The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-09-01


rough and rude people out here and
we work hard for a living. We make
our living by hunting, and when we
come to the nightfall we are tired and
we are apt to go to bed early. and be-
fore retiring we are always in the
habit of reading a chapter from the
Word of God and making d prayer; If
You don't like such things, If you viii
just step outside the door until we get
through I'll be greatly obliged to you"
OF course the stranger tarried in the
room and the old hunter took hold of
the horns of the altar and brought
down the blessing of God upon the
household and upon the stranger
within their gates Rude, but glorious
Christian hospitality
Again, this woman in my text was
great in her kindness towards Gods
messenger. Elisha may have been a
stranger in that household, but as she
found out he had come on Divine
mission he was cordially welcomed.
We have a great many books in our
day about the hardships of ministers
and the trials of Christian min
listers. I wish somebody would write
book about the joys of the
Christian minister, about the sympa-
thies all around him, about the kind
nesses, about the genial consider
atoms of him. Does sorrow come to
our home. and is there shadow on the
cradle? There are hundreds of hands
to help, and many who weary not
through the long night watching, and
hundreds of prayers going up that God
would restore the sick. Is there a
burning, trimming cup of calamity
placed on the pastors table, are there
not many to help him drink of that
cup and who will not be comforted be-
cause he is stricken? Oh, for some
body to write a book about the re-
wards of the Christian ministry
about his surroundings of Christian
sympathy.
Again, this woman in the text was
great in her behavior under trouble.
Her only son had died on her lap. A
very bright light went out in that
household. The sacred writer puts it
very tersely when he says: HE sat on
her knees until noon, and then he died. :"
Yet the writer goes on to say that she
exclaimed: ut is well!' Great in pros
perity, this woman was great in
trouble.
Where are the feet that have not been
blistered on the hot sands of this great
Sahara? Where are the shoulders that
have not been bent under the burden
of grief? Where is the ship sailing
over CLASSY sea that has not after a
while been caught in a cyclone?
Where is the garden of earthly COM
fort but trouble hath hitched up its
fiery and painting team and gone
through it with burning plowshare of
disaster? Under the pelting of ages
of suffering, the great heart of the
world has burst with woe.
Navigators tell us about the rivers,
and the Amazon and the Danube and
the Mississippi have been explored, but
who can tell the depth or length of the
great river of sorrow made up of tears
and blood rolling through all lands and
all ages, bearing the wreck of families
and of communities and of empires
foaming, writhing, boiling with the
agonies of six thousand years. Etna
and Cotopaxi and Vesuvius have been
described, but who has ever sl1etched
the volcano of suffering retching up
from its depths the lava and the scoria
and pouring them down the sides to
whelm the nations? Oh, if l could
gather all the heart-strings, the broken
heart-strings, into harp / would play
on it a dirge such as was never sounded.
Mythologists tell us of Gorgon and
Centaur ann Titan, and biologists tell
us of extinct species of monsters; but
greater than Gorgon or Megathereum,
and not belonging to the realm of
fable, and not of an extinct species, is
a monster with iron jaw and iron hoofs
walking across the nations, and history
and poetry and sculpture in their at
tempts to sketch it and describe it
have seemed to sweat great drops of
blood.
But, thank God, there are those who
can conquer as this woman of the text
conquered. and say, at is well! though
my property be gone, though my chill
dren be gone, though my home be
broken up, though my health be sacri-
feed, it is well, it is well!' There is
no storm on the sea, but Christ is ready
to rise in the hinder part of the ship
and hush il. There is no darkness,
but the consultations of Gods eternal
love can illumine it, and though the
winter comes out of the norther sky,
sky all ablaze with auroras that seem
to say: "Come up this way; up this
way are thrones of light and seas of
sapphire, and the splendor of an
eternal heaven. Come up this way"
we may, like the ships, by tempest be tossed
On the perilous deeps. but can not be lost;
Though Satan enrago, the wind and the tide
The promise assured US, the Lord will provide.
/ heard an echo of my text in a very
dark hour when my father lay dying
and the old country minister said to
him: ''Mr. Talmage, how do you feel
now as you are about to pass the Jor-
dan of death?" He replied-and it was
the last thing he ever said 81 feel
well: feel very well; all is well"-lift-
ing his hand in the benediction,
speechless benediction which I pray
God may GO down through all the gem
erations. 1t was well! OF course it
was well.
Again, this woman of my text was
great in her application to domestic
duties Every picture is home pic
ture, whether she is entertaining an
Elisha, or whether she is giving care
full attention to her sick boy, or
whether she is appealing for the res
toration of her property-every pic
ture in her case is a home picture.
Those are not disciples of this Shumen-
lite woman who, going out to attend to
outside charities, neglect the duty of