The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-04-24


alley and show us mere daub Of. 3
pretender at painting? or wohld he
take MS down into the corridors
and show us the Rubens, and
the Baphaels, and the Michael An
gelos? When we asked him: "What is
the art of painting?" he would point
to the works of these great mastersy
and sayi THAT Il painting" Now, you
propose to find the mere caricature of
religion; t. 80 after that which IS
the mere pretension of holy life. and
and you call that feiisioh, / F6iiit
you ia tHe splendid iheH and women
whom this Gospel has blessed and lift
ed and crowned. Look A. the tH&stef-
pieces ef Divine grace if you want to
know what religion is,
We learn also from this story Of
Joseph that the result Of persecution
is elevation. Had 1t not been far bis
bring tpid into BgYptiah bdhdage by
bis malicious Brothers; and his false
Imprisonment; Joseph newell #onld
hase bsesas 4 governor. Every body
accepts the promise: BLESSED are
they that are prosecuted for righteous
ness. sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of Heaven" but they do net realize
the fact that this principle applies to
worldlT as we'll as sfifitual shs-
cess. 1t is true In ali depart
ments. Men rise to high official POI
sitions through misrepresentation.
Public abuse is all that some of our
public men have to rely upon for their
elevation. 1t has brought To Them
what talttt ana executive force could
not have achieved. Many of those
who are making great effort for place
and power will never succeed, just be-
cause they are not of enough impor=
tanee 30 be abused. II is, the hatrre
of fiieh--th&t Is, al all generous
and reasonable men--to gather
about those who are prosecuted
and defend them, and they are
apt to forget the fault of those who
are the subjects of attack while at
tempting. to drive back the s1anderers.
Persecution Is elevation Helen Stiflf;
the Scotch martyr, standing with her
husband at the place of execution,
said: Husband, let us rejoice to-day;
we have lived together many happy
years; this is the happiest time of all
our life; you see we are to be happy
together forever. BE brave now, be
brave. will not say Good night to
you, for we shall soon be in the King
dom of our Father together" Perse-
cution shows the heroes and heroines.
l go into another department and 1
find that those great determinations of
Christians which have been most
abused have spread the most rapidly.
No good man was ever more violently
maltreated than John Wesly-belied,
caricatured and slandered until one
day he stood in a pulpit in London and
a man arose in the audience and said,
''YUn were drunk last night" and
John Wesley said, "Thanlx God,
the whole catalogue is now COM
plete. 1 have been charged
with everything but that!" His fol-
lowers were hooted at and maligned
and called by every detesable name
that Internal ingenuity could invent,
but the hotter the persecution the
more rapidly they spread, until you
know what great host they have be-
come and what q tremendous force for
good and the truth they are welding
all the world overl 1t was persecu-
ton that gave Scotland to Pres
byterianism. 1t was persecution
that gave our land first to civil lib
erty and afterwards to religious free
dom. Yea, might go further back
and say it was persecution that gave
the world the great salvation of the
Gospel. The ribald mockery, the
hungering and thirsting, the unjust
II
all the force of hell's fury was hurled
against the cross, was the introduce
ton of that religion which is yet to
be the earth's deliverance and our
eternal salvation. The state some
times said to the church: Come,
take my hand and 1 will help YOU"
What was the result? The church
went back and it lost it's estate of holt
ness, and it became ineffective At
other times the state said to the
church: Il will crush YOU" What
has been the result? After the storms
have spent their fury the church, so
far from having lost any of its force,
has increased and is worth infinitely
more after the assault than before.
Read all history and you will find
that true. The church is far more
indebted to the opposition of civil gov
eminent than to its approval. The
fires of the stake have only been the
torches which Christ held in His hand,
by the light of which the church has
marched to her present glorious posi-
ton. In the sound of racks and inn
plements of torture 1 hear the rum
bling of the Gospel chariot. The scat
folds of martyrdom have been the
stairs by which the church mounted.
Learn also from our subject that sin
will come to exposure. Long, long
ago had those brothers sold Joseph
into Egypt. They had made their old
father believe that his favorite child
was dead. They had suppressed the
crime, and it was a profound secret
we'll kept by the brothers. But sud
denly the secret is out. The old faith
or hears that his son is in Egypt, hav-
ing been sold there by the malice of
his own brothers. How their cheeks
must have burned and their hearts sunk
at the flaming out of this long-sUr-
pressed crime. The smallest iniquity
has a thousand tongues, and they will
blab out exposure. Saul was sent to
destroy the Canaanites, their sheep and
their oxen; but when he got down
there among the pastures he saw some
fine sneep and oxen too fat to kill, so
he thought he would steal them. No
body would know it. He drove these
stolen sheep and oxen toward
home, but stopped TO report to
the prophet how he had executed
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