The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-08-12

/ was no lower aSpbH. DCib2
waited on at the banquet of the skies,
to the broiling OF fish for His own
| breakfast, on the banks of the lake.
From emblazoned chariots of eternity
| to the saddle Of a mules back.
From the homage cherublc, SER
aphia, archangelic, to the paving
of 62% cents of tax to Cesar.
From the deathless country to a tomb
built to hide human dissolution. The
uplifted wave of Galilee was high, but
He had to come down before, with His
| feet, He could touch it, and the whirl-
| wind that arose above the bIllow was
higher yet, but He had to come down
before with His lip He could kiss it
into quiet. Bethlehem STOPPING
| down. Nazareth STOPPING down.
| Death between two burglars a stoop-
| ing down. Yes, it was in consonance
with humiliations that went before
and self-abnegations that came after,
when on that memorable day in Herod's s
temple He stopped down and wrote on
the ground.
| Whether the words He was writing
were in Greek or Latin or Hebrew, |
can not say, for He knew all those Ian
guages. But He is still STOPPING down,
and with His finger writing on the
ground; in the winter in letters of
crystal, in the spring in letters of
| flowers, in summer in golden letters of
harvest, in autumn in letters of fire on
fallen leaves. How it would sweeten
up and enrich and em blazon this world,
could we see Christ's caligraphy all
over it. This world was not flung out
into space thousands of years ago, and
then left to look out for itself. 1t is
still under the Divine care. Christ
never for half second takes His
hand off of it, or it would soon be a
shipwrecked world. defunct world,
an obsolete world, an abandoned
world, dead world. 'Let there be
light" was said at the beginning And
Christ stands under the wintry skies
and says, let there be snow flakes to
enrich the earth; and under the clouds
of spring and says, come ye blossoms
and make redolent the orchards; and
in September, dips the branches in the
vat of beautiful colors, and swings
them into the hazy air. No whim of
mine is this. without Him was not
anything made that was made" Christ
writing on the ground.
If you could see His hand in all the
passing seasons, how it would iilumine
the world! All verdure and foliage
would be allegoric, and again we would
hear Him say, as ofold: Consider the
lilies of the field, how they grow" and
we would not hear in the whistle of 4
quail or the cawing of a raven or the
roundelay of brown-thresher, with
out saying: 'Behold the fowls of the
air, they gather not in barns, yet your
Heavenly Father feedeth them and a
Dominic hen of the barnyard could not
cluck for her brood, but we would hear
Christ saying, as of old: Glow often
would l have gathered thy children to-
gether, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her WINGS and
through the redolent hedges we would
hear Christ saying: II am the rose of
Sharon;" we could not dip the season.
ing from the salt-eeliar without think
ing of the Divine suggestion: 'Ye are
the salt of the earth, but If the salt
hath lost it's SAVIOR, it is fit for nothing
but to be cast out and troddcn under
foot of men,"
Let us wake from our stupidity and
take the whole world as d parable.
Then, if with gun and pack of hounds
we start off before dawn, and see the
morning coming down off the hills to
meet US, we would cry out with the
evangelist: "'rhe day spring from on
high hath visited u.s. or caught in a
snow storm, while struggling home,
eyebrows and beard and apparel all
covered with the whirling flakes, we
would cry out with David: Wash me
and l shall be whittier than snow" In
picture gallery OF Europe there is on
the ceiling an exquisite fresco, but the
people having to look straight up, it
wearied and dizzied them and bent
their necks almost beyond endurance;
so a great looling-glass was put near
the floor, and now visitors only need
to look easily down into the mirror,
and they see the fresco at their feet
And SO, much of the high Heaven of
Gods truth is reflected in this world as
in a mirror, and things that are above
are copied by things that are around
us.
What right have we to throw away
one of Gods Bibles-aye, the first Bible
He ever gave the race? We talk about
the Old Testament and the New Testa-
ment, but the oldest Testament con-
tains the lessons of the natural world.
Some people like the New Testament so
we'll they discard the Old Testament.
Shall we like the New Testament and
the Old Testament SO we'll as to de-
preciate the oldest; namely. that which
was written before Moses was put
afoat on the boat of leaves which was
calked with asphaltum; or reject the
Genesis that was written centuries be-
fore Adam lost rib and gained wife?
No, no! When Deity stoops down and
writes on the ground, let US read it.
[ would have no less appreciation of
the Bible on paper that comes out Of
the paper mill, but / would urge APP
probation of the Bible in the grass,
the Bible in the sand hill, the Bible in
the geranium, the Bible in the aspho-
del, the Bible in the dust. Some one
asked an ancient king whether he had
seen the eclipse of the sun. NO" said
he, 81 have SO much to study on earth
I have no time to look at Heaven" }"
And If our faculties were all awake to
the study of God we would not have
time to go much further than the first
grass blade l have no fear that
natural religion will ever contradict
what we call revealed religion have
no sympathy with the fo vers OF
Aristotle, who, after the telescope was
invented, would not look through it
| lest it contradict some of the theories
of their great Master. shall be glad
to put against one lid of the Bible the
microscope and against the other lid OF
! the Bible the telescope.
But what did Christ write on the