The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-10-11

vic bhthC II Ell h%CS Oh bDE GHElAbthh
church; few men have to do the hard
fighting. Take a membership of &
thousand, and you generally find thai
fifty people do the work. Take a mem
bership Of fve hundred, and you gen
orally find that ten people do the
work. There are scores of churches
where two or three people dc The
I work.
we Mourn that there is so much use
less lumber in the mountains of Leb
anon. ] think, of the ten WillioH
membership of the Christian church
to-day, - ave millions of the names
be stronger. You know that the more
towards and drones there are in any
army the weaker it is. Iwould rather
have the three hundred picked men OF
Gideon than the thirty.two thousand
unsifted host. How many Christians arr
standing in the way 5f ali progress
think il IS the duty Of the church oi
God to ride over them, and the quicket
1t does it, the quicker IL does its duty
Do not Worry. oh Christian; II got
have to do more than your share OF
LnC WOTh# gu lld0 OCLICE wv
that He has called you to be one of the
picked men, rather than to belong to
the host of stragglers. Would not you
rather be one of the three hundred
that fight than the twenty-five thou
sand that run2 suppose those cow
ard1y Gideonites who went off cena
graduated themselves. They said,
"We got rid OF all that fighting, did not
we? How lucky we have been; that
battle costs us nothing at ALL" But
they got none of the spoils of the
victory. After the battle the 800 men
went down and took the wealth of the
Midianites, and out of the cups and
platters of their enemies they Toasted.
And the time will come, my dear
brethren, when the hosts OF darkness
will be routed, and Christ will say to
His troops. ''Well done, my brave
men, go up and take the spoilsl Be
more than conquerors forever!" and in
that dav all deserters will be shotl
Again, learn from this subject that
Gods way Is different from mans. but
is always the best way. II we had the
planning OF that battle; we would
have taken those thirty-two thousand
men that originally belonged to the
army, and we would have drilled
them, and marched them up and
down by the day and week, and
month, and we would have had
them equipped with swords or spears,
according to the way of arming in
those times; and then we would have
marched them down in solid column
upon the foe. But that il not the
way. God depletes the army. and takes
away all their weapons, and gives
them lamp, and pitcher, and a trum-
pet, and tells them to go down and
drive out the Midianites. l suppose
some wiseacres were there who said:
THAT is not military tactics. The
idea of three hundred men, unarmed,
conquering such great host of Mid.
ianites" 1t was the best way. What
sword, spear or cannon ever accom-
plishsd such victory as the lamp,
pitcher and trumpet?
Gods way is different from mans
way, but it is always best! Take, for
instance, the composition of the Bible.
Ii we had had the writing of the Bible
we would have said: Let one man
write it. If you have twenty or thir-
ty men to write a poem or make a
statue or write a history, or make
an argument, there will be flaws
and contradictions" But God SAYS:
Let not one man do it, but
forty men shall do IT. And they
did, differing enough to show there
had been no collision between them,
but not contradicting each other on
any important point, while they all
wrote from their own standpoint and
temperament; so that the matter-of-
fact man has his Moses; the ro-
mantle nature his Ezekiel; the
epigrammatic nature his Solomon;
the warrior his Joshua; the sailor
his Jonah; the loving the John;
the logician his Paul. Instead of this
Bible, which now can lift in my hand
instead of the Bible the child
can carry to Sunday schoo1-instead
of the little Bible the sailor can put in
his jacket when he goes to sea-if it had
been left to men to write, it would
have been a thousand volumes, judg-
ing from the amount of ecclesiastical
controversy which has arisen. Gods
way is different from mans, but it is
best. infinitely best
So it is in regard to the Christian
life. If we had had the planning of
Christians life we would have said:
LET him have eighty years of sun
shine, fine house to live in; let his
surroundings all be agreeable: let him
have sound health; let no chill shiver
through his limbs, no pain ache his
brow, or trouble shadow his soul"
enjoy the prosperity of others so
much. / would let every man
have as much money as he
wants, and roses for his children's
cheeks, and fountains of gladness
glancing in their large round eyes.
But that is not Gods way. 1t seems
as If man must be cut, and hit, and
pounded just in proportion as he is
useful His child falls from third
story window, and has its life dashed
out; his most confident investment
tumbles him into bankruptcy; his
friends, on whom he depended, aid the
natural force of gravitation in taking
him down; his life is Bull Run de-
feat. Instead of thirty-two thousand
advantages, he has only ten thousand
aye, only three hundred-aye, none at
all. How many good people there are
at their wits end about their liveli-
hood, about their reputation. But
they will find out it is the best way
after awhile; God will show him that
He depletes their advantages just for
the same reason He depleted the army
OF Gideon-that they may be induced