The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-03-01


all means; but unless it be also Gospel
reform, it will be dead failure. In
New York its chief work has been to
give us a change of bosses. We had n
Democratic boss, and now it is to be q
Republican boss, but the quarrel rs,
who shall be the Republican? Politics
will have the cities the same day that
satan evangelizes perditiou. Here
comes another class of people who In
pulpit and outside of it cover up the
Gospel with the theory that 1t makes
no final difference what you believe,
or how you act-you are bound for
Heaven, anyhow. There they sit, side
by side, in Heaven; Garfield, and Gui-
teau, who shot him; Lincoln, and John
Wilkes Booth, who asSassins ted him;
Washington, and Thomas Paine, who
slandered him; Mana Sahib, and the
missionaries, whom he dubbed to
death at Cawnpore; Herod, and the
children whom he masSacred; Paul,
and Nero, who beheaded him. AS a
result of the promulgation of such a
mODgrel and cOnglOmerate doctrine
there are millions of people in Chris
tendon who expect to go straight to
Heaven from their seraglios, and their
inebriation, and their suicides, when
among the loudest thunders that
break over the bRsaltic island to which
st. John was expatriated, was the one
in which God announced that 1.-The
abominable, and the murderers, and
whoremongers, and sorcerers, and
idolaters, and all liars, shall have
their place in the lake which burneth
with fire and birthstone, which is the
second death" / correct what | said
when / declared the Gospel was buried
fifty feet deep; it is buried one thou
sand feet deep. Had the glorious Gospel
been given full opportunity, l think
before this the world would have
had no need of pulpit, or sermon, or
prayer, or church, but thanksgiving
and hosannahs would have resounded
in the temple to which the mountains
would have been pillars, and the blue
skies the dome, and the river the bap-
tistery, and all nations the worshipers
in the auditorium of the outspread
world. But so far from that, as 1 re-
marked in the opening sentence of this
sermon, the greatest novelty of our
time is the Gospel. And let me say
to the hundreds and thousands
of educated and splendid young
men about to enter the Gospel min
istry from the theological seminaries
of all denominations, on this and the
other side of the seas, that there is no
drawing power like the glorious Cos
pei. Him hath God lifted up to draw
all men unto Him." Get your souls
charged and surcharged with this Cos
pei, and you will have large audiences,
and will not have to announce in order
to assemble such audiences, Sunday
night sacred concert, with brief ad-
dress by the pastor; or the presence of
"Black Pattis," or Creole minstrels, or
some new exposure of Tammany, or
sermon accompanied by magic
lantern, or stereOpticon views.
The glorious Gospel of the blessed
God as spoken of in my text will have
more drawing power, and when the
Gospel gets full swing it will have
momentum and a power mightier than
that of the Atlantic Ocean, when under
the force of the September equinox it
strikes the Highlands of Navesink.
The meaning of the word Gospel" is
good news, and my text says it is glo-
rious good news, and we must tell it in
our churches and over our dry goods
counters, and in our factories, and
over our threshing machines, and
behind our plows. and on our
ship decks, and in our parlors, our
nurseries, and kitchens, as though it
were glorious good news, and not with
a dismal drawl in our voice, and dis
mai look on our faces as though re-
ligion were a rheumatic twinge, or a
dyspeptic pang, or malarial chill, or
an attack of nervous prostration.
With nine "blesseds" or 'happys,"
Christ began His sermon on the mount:
Blessed the poor; blessed the mourner;
blessed the meek; blessed the hungry;
blessed the merciful; blessed the pure;
blessed the peacemaker; blessed the
prosecuted; blessed the reviled; blessed,
blessed, blessed; happy, happy, hap
py. Glorious good news for the young,
as through Christ they have their com
ing years ennobled, and for lifetime
all the angels of God their coadjutors
and all the armies of Heaven their
allies. Glorious good news for the
as through Christ they may
have their perpleXities disentangled,
and their courage rallied, and their
victory over all obstacles and him
ORANGES made forever sure. Glorious
good news for the aged, as they may
have the sympathy of Him of whom
St. John wrote: "IIis head and his
hairs were white like wool, as white
as snow," and the defense of the ever
asting arms. Glorious good news for
the dying, as they may have minister
ing spirits to escort them, ard opening
gates to receive them, and a sweep of
eternal glories to encircIe them, and
the welcome of a loving God to en-
bos ON them.
Oh, my text is right when it speaks
of the glorious Gospel. 1t is an invita-
tiou from the most radiant being that
ever trod the earth, or ascended the
heavens, to you and me to come and be
made happy, and then take after that
a royal castle for everlasting residence,
the angels of God our cup bearers. The
price was paid for all of this on the
cliff of limestone about as high as this
house, about seven minutes walk from
the wall of Jerusalem. where with an
agony that with one hand tore down
the rocks, and with the other drew
a midnight blackness over the heav-
ems, our Lord set us forever free.
no apology for any one of the
millien sins of our life. but confessing
all of them. we can point to that cliff
Of limestone and say: There was
paid our inde ebtedness. and God never.