The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-08-16

tain: What meaneth thou. o sleep
er? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be
that God will think upon us, that we
perish not" III you have a God, you
had better call upon Him. Do you say:
Il have no God?" Then you had bet
ter call upon your fathers God. When
your father was in trouble, who did he
fly to? You heard him, in his old days.
tell about SOME terrible exposure in a
snow STORM, or at sea, OF in battle, or
among midnight garroters, and how he
escaped. Perhaps twenty years before
you were born, your father made sweet
acquaintance with God. There is
something In the worn pages of the
Bible he used to read which makes
you think your father had God. In
the old religious books lying around
the house there are passages marked
with lead pencil-passagesthat make
you think your father was not god
less man, but that, on that dark day
when he lay in the back room dying.
he was ready-all ready. But per-
hapS your father was a bad man
prayerless. and blaspheiner, and you
never think of him without shudder.
He worshiped the world or his own APP
petites. Do not, then, beg of you,
call upon your fathers God, but call
on your mothers God. 1 think she
was good. You remember when your
father came home drunk on cold
night, how patient your mother was.
You often heard her pray. She used
to sit by the hour meditating, as
though she were thinking of some
good, warm place where it never
gets cold, and where the bread does
not fail, and staggering steps never
come. You remember her now, as she
sat, in cap and spectacles, reading her
Bible Sunday afternoons. What good
advice she used to give you! How
black and terrible the hole in the
ground looked to you when. with two
ropes they let her down to rest in the
graveyard. All! 1 think from your
looks that | am on tie right track.
Awake, o sleeper, and call upon thy
mothers God.
But perhaps both your father and
mother were depraved. Perhaps your
cradle was rocked by sin and shame,
and it is a wonder that from such a
starting Won have come to respectable
ity. Then don't call upon the God of
either of your parents, beg of you.
But you have children. You know
God kindled those bright eyes, and
rounded those healthy limbs, and
set beating within their breast an
Immortality. Perhaps in the belief
that somehow it would be for the best,
l. !
ing prayer, and when they kneel be-
side you and fold their little hands,
and look up, their faces all innocence
and love, you know that there is God
somewhere about in the room.
think I am on the right track at
last. Awake, o sleeper, and call upon
the God of thy children. May He set
these little ones to pulling at thy
heart until they charm thee to the
same God to whom tonight they will
say their little prayers!
But, alas! alas! some of these men
and women are unmoved by the fact
that their father had God, and that
their mother had God, and their chill
dren have a God, but they have no
God. All pious example to them for
nothing. All warming for nothing
They are sound asleep in the side of
the ship, though the sea and sky are
in mad wrestle.
Many years ago a man, leaving his
family in Massachusetts,, sailed from
Boston to China, to trade there. On
the coast of China, in the midst of
night of storm, he made shipwFecl1.
The adventurer was washed up on the
beach senseless-all his money gone.
He had to beg in the streets of Canton
to keep from starving. For two years
there was no communication between
himself and family. They supposed
him dead. He knew not but that
his family were dead He had
gone out as a captain. He was too
proud to come back as private sailor.
But after awhile he chol1ed down his
pride and sailed for Boston Arriving
there, lie took an evening train for the
center of the state, where he had left
his family. Taking the stage at the
depot, and riding score of
miles, he got home. He says
that, going mp in front of the cottage
in the bright moonlight, the place
looked like Heaven. He raped on
the window, and the affrighted servant
let him in. He went to the room
where his wife and child were sleep.
ing. He did not dare to wake them
up for fear of the shock. Bending
over to kiss his child's cheek, a tear
fell upon the wife's face, and she
awakened, and he said, MARY" and
she knew his voice, and there was an
indescribable scene of welcome and
Joy, and thanksgiving to God.
To day know that many of you are
sea-tossed, and driven by sin in
worse storm than that which came
down on the coast of China, and yet
pray God that you may, like the sailor,
live to get home. In the house of many
mansions your friends are waiting to
meetyou. They are wondering why you
do not come. Escaped from the strip
wrecks of earth, may you at last go
in! 1t will be a bright night-a
very bright night as you put our
thumb on the latch of that door Once
in, you will find the old family faces
sweeter than when you last saw themp
and there it will be fond that He WHO
was your fathers God and your moth
er's cod, and your children's God, is
your own most blessed Redeemer, to
whom be glory and dominion through
out all ages, world without end. Amen.
What Men Admire in Their Wives.
Men admire in their wives the vir,
tue of sympa thy, which means heart