. The hiss of the extinguished
furnaces. The walking of God on the
wave The steamer went not down
without struggle. As the passengers
stationed themselves in rows to bail
out the vessel, bark to the thump of
the buckets, as men unused to toll,
with blistered hands and strained
muscle, tug for their lives.
There is a sail seen against the
sky. The flash of the distress gun
sounded, its voice is heard not, for it is
choked in the louder booming of the
sea. A few passengers escaped, but the
steamer gave one great iurch and was
gonei So there are some men who will
sail on prosperously in life. Ais well,
all's well. But at last some financial
disaster comes-a euroclydon. Down
they goi the bottom of this commercial
sea strewn with shattered hulks. But be-
cause your property goes do not let your
soul go. Though all else perish, save
that; for have to tell you of more
stupendous shipwreck than that which
have just mentioned. God launched
v
has been going on under freight of
mountains and immortals; but one day
it will stagger at the cry of fire.
The timbers of rock will burn,
the mountains flame like masts, and
the clouds like sails in the Judgment
hurricane. Then God shall take the
passengers off the deck, and from the
berths those who have long been
asleep in Jesus, and He will set
them far beyond the reach of
storm and peril. But how many shall
go down? That will never be known,
until it shall be announced one
day in Heaven; the shipwreclzed of the
world! Oh, my dear hearers, whatever
you lose; though your houses go,
though your lands go, though all your
earthly possessions perish, may God
Almighty, through the blood OF the
I nj v<ar11