The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-08-04

"A
had promised him all the worlds gar
lands, but in the last hour of his life
when he needed solacing, sent tearing
across his conscience and his nerves a
file, file. So it was with Lord Byron.
his uncleanness In England only sur
passed by his tificleanness In Venice,
then going Old to end his brilliant
misery in Missolonghi, fretting at his
nurse Fletcher, fretting at himself,
ffetti1g at the world, fretting at God:
and he who gave to the world 'sChilde
Harold" and ''Sardanapalus," and
'sThe Prisoner of Chillon," and ssThe
Siege of Corinth," reduced to
nothing but a file! Oh, sin has
great facility for making prom
ises, but it has just as great
facility for breaking them. A Chris
tian life is the only cheerful life, while
life of wicked surrender is remorse,
ruin and death. It's painted glee is
sepulchral ghastliness. In the bright
est days of the Mexican empire
Montezuma said he felt gnawing at
his heart something like a canker.
Sin, like a monster wild beast of the
forest, sometimes ticks all over its vic
tim in order that the victim may
be more easily swallowed but
generally sin rasps, and gals, and
tears, and upbraids, and files. Is it
not SO, Herod? Is it not SO, Hide
brand? Is it not so, Robespierre? Ayel
aye! it is so; it is So ''The way of the
wicked He turneth upside down" His
tory tells us that when Rome was
founded, on that day there were twelve
vultures flying through the air; but
when a transgressor dies, the sky is
black with whole focks of them.
Vultures! When 1 see sin robbing so
manv people, and l see them going
down day by day, and week
by week, T must give plain
warning. I dare not keep it back
lest / risk the salvation of my
own soul. Rover, the pirate, pulled
down the warning bell on Inchcape
rock, thinking that he would have
chance to despoil vessels that were
crushed on the rocks; but one night his
own ship crashed down on this very
rock and he went down with all his
cargo. God declares: when ] say to
the wicked, thou shalt surely die, and
thou givest him not warning, that
same man shall die in his iniquity; but
his blood will / require at thy hands"
/ learn from this subject what sad
thing it is when the church of God loses
its metal. These Philistines saw that
if they could only get all the metallic
weapons out of the hands of the Israel
ties all would be well, and, therefore,
they took the swords and the spears
They did not want them to have a
single metallic weapon. When the
metal of the Israelites was gone their
strength was gone. This is the trou-
BILE with the church of God to-day.
1t is surrendering its courage. 1t
has not got enough metal. How sell
dom it is that you see a man taking
his position in pew, or in pulpit, or in
religious society, and holding that
position against all oppression, and
all trial, and all persecution, and all
criticism. The church of God to-day
wants more backbone, more defiance,
more concentrated bravery, more metal.
How often you see a man start out
in some good enterprise, and at the
first blast of newspaperdom he has
collapsed, and all his courage gone,
forgetful of the fact that if a man be
right, all the newspapers of the earth,
with all their columns pounding away
at him, can not do him any. permanent
damage. 1t is only when man is
wrong that he can be damaged. Why,
God is going to vindicate His truth,
and He is going to stand by you, my
friends, in every effort you make for
Christs cause and the salvation of
men. l sometimes say to my wife:
''There is something wrong; the news
papers have not assaulted me for three
months! / have not done my duty
against public iniquities, and / will
stir them up next Sunday" Then
stir them up, and on the following
week the devil bowls, and bowls, show
ing that have hit him very hard. Go
forth in the service of Christ and do
your whole duty. You have one sphere.
/ have another sphere. 1.-THE Lord of
Hosts is with us, and the God of Jacob
Is our refuged. Selah." We want more
of the determination of Jonathan. / do
not suppose he was a very wonderful
man; but he got on his knees and
clambered MP the rock, and with the
help of his armor-bearer he hewed
down the Philistines; and man of
very ordinary intellectual attachments
on his knees can storm anything for
God and for truth. We want some
thing of the determination of the gen.
eral who went into the war, and as he
entered his first battle his knees
knocked together, his physical courage
not quite up to his moral courage,
and he looked down at his knees
and said: "Ah, if you knew where
was going to take you, you would shake
worse than that!' There is only one
question for you to ask and for me to
ask. What does God want me to do?
Where is the field? Where is the
work? Where is the anvil? Where is the
prayer-meeting? Where is the pulpit?
And, finding out what God wants us to
do, GO ahead and do tall the energies
of our body, mind and soul enlisted in
the undertaking. Oh, my brethren,
we have but little time in which to
fight for God. You will be dead soon.
Put in the Christian cause every energy
that God gives you. What thy hand
findeth to do. do it with all thy might,
for there is neither wisdom or device
in the grave whittier we are all
fastening Oh, is it not higl.
time that we wake out OF
sleep? Church of God lift up
your head at the coming victory!
The Philistines will go down, and the
Israelites will go up. We are on the
winning side. Hear that-on the win
ming side. / think just now the Kings
horses are being hooked up to the
l.