The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-04-16

to have it talked against. If there have
been times when you have been carried
into captivity by sickness, you longed
for the church, our holy Jerusalem,
just as much as nehemiah, longed fol-
his Jerusalem, and the first day you
cS'ue out you came to the house of the
Lord. When the temple was in ruins
like Nehemiah, you walked around and
looked at it, and in the moonlight you
stood listening if you could not hear
the voice of the dead organ, the psalm
d the expired Sabbaths What Jeru.
salem was to Nehemiah, the church Oh
God is to you. Sleptics and infidels
may scoff at the church as an obso-
1ete affair, as relic of the dark
ages, as a convention of the goody-
goody people, but all the impression
they have ever made on your mind
against the church of God is absolutely
nothing. You would make more sacri-
fees for it to-day than any other insti-
tuition, and if it were needfu1 you
would die in its defense. You can
take the words of the kingly poet as he
said: 'If forget thee, o Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning y
You understand in your own expert
ence the pathos, the homesickness, the
courage, the holy enthusiasm of Nehe-
miah in his midnight moonlight ride
around the ruins of his beloved Jeru-
salem.
Again, my text impresses me with the
fact that, before reconstruction, there
must be an exploration of the ruins.
Why was not Nehemiah asleep under
the covers? Why was not his horse
stabbed in the midnight? Let the po-
lice of the city arrest this midnight
rider, out on some mischief. No. Ne
hemiah is going to rebuild the city, and
he is making the preliminary explora-
tion. In this gate, out that gate, east,
west, north, south. ALI through the
ruins. The ruins must be explored be-
fore the work of reconstruction can
begin. The reason that SO many peo-
pie in this city, apparently converted,
do not stay converted is because they
do not first explore the ruins of their
own heart. The reason that there
are so many professed Chris
tians who in this day lie and
forge and steal, and commit abimi-
nations, and go to the penitentiary, is
because they first do not learn the ruin
of their own heart. They have not
found out that 1.-THE heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately
wicked" They had an idea that they
were almost right, and they built re-
igion as a sort of extension, as an or
cupola. There was super
~f Il
stratum of unrepented sins. The
trouble with a good deal of modern
theology is that instead of building on
the right foundation it builds on the
debris of an unregenerated nature.
They attempt to rebuild Jerusalem be-
fore, in the midnight of conviction,
they have seen the ghastliness of the
ruin. They have such poor foundation
for their religion that the first north
east storm of temptation blows them
down. / have no faith in a mans con-
version if he is not converted in the
way-John Bunyan's
way, John Wesley's way, John Calvin's
way, Paurs way, Christ's way, Gods
way. A dentist said to me: Does
that hurt?" Said /: ''Of course it
hurts. It is in your business, as in my
profession. We have to hurt before we
can help" You will never understand
until you understand ruin.
A man tells me that some one is a mem
Der OF the church. 1t makes no impress
sion on my mind at all. l simply want
to know whether he was converted in
tue old-fashioned way, or whether he
W as converted in the new-fashioned
way. If he was converted in the old
fashioned way he will stand. If he
was converted in the new-fashioned
way he will not stand. That is all
there is about it.
Again. My subject gives me speci-
men of busy and triumphant sadness.
If there was any man in the world who
had right to NOPE and give up every
thing as lost, it was Nehemiah. You
say: HE was a cupbearer in the pal
ace of Shushan, and it was grand
place." So it was. The hall of that
palace was 200 feet square, and the roof
lar so feet high; and the intense blue
of the sky, and the deep green of the
forest foliage, and the white of the driv-
en- snow, all hung trembling in the
upholstery. But, my friends, you know
very well that fine architecture will
not put down homesickness. Yet Ne
hemiah did not give up. Then, when
you see him going among these desc
lated streets, and by these dismantled
towers, and by the torn-up grave of his
father, you would suppose that he
would have been disheartened, and that
he would have dismounted from his
''Woe is me! My fathers grave is torn
up. The temple is dishonored. The
walls are broken down. I have no
with which to rebuild. /
wish I had never been born.
[ wish / were dead" Not SO
says Nehemiah. Although he had a
grief so intense thatit excited the COM
of his king, yet that penni-
less, expatriated Nehemiah rouses him
self up to rebuild the city. He gets his
He hastens away to Jeru-
salem. By night on horseback he rides
through the ruins. He overcomes the
most ferocious opposition. He arouses
the piety and patriotism of the people,
and in less than two months, namely,
81 days, Jerusalem was rebuilt. That's
what 1 call busy and triumphant sad
ness.
My friends, the whole temptation is
with you when you have trouble, to do
Just the opposite to the behavior of
and that is to give up. You
say II have lost my child and can
never smile again" You say: 81 have
lost my property, and I can never re-
pair my fortunes" You say: Il have
fallen into sin, and l never can start
again for a new life" If Satan can
make you form that resolution, and
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