The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-05-03


up. Thus the last vestige OF hope IL
taken from them. 1'ses tsose who
ought te 60 Ind lift and save them,
are guilty Of stripping the slain.
The point want to make is this; Sin
Is hard, cruel and relentless. Instead
of helping mar ~, II helps him
down; and wren. like Saul and his
eornrades, you lie on the field, it will
come and steal your sword and helmet
and shield. leaving you TO the jaclSal
ana the crow.
But the world and Satan do not do
all their work with the 6utcast ard
abandoned. A respectable ifnpenitent
man comes Ia de. He is fat on his
back, He could not get up il the house
was on fire. Adroitest medical skill
and gentlest nursing have been a fall
ure. He has come TO his last hbttF.
What does Satan do for eGch man?
Why he fst6has up all the inapt, disa-
Ereeable and narrowing things in his
life. He says: "Do you remember
those chances you had for Heaven, and
missed themP De you refisHbeF all
those lapses IN GobdGct? Do you re-
ttaethteF oil those opprobrious words
and thoughts and actions? Don't re-
member them. Ell? I'll make you re-
member them" And then he takes all
the past and empties It on that DEATH
bed, as the mail bags are 5fnptied on
the post-oHaSe ho6r. The man is sick.
He can not get away from them.
Then the man says to Satan: You
have deceived me. You told me That
all would. be we'll You said thafe
would be no troll bic al the hast YOU
told he il L did so and so, you would
do 50 and so. Now you corner nos, .nd
hedge NE up ana sttbmerge me in
everything evil" "Ha! ha!" says
satan, Il was only tooling, You - is
mirth for me to see y-:2 suffer. ! have
been. for thirty years plotting to get
ycG just where you are. 1t is hard for
you now, it will be worse for you after
awhile. 1t pleases nae. lie still, sir.
Don't eiheh or shuddef. Come, noH;
will tear off from you the last fag of
expectation. I will rend away from
your soul The last hope. 1 will leave
you bare for the beating of the storm.
1t is my business to strip the slain,
He jumps at the fall Of d teaspoon i'll
saucer, lie shivefs at the idea of &C.
ing away. lie saws: ''tVifS, / don't
think my ihfdeNSy is going to take
me thSongh. For Gods sake, don't
bring up the children to do as / have
done. If you feel like it, l wish YOU
would read a verse or two out 81 fan
MES SabbatA-school hymh-BoaK, Or
New TESTAMENT" hut Satan breaks in
and saSas lyon have always thought
religion trash and lie; don't give up
at the last. Besides that, you can net,
in the hour you have to live, get of Oh
my great black wings / shut ont that
light bic III darkness. rend awat
from you that last testige o. nope Il
is my busihsse 70 strip the slain"
a man who had rejected Christianity
and thought it all trash, came to die,
He was in the sweat of great agony,
and his wife said: "We had better
have sotAe prayer" "Mary, not
breath 6f that" he said. The lightest
word of prayer would roll back on me
like rocks on a drowning man. l have
come to the hour of test / had
chance, but forfeited it. l believed
iurch. Mary, bring me Tom Paine,
that book that l swore by and lived by,
and pitch it into the fire, and let it
burn and burn ss [ myself shall s6oh
burn" And then, with thefoain on his
lips and his hands tossing wildly in
the air, he cried out: "Blackness of
darkness! Oh, my God, too later And
the spirits of darkness whistled up from
the depth, and wheeled around and
around him, stripping the slain.
Sin is luxury nowi it il exhi1afation
now; 1t is victory now. But after
awhile 1t IS collision; it is defeat; it is
determination; it is jackalism; it is
robbing the dead; it is stripping the
slain. Give it up to-day-give it up!
Oh, how you have been cheated on, my
brother, from one thing to another!
All these years you have been under
an evil mastery that you understood
not. What have your companions
done for your health? Nearly ruined
it by carOusal. What have they done
for your fortune9 Almost scattered it
by spendthrift behavior. What have
they done for your reputation? AL
most ruined it with good men. What
have they done for your immortal soul2
Almost insured its overthrow.
While men are in robust health, and
their digestion is good, and their
nerves are strong, they think their
physical strength will get them safely
through the last exigency. They say
it is only cowardly women who are
afraid at the last, and cry out for God.
wait till come to die. / will show
you. You won't hear me pray, nor call
for minister, nor want chapter read
me from the Bible" But after the
man has been three weeks in sick
room his nerves are not SO steady, and
his worldly companions are not any
where near to cheer him up, and he is
persuaded that he must quit life; his
physical courage is all gone.
You are fastening on toward the
contamination of all that is sad. To-
day you stop and think, but it is only
for a moment, and then you will tramp
on, and at the close of this service you
will go out, and the question will be:
How did you like the sermon?" And
one man will say: II liked it very
we'll" and another man will say: 81
didn't like it at all;'' but neither of
the answers will touch the tremendous
fact, that if impenitent, you are go
ing at thirty knots an hour toward
shipwreckl Yea, you are in a battle
where you will fall; and while your
surviving relatives will take your re-
manning estate, and the cemetery will
l. -