The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-05-18


have been lied about as living in lux.
ury and idleness. want to know
whether the heather religions are
really as tolerable and as commend
able as they were represented by their
adhcrents in the parliament of religions
at Chicago I want to see whether Mo
hammedanism or Buddhism would be
good Things for transportation
in America, as it has again and again
been argued. / want to hear the Brah.
minis pray. l want to test whether the
Poetic ocean treats its guests any bet
ter than does the Atlantic. want to
see the wondrous architecture of
India, and the Delhi and Gavin
pore where Christ was crucified in the
massacre of His modern disciples, and
the disa bled Juggernaut unwheeled
by Christianity; and to see if Tai
which the Emperor Shah Jehan built
in honor of his empress, really means
any more than the plain slab we put
above our dear departed. want to see
the fields where Havelock and Sir
Colin Campbell won the day against
the SepOys. | want to see the world
from all sides;how much of it is in dark
ness. how much of it is in light; what
the Bible means by the lends of the
earth, . and get myself ready to appre-
ciate the extent of the present to be
made to Christ as spoken of in the
Psalms: ASK of me, and l shall give
thee the heather for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth
for they possession" And SO
shall be ready to celebrate in Heaven
the victories of Christ in more rap
! turous song than 1 could have rem
dere1 had | never seen the heather
denominations before they were con-
guered. And so l hope to come back
refreshed, REINFORCED aDd better
equipped, and to do in ten years more
| effectual work than have done in the
last twenty-five.
| And now in this twenty-ifth ami
! versary sermon / propose to do two
things: first to put garland on the
| grave of the generation that has just
passed off, and then to put a palm
branch in the hand of the generation
| just now coming on the field of ac-
! tion. For my text is true:
! lone generation passeth away,
and another generation cometh.
Oh, how many we revered, and
honored, and loved in the last genera
tion that quit the earth. Tears fell at
the time of their going, and dirges were
sounded, and signals of mourning were
| put on; but neither tears, nor dirge,
nor somber veil told the half we felt.
Their going left a vacancy in our
souls that has never been. filled
up. We never get used to their abb
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of somcthing with which they were as
sociated-a picture, or book, or a gar
ment, or staff-breaks us down with
emotion, but we bear it simply because
we have to bear it. Oh, how snowy
white their hair got, and how the
wrinkles multiplied, and the sight grew
more dim, and the hearing less alert,
and the step more frail, and one day
they were gone out of the chair by the
| ireside, and from the plate at the
meal, and from the end of the church
pew, where they worshiped with us.
| Oh, my soul, how we miss them! But
| let us console each other with the
! thought that we shall meet them again
in the land of salutation and reunion
And now twist a garland for that
departed generation. 1t need not be
costly, perhaps just a handful of clover
| blossoms from the field through which
| they used to walk, or as many violets
as you could hold between the thumb
and the forefnger, plucked out of the
| garden where they used to walk in the
cool of the day. Put these old-fash-
ioned flowers down over the heart that
never again will ache, and the arm
that has forever ceased to toll. Peace.
father! Peace, mother! Everlasting
peace! All that for the generation
gone.
But what shall we do with the palm
branch? That we will put in the hand
of the generation coming on. Yours is
| to be the generation for victories. The
last and the present generation have
been perfecting the steam-power. and
the electric light, and the electric
| forces. To these will be added trans
portation. 1t will be your mission to
use all these forces. Everything is
| ready now for you to march
right up and take this world for
God and Heaven. Get your heart
right by repentance and the pardon
| ing grace of the Lord Jesus, and your
mind right by elevating books and pic.
lures, and your body right by GYM
nasium and field exercises and plenty
of ozone, and by looking as often as
you can upon the face of mountain and
of sea. Then start In Gods name,
start! And here is the palm branch.
From conquest to conquest. move
right on and right up. You
will soon have the whole field
for yourself Before another twenty
five years have gone we will be out of
the pulpits, and the offices, and the
factories, and the benevolent institu-
tions, and you will be at the front.
Forward into the battle! If God be for
you, who can be against you? HE
that spared not His own Son, but de-
livered Him up for us all, how shall He
not with Him also freely give us all
things?''
And as for us who are now at the
front, having put the garland on the
grave of the last generation. and havs
ing put the palm branch in the hand
of the coming generation, we will
cheer each other in the remaining
ones and go into the shining gate
somewhere about the same time, and
greeted by the generation that has
preceded us we will have to wait only
little while to greet the
generation that will come after
Us. And will not that be glorious?
Three generations in Heaven together:
The grandfather, the son and the
grandson, the grandmother, the
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