The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-08-02
The God who opens the Bible with the

TO the remarkable women of the Bible
remarkable for their virtue or theil
want of it, or remarkable for theil
deeds-Deborah and Jezebel, anC
Herodias and Athasiah, and Dorcas
and the Marys, excellent or aban
doned-it is high time that some Of
the attention we have been giving tC
these conspicuous women of the Bible
be given to Julia of the text, an ordi
nary woman amid ordinary circum
stances, attending to ordinary duties
and meeting ordinary responsibilities
Then there are all the ordinary bust
ness men. They need divine and Chris
tian help. When we begin to talk
about business life we shoot right of
and talk about men who did business
on large scale, and who sold millions
of dollars of goods year; but the vast
majority of business men do not sell a
million dollars of goods, nor half a
million, nor quarter of million, nor
the eighth part of million. Put all
the business men of our cities, towns,
villages and neighborhoods side by
side and you will find that they sell
less than fifty thousand dollars
of goods. All these men in or
binary business life want di-
vine help. You see how the
wrinkles are printing on the counte-
nance the story of worriment and
care. You can not tell how old a bust
ness man is by looking at him. Gray
hairs at thirty. A man at fortyfve
with the stoop of nonogenarian. No
time to attend to improved dentistry,
the grinders cease because they are
few. Actually dying of old age at
forty or fifty, when they ought to be
at the meridian. Many of these busi-
ness men have bodies like a neglected
clock, to which you come, and you
wind it up, and it begins to buzz and
roar, and the the hands start around
very rapidly, and then the clock strikes
five, or ten, or forty, and strikes
without any sense and then sud
denly stops. So is the body
of that worn-out business man. 1t is
neglected clock, and though by some
summer recreation it may be wound
mp, still the machinery is all out of
gear. The hands turn around with a
velocity that eXcites the astonish-
ment.of the world. Men can not un-
derstand the wonderful activity, and
there is a roar, and a buzz, and rat
tie about these disordered lives, and
they strike ten when they ought to
strike five, and they strike twelve
when they ought to strike six,
and they strike forty when
they ought to strike nothing, and sud-
denly they stop. Post-mortem exami-
nations reveals the fact that all the
springs, and pivots, and weights, and
balance wheels of health are complete.
ly deranged. The human clock has
simply run down. And at the time
when the steady hand ought to be
pointing to the Industrious hours on
clear and sunlit dial. the whole ma
of body, mind and earthly
stops forever. The ceme-
teries have thousands of business men
who died of old age at thirty, thirty
five, forty, forty-ive.
Then there are all the ordinary
farmers. We talk about agricultural
life, and we Immediately shoot off to
talk about Cincinnatus, the patrician,
who went from plOw to high posi-
tion, and after he got through the
in twenty-one days he
went back again to the plow. What
is that to the ordinary
farmers? The vast majority of them
none of them will be patricians. Per-
haps none of them will be senators. If
any of them have relationships it will
be over forty, or fifty. or a hundred
acres of the old homestead. What
those men want is grace to keep their
patience while blowing with balky
oxen, and to keep cheerful amid the
drought that destroys the corn crop,
and that enables them to restore the
garden the day after the neighbor's
cattle have broken in and trampled
out the strawberry bed, and eaten up
the sweet corn in such large quantities
that they must be kept from the water
lest they swell up and die. Grace in
weather that enables them,
without imprecation, to spread out
The hay the third time, although
again and again and again it has
been almost ready for the NOW. A
grace to doctor the COW with a hollow
horn, and the sheep with the foot
-ot, and the horse with the distemper,
and to compel the unwilling acres to
yield a livelihood for the family, and
for the children, and little
extras to help the older boy in bust
ness, and something for the daughters
outfit. and little surplus for
he time when the ankles will get stiff
with age, and the breath will be a lit
lie short, and the swinging of the
cradle through the hot harvest field
viii bring on the old mans vertigo.
Better close up about Cincinnatus.
know five hundred farmers just as
noble as he was.
What they want is to know that
hey have the friendship of that Christ
who often drew His similes from the
armer's life, as when lie said: "a
'ower went forth to sow;" as when He
0uilt His best parable out of the scene
If farmers boy coming back from
his wanderings, and the old farm
lOuse shook that night with rural ju-
1ilee; and who compared Himself to
amb in the pasture field, and who
aid the eternal God is a farmer, de-
,laring, My father is the husband
man."
Those .stonemasons do not want to
near about Christopher Wren. the
who built St. Pauls cathe-
lral. 1t would be better to tell them
low to carry the hod of brick up the
adder without slipping. and how on
old morning with the trowel to
smooth off the mortar and keep
and how TO be thankful
% God for the plain food taken
rom the pail by the roadside. Car
'enters standing amid the adze,
md the bit, and the broad ak, need |