The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-03-25

| And vet there is way of seeing
and hearing Him now. l have to tell
you that unless you see and hear Christ
on earth you will never see and hear
Him in Heaven. Look! There He is.
Behold the Lamb of God. Can you net
see Him? Then pray to God to take
the scales of your eyes. Look that
way-try to look that way. His voice
comes down to you this day-comes
down to the blindest, to the deafest
soul, saying: '.Loolz unto Me, all ye
ends of the earth, and be we saved, for
am God, and there is none else. +"
Proclamation of universal cman-
cipation for all slaves. Procla-
nation of universal amnesty for all
rebels. Belshazzar gathered the Ba-
bylonish mobiles to his table; George |.
entertained the lords of England at a
banquet; Napoleon III. welcomed the
cZar of Russia and the sultan of Tur-
key to his feast; the emperor of Ger
many was glad to have our minister,
George Bancroft, sit down with him at
his table; but tell me, We who know
most of the worlds history, what other
king ever asl1ed-th abandoned and the
forlorn and the wretched and the out
cast to come and sit beside him?
Oh, wonderful invitation You can
take it to-day, and stand at the head of
the darkest alley in any city, and say:
''Come!, Clothes for your rags, salve
for your sores, throne for your eter-
nal reigning.n A Christ that talks
like that, and acts like that, and par
dons like that--do you wonder that
Stephen stood looking at Him? l hope
to spend eternity doing the same thing.
/ must see Him; l must look upon that
face, once clouded with my sin, but
now radiant with my,pardon. 1 want
to touch that hand that knocked off
my shacl1les. 1 want to hear that
voice which pronounced my deliver
ance Behold Him, little children, for
if you live to three-score years and ten,
you will see none SO fair. Behold
Him, ye aged ones, for lie only can
shine through the dimness of your fail
ing eyesight. Behold Him, earth. Be-
hold Him, Heaven. What a moment
when all the nations of the saved shall
gather around Christi Ali faces that
way. All thrones that way, gazing on
Jesus.
His worth if all the nations knew.
Sure the whole earth would love Him. too
pass on now, an6 look at Stephen
stoned. The world has always wanted
to get rid of good men. Their very
life is an assault upon wickedness.
Ont with Stephen through the gates of
the city. Down with him over the
precipice. Let every man come up and
drop stone upon his head. But these
men did not SO much kill Stephen as
they killed themselves. Every stone
rebounded upon them While these
murderers were transfxed by the scorn
of all good men, Stephen lives in the
admiration of all Christendom. Ste
phen stoned, but Stephen alive. So all
good men must be pelted. All who
live godIy in Christ Jesus must
suffer persecution. 1t is no eulogy of
a man to say that everybody likes him.
Show me anyone who is doing all his
duty to state or church and | will show
you men who utterly abhor him.
If all men speak well of you, it is
because you are either laggard or a
dolt. If steamer makes rapid pro-
gress through the waves, the water
Will DOLL anu IOdn oil dIOuno H.
Brave soldiers of Jesus Christ will hear
the carbines click. When see a man
with voice, and money, and influence
all on the right side, AMI some car
feature him, and somc sneer at him,
and some denounce him, and men who
pretend to be actuated by right mo-.
tives conspire to cripple him. to cast
him out, to destroy him. / say: stephen
stoned"
When | see a man in some great
or religious reform battling against
grog-shops, exposing wickedness in
high places, by active means trying to
purify the church and better the
worlds estate, and [ find that some
newspapers anathenatize him, and
men, even good men, oppose him and
denounce him, because, though he does
good, he does not do it in their way, |
say: 'Stephen stoned" The wotld,
with infinite spite, took after John
Frederick Oberlin, and Paul, and
Stephen of the text. But you notice,
my friends, that whilc they assaulted
him they did not succeed really in kill
ing him. You may assault a good man,
but you can not kill him.
On the day of his death Stephen
spoke before few people in the sam
hedrim; now he addresses all Christen-
DOM Paul the Apostle stood on Mars
Hill addressing handful of philoso-
pliers who knew not SO much about
science as a modern schoolgirl. To-
day he talks to all the millions of
Christeudom about the wonders of JUS
tifcation and the glories of resurrec-
ton. John Wesley was howled down
bv the mob to whom he preached, and
they threw bricks at him, and they
denounced him, and they jostled him,
and they spat upon him, and yet to-
day, in all lands, he is admitted to be
the great father of Methodism. Booths
bullet vacated the presidential chair;
but from that spot of coajulated blood
on the floor in the box of Ford's the
ater there sprang up the new life of a
nation Stephen stoned, but Stephen
alive.
Pass on now and see Stephen il his
dying prayer. His first thought was
not how the stones hurt his head, nor
what would become of his body. His
first thought was about his spirit.
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit The
murderer standing on the trap-door,
the black cap being drawn over his
head before the heexecution, may grimaee
about the future, but you and / have
no shame in confessing some anxiety
about where we are going to come out.
You are not all body. There is within
you soul l see it CLEAN from your
ewes, and see it irradiating
your countenance. Sometimes I am