The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-11-18

| OL4l6E udNS, Out not III InlS tlIle, IotlIl-
ed with schools and colleges. a man
| who wrote me the other day letter
| asking advice, as he felt called to
| preach the Gospel, began the word
| Cod with a small 60" That kind of
man is not called to preach the Cos
| pei. 1lliterate men, preaching the
| Gospel, quote for their own encourage
ment the Scriptural passage: open
| thy mouth wide and / will fill it.
Yes! He will fill it with wind. Prepa-
ration for this wrestling is absolutely
necessary. Many years ago DR.. New
man and DR.. Sunderland, on the plat
| form of Brigham Young's tabernacle
at Salt Lake City, Utah, gained the
victory because they had so long been
| skillful wrestlers for God. Otherwise
| Brigham Young, who was himself a
| giant in some things, would have
! thrown them out of the window. Get
ready in Bible classes. Get ready in
| Christian Endeavor meetings. Get
ready by giving testimony in obscure
places, before giving testimony in con-
spicuous places.
Your gong around with a Bagster's
| Bible with flaps at the edges, under
your arm, does not qualify you for the
| work of an evangelists. In this day of
profuse CAB, remember that it is not
| merely capacity to talk, but the fact
that you have something to say, that
is going to fit you for the struggle
into which you are to go with a smile
| on your face and illumination on your
brow, but out of which you will
not come until your physical
and mental and moral and re-
ligious energies have been taxed
to the utmost, and you have not a
nerve left, or a thought unexpended,
or prayer unsaid, or a sympathy un-
wept. In this struggle between right
and wrong accept no challenge on
platform or in newspaper unless you
are prepared. Do not misapply the
story of Goliath the Great, and David
the Little. David had been practicing
with a sling on dogs and wolves and
bandits, and 900 times had he swirled
a stone around his head before he
aimed at the forehead of the giant and
tumbled him backward. Otherwise
the big foot of Goliath would almost
the son of Jesse.
Notice also that in this science of
wrestling, to which Paul refers in my
text, it was the third throw that de-
cided the contest. A wrestler might
be thrown once and thrown twice, but
the third time he might recover him
self, and, by an unexpected twist of
arm or curve of foot, gain the day.
Well, that is broad, smiling, unmis-
through ear or eye, by voice or
printed page, have been thrown in
tlleir wrestle with evil habit.
Aye! you have been thrown twice;
but that does not mean, oh! worsted
soul, that you are thrown forever. l
have no authority for saying how
many times man may sin and be for
given, or how many times he may fall
and yet rise again; but l have author
ity for saying that he may fall 400
times, and 400 times get up. The
Bible declares that God will forgive
seventy times seven, and if you will
employ the rule of multiplication you
finds that seventy times seven is 400.
Blessed be God for such a Gospel of
high hope and thrilling encourage
ment and magnificent rescue! A Cos
pei of lost sheep brought home on
shepherds shoulder, and the prodigals
who got into the low work of putting
husks into swine's troughs brought
home to jewelry and banqueting and
hilaritY that made the rafters ring.
Of tho
happy home, of which he and Iassie
taken from neighbor's house are the
united head. Years of happiness roll
on after years of happiness. Stars
pointing down to nativities. And
whether announced in greeting or
not, every morning was Good morn
ing" and every night Good night"
Christmas trees and May queens, and
birthday festivities and Thanksgiving
gatherings around loaded tables. But
that husband and father forms an un-
fortunate acquaintance who leads him
in circles too convivial, too late
houred, too scandaIous. After awhile,
his money gone and not able to bear
his part of the expense, he is gradu-
ally showed out and ignored and
pushed away. Now, what dilapidat-
ed home is his! A dissipated life al
ways shows itself in faded window
curtains and impoverished wardrobe,
and detected surroundings, and in
broken palings of the garden fence,
and the unhinged gate, and the dislo-
Gated door bell, and the disappearance
of wife and children from scenes
among which they shone the bright
est, and laughed the gladdest. If any
man was ever down, that husband and
father is down.
The fact is, he got into a wrestle
with evil that pushed and pulled and
contorted and exhausted him worse
than any Olympian game ever treated
Grecian, and he was thrown. Thrown
out of prosperity into gloom. Thrown
out off good association into bad
Thrown out of health into invalidism.
Thrown out of happiness into misery.
But one day, while Sinking through
one of the back streets, not wishing
to be recognized, a good thought
crosses his mind, for he has heard of
men flung fat and rising again. Ar
irving at his house, he calls his wife
in, and shuts the door and saws:
MARY, / am going to do differently.
This is not what 1 promised you when
we were married. You have been very
patient with me, and have borne
everything, although L would have had
no right to complain if you had left
me and gone home to your fathers
house. 1t seems to me that once or
twice, when l was not myself, struck |
YOU. and several times I know I |