The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-06-25

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perish" Sin beautiful at the start
oh, how sad, how distreSsful at the
lastl The ground over which it leads
you is hollow. The fruit 1t 6hefs ia
your taste is poison. The promise il
makes to you is lie. Over that un.
godly banquet the keeI sword of Gods
Judgment hangs. and shere are onli-
nous handwritings on the Walls.
Observe also in this subject how re-
pelling sin is when appended to great
attractiveness. Since Ewes death there
has been no such perfection of woman
hood. You could suggest an attractive
ness to the body or suggest any refine
ment to the manner. You could add no
gracefulness to the gait, no luster to
the eye, no sweetness to the voice. A
perfect God made her a perfect WON
an, to be the companion of a perfect
man in perfect home, and her entire
nature vibrated in accord with the
beauty and song of Paradise. But she
rebelled against Gods government, and
with the same hand with which she
plucked the fruit she launched upon
the world the crimes, the wars, the tu-
mults that have set the universe a.
wailing.
A terrible offset to all her attrac-
tiveness. We are not surprised when
we find men and women naturally vul-
gar going into transgression. We ex-
pect that people who live in the ditch
shall have the manners of the ditch;
but how shocking when we find sin APP
pended to superior education and to
the refinements of social lifeI The ac-
complishments of Mary Queen of Scots
make her patronage of Darnley, the
profigate, the more appalling. The
genius of Catherine II. of Russia only
sets forth in more powerful contrast
her unappeasable ambition. The
translations from the Greek and the
Latin by Elizabeth, and her wonderful
qualifications for queen, make the
more disgusting her capriciousness of
affection and her holiness of temper.
The greatness of Byron's mind makes
the more alarming Byron's sensuality.
Let no one think that refinement of
manner or eXquisiteness of taste or SUI
periority of education can in any wise
apologize for ill-temper, for an OPP
pressive spirit, for unkindness, for any
kind of sin. Disobedience Godward
and transgreSsiOn MAYNARD can give
no excuse. Accomplishment heaven
high is no apology for vice hell-deep.
My subject also impresses me with
the regal influence of woman. When
l see Eve with this powerful influence
over Adam and over the generations
that have followed, it suggests to me
the great power all women have for
good or evil. 1 have no sympathy,
nor have you, with the hollow
batteries showered upon woman
from the platform and the
stage. They mean nothing; they
are accepted as nothing. Woman's no
bility consists in the exercise of
Christian influence; and when l see
this powerful influence of Eve upon
her husband and upon the whole hui
man race l make up my mind that the
frail arm of woman can strike blow
which will resound through all eterni-
ty down among the dungeons or up
among the thrones.
OF course, | am not speaking of rep
resentative women--of Eve, who ruined
the race by one fruit-piclcing; of Jae1,
who drove a spike through the head of
came royalty; of Abigail, who stopped
host by her own beautiful prowesS;
of Mary, who nursed the worlds Saw
Jour; of Grandmother Lois, immor-
talized in her grandson Timothy; of
Charlotte Corday, who drove the dagger
through the heart of the assassin of her
lover, or of Marie Antoinette, who, by
one look from the balcony of her castle,
quieted a mob, her own scaffold the |
throne of forgiveness and womanly |
courage. / speak not of these extra !
ordinary persons, but of those who, |
for political power, as |
wives and mothers and sisters and |
attend to the thousand sweet |
offices of home.
When at last we come to calculate |
the forces that decided the destiny of |
nations it will be be found that the |
and grandest influence came
from home, where the wife cheefed up |
dependency and fatigue and sorrow
by her own sympathy, and the mother
trained her child for Heaven, starting |
the little feet on the path to the Celestial
City; and the sisters by their gentle
ness refined the manners of the broth
er; and the daughters were dlllgent In
their kindness to the aged, throwing |
of blessing on the road that
leads father and mother down the steep
of years. God bless our homes. And
may the home on earth be the vestibule
Of our home in Heaven, in which place
may we all meet-father, mother, son,
brother, sister, grandfather
and grandmother and grandchild, and
the entire group of precious ones, of
whom we must say in the words of
Charles Wesley:
One family We dwell in Him.
One church above, beneath
Though now divided by the stream
The narrow stream of death;
One army of the living God,
To His command we bow;
Part of the host have crossed the food
And part are crossing now.
The Coming Nation.