The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-02-19

| uOb IhC III IAAC gaze VI Gll
temple, he will not be able to preacl
8 200 souls into the kingdom at tn,
Pentecost. If Paul will not TAX
pains to instruct in the way of saliva
ton the sheriff of the Philippian dun
geon, he will never make Felix trcm
BILE. He who is not faithful in a Skin
mish would not be faithful in an AR
mageddon. The fact is, we are al
placed in just the position in which
we can most faithfully serve God, anC
we ought not to be chiefly thoughtful
about SOME sphere of usefulness which
we may after awhile gain, but the all
absorbing question with you and will
me ought TO be; Lord, what will
Thou have me (now and here) to do?'
There is one word in my text around
which the most of our thoughts will
to-day revolve. That word is home
Ask ten different men the meaning Of
that word and they will give you ter
| different definitions. To one it means
love at the hearth, it means plenty al
the table, industry at the workstand
intelligence at the books, devotion al
the altar. To him it means a greeting
at the door and smile at the chair.
Peace lowering like wings. Joy clap
ping its hands with laughter. Life a
tranquil lake. Pillowed on the ripples
sleep the shadows.
Ask another man what home is, and
he will tell on it is want, looking out
Of cherries fire CRATE and kneading
hunger in an empty bread tray. The
damp air shivering with curses. No
Bible on the shelf. Children, robbers
and murderers in embryo. Vile songs
their lullaby. Every face picture of
ruin. Want in the background and
sin staring from the front. No Sab
bath wave rolling over that doorsill.
Vestibule of the pit. Shadow of in
fernal walls. Furnace for forging
everlasting chains. Faggots for an
intending funeral pile. Awful word!
1t is spelled with curses, it weeps with
ruin, it chokes with woe, it sweats
with the death agony of despair.
The word ''home" in the one case
means everything bright. The word
'home" in the other case means every
thing terrific.
/ shall speak to you of home as test
of character, home as a refuge, home
as "a political safeguard, home as a
bCnOO1 anu " pc u ACdNCLs
And in the first place l remark that
home is a powerful test of character.
The disposition in public may be in
gay costume, while in private it is in
deshabille. AS play actors may ap-
pear in one way on the stage and may
appear in another way behind the
scenes, so private character may be
very different from. public character.
Private character is often public char
acter turned wrong side out. A man
may receive you into his parlor as
though he were distillation OF smiles,
and yet his heart may be a swamp of
uettleS. There are business men who
all day long are mild and courteous
and genial and good natured to COM
mereial life, keeping back their irrita-
bility and their petulance and their
discomfort; but at nightfall the dam
breaks, and scolding pours forth in
floods and freshets.
Reputation Is the only shadow of
character, and a very small house
sometimes will cast very long shadow.
The lips may seem to drop myrrh and
cassia, and the disposition to be as
bright and warm as a sheaf of sun
beams, and yet they may only be
magnificent show window to wretch
ed stock of goods. There is many a
man who is affable in public life and
amid commercial spheres, who, in a
way, takes his anger and
petulance home and drops them in the
domestic circle.
The reason men do not display their
bad TENDER in public is because they
do not want to be knocked down.
There are men who hide their petu-
lance and their irrita bility just for
the same reason that they do not let
their notes 60 to protest; it does not
pay. Or for the same reason that they
do not want a man in their stock COM
pany to sell his stock at less than the
right price, lest it depreciate the value.
As at sunset the wind rises, so after
a sunshiny day there may be tenn
pestuous night There are people
who in public act the philanthropist,
who at home act the Nero, with re-
spect to their slippers and their gown.
Audubon, the great ornithologist,
with gun and pencil, went through
the forests of America to bring down
and to sketch the beautiful birds, and
after years of toll and exposure COM
pleted his manuscript and put it
in a trunk in Philadelphia for
a few days of recreation and
rest, and came back and found that
the rats had utterly destroyed the
but without any discom-
posture, and without any fret or bad
TENDER, he again packed up his gun
and pencil and visited again the great
forests of America and reproduced his
immortal work. and yet there are
people with the ten. thousandth part
Of that loss who are utterly irrecon-
cilable, who, at the loss of a pencil or
an article of raiment will blow as long
and sharp as a northeast storm.
Now, that man who is affable in pub
lie and who is irritable in private is
making fraudulent overissue of stock,
ard he is as bad as bank that might
have s4OO, 900 or 500, 900 in bills in cir
with no specie In the vault.
Let us learn ito show piety at home"
Il we have 1t not thera We have 1t not
nt egan.4fkao