The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-09-13

direst guilt. Sweetest comfert
for ghastlIest agcns. bright
est hope for FFifHmest HeatAi
GtardssA resurrection for darkest
sepulcher Oh. what Gospel TO
preacht Cc..ss1rizr, the chisk fiis blka.,,
as Suffering, Ills miracles, Ibis para
Sies. His sweat, His tears, His blood,
His atonement, His intercession-what
glorious themes! Do we exercise
faith? Christ is its object. Do we
have love? 1t fastens on Jesus. Have
we fondness for the church, It Is
hops Of HsaHehs 1t is because jesus
weht there, the herald and the fore
runner. The royal robe OF Dehtettits
was so costly; so beautiful, That after
Ne had put it off no one ever dared to
put it on; but the robe of Christ,
richer than that, the poorest aid the
weakest and the worst may wear.
Where sin abounded, grace may much
more abound"
"Oh, my sins, my sinsi" said Martin
Luther to Staupitz, my sins, my sinsr
The fact is that the brawny German
| student had found Latin Bible that
made him qual1el and when he found
how through Christ, he was pafdoned
and saved, he wrote To field, shy
ing: Come over and join us great and
awful sinners saved by the grace of
God. You seem to be only a slender
sinner, and you don't much extol the
mercy of God; but we that have been
such very awful sinners praise His
grace the more now that you are so
desperately egostistical that you feel
yourself in trst-fate spiritual trim,
and that frohi the root Of
the half to the tip OF the. toe
you are scarless and immaculate?
What you need is loolxing-glass, and
here it is in the Bible. Poor and
wretched and miserable and blind and
naked from the crown of the head to
the sole of the foot. full of wounds
and purifying sores. No health in Us.
And then tsle the fact that Christ
gathered DIP all the notes against us
and paid them, and then offered us the
receipt! And how much we need Him
in our sorrows! We are independent
of circumstances if we have His
grace. Why, lie made Paul sing in the
dungeon, and under that grace st.
blast of the Apocaiyt tic trumpets. AT
ter all other candles have been snuffed
out, this is the light that gets brighter
and brighter Unto the perfect day; and
after; Under the hard hoofs of ca
lamity, all the pools OF worldly enjoy
ment have been trampled into deep
mire, at the foot of the eternal rock
the Christian, from cups of granite
lily-rimmed. puts out the thirst of his
soul.
Again 1 remark, that Christ is chief
in dying alleviations. / have not any
sympathy with the morbidity abroad
about our demise. The emperor of
Constanstinople arranged that on the
day of his coronation the stonemason
should come and consult him about
the tombstone that after awhile he
would need And there are men who
are monomaniacal on the subject of
departure from this life by death, and
the more they think of it the less they
are prepared to go. This is an un-
manliness not worthy of you, not
worthy of ME-
Saladin, the greatest conqueror of
his day, while dying, ordered that the
tunic he had on him be carried after
his death on his spear at the hea d of
his army, and that then the soldier,
ever and anon, should stop and say:
behold all that is left of Saladin, the
emperor and conquerorl Of all the
states he conquered, OF all the wealth
he accumulated, nothing did he retain
but this shroud." have no sympathy
with such behavior, or such absurd
demonstration, or with much that we
hear uttered in regard to departure
from this life to the next. There is
a commonsensical idea on this sub
ject that you need to consider
there are only two styles of de-.
parture A thousand feet under
ground, by light of torch, toiling in
miners shaft, ledge of rock may fall
upon us, and we may die miners
death. Far out at sea, falling from
the slippery ratlines and broken on
the halliards, we may die a sailors
death. On mission Of mercy in hos
pital, amid broken bones and reeking
leprosies and burning fevers, we may
die a philanthropist's death. On the
field of battle, serving God and our
country, slugs through the heart, the
gun cartridge may roll over us, and
we may die n patriots death. But,
after all, there are only two styles of
departure-the death of the righteous
and the death of the wiclked-and we
all want to die the former.
God grant that when that hour
comes You may be at home. You want
the hand of your kindred in your
hand. You want your children to sur
round you. You want the light on
your pillow from eyes that have long
reflected your love. You want your
room still. You do not want any curl
Gus strangers standing around watch
ing you. You want your kindred from
afar to hear your last prayer. think
that is the wish of all of us. But is
that all? Can earthly friends hold us
up when the pillows of death come
up to the girdle? Can human voice
charm open Heavens gate? Can
human hand pilot us through
the narrows of death into
AHeaven's harbor? Can any earthly
friendship shield us from the arrows
of death and in the hour when Satan
shall practice upon US his Internal
archery? No, no, no, no! Alas! poor
soul, il that is all. Better die in the
wilderness, far from tree shadow and
from fountain, alone, vultures circling
through the air waiting for our body,