The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-03-30
.ury. dc you tAlal.- The nIbIs will be-

I =
not long ago was crowded from floor
to ceiling with Bibles from Switzer-
land. Suppose the congress of the
United States should pass law tha4
there should be no more Bibles printed
in America, and no more Bibles read.
If there are forty million grown people
/ in the United States, there would be
forty million people in an army to put
down such law and defend their right
to read the Bible. But suppose the con-
/ gress of the United States should make
a law against the reading OF the pub
i LEGATION =.of any other book, how
| many people would go ont in such a
crusade? Could you get forty million
people togo out and risk their lives in
defense Of Shakespeare tragedies or
Gladstone's tracts of Macauley's His
/ tory Of England2 You know that there
are thoHsand men who would die in
! defense of this book You try to in
suit my -cemmon-sense by telling me
the Bibleis fading out from the world.
! 1t is the, most popular book OF the
century. How do I know it?' / know it
/ just as know in regard to other books.
! How many volumes of that book are
published? Well, you say, five thou
sand. How many copies of that book
| are published? A hundred thousand.
Which is the more popular? Why, of
/ course, the one that has one hundred
thousand circulation. Andif this book
| has more copies abroad IN the world,
| if there are five times as many Bibles
abroad as any othera book, does not
that show you that the most popular
book on the planet to-day is the Word
of God?
oh" say people, "the church ls
collection of hypocrites, and it is los
ing its power, and it is fading out
from the. world" Is ito A bishop of
the Methodist church told me that
that denomination averages two new
churches every day Of the year, There
are at least one thousand five hundred
new churches built in America every
year. Does that look as though the
church was fading out, as though it
were defunct institution? Which
| institution stands nearest the
hearts of the people of America
| to-dayP / do not care in what
village or in what city, or what neigh
borhood you go. Which institution is
it? Is it the post office? 1t it the hotel?
Is it the lecture hall? All, you know
it is not, You know that the institu-
tion which stands nearest to the hearts
of the American people is the Christian
church. If you have ever seen church
burn down you have seen thousands of
| people standing and looking atit-peo-
pie who never go into church-the
tears raining down their cheeks. The
whole story is told.
You may talk about the church be-
ing a collection of hypocrites, but
when the diphtheria sweeps your chill
dren off whom do you send for? The
postmaster? the attorney general? the
hotel-keeper? alderman? No, you
send for a minister of this Bible re-
| hgion. And if you have not room in
your house for the obsequies, what
building do you solicit? Do you say:
! ''Give me the finest room in the hotel?"
Do you say: Give me that theater?"
Do yol say: Give me a place in that
| public building, where l can lay my
dead for little while until we say a
prayer over it," No; you say:
Give us the house of God. :" And if there
is a song to be sung at the obsequies
what do you want? What does any
body want? The "Marseillaise" hymn?
''GodSave the QueenP" Our own grand
national air? No. They want the
| hymn with which they sang their old
| Christian mother into her last sleep,
or they want sung the Sabbath-school
hymn which their little girl sang the
last Sabbath afternoon she was out be-
! fore she got that awful sickness, which
broke your heart. | appeal to your
common sense. You know the most
endearing institution on earth, the
1 most popular institution on earth to-
day is the Church of the Lord Jesus
| Christ
! The inidels say: "Infidelity shows
| it's successes from the fact that it is
| everywhere accepted, and il can say
what it will. . Why, my friends, inf
deity is not half so blatant in our day
as it was in the days of our fathers.
| Do you know that in the days of our
! fathers there were pronounced infidels
| in public authority and they could get
any political position? Let man to-
day declare himself antagonistic to the
| Christian religion, and what city wants
| him for mayor, what state wants him
him for governor, what nation wants
him for president or for king2 Let a
man openly proclaim himself the enemy
| of our glorious Christianity, and he can
not get ma jority of our votes in any
state, in any city, in any county, in any
| ward of America.
Do you think that such scene
\ could be enacted now as was enacted
] in the days of Robespierre, when a
shameless woman was elevated as a
goddess, and was carried in a golden
1 chair TO cathedral, where incense
was burned to her, and people bowed
down before her as to a divine being, she
taking the place of the Bible and God
1 Almighty, while in the corridor of that
cathedral were enacted such scenes of
drunkenness, and debauchery, and OBJ
scenity as has ne"er been wit
messed. Do you believe such a
thing could possibly occur in Chris
tendon to-day? No, sir. The no
lice, whether of Paris or New
York, would swoop on it. / know in
fidelity makes a good of talk in our
day. 1t is on the principle that if a
man jump overheard from a Cunard
steamer he makes more excitement
than all of the FIVE hundred people
that stay on the decks. But the faG q
/ that he jumps overheard does that
stop the ship? Does that wreck the
five hundred passengers? 1t makes
great excitement when a man jumps
from the lecturing platform or from
the pulpit into infidelity; but does
that keep the Bible and the church
[ from, oar-rv-fy,tr fbair millions Of r,aoea,