The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-09-27

ana the WrCtchEd, and the out
cast TO come and sit beside him7
Oh. wonderful invitationl You can
take II to-day. and stand at the head
Of the darkest alley In all this city,
and say: Comet Clothes for your
rags, salve Ter your sores, a throne for
your eternal reigning." A Christ that
talks like that, and acts like that. and
pardons like that-dU you wonder
that Stephen stood looking at Him9
I hope 10 spend eternity doirg thu
same thing. 1 must see Him; / must
my sin, but how radiant with my par
don. ] want 10 hear the voice that
pronounced my deliverance. Behold
Him, little children, for IL you live to
three-score years and ten. toii will see
none SO fair. Behold Him, We aged
ones, for He only can shine through
the dimness-of your failing eyesight.
Behold Him, earth. Behold Him.
Heaven. What a moment when all
the nations of the saved shall gather
around Christi All faces that way. ALI
thrones that way, gazing on Jesus
His worth II AL the nations knew
Sure the whole earth w ould love Him. too.
pass ON now, and look at Stephen
stoned. The world has always wanted
to get rid of good men. Their very life
Is an assault upon wickedness. Out
with Stephen through the gates of the
city. Down with him over the preci-
pices. Let every man come up and
drop s.one upon his head. But these
men did not so much kill Stephen as
they killed themselves. Every stone
rebounded upon them. While these
nurderers were transfxed by the scorn
of all good men, Stephen lives in the
admiration Of all christendom. Ste
phen stoned, but Stephen alive. So all
good men must be pelted. 'All who
win live godIy in Christ Jesus must
suffer persecution" 1t Is no eulogy of
a man to say that everybody likes him.
Show me any one who is doing all his
show you scores of men who utterly
abhor him.
If all the men speak we'll of you it is
because you are either laggard or a
dolt. If steamer makes rapid prog
ress through the waves, the water will
boil and foam all around IL. Brave
soldiers of Jesus Christ will hear the
carbines click. When see man with
voice, and money, and influence all on
the right side, and some caricature
him, and some sneer at him, and some
denounce him. and men who pretend
to be actuated by right motives con-
spire to cripple him, to cast him out,
to destroy him, say: stephen
stoned"
When see q man in some great
moral or religious reform battling
against grogshops, exposing wicked
ness in high places, by active means
trying to purify the church and better
the worlds estate, and / q nd that the
anathematize him, and
men. even good men, oppose him and
denounce him, because, though lie
does good, he does not do it in their
way, | say: stephen stoned" But
you, notice. my friends, that while
they assaulted Stephen they did not
succeed really in killing him. You
may assault good man, but you can
not kill him. On the day of his
people in the Sanhedrim; this Sab
bath morning he addresses all Chris
tendon. Paul the apostle stood
on Mars hill addressing a hand
full of philosophers who knew not so
much about science as modern school
girl. To-day he talks to all the mill
lions OF Chrlstendom about the won
ders of justification and the glories of
John Wesley was howled
down by the mob to whom he preached,
and they threw bricks at him, and they
denounced him, and they spat upon
him, and yet to-day, in all lands, he Is
admitted TO be the great father of
Methodism. Booths bullet vacated the
presidential chair; but from that spot
of coagulated blood on the floor in the
box of Ford's theater there sprang up
the new life OF nation. Stephen
stoned, but Stephen alive.
Will the soul have to travel through
long deserts before it reaches the good
land? III we should lose our pathway,
will there be a castle at whose gate we
may ask the way to the city? Oh, this
mysterious spirit within us! 1t has
two wings, but it is in a cage now. It
IS locked fast to keep it; but let the
door Of the cage open the least and
that soul Is off. Eagles wing could
not catch it. The lightnings are not
swift enough to come up with it.
When the soul leaves the body it takes
fifty worlds at bound. And have no
anxiety about 1t? Have you no anxiety
about 1T?
Pass on now, and see Stephen in his
dying prayer His first thought was
not how the stones hurt his head, nor
what would become of his body. Ills
frststhought was about his spirit
Lord Jesus receive my spirit" The
murderer standing on the trap door,
the black cap being drawn over his
head before the execution, may grim
ace about the future, but you and
have no shame in confessing some
anxiety about where we are going to
come out You are not all body.
There is within you a soul. see it
CLEAN from your eyes to-day, and
1 see it irradlating your counte-
nance. Sometimes / am abashed
before an audience, not because / come
under your physical eyesight. but be-
cause realize the truth that 1 stand
before so many immortal spirits. The
is that your body will at
least find sepulcher in some of the
that surround this city.
There is no doubt but that your obse-
quies will be decent and respectful,
and you will be able to pillow your
head under the maple, or the Norway
spruce. or the cypress, or the blossom
ing FIR; but this spirit about which
Stephen prayed, wlrat direction will