The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-09-18

! jamin-Jeslsl Son of pang, Son OF
vietofyl The deepest emotions OF
our Souls ought to bs stirred
at the sound OF that nomenclature. In
touF prayers plead His tears; His stif.
ferings, His sorrows and His death. II
you refuse TO do II, all this corn cribs
and tbs palaces Of Heaven will be
bolted and barred against your soul,
aud voice from the throne shall stun
| you with the announcement: You
shall not see my face except your
brother be with y5a."
My text also suggests the reason
why SO many people do not get any
real comfort. You meet ten people;
nine of them ais iii need of some kind
of coincidence. There is something
| in their health, or in their state, or in
their domestic condition that demands
sympathy. And yet most of the worlds
sympathy amounts to absolutely moth.
ing. People go to the wrong crib, or
they go in the wrong way. When the
| plague was in Rome, a great many
years ago, there were so men
who ehanted themselves to death
with the 1itanies of Gregory
VIC GLCaG-1AJCEd1ly CuduIcu
selves to death, and yet 1t did
not stop the plague. And all the
music of this world can not halt the
plagus Of the human heart. / come to
some one whose ailments are chronic,
and / sayi 'In Heaven you will never
be sick" That does not give you much
comfort. What you want is a sooth-
ing powd eff for your present distress.
Lost children, have you? L come to
you and tell you that in ten years,
perhaps, you will meet those loved
ones before the throne of God. But
there is but little coincidence in
that. One day is year with them,
and ten years is small eternity.
What you want is sympathy
now-present help. come to
those of you who have lost dear
friends, and say: "Try to forget them.
Do not keep the departed always in
your mind" How can you forget
them when every figure in the carpet
and every book and every picture and
every room calls out their name. Sup
pose come to you and say by way of
coincidence. God is wise" 'Ohw
you say, that gives me no help"
Suppose l come to you ard say: God,
from all eternity, has arranged this
trouble" "Ahl" you say, THAT does
me no good" Then say; "With the
swift feet of prayer go direct to the
corn crib for a heavenly supply"
You go, You sayi Lord, help
met Lord, comfort me-" But no
help yet. No comfort yet It is
all dark. What is the matter? 1 have
found out. You ought go to God and
sayl Here, Oh Lord, are the wounds
of my soul, and bring with me the
wounded Jesus. Let His wounds pay
for my wounds, His bereavements for
my bereavements, His loneliness for
my loneliness, His heart-break for my
neart-break. Oh, Godl for the sake of
the Lord Jesus Christ-the God, the
man, the Benjamin, the brother de-
liver my agonized soul. Oh, Jesus
of the weary foot, ease my fatigue.
Oh, Jesus of the aching head, heal my
aching head, heal my aching head.
Oh, Jesus of the Bethany sisters.
roll away the stone from the
door of our grave" That is the
kind of prayer that brings help; and
yet how many of you are getting no
help at all, for the reason that there is
in your soul, perhaps, secret trouble.
You may never have mentioned 1T to
single human ear, or you may have
mentioned it to some one who is gone
away, and that great sorrow is still in
your soul. After Washington Irving
was dead they found a little box that
contained a braid of hair and minia1
ture and the name of Matilda Hoff-
man and memorandum of her death,
and remark something like this:
''The world after that was blank
to me. L went into the country, but
found no peace in solitude. / tried to
get into society, but l found no peace
in society. There has been a horror
hanging over me by night and by day
and 1 am afraid to be alone"
How many unuttered trou bles among
you? No human ear has ever heard that
sorrow. @, troubled soul, l want to
tell you that there is one salve that
can cure the wounds of the heart, and
that is the salve made out of the tears
of sympathetic Jesus. And yet some
of you will not take this solacei
and you try chloral, and you
try morphine, and you try strong
drink, and you try change of scene,
and you try new business associations,
and anything and everything rather
than to take the divine panionship
and sympa thy suggested by the words
of my text when it says: you shall
not see my face again unless your
brother be with you" o, that this
audience to-day might understand
something of the height and depth
length and breadth and immensity and
infinity Of Gods eternal consultations.
My friends, you see it is either Christ
or famine. If there were two banquet5
spread, and to one of them, only, you
might go, you might stand and think
for a good while as to which invita-
ton you had better accept; but here
it is feasting or starvation. If
there were were two mansions Of
fered, and you might have only one. you
might think for long while, saying;
Perhaps I had better accept that
gift" but here it IS a choice between
palaces of light and novels of de-
spair. If it were q choice between
orotorios, you might say: II pre-
for the Creation" or Il prefer the
Messiah I" But here it is choice be- |
tween eternal harmony and everlast-
ing discord. o, will you live or die2
VIII you sail into the harbor or drive |
on the rocks? VIII you start for the
Egyptian corn crib, Cr will you perish |
amid the empty barns Of the Canaan
itish famine?