The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-01-29


we are to undertake this job, first of all
one who knows all about excavations,
| about embankments, about tunnels,
about mountains. know engineers
who have carved up mountains, cut
down mountains, removed mountains.
will do nothing unless 1 know who
Is to be our engineer. Zerubbabel led
at the rebuilding of the ancient tenn.
pie, and Matthew Henry, the greatest
of commentators, declares that our
Zerubbabel is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Zerubbabel of my text was only
type of the glorious and om-
nipotent Jesus, and as look
up into the face of this Divine
engineer and see it glow with all the
splendors of the Godhead, and see that
in His arm is the almig htiness that
flung out all the worlds that glitter in
the midnight heavens, and that to lift
the Himalayas would cost Him no more
effort than for me to lift an ounce, my
courage begins to rally, and my faith
begins to mount, and my enthusiasm
is all afame, and the words of my text
this moment just fit my lips and ex-
press the triumph of my soul, ard 1
cry out: "Who art thou, o great
mountain. before Zerubbabel thou
sh alt become a plain"
Here is thought that have never
seen projected, and yet it is the most
cheering of all considerations and
plainly Scriptural, the thought that as
at the opening of the Gospel dispense
ton, in the Christly, and Johanian,
and Pauline days, the machinery of
the natural world was brought into
service, the shadow of eclipses and the
agitation of earthquakes, tempests
put to sleep under the voice of divine
lullaby, iron bolts of prisons shaved
back by invisible muscle, kindlirG of
fame on heads of worshipers, by in
Simultaneous pharmacy blasted Wis
ion given full eyesight, and
the dead returned from the
eternal world mingling amid
earthly scenes, SO it will be again. AS
read my Bible, these supernaturals
are to return. Again the eclipses, as
at the destruction of the Jerusalem,
will put red wing under the moon and
black wing under the sun, and the
mountain will shake with ague of ex-
element, and hospital cots be emptied
and their patients bound into sudden
health, and the gospel of mercy enl-
phasized by most tremendous spec
tacles. And beheId when he had
opened the sixth seal, and, 10, there
was great earthquake; and the sun
became black as sackcloth of hair, and
the moon became as blood and
every mountain and island were moved
out of their places" There you have
it. The shovels now digging away at
the mountains to be re-enforced by
thunderbolts. The Gospel is only par
TALLY successful because we preach it
amid all placidities, the hearers having
heard the invitation 900 times before,
and expect to hear it 1000 times more;
but in coming times TO be preached
amid pulverized rocks and
stellar panics and shattered ma
sonry of cemeteries, from which
the pallid dead will spring into
roseate life. 1 say then the Cos
pei will be universally accepted. There
is the programme. First the shovels.
then the thunderbolts. Ours tka
shovels, Gods the thunderbolts. The
text, which before we uttered with
something of trepidation, now we ut.
ter in laugh of triumph. "Who art
thou, oh great mountain? Before Ter
ubbabel shalt thou become plain"
Sometimes general begins battle
before he is ready, because the enemy
forces it on HIM. The general says:
1.-The enemy are pushing us, and so /
open battle. We are not sufficient to
cope with them, but hope the reserve
forces will come up in time" The
battle RACES, and the general looks
his field glass at the
troops, but ever and anon he sweeps
his field glass backward and
upward toward the hill, to see if
the reserve forces are coming. Hard
pushed are wei" says the general. Il
do wish those re-enforcements would
come up" After awhile the plumes
of the advancing cavalry are seen
tossing on the ridge of the hill, and
then the flash of swords, and then the
long lines of mounted troops, their
horses in full gallop, and the general
says: IAN is well. Hold out, my
men, a little longer. Let the
ride along the lines
and cheer the men, and tell them
re-enforcements are coming" And
now the rumbling of the batteries and
gun carriages is distinctly heard, and
soon they are in line, and at the first
roar of the newly-arrived artillery the
enemy, little while before SO jDbi-
liant, fall back in wild retreat, their
way strewn with caRteens and KNAPP
sacks and ammunition. that the de-
feated may be unhindered in their
fight. That is just the way now. In
this great battle against sin and
crime and moral death the enemy
seem too much for us. More |
than churches. More bad
men than good men, and they come
up with bravado and the force of
great numbers. They have openet
battle upon US before we are, in ON
own strength, ready to meet them.
and great are the discourage ents.
But steady, there! Hold on! Re-en-
forcements are coming Through the |
glass of inspiration I look, and |
see the flash of the sword of |
Him Who Hath on His vesture and |
on His thigh name written, King of |
kings and Lord of lords" All Heaven |
is on our side, and is coming to the |
rescue. l hear the rumbling of the |
Kings artillery, louder than any |
thunder that ever shook the earth, and |
with every roll of the ponderous |
wheels our courage augments, and |
when these re-enforcements from |
Heaven get into line with the |
forces of God already on earth, |
all the armies Of righteousness
will sec tn at their hour-of doom has |
come, ana will waver and fall back |
and take fight and nothing be left of
them save here and there, strewn by |
the wayside, an agnostic's pen, or a