The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-10-18
Is THINE HEART RIGHTP
Rev. DR.. Talmage Puts "a Point
Blank Question"
And Proceeds to Enumerate the nuaIIn
cations Necessary to m AfirmA-
tive Ahs~ef--Do You Lack
the One Thing


ton this week asks "A Point Blank
Question" which LIS found In the text.
Is thine heart right.-It Kings u. Is
With mettled horses at full speed,
for he was eelebrat ted for fast driving,
Jehu, the warrior and king. returns
from battle. But seeing jehonadab,
an acquaintance, by the wayside, be
shouts. whoa! whoai'' TO the lath-
cred span Then leaning over to Je-
honadab, Jehu salutes him in the
words of the text-words not More APP
propriate for that hour and that
place, than for this hour and place:
rs thine heart right?'
l should like TO hear ofyour physical
health. Well myself. like to have
every body else well; and so might ask,
IS your eyesight right your hearing
right, your nerves fight, your lungs
right, your entire body right? But l
am busy to-day taking diagnosis of
the more important spiritual condi-
tions. / should like to hear of your
financial welfare. want every
body to have plenty of money,
ample apparel, large storehouse, and
comfortable residences; and 1 might
ask. is your business right, your income
right. your worldly surroundings
right2 But what are these financial
questions compared with the inquiry
as 70 whether you have been able to
pay your debts to God; as to whether
you are insured for eternity; as to
whether you are running youself by
the long-credit system of the soul?
I1~ L -, |, 4 l.,
one loaf of bread at a time, and yet to
Own a government bond of Heaven
worth more than the whole material
universe.
The question / ask you to-day Is not
In regard to your habits. / make no
inquiry about your integrity, or your
chastity, or your sobriety. do not
mean to stand on the outside Of the
gate and ring the belly but coming up
the steps, open the door and come to
the private apartment of the soul; and
with the earnestness of a man that
must give an account for this days
work, cry out: Oh, man, Oh, woman
immortal, is thine heart right?
will not insult you 10y an Argyll
ment to prove that we are by nature
all wrong. If there be a factory ex-
plosion, and the smokestacl1 be upset
and the wheels be broken in two, and
the engine unjointed, and the ponder
Gus bars be twisted, and man should
look in and say nothing was the mat
ter, you would pronounce him a fool.
Well, it needs no acumen to discover
that our nature is all atwist and
askew and unjointed. The thing
doesn't work right. The biggest trou-
bic we have In the world is with our
souls. Men sometimes say that, though
their lives may not be just right,
their heart is all right. Impossible.
A farmer never puts the poorest apples
on top of the barrel; nor does the mer-
chant place the meanest goods in his
show window. The best part of us is
outward life. / do not stop to discuss
whether we all fell in Adam, for we
have been our own Adam, and have all
eaten of the forbidden fruit, and have
been turned out of the paradise of
holiness and peace; and though the
flaming sword that stood at the gate
to keep us out has changed position and
comes behind to drive us in, we will
not go.
The Bible account of us is not exag-
gerated when it says that we are poor,
and wretched, and miserable, and
blind, and naked, Poor; the wretch
that stands shivering on our doorstep
on cold day is not so much in need
of bread as we are of spiritual help.
Blind: why, the man whose eyes per-
ished in the powder blast. and who for
these ten years has gone feeling his
way from street to street, is not in
such utter darkness as we. Naked:
why, there is not one rag of holiness
left to hide the shame of our sin.
Sick: why, the leprosy has eaten into
the head, and the heart, and the
hands, and the feet; and the maras-
mus of an everlasting wasting away
has already seized on some of us.
But the meanest thing for man to
do is to discourse about an evil with
out pointing a way TO have It rem
cdied. ] speak of the thirst of your
hot tongue, only that / may show you
the living stream that drops crystal
line and sparkling from the Rock of
Ages, and pours river of gladness at
your feet. If / show you the rents I'm
y
of Gods wardrobe now swings open,
and here is robe, white with
the fleece of the Lamb of God,
and of a cut and make that an angel
would not be ashamed to wear. If /
snatch from you the black and moldy
bread that you are munching, it is on
ly to give you the bread made out of
the finest wheat that grows on the
celestial hills, and baked in the fires
of the Cross; and one crumb of which
would be enough to make all Heaven
a banquet. Hear it, one and all, and
tell it to Your friends when you go
home. that the Lord Jesus Christ can
make the heart right.
First we need Z repenting heart II
for the last ten, twenty or forty years
of life, we have been going on in the
wrong way, il is time that we turned
around and started in the opposite di-
rection. II we offend our friends we
are glad TO apologize. God is our best
friend and yet how many of us have
never apologized for the wrongs we
have done Hint
There is nothing that we so much
need to get rid of as sin. 1t is horri-
BILE, black monster. Il polluted Eden.
1t killed Christ. 1t has blasted the
world. Men keep dogs in kennels, and
rabbits in a warren, and cattle in a
pen. What man that would be who
would shut them up in his parlor? Fut
this foul dog of sin, and these herds
OF transgression, we have entertained