The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-09-03

q Christian, and was thoroughly con
sistent, living and dying in the faith o
the Gospel. Would you not like 4
live the same quiet. life and die tn,
same peaceful death? l hold in my
hand letter, sent me by one who hal
rejected the Christian religion.
says: Il am old enough to know
that the joys and pleasures O
life are evanescent, and to real
ize the fact that it must be com
Portable in old age to believe in some
thing relative to the future, and t.
have faith in some system that pro
poses to save. | am free to comics:
that would be happier if could ex
ercise the simple and beautiful faith
that is possessed by many whom
know. L am not willingly out of the
church or out of the faith. My state
of uncertainty is one of unrest. Some
times l doubt my Immortality, and
look upon the deathbed as the closing
scene, after which there is nothing.
! What shall 1 do that L have not done?
All! skepticlsm is a dark and doleful
land. Let me say that this Bible is
either true or false. If it be false we
I
then which of us is safer?
Let me also ask whether your trou-
| bic has not been that you COMPOUNDED
Christianity with the inconsistent char
| acter of some who profess it? You are
a lawyer. In your profession there are
mean and dishonest men. Is that any
thing against the law? You are a doc
tor. There are unskilled and con-
temptible men in your profession. Is
that anything against medicine? You
are a merchant. There are thieves
and defrauders in your business. is
that anything against merchandise?
Behold, then, the unfairness of charg-
ing upon Christianity the wicked
ness of its disciples. We admit some
of the charges against those who pro-
fess religion. Some of the most gil
gantic swindles of the present day
have been carried on by members of
the church. There are men standing
in the front rank in the churches who
would not be trusted for five dollars
without good collateral security. They
leave their business dishonesties in the
vestibule of the church as they go in
and sit at the communion. Having
concluded the sacrament, they get up,
wipe the wine from their lips, go out
and take up their sins where they
left off. To serve the devil is their
regular work; to serve God a sort of
play-spell. With a Sunday sponge
they expect to wipe off from their bust
ness slate all the past weeks incon-
sistencies. You have no more right to
take such mans life as a specimen of
religion than you have to take the
twisted irons and split timbers that lie
on the beach at COney island as speci-
men of an American ship. 1t is time
that we draw line between religion
and the frailtieS of those who profess
it.
Do you not feel that the Bible, take
it all in all, is about the best book that
the world has ever seen? Do you know
any book that has as much in it? Do
you not think, upon the whole, that
Its influence has been benefcent? L
come to you with both hands extended
toward you. In one band have the
Bible, and in the other hand l have
nothing. This Bible in one hand l will
surrender forever just as soon as in my
other hand you can put book that is
better.
l invite you back into the good old
fashioned religion of your fathcrs-to
the God whom they worshiped, to the
Bible they read, to the promises they
learned, to the cross on which they
hung their eternal expectations. You
have not been happy a day since you
swung off; you will not be happy a
minute until you swing back.
There is large class of persons in
midlife who have still in them appe-
tites that were aroused in early man
hood, at time when they prided them
selves on being Il little fast" high
livers," free and easy" ''hail fellows
well met" They are now paying in
interest for troubles they
collected 20 years ago. Some of you
are trying to escape, and you will
yet very narrowly. las with the skin
of your teeth" God and your own
soul only know what the struggle is.
grace has pulled out many
a soul that was deeper in the mire
than you are. They line the beach
of Heaven-the multitude whom
God has rescued you from the thrall of
suicidal habits. If you this day turn
back on the wrong and start anew,
God will help you. Oh, the weakness
Of human help! Men will sympathize
for awhile, and then turn you off. If
you ask for their pardon, they will
give it and say they will try you again;
but falling away again under the
power of temptation, they cast you off
forever. But God fOrgives saventy
times seven; yea, seven hundred times; |
yea, though this be the ten thousandth |
time, lie is more earnest, more sympa- |
-hetic, more helpful this last time than |
when you took the first mistep.
If, with all the influences favorable |
for a right life, men make so many |
how much harder it is when, |
Tor instance, some appetite thrusts its |
ron grapple into the roots of the |
tongue, and pulls man down with |
hands of destruction If, under such |
he break away, there |
will be no sport in the undertaking, no |
holiday enjoyment, but a struggle in |
which the wrestlers move from side to /
tide, and bend, and twist, and watch |
or an opportunity to get in a heavier
stroke, until with one final effort, in /
which the muscles are distended, and |
he veins stand out, and the blood |
starts, the swarthy habit falls under
he knee of the victor-escaped at last |
Is with the skin of his teeth"
The ship Emma, bound from Gotten
burg to Harwick, was sailing on, when
he man on the lookout saw something |
hat he pronounced a vessel bottom up.
There was something on it that looked
ike sea-gull, but was afterward found
o be a waving handkerchief. In the
mall boat the crew r1uSned ont to the