The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-06-14

able to shoulder glittering niusket, but
use anything you can lay your hands
on. Try a blacksmith's hammer, or a
merchants yardsticlx, or a mason's
trowel, or a carpenters plane. or a
housewives broom, or a farmers OK
goad. One of the surprises of Heaven
will be what grand results came from
how simple means. Matthias Joyce,
the vile man, became n great apostle
of righteousness, not from hearing
John Wesley preach, but from seeing
him kiss little child on the pulpit
stairs.
Again, my subject springs upon us
the thought that in calculating the
prospects of religious attempt. we
must take omnipOtenos, and omnis-
cience, and omnipresence, and all the
other attributes of God into the calcu-
lation. Whom do you see on that
plowed field of my text? One nearer
says, ST see Shamgar." Another nearer
says. 81 see six hundred Philistines.
My nearer, you have missed the chief
parsonage on that battlefield of
plowed ground. / also see Shamgar
and six hundred Philistines, but more
than all, and mightier than all, and
more overwhelming than all, / see
| God. Shamgar with his unaided arm,
however muscular, and with that hum
BILE instrument made for agricultural
purposes, and never constructed for
combat, could not have wrought such
victory. 1t was omnipotence above,
and beneath, and back of, and at the
point of the ox-goad. Before that bat
tie was over, the plowman realized
this, and all the six hundred Philis-
tines realized it, and all who visited
the battlefield afterward appreciated
it. l want in heaven to hear the story,
for 1t can never be fully told on earth
perhaps some day may be set apart
for the rehearsal, while all heaven lis
tens-the story of how God blessed
awkward and humble instrument
ta1ities. Many an evangelist has come
into town given up to worldliness.
The pastors say to the evangelist: 1--WE
are glad you have come, but it is hard
field, and we feel sorry for you. The
members of our churches play pro-
gressive euchre, and go the theater
and bet at the horse races, and gayety
and fashion have taken possession of
the town. We have advertised your
meetings, but are not very hopeful
God bless you" This evangelist takes
his place on platform or pulpit. He
never graduated at college, and there
are before him twenty graduates of
the best universities. lie never
took one lesson in elocution, and there
are before him twenty trained ora
tors. Many of the ladies present are
graduates of the highest female semi
naries, and one slip in grammar or
one INSTRUMENTATION, will result in
suppressed giggle. And the general
chill that pervades the house, the un-
pretending evangelist opens his Bible
and takes for his text: Lord, that
my eyes may be opened" Opera
glasses in the gallery curious1y scru-
tinizing the speaker He tells in
plain way the story of the blind
man, tells two or three touch
ing anecdotes, and the general
chill gives way before the strange
warmth. A classical nearer who took
the first honor at Yale. and who is the
prince OF proprieties, finds his specta-
cles becoming dim with a moisture
suggestive of tears. A worldly mother
who has been bringing up her sons
and daughters in utter godlessness
puts her handkerchief to her eyes and
begins to weep. Highly-educated men
who came to -criticise and pick to
pieces, and find fault, bow on their
gold-headed canes. What is that
sound from under the gallery? 1t is
a sob, and sobs are catching; and
all along the wall, and all up
and down the audience, there is
deep emotion, so that when at the
close of the service anxious souls are
invited to special seats, or the inquiry
room, they come up by scores, and
kneel and repent, and rise up par
doned; the whole town is shaken, and
places of evil amusement are sparsely
attended, and rum holes lose their |
patrons, and the churches are
thronged, and the whole community |
is cleansed, and elevated and rejoiced. |
What power did the evangelist bring |
to bear to capture that town for right |
eousness? Not one brilliant epigram |
did he utter. Not one graceful gesture |
did he make. Not one rhetorical cli- |
max did he pile up. But there was |
something about him that people had |
not taken in the estimate when |
they prophesied the failure. of that |
work. They had not taken into the |
calculation the omnipotence of the |
Holy Ghost. 1t was not the flash of a |
Damascus blade. 1t was God before, |
and behind, and all around the OK
goad. When the people say that crime |
will triumph, and the world will |
never become converted because of the |
seeming insufficiency of the means en-
ployed, they count the six hundred /
armed Philistines on one side, and |
Shamgar, the farmer, awkwardly |
equipped, on the other side; not real. |
lzing that the chariots of Goa |
are twenty thousand strong, and that |
all Heaven, cherubic, seraphic, archan-
gelic, deifc, is on what otherwise /
would be the. weak side. Napoleon, ]
the author of the saying God is on
the side of the heaviest artillery"
lived to find out his mistake; for at /
Waterloo, the one hundred and sixty
guns of the English overcame the two
hundred and fifty guns of the French
God is on the side of the right, and /
one man in the right will eventually /
be found stronger than six hundred |
men in the wrong. In all estimates of /
any kind of Christian work, do not /
make the mistake every day made of |
leaving the Head of the universe.
Again, my subject springs upon us
the thought that in Gods service it is
hest To use yeapons that are roarticu