The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-05-31

Tor the YOUNGSTOWN sufferers from the
flood. few days after Seattle was
destroyed by fire. / saw it while the
whole city were living in tents. In
public meeting some one proposed that
i the money raised for Johnstown be
used for the relief of their own city,
and the cry was No! Mol MOI Send the
money to Johnstown, and by acclama-
\ ton the money was SO sent. Nothing
more beautiful or sublime than that.
Under the wing of fire that smote Seat
| tie the sympathetic hand, the helping
hand, the mighty hand of Christian
relief for people thousands of miles
away. Why, there are a hundred
thousand men and women whose
one business is to help others.
Helping hands, inspiring hands, lifting
hands, emancipating bands, saving
hands. Sure enough, these people had
wings of consolation, but the likeness
of the hands of a man was under the
wings" There was much sense in that
which the robust boatman said when
three were in boat off the coast in
sudden storm that threatened to sink
the boat, and one suggested that they
all kneel down in the boat aud pray,
and the robust man took hold
of the oar and began to pull,
saying: Let you, the strong, stout
fellow, lay hold the other oar, and let
the weak one who can not pull give
himself up to prayer" Pray by all
means; but at the same time pull with
all your might for the worlds rescue.
An arctic traveller hunting beaver
while the ice was breaking up, and
supposipg that there was no human
being within hundred miles, heard
the ice cracl1le, and 10! a lost
man, insane with hunger and
cold, was wading in the ice
water. The explorer took the man in
to his canoe and made for land, and
the people gathered on the shore. All
the islanders had been looking for the
lost man, and finding him according to
Encouragement all the bells rang, and
all the guns fired. Oh, you can make
gladder time among the towers and
hill-tops of Heaven if you can fetch
home a wanderer.
There is is also in my subject the
suggestion of rewarded work for God
and righteousness When the wing
went the hand went. When the wing
every useful and Christian hand there
will be an elevation celestial and eter-
nal Expect no human gratitude for
it will not come. That was a wise
thing Fenelon wrote to his friend:
Il am very glad, my dear,
good fellow, that you are pleased
with one of my letters which
has been shown to you. You are right
in saying and believing that l ask lit
tie of men in general. l try to do
much for them and to expect nothing
in return l find decided advantage
in these terms. On these terms defy
them to disappoint me-" But, my hear
els, the day cometh when your work,
which perhaps no one has noticed,
or rewarded, or honored, will
rise to heavenly recognition.
While have been telling
you that the hand was under the wing
of the cherubim, | want you to realize
that the wing was over the hand. Per-
haps reward may not come to you
right away. Washington lost more
battles than he won, but he triumphed
to the last. Walter Scott, in bOyhood,
was called 1.-The Greek Blockhead;"
afterward tread? And l promise |
you victory further on and higher
mn: if not in this world, |
then in the next. Oh, the heav-
emily day when your lifted hand shall |
be gloved with what honors, its fingers
enringed with what jewels, its wrist |
clasped with what splendors! Come |
up and take it, you Christian women,
who served at the washtub. Come up |
and take it, you Christian shoemaker, |
who pounded the shoe last. Coue up |
and take it, you professional nurse, |
whose compensation never paid toy bro
ken nights and the whimS and struggles |
of delirious sick rooms. Come up and |
take it, you firemen, besweated, Tar
down amid the greasy machinery OF
ocean steamers, and We conductors and |
engineers on railroads, that knew no |
Sunday, and whose ringing bells and |
loud whistles never warned off your
own anXieties. Come up and take it,
you mothers, who rocked and lullabied |
the family brood until they took wing |
for other nests, and never appreciated
what you had done and suffered for |
them. Your hand was well favored
when you were young, and it was
beautiful hand, SO we'll rounded, SO
graceful that many admired and eulO.
gized it; but hard work calloused it,
and twisted it, and self-scrifcing toll
for others paled it, and many house
hold griefs thinned it, and the ring
which went on only with a push at
the marriage altar, now is too large,
and falls off, and again and again you
have lost it. Poor hand! Weary handl
Worn-out hand! But God will recon-
struct it, reanimate it, readorn it, and
all Heaven will know the story of
that hand. What fallen ones it lifted
up! What tears it wiped away! What
wounds it bandaged! What light
houses it kindledl What storm tossed
ships it brought into the pearl-beached
harbor! Oh, l am so glad that in the
vision of my text Ezekiel saw the wing
above the hand. Roll, on that everlast-
ing rest for all the toiling, and misun-
derstood, and suffering and weary
children of God, and know right
we'll that to join your hand. a. last
emancipated from the struggle, will
be the soft hand, the gentle hand, the
triumphant hand of Him who wipeth
awav all tears from all faces. That
will be the palace of the King of which
the poet sang in somewhat Scotch dia
lect:
It's bonnie, bonnie warl' that we're Twin in
the moo