The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-11-02
Children Of the teaTeuly I1ias,
As7c journey, sEeeiiF sing,
ST yorf SaytOur's Worthy p~aiss,
Bi0rious IL Ills works ana ways.

when they are in the fields, they often
come within reach of tile gun; but
/ when they start for the annual fight
southwark they take their places mid
heaven and 60 straight as a mark.
/ The longest rife that was ever
brought to shoulder could not reach
/ them. Would to God that we
were as wise as the stork and
crane in their fight heavenward. We
| fly SO low that we are within easy
range of the world, the flesh and the
devil. We are brought down by
temptations that ought not to come
within a mile of reaching us. Oh, for
some of the faith of George Muller, of
England, and Alfred Goodman, once of
the church militant, now ofthe church
triumphant! SO poor is the type of
/ piety in the church of God now that
men actually caricature the idea that
there is any such thing as higher life
/ MOles never did believe in eagles. But
my brethren, because we have not
reached these heights ourselves shall
we deride the fact that there are
any such heights? A man was
once talking to Brunei, the famous
engineer, about the length of the ra IL
road from London to Bristol. The en-
Rineer said: 1T is not very great. We
shall have, after awhile, steamer run
ming from London to New York" They
laughed him to scorn; but VIC have
gone so far now that we have ceased to
laugh at anything impossible for HUI
man achievement. Then, ask, is any
thing impossible for the Lord? do not
believe that God exhausted all HIS
grace in Paul, and Latimer and Ed
ward PaysOn. / believe there are high
er points of Christian attainment to be
reached in the future ages of the
Chris tian world. You tell me that
Paul went up to the tiptop of
the Alps of Christian attainment. Then
l tell you that the stork and crane have
found above the Alps plenty of room
for free flying. We go out and we con-
quer our temptations by the grace of
God and lie down. On the morrow
those temptations rally themselves and
attack us. and by the grace of God we
defeat them again; but, staying all the
time in the old encampment, we have
the same old battles to fight over.
Why not whip out our temptations, and
then forward march, making one raid
through the anemy's country, stopping
not until we break ranks after the last
victory. Do, my brethren, let us have
some novelty of combat, at any rate,
by changing, by going on, by making
advancement, tracing off our stale
prayers about sins we ought to have
quit long ago, going on toward
higher state of Christian char
acter, and routing our sins that
we have never thought of yet
The fact is, if the church of God
if we, as individuals, made rapid ad-
vancement in the Christian life. these
stereotyed prayers we have been MAX
ing for ten or fifteen years would be
inappropriate to us as the shoes, and
the hats, and the coats we wore ten or
fifteen years ago. Oh, for a higher
fight in the Christian life. the stork
and the crane in their migration teach
ing us the lesson!
Dear Lord, and shall we ever live,
At this poor dying rate
Our love faint, so cold to Thee.
And Thine to US so greatf
Again, l remark, that the birds of
the air are wiser than we, because
they know when to start. If YOU
should go out now and shout: stop
storks and cranes. don't be in q
hurry!' they would say: mo, we can
not stop; last night we heard the roar
ing in the woods bidding us away, and
the shrill flute of the north wind has
sounded the retreat We must 90.
We must GO" So they gather them
selves into companies, and turning
not aside for storm or mountain
top. or shock OF musketry, over land
and sea, straight as an arrow to the
mark they go. And if you come out
this morning with sack of corn and
throw it in the fields and try to get
them to stop, they are so far mp they
would hardly see it. They are on their
way to the south. You could not stop
them. Oh, that we were as wise about
the best time to start for God and
Heaven! We say: wait until il is
a little later in the season of mercy.
Wait until some of these green
leaves of hope are all dried up and
have been scattered. Wait until next
year" After awhile we start, and it is
too late, and we perish in the way
when Gods wrath is kindled but lit
n
cases, where birds have started too
late, and in the morning you have
found them dead on the snow And
there are those who have persisted half
way between the world and Christ
They waited until the last sick
ness, when the mind is gone, or
they were on the express train
going at forty miles an hour,
and they came to the bridge and the
draw was up" and they went down.
How long to repent and pray? Two
secondsl To do the work of lifetime
and to prepare for the vast eternity in
two seconds! 1 was reading of an en-
tertainment given in a kings court,
and there were musicians there with
elaborate pieces of music. After
awhile Mozart came and began to
play, and he had a blank piece
of paper before him, and the
king Familiarity looked over his shoulder
and said: What are you playing?
l see no music before you" And
Mozart put his hand on his brow. as
to say: II am improvising." 1t was
very well for him, but oh, my friends,
we can not extemporize for Heaven.
If we do not get prepared in this
world, we will never take part in the
orchestral harmonies of the saved. Oh,
that we were as wise as the crane and
the stork, flying away, flying away
from the tempest.
Some Of you have felt the pinching
frost of sin. You feel it to-day. You