The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-06-22

pose ne thought, II can't attend to re-
ligion while / am so pressed by affairs
Of state 1t was business, among
other things, that ruined his soul, and
! suppose there are thousands of people
who are not children of God because
thev have 50 much business. 1t is
business in the store-losses, gains,
unfaithfuI employees It is business
in your law Office-subpenas writs
you have to write out, papers you
have to file, arguments you have to
make It is your medical profession,
with its broken nights, and the ex-
hausted anxieties Of life hanging upon
your treatment. Il is your real estate
Office, your business with landlords and
tenants, and the failure of men to meet
their obligations with you, Ay. with
some of those who are here, it is the
annoyance of the kitchen, and the sit
ting room and the parlor-the wearing
economy Of trying to meet large ex-
penses with small income. Ten thou
sand voices Of business, business. busi-
ness" drown the voice of the eternal
spirit, silencing the voice of the
advancing Judgment day, over
coming the voice Of eternity; and they
can not hear, they can not listen They
say; $50 thy way for this time" Some
Of you look upon your goods, look
upon your profession, you look upon
your memorandum-boolxs, and you see
the demands that are made this very
week upon your time and your patience
and your money; and while | am en-
treating you about your soul, and the
danger Of procrastination, you say:
$50 thy way for this time; when
have a convenient season I will call for
thee" Oh, Felix, why be bothered about
the affairs of this world so much
more than about the affairs of eterni-
| ty? Do you not know that when death
comes you will have to stop business,
though il be in the most exciting pc
riod of it-between the payment of the
money and the taking of the receipt?
The moment he comes you viii have to
go. Death waits for no man, however,
high, howeveS low. Will you put your
Office, win you put your shop, in COM
parison with the affairs of an eternal
world? Affairs that involve thrones,
palaces, dominions eternal? VIII you
put two hundred acres of ground
against immensity? VIII you put forty
or fifty years of your life against
millions of ages? Oh, Felix, you
might better postpone everything elsel
For do you not know that the uphol
stering of Tyrian purple in your palace
will fade, and the marble blocks of
Gesarea viii crumble, and the break
water at the beach, made of great
| block stone sixty feet long, must give
4I,o
sea; but the redemption that Paul of
fers you will be forever? And yet, and
yet, and yet you wave him back to the
guard room, saying: $50 thy way for
this time; when / have a convenient
season, will call for thee.
Again, Felix adjourned this subject
of religion and put off Pauls argument,
because he could not give up the honors
of the world. He was afraid somehow
he would be compromised himself in
this matter. Remarks he made after
ward showed him to be intensely am
bilious. Oh, how he hugged the favor
of menl
never saw the honors Of this world
in their hollowness. and hypocrisy so
much as in the life and death of that
wonderful man, Charles Sumner. AS
he went toward the place of burial,
even independence hall, in Philadel-
phia, asked that his remains stop there
on their way to Boston. The flags
were at half-mast, and the minute guns
on Boston Common throbbed after his
heart had ceased to beat. Was it al
ways so? While he lived, how CEN
sured of legislative resolutions, how
caricatured of the pictorials; how
charged with every motive mean and
ridiculous; how all the urns of scorn
and hatred billingsgate emptied upon
his head; how, when struck down in
senate chamber, there were hundreds of
thousands of people who said, Good
for him, served him rightl' how he had
TO put the ocean between him and his
maligners, that he might have little
peace, and how, when he went off sick,
they said he was broken-hearted be-
cause he could not get to be presi-
dent or secretary of state. Oh, COM
monwealth of Massachusetts, who is
that man that sleeps in your public
hall, covered with garlands and
wrapped in the Stars and Stripes? Is
that the man who, only few months
before, you denounced as the foe of re-
/ puDllCthu duNA 4eulOCTd6AC lnAblbuLlDlAns
is that the same man? Ye American
people, We could not, by one week of
/ funeral eulogium and newspaper lead
ers, which the dead senator could
neither read nor hear. atone for twan-
/ ty-five years Of maltreatment and car
/ feature. When / see a man like that,
pursued by all the hounds of the polit-
ical kennel so long as he lives, and then
buried under a great pile Of garlands,
and amidst the lamentations of whole
nation, say to myself: What an un-
rtterably hypocritical thing is all hG-
man applause and human favor! You
took twenty-five years in trying to
pull down his fame, and then take
twenty-five years in trying to build his
monument. My friends, was there ever
I a better commentary on the hollow
ness of all earthly? If there are young
men who read this who are postpOning
religion in order that they have the
favors Of this world, let me persuade
them of their complete folly. If
you are looking forEvad to guber-
material, senatorial, or presidential
chair, let me show you your great mis-
take. Can il be that there is now any
young man saying: Let me have po-
4 litical Office, let me have some of the
+ high positions cf trust and power, and
then I win atleI-d to religion; but not
now. Go thy way for this time: when
/ have a convenient season, viii call
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