The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-08-06

prophesied falsely. Last winter was
coming, and the people said: 1--WE
shall have unparalleled suffering
among the poor. 1t will be dreadful
winter" Sure enough it was q cold
winte.'; but there were more large
hearted charities than ever before
poured out on the country; better pro-
vision made for the poor, so that there
have been scores of winters when the
poor had harder time than they did
last winter. Weather prophets say we
will have frosts this summer which
will kill the harvests. Now. let me
tell you, you have lied twice about the
weather, and l believe you are lying
this timel
Some people are SO overbOrne with
the dolorOusness of the times that they
say we shall have communistic out
RACES in this country such as they had
in France. / do not believe it. The
parallel does not run. They have nc
Sabbath, no Bible, no God in France.
We have all these defenses of our
American people. and public opinion
is such that if the people in this coun-
try attempt a cut-throat expedition
they Will land in Sing Sing, or from
the gallows go up on tight rope. l do
not believe the people of this country
will ever commit outrages and riot and
murder for the sake of getting bread.
But all this lugubrosity of tone and
face keeps people down. Now, l
will make contract. If the
people of the United States for
one week will talk cheerfully, will
open all the manufactures; | will give
employment to all the unoccupied men
and women; l will make lively
market for your real estate that is eat
ing you up with taxes; L will stop the
long professions on the way to the
poor house and the penitentiary, and
will spread a plentiful table from
Maine to California and from Oregon
to Sandy Hook, and the whole land
shall carol and thunder with national
jubilee. But says some one: Il will
take that contract; but we can't affect
the whole nation" My hearers and
readers, representing as you do all pro-
fessions, all trades, and all occupa-
tions If you should resolve never again
to utter a dolorous word about
the money markets, but by manner
and by voice and by wit and
caricature, and above all by faith in
God, to try to scatter this national
gloom, do you not believe the infu-
ence would be instantaneous and wide
spread? The effect would be felt
around the world. For Gods sake,
and for the sake of the poor and for
the sake of the employed, quit grOwl-
ing. Depend upon it, if you men in
comfortable circumstances do not stop
complaining God will blast your har-
vests, and see how you will get along
without corn crop; and He will
sweep you with floods; and He will de-
YOUR you with grasshoppers; and He
will burn your city. If you men in
comfortable circumstances keep on
complaining God will give you some
thing to complain about. Mark that!
The second prescription for the allie
Walton of financial distresses is proper
Christian investment. God demands
of every individual state and nation a
certain proportion their income. We
are parsimonious! We keep back from
God that which belongs to him, and
when we keep back anything from God
he takes that which we keep back, and
he takes more. He takes it by storm,
by sickness, by bankruptcy, by any
one of the ten thousand WAYS which he
can employ. The reason why many of
you are cramped in business is because
you have never learned the lesson of
Christian generosity. You employ an
agent. You give him a reasonable
salary, and, To-! you find out that he is
appropriating your funds beside the
salary. What do you do? Discharge
him. Well, we are Gods agents.
He put in our hands certain moneys.
Part is to be ours; part is to be His.
Suppose we take all; what then? He
will discharge us; lie will turn us over
to financial disasters and take the
trust away from us. The reason that
great multitudes are not prospered in
business is simply because they have
been Withholding from God that which
belongs to Him. The rule is, give and
you will receive; administer literally
and you shall have more to administer.
[ am in full sympathy with the man
who was to be baptized by immersion,
and some one said: You had better
leave your pocketbook out, it will get
wet" No" said he, Il want to go
down under the wave with everything
want to consecrate my property and
al to God" And so he was baptized.
What we want in this country is more
baptized pocHetbool1s.
So that one of the recipes for the cure
If individual and national finances is
more generosity. Where you bestowed
)ne dollar on the cause of Christ, give
TWO. God loves to be trusted, and He
S very apt to trust back again. He
,avs: That man knows how to handle |
money; he shall have more money to |
and very soon the property |
hat was on the market for great |
While gets a purchaser, and the bond |
hat was not worth more than so cents |
III a dollar goes to par, and the open
ng of new street doubles the value |
If his house,o or iuone way of a million |
Tod blesses him.
Once the man finds out that secret, |
md he goes on to fortune. There are |
men whom l have known for ten years |
lave been trying to pay God $1,000. |
They have never been able to get it |
'aid, for just as they were taking out |
rom one fold of their pocketbook a |
,ill, mysteriously somehow in some |
'ther fold of their pocketbook there
anne larger bill. You tell me that |
christian generosity pays in the world
o come. l tell you it pays now. pays
n hard cash, pays in government Sc
urities. You do not believe it? All,
hat is what keeps you back. l knew
ou did not belieTe it. The whole
world and Christendom is to be
on this subject, and
S you are a part of Christen-
ON, let the work begin in
our own soul. But" says some
ne. II don't believe that theory. he.