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

along-trusted you more than you had
q right to ask? Strike, then, a bal
ance for God. Economic in anything
rather than in your Christian charities.
There is not more than one out of 800
of you who ever give enough to do you
any good, and when some cause of
Christianity missionary society
or Bible society or church organiza-
ton comes along and gets anything
from you, what do you say? You
say: II have been bled," and there
never was more magnificent figure of
speech than that used in common par
lance. Yes, you have been bled, and
you are spiritually emaciated, when
if you had been courageous enough 20
go through your property and say:
That belongs to God, and this be-
longs to God;o and no more dared to
appropriate it to your own use thAn
something that belonged to your neig u
Dor, instead of being bled to death Iy
charities you would have been rein
vigorated and recuperated and built
up for time and eternity. God viii
keep many of you cranped in money
matters until the day of your death
unless you swing into larger gener-
osity.
People quote as a joke what Is Di.
vine promise: Cast thy bread upon the
waters and it will return to thee after
many days" What did God mean by
that? There is an allusion there. In
Egypt, when they SOW the corn, it is at
a time when the Nile is OVERLOOKING it's
banks, and they sow the seed corn on
the waters, and as the Nile begins to
recede this seed corn strikes in the
earth and comes up harvest, and that
is the allusion. 1t seems as if they are
throwing the corn away on the waters,
but after awhile they gather it up in a
harvest. Now, says God in His word:
Cast thy bread upon the waters and
it shall come back to thee after many
days" 1t may seem to you that you
are throwing it away on charities, but
| it will yield a harvest of green and
! gold-a harvest on earth and harvest
in Heaven. If men could appreciate
that and act on that, we would have no
more trouble about individual or ma
| tional finances.
Prescription the third, for the cure
of all our Individual and national fnan.
cial distresses: A great spiritual awaz-
ening. 1t is no mere theory. The mer-
| chants of this country were positively
| demented with the monetary excite
ment in 1877. There never before nor
since has been such a state OF financial
| depression as there was at that time.
A revival came, and 800, O0) people were
born into the kingdom of God. What
| came after the revival? The grandest
/ fin l., i
in this country. The finest fortunes,
the largest fortunes in the United
States, have been made since 1857.
WELL" you say, what has spiritual
| Improvement and revival to do with
monetary improvement and revival?"
Much to do. The religion of Jesus
Christ has a direct tendency to make
men honest and sober and truth tell
ing, and are not honesty and sobriety
and truth-telling auXiliaries of ma
terial prosperity. If we could have
an awakening in this country as in the
days of Jonathan Edwards, of North
ampton, as in the days of DIR. Finley of
Basking ridge, as in the days of DIR.
Griffin, of Boston, the whole land
would rouse to higher moral tone,
and with that moral tone the honest
business enterprise of the country
would come up. You say great awak-
ening has an influence upon the fu.
ture world. l tell you it has a di-
rect influence upon the financial well
fare of this world. The religion of
Christ is no foe to successful
business, it is its best friend,
And if there should Gene a great
awakening in this country, and all the
banks and insurance companies and
stores and shops should close up for
two weeks and do nothing but attend
to the public worship of Almighty God
after such a spiritual vacation the
land would wake up to such financial
prosperity as we have never dreamed
of. GOdliness is profitable for the life
that now is, as well as that for which
is to come.
But, my friends, do not put so much
emphasis on worldly success as to let
your etern al affairs go at loose ends.
have nothing to say against money.
The more money you get the better, if
it comes honestly and goes usefully.
For the lack of it, sickness dies with
out medicine, and hunger finds its cof-
fin in an empty bread tray, and naked
ness shivers for clothes and fire. All
this canting TRADE against money as
though it had no practical use,
when l hear man indulge in
it, makes me think the best Heav-
en- for him would be an everlasting
poor house! No, there is a practical
use in money; but while we admit
that, we must also admit that it can
not satisfy the soul, that it can not pay
for our ferriage across the Jordan of
death, that 1T can not unlock the gate
of Heaven for our immortal soul. Yet
there are men who act as though packs
of bonds and mortgages could be traded
off for a mansion in Heaven, and as
though gold were a legal tender in
that land where it is so common that
they make pavements out of it. Sal
walton by Christ is the only salvation.
Treasures in Heaven are the only
incorruptible treasures. Have you ever
ciphered out that sum in loss and gain,
"What shall it profit man if he gain
the whole world and lose his Soul?'
You may wear fine apparel now, but
the winds of death will futter it like
rags. Homespun and a threadbare
coat have sometimes been the shadow
of robes white in the blood of the Lamb.
So, there are men who go on in life
a fine voyage they are making out of it.
All is well, till some euroolydon of
business disaster, comes upon them, and
they go down. The bottom of this !
commercial sea is strewn with the shat
tered hulks. But, because your prop
ertyogoes, shall your soul go? o, no! |
there is coming more stupendous ship |
wreck after awhile. This world-God |
launched it 5000 years ago, and it is |
sailing on; but one day it will stagger |
at the cry of fre!" and the timbers of |
the rocks will hurn and the maintains |