The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-07-19

phdC1Cs uuuiSbdkdDl6 protest 1HtSe
are the influences that drown men in
destruction and perdition.
Again, a great many of our business
men are tempted to overanxiety and
care. You know that nearly all com
mercial businesses are overdone in this
| day. Smitten with the love of quick
gain, our cities are crowded with men
resolved to be rich at all hazards.
They do not care how money comes, il
1t only comes. Our best merchants
are thrown into competition with men
of more means and less conscience,
and ifan opportunity of accumulation
be neglected one hour, some one else
picks it up. From January to Decem-
Der the struggle goes on. Night gives
no quiet to limbs tossing in rest
lessneSs, nor to a brain that will
not stop thinking. The dreams are
| narrowed by imaginary loss, and
| flushed with imaginary gains. Even
the Sabbath can not dam back the
tide of anxiety, for this wave of world
illness dashes clear over the churches,
and leaves its foam on Bibles and
prayer books. Men who are living on
soil can not understand the wear and
tear of the body and mind to which
our merchants are subjected, when
they do not know but that their liveli-
hood and their business honor are de-
pendent upon the uncer tainties of the
next hour. This excitement of the
brain, this corroding care of the heart,
this strain of effort that exhausts the
spirit, sends great many of our best
men, in middle life, into the grave.
Their life dashed out against money
safes. They go with their store on
their backs. They trudge like camels,
sweating, from Aleppo to Damascus.
They make their life a crucifxiOn.
Standing behind desks and counters,
banished from the fresh air, weighed
down by carkiug cares, they are SO
many suicides. Oh! / wish I could,
to-day. rub out Some of these lines of
care; that l could lift some of the bur-
dens from the heart; that | could give
relaxat to some of these worn mus
cles. 1t is time for you to begin to
take it a little easier. Do your
best, and then trust God for the rest.
Do rot fret. God manages all the
affairs of your life, and he manages
them for the best. Consider the lilies
they always have robes. Behold the
fowls of the air-they always have
nests. Take a long breath. Bethink,
betines, that God did not make you
for pack-horse. Dig yourselves out
from among the hogsheads and the
shelves. and in the light of the holy
Sabbath day resolve thatyou will give
to the winds your fears, and your fret
fulness, and your distresses. You
brought nothing into the world, and
it Is very certain you can
carry nothing out. Having food and
raiment, be Herewith content The
merchant came home from the store.
There had been great disaster there.
He opened the front door and said, in
the midst of his family circle: Il am
ruined Everything is gone. 1 am all
ruined" His wife said: II am left;"
and the little child threw up its hands
and said: Papa, am here" The
aged grandmother, seated in the room,
said: THAN you have all the promises
of Gcd besides, John" And he burst
into tears, and said: 'FGod forgive me,
that have been so ungratefuI. find
[ have great many things left. God
forgive me-"
Again l remark that many of our
business men are tempted to neglect
their home duties. How often it is
that the store and the home seem to
clash; but there ought to be no COLI
sion. 1t is often that the father is the
mere treasurer of the family, sort of
agent to see that they have dry goods
and groceries. The work Of family
he does not touch. Once
or twice year he calls the children up
on Sabbath afternoon, when he has
half hour he does not exactly know
what to do with, and in that half hour
he disciplines the children and chides
them and corrects their faults, and
gives them great deal of good advice,
and then wonders all the rest of the
year that his children do not do bet
ter, when they have the wonderful
adva ntage of that semi-annuGl castiga-
tion.
The family table, which ought to be
the place for pleasant discussion and
often becomes the place
of perilous expedition. If there be
any blessing asked at all, it is cut off
at both ends, and with the hand on
the carving-knife. He counts on his
fingers, making estimates in the in
terstices of the repast The work done,
the hat goes to the head, and he starts
down the street, and before the family
have arisen from the table he has
bound up another bundle of goods. |
and says to the customer. "Any- |
to-day, sir?" A man has more
than those which are
by putting competent in
structors over his children, and giving |
them drawing master and music
teacher. The physical culture of the |
child will not be attended to unless
the father looks to it. He must some
times lose his dignity. lie must un-
timber his joints. He must lead them |
out to their sports and games. The |
parent who can not forget the /
severe duties of life sometimes, |
TO fly the kite and trundle the /
hoop, and chase the ball and jump |
the rope with his children, ought |
never to have been tempted out of |
srusty and unredeemable solitariness. |
If you want to keep your children |
away from places of sin you can only |
10 it by making your home attractive. |
You may preach sermons, and advo- |
;ate reforms. and denounce wicked |
ness. and yet your children will be
by the glitteriDg saloon of
sin unless you can make your home a /
brighter place than any other place on /
sarth 10 them. Oh! gather AL |