The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-08-25

bring up one of our sins forgiven and
forgotten and sunlxen into the depths
of the sea. When a sin is pardoned it
is gone-it is gone out of the books, it
is gone out of the memory. it is gone
out of existence Their sins and their
iniquities will remember no more. -
From other tragedies men have come
away exhausted and nervous and sleep
less; but there is one tragedy that
soothes and Gains and saves. Calvary
was the stage on which it was enacted,
the curtain of the night falling at mid
noon was the drop scene, the thunder
of falling rocks the orchestra,
angels in the galleries and devils
in the pit the spectators, the
tragedy crucifxion. ''It is Christ
that died" Oh, triumphant thought
If you go through the picture gal
leries of Versailles you will find a great
change there. / said to a friend who
had been through those galleries: Are
they as they were before the French
WARP" and / was told there was a great
change there; that all that multitude
of pictures which represented Napo-
leonic triumphs had been taken away,
and in the frames were other pictures
representative of Germanic success and
victory. Oh, that all the scenes of Sa-
tanic triumph in our world might be
blotted out, and that the whole world
might be picture gallery represent
ing the triumphant Jesus! Down with
the monarchy of transgressioni Up
with the monarchy of our King! Hail!
Jesus, hall
But must give you the second cause
of PauIs exhilaration. If Christ had
staid in that grave we never
would have gotten out of it.
The grave would have been as
dark and dismal as the con-
ciergerie during the Reign of Terror,
where the carts came up only to take
the victims out to the scaffold. / do
not wonder that the ancients tried by
embalmment of the body to resist the
dissolution of death.
The grave is the darkest, deepest,
ghastliest chasm that was ever opened
if there be no light from the rcsurrec-
ton throne streaming into it; but
Christ staid in the tomb all Friday
night and all Saturday, all Sat
urday night and part of Sunday morn
liz oIdANA 81 1O1S III CllO OOAuO
He might fit it for us when we go there.
He tarricd two whole nights in the
grave, so that He saw how important it
was to have plenty of light, and He
has flooded it with His own glory.
1t is early Sunday morning, and we
start up to find the grave of Christ
We find the morning sun gliding the
dew, and the shrubs are sweet as the
foot brushes them. What a beautiful
place to be buried in! Wonder they
did not treat Christ as well when He
was alive as they do now that He is
dead. Give the military salute to the
soldiers who stand guarding the dead.
But bark to the crashl An earthquake!
The soldiers fall back as though they
were dead, and the stone at the door of
Christ's tomb spins down the hill, flung
by the arm of an angel. Come forth,
o jesus from the darkness into the
sunlight. Come forth, and breathe the
perfume of Joseph's garden.
Christ comes forth radiant, and asHe
steps out of the excavation of the rock
/ look down into the excavation, and
in the distance 1 see others coming
hand-in-hand, and troop after troop,
and / find it is a long procession of the
precious dead. Among them are our
own loved ones-father, mother,
brother, sister, companion, children,
coming up out of the excavation of the
rock until the las One has stepped out
into the light, and / am bewildered,
and I can not understand the scene
until / see Christ wave His hand over
the advancing procession from the
rock, and hear Him cry: 81 am the
resurrection and the life; he who be-
lieveth in Me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live" And then / notice
that the long dirge of the worlds woe
suddenly stops at the archangelic shout
of ''Come forthi''
OH my friend, if Christ had not
broken out of the grave you and /
would never come out of it. 1t would
have been another case of Charlotte
Corday attempting to Stay tryant,
herself slain. 1t would have been an
other case of John Brown attempting
to free the slaves, himself hung. 1t
would have been Death and Christ in a
grapple, and Death the victor. The
black flag would have floated on all
graves and mausoleums of the dead,
and hell would have conquered the
forces of Heaven and captured the
ramparts of God, and Satan would have
come to coronation in the palaces of
Heaven, and it would have been devils
on the throne and sons of God in the
dungeon.
MOI no! mol When that stone was
rolled from the door of Christ's grave
it was hurled with such force that it
crashed in all the grave-doors of Chris
tendon, and now the tomb is only
bower where Gods children take a
siesta, an afternoon nap, to wake up in
mighty invigora ton. 'Christ is risen"
Hang that lamp among all the tombs
of my dead. Hang it over my own rest
ing-place. Christs suffering is ended;
His work is done. The darkest Friday
afternoon of the worlds history be-
comes the brightest Sunday morning
of its resurrection joy. The Good Fri
day of bitter memories becomes the
Easter of glorious transformation and
resurrection.
We mourning saints, dry every tear
For your departed Lord,
Behold the place; He is not here;
The tomb is all unbarred-
The gates of death were closed in vain,
The Lord is risen. He lives again.
/ give you the third cause of Paul's
exhilaration. We honor the right
hand more than we do the left. If
accident or battle we must lose one
- - If