The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-07-10


enough faith In 1t, could bring a hum
dred souls to Jesus-perhaps 500. just
in proportion as this age seems to bez
lieve less and less in it, belive more
and more in il. What are men about
that they win not accept their own de-
liveranc2 There Is nothing proposed
by men that can do any thing like
this Gospel. The religion of Ralph
Waldo Emerson was the philosophy
of icicles; the religion of Theo-
dore Parker was a siTocca of the des-
ert covering up the sold with dry
sand; the religion of Renan was the
romano of believing nothing; the re-
ligion of the Huxleys and the Spencers
merely a pedestal on which human
philosophy sits shivering in the night
of the soul, looking up to the stars,
offering no help to the nations that
crouch and groan at the base. Tell
me where there Is one man who has
rejected that Gospel for another, who
Is thoroughly satisfied, and helped,
nd contented in his skepticism, and
will take the car tomorrow and ride
500 miles to see him. The full power
of the Gospel has not yet been
touched. AS a sportsman throws up
his head and catches the ball hy-
ing through the air, just SO easily
will this Gospel after awhile catch
this round world sying from its orbit
and bring it back to the heart of
Christ. Give it full swing, and it will
pardon every sin, heal every wound,
cure every trouble, emancipate every
slave, and ransom every nation. Ye
Christian men and women who 60 out
this afternoon to do Christian work,
as you go into the Sunday schools, the
lay preaching stations and the peni-
tentiaries, and the asylums, want
you to feel that you bear in your hand
q weapon, compared with which the
lightning has no speed, aud avalanches
have no heft, and the thu nderbolts of
of the omnipotent Gospel. Take care
full aim. Pull the arrow clear back
until the head strikes the bowl Then
let it hyl And may the slain of the
Lord be manyl
Again, if you want to be skillful in
spiritual archery, you must hunt in
unfrequented and secluded places.
Why does the hunter go three or four
days in the Pennsylvania forests or
over Raquette lake into the wilds of
the Adirondacks? 1t is the only why
to do. The deer are shy, and one
'bang" of the gun clears the forest.
From the California stage you see, as
you go over the plains, here and there,
a coyote trotting along, almost with
in range of the gun-sometimes
IL
cares for that; it is worthless. The
good game is hidden and secluded.
Every hunter knows that So, many
of the souls that will be of most worth
for Christ and of most value to the
church are secluded. They do not
come in your way. You will have to
go where they are. Yonder they are
down in that cellar; yonder they are
up in that garnet. Far away from the
door of any church, the Gospel arrow
has not been pointed at them. The
tract distributor and city missionary
sometimes catch a glimpse of them,
as hunter through the trees gets a
momentary sight of a partridge or
a roebuck. The trouble is, we are
waiting for the game to come to US.
We are not good hunters. We are
standing in some street or highway
expecting that the timid antelope will
come up and eat out of our hands.
We are expecting that the prairie
fowl will light on our church steeple.
It is not their habit. If the church
should wait 10000, 900 of years
for the world to come in and be
saved, 1t will wait in vain. The
Il L u
wants now is to lift its feet from dam
ask ottomans, and put them in the
stirrups. We want pulpit on wheels.
The church wants not so much cush-
ions as it wants saddle-bags and ar
rows. We have got to put aside the
gown and kid gloves, and put on the
hunting shirt. We have been fishing
SO long in the brooks that run under
the shadow of the church that the fish
know us, that they avoid the hook, and
escape as soon as we come to the bank,
while yonder is Upper Saranac and
Big TuPper's lake, where the first
swing of the gospel net would break
1t for the multitude of the fishes
There is outside work to be done.
What is that see in the bacl1woods2
1t Is tent. The hunters have made
clearing and camped out. What do
they care If they have wet feet, or if
they have nothing but a pine branch
for pillow, or for the northeast storm?
If moose in the darkness steps into
the lake to drink, they hear it right
away. If loon cry in the moonlight
they hear it. So in the service
of God we have exposed work.
We have got to camp out and rough
1t. We are putting all our care on
the people who come to our
churches What are we doing for the
thousands upon thousands that do not
Gomez Have they no souls? Are they
sinless, that they need no pardon? Are
there no dead in their houses, that
they need no comfort? Are they cut
off from God, to go into eternity-no
wing to bear them, no light to cheer
them, no welcome to greet them2 |
hear to-day, surging up from the low
er depths, groan that comes through
our Christian assem- blages and through
our beautiful churches; and it blots
out all this scene from my eyes to-
day, as by the mists of a great
Niagara, for the dash and the
plunge of these great torrents of life
dropping down into the fathomless
and laundering abyss of suffering and
woe. l sometimes think that just as
God blotted out the churches of Thya-
tira and Corinth and Laodicea, because
of their sloth and stolidity, he will
blot out American and English Chris
family and raise On the rui0s a stall