The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-02-07
SUBSCRIPTION; sl.OO Per Year.

what you do. Eternity Will near the
echo. The best sermon ever preached
is holy life. The best music ever
chanted Is a consistent walk. If you
want others to serve God, serve Him
yourself. If you want others TO do
their duty, shoulder yours. Where
Abinelech goes his troops go. oh,
start out for Heaven to-day, and your
family will come after you, and your
business associates will comeafter you,i
and your social friends will join you.
With one branch of the tree of life for
baton, marshal just as many as you
can gather. Oh, the infinite, the semi
omnipotent power of good or bad ex-
amplel
saw last summer, near the beach, a
wreckers, machine. 1t was cylinder
with some holes at the side, made for
the thrusting in of some long poles
with strong leverage; and when there
is any vessel in trouble or going to-
pieces In the ofTing, the wreczers shoot
a rope out to the suffering men. They
grasp it, and the wreclxers turn the
cylinder, and the rope winds round
the cylinder, and those who are ship
wrecked are saved. So at your feet,i
to-day, there is an influence with
tremendous leverage. The rope at
tached to it swings far out into the
billowy future. Your children, your
children's children, and all the genera
tIons that are to follow, will grip that
influence. and feel the long-reaching
pull long after the figures on your
tombstone are so worn out that the
visitor can not tell whether it was 1896,
1896 or 1896 that you died.
Still further, learn from this sub
ject the advantage of concerted action.
If Abimelech had merely gone out with
a tree branch the work would not hA re-
been accomplished, or if ten, 20 or 80
men had gone; but when all the axes
are lifted and all the sharp edges fall,
and all these men carry each his tree
branch down and throw it abou the
temple, the victory is gained-the tenn
pie falls. My friends, where there is
one man in the church of God at
this day shouldering his whole duty,
there are a great many who never
lift an ak or swing a bough. 1t
seems to me as if there were ten droneS
in every hive to one busy bee; as
though there were 20 sailors sound
asleep in the ships hammock to four
men on the stormy deck. 1t seems as
if there were $4,000 men belonging to
the reserve corps, and only 1000 COM
batants Oh, we ali want our boats to
get over to the golden sands: but the
most of us are seated either in the
Prov or in the stern, wrapped in our
striped shawl, holding a big-handled
sunshade, while others are blistercd
in the heat, and pull until the oar
locks groan, and the blades
bend till they snap. Oh, you re-
ligious sleepy-heads, wake up! You
have lain SO long in one place that the
ants and caterpillars have begun to
crawl over you'll What do you know,
my brother, about a living Gospel made
to storm the world? Now, my idea OF
a Christian is a man on fire with zeal
for God; and If your pulse ordinarily
beats 90 times a minute when you
think of other themes, and talk about
other themes, if your pulse does not
go up to rs or 80 when we come to talk
about Christ and Heaven, it is because
you do not know the one, and have
poor chance of getting to the other.
Still further 1 learn from this sub
ject the dangers of false refugees As
soon as these Sechemites got into the
temple they thought they were safe.
They said: "Berith will take care Of
us. Abimelech may batter down every
thing else; he can not batter down the
temple where we are now hid" But
very soon they heard the timbers crack
ling, and they were smothered with
smoke, and they miserably died. sup
pose every person in this audience this
moment is stepping into some kind of
refuge. Here you step in the tower Of
good works. You say: II shall be safe
in this refuge" The battlemcnts are
adorned; the steps are vanished; on
the wall are pictures of allthe suffering
you have alleviated, and all the schools
you have established, and all the
fine things you have ever done. Upin
that tower you feel you are safe. But
hear you not the tramp of your un-
pardoned sins all around the tower?
They each have a match. You are
lxindling the combustible material.
You feel the heat and the suffocation.
Oh, may you leap in time, the Gospel
declaring: ''By the deeds Of the law
shall no flesh living be justified"
"Well," you say, II have been driven
out of that tower; where shall / go?"
Step into this tower Of indifference.
You say: "If this tower is attacked,
it will be a great while before it Is
taken" You feel at ease. But there
is an Abimelech, with ruthless assault,
coming on. Death and his forces arc
gathering around, and they demand
that you surrender everything, and
they clamor for your overthrow, and
they throw their skeleton arms in the
window, and with their iron fists they
beat against the door, and while you
are trying to keep them out you SEQ
the torches of Judgment kindling, and
every forest is a torch, and every
mountain torch, and every seat q
torch, and while the Alps, and
Pyrenees, and Himalayas, turned into
a live coal, blown redder and redder
by the whirlwind breath of a God
omnipotent, what will become Of your
refuge of lies?
But" says some one, ''you arc en-
gagged in a yer.T mean business, driving
us from tower to tower" '.Oh, mol
/ want to tell you of a Gibraltar thai
never has been and never will be taken;
of a wall that no Satanic assault
can scale; of a bulwark that
the Judgment earthquakes can not
bulge. The Bible refers to ii when it
says: "In God is thy refuge, and I'M
dernaath thee are the everlasting
arms" Obi fling yourself into II.