The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-11-20

in prayer? What power they had In
exhortHtiohl IL they walked into =
home every member Of il felt hol y
thrill, ard if they walked into a
prayer meeting the dullness and stol-
idity instantly vanished. One of them
would wake up a whole church. One
of them would sometimes electrify a
whole city.
But the most wonderful one Of that
charaetefi&atioh the world ever saw or
heard or felt was a peasant in the far
east, wearing plain blouse like an in
vertcd wheat sack, with three open
ings, one for the neck, and the other
two for the arms. His father, a wheel
wright and house-builder, and given
to various carpentry. His mother, at
first under suspicion because of the
circumstances of his nativity, and he
chased by Herodie matia out of his
native land, to live awhile under the
shadows of the sphinx and Pyramid
of Gizeh, afterwards confounding
the LIDS of Jerusalem, then
stopping the paroxysm of temp
strewn with slain dropsies and
catalepsies and ophthalmias, trans
figured on one mountain, preaching
on another mountain, dying on an
other mountain, and ascending from
another meuntain-the greatest, the
lOseliest, the mightiest, the kindest,
the most self-sacrifcing, most beauti-
ful being whose feet ever touched the
earth. Tell us. ye deserts who heard
our Saviour's prayer; tell us, We seas
that drenched Him with yOuF serf;
tell us, ye inultitudes who heard Him
preach on deck, on beach, on hillside;
tell us. Golgotha, who heard the
stroke of the hammer on the spike
heads, and the dying groan in that
midnight that dropped on midneon.
did anyone like Jesus have this pas
sion for soulsP
But, breaking right in upon me is
the question:; How can we get some
thing of this Pauline and Christly
longing for saved immortalities? an
swer: By better appreciatinq the pro-
longation of the souls existence com
pared with everything physical and
material. How / hope that surgeon
will successfully remove the cataract
from that mans eyel 1t is such a sad
thing to be blind. Let US pray while
the doctor is busy with the delicate
operation. But for how long a time
will he be able to give his patient eye
sight? Well, if the patient be 40 years
of age, he will add to his happiness
perhaps fifty years of eyesight, and
that will bring the man. to 90
years, and it is not probable
that he will live longer than
that, or that he will live so long. But
what is good eyesight for so years
more as compared with clear vision
for the soul billion of centuries? ]
hope the effort to drive back the ty-
phoid fever from yonder home will be
successful. God help the doctorsi We
Will wait In great anxiety until the
fires of that fever are extinguished,
and when the man rises from his pill
low and walks out, with what hearth
ness we will welcome him into the
fresh air and the church and business
circle. He is 50years of age, and if he
shall live 60 years more that will make
him 90. But what are 60 years more
of earthly vigor compared with
the souls health for a quadrillion mil
leniuns-a millennium, as you know,
LOCO years? This world, since fitted
up for mans residence, has existed
about 5000 years. How much longer
will it exist? We will suppose it will
last as much longer, which is very
doubtful. That will make it's exist
ence 1000 years. But what are or will
be $4,000 years compared with the
eternity preceding those years and the
eternity following them? Time, as
compared to eternity, like the dew
drop OF the night new shaken from the
top of grassblade by cows hoof on
its way afield this morning, as com
pared with Mediterranean, and Ara
bian. and Atlantic, and Pacific watery
dominions.
1 see the author of my text seated in
the house of Gaius, who entertained
him at Corinth, not far from the over
hanging fortress of Acro-Corinthus,
and meditating on the longevity of the
soul, and getting more and more agi-
tated about its value and the awful
risk some of his kindred were running
concerning it, and he writes this letter
containing the text which Chrysostom
admired SO much he had it read t0him
twice a week, and among other things,
he says those daring and startling
werds of my text: 81 could wish that
myself were accursed from Christ for
my bretbern, my kinsmen, according.
to the flesh"
Another way to get something of the
Paulian longing for redeemed immor-
talities is by examining the vast ma
chinery arranged to safe this inner
and spiritual nature. That machinery
started to revolve on the edge Of the
Garden of Eden, just after the cyclone
of sin prostrated it's sycamores and
tamalisks, and willows, and will not
cease to revolve until the last soul of
earth shall get rid of its last sin and
enter the heavenly Eden. On that
stupendous machinery for soul-saving
the patriarch put his hand, and proph-
ct his hand. and evangelist his
hand, and apostle his hand, and
Christ His hand, and almost every
hand that touched it became a
crushed hand. 1t was the most ex-
pensive machinery constructed. Ii
cost more to start it, and has cost and
will cost more TO keep it running than
all the wheels that ever made revolu-
tion on this planet. That machinery
turned not by ordinary motive power,
but by force of tears and blood. To
connect its bands of influence, made
out of human and Christly nerves,
with all parts of the earth, millions of
good men and women are now at work,
and viii be at work until every will
derness shall become a garden, and