The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-02-04

| times have noticed that always one OF
/ the best rooms has, from morning
until late at night, been given up to
gambling practices. l heard of men
who went on board with enough for a
European excursion who landed with
out money to get their baggage up to
the hotel or railroad station. To many
there is a complete fascination in
games of hazard or the risking
of money on posi- bilites 1t seems as
natural for them to bet as to eat. In
deed, the hunger for food is often over
powered by the hunger for wagers.
1t is absurd for those of US who have
never felt the fascination of the wager
to speak slightingly of the temptation.
1t has slain multitude of intellectual
and moral giants, men and women
stronger than you or l. Down under
its power went glorious Olive Gold
smith, and Gibbon, the famous his
torian, and Charles Fox, the re.
moved statesman, and in olden times,
senators of the United States, who
used to be as regularly at the gambling
house all night as they were in the
halls of legislation by day. Oh, the
tragedies of the faro table! l know
persons who began with slight stake
IN ladies' parlor, and ended with the
suicides pistol at Monte Carlo. They
played with the SO uare pieces of bone
with black marks on them, not know
ing that Satan was playing for their
bones at the same time, and was sure
to sweep all the stakes off on his side
of the table. State legislatures have
+
evil by passing laws in defense of race
tracks, and many young men have
lost all their wages at such So
called meetings" Every man who
voted for such Infamous bills has on
his hands and forehead the blood of
these souls.
Stock gambling comes into the same
catalogue. 1t must be very exhiIarat-
ing to go into the stock market AID,
depOsiting a small sum of money, rnu
the chance of taking out fortune.
Many men are doing an honest and safe
business in the stock market, and you
are an ignOramOus if you do not know
that 1t Is just as legitimate to deal in
stocks as 1T is to deal i'll coffee, or SUI
gar, or flour. But nearly all the out
SlderS who go there on Il financial ex-
cursion lost all. The old spiders eat
up the unsuspecting flies. l had
friend who put his 9 hand on his hip
pocket and said in substance: Il have
here the value of $3.50, OOJ." His home
Is to-day penniless. What was the
matter? Stock gambling. OF the vast
majority who are vlctimized you hear
not one word. One great stock firm
Il l..
papers discuss their fraud or their dis
aster, and we are presented with their
features and their biography. But
where one such famous firm sinks, 500
unknown men sink with them. The
great steamer goes down, and all the
little boats are swallowed in the same
engulfment. CANT bling is ambling,
whether in stocks or breads tufts, or
dice, or race-hOrse betting. Exhiliara-
ton at the start, but raving brain,
and shattered nervous system, and a
sacrificed property, and d destroyed
soul at the last. Young men, buy no
lottery tickets. purchase no prize pack
ages, bet on no baseball games or yacht
racing, have no faith in luck, answer
no mysterious circulars proposing great
income for small Investment, drive
away the buzzards that hover around
our hotels trying to entrap strangers.
Go out and make an honest living.
Have God on your side and be candi-
uate for Heaven. Remember all the
paths of sin are banked with flowers
at the start, and there are plenty of
helpful hands to fetch the gay charger
to your door and hold the sIrrup while
you mount. But further Oh the horse
plunges TO the bit in slough inextri-
cable.
The best honey is not like that which
j Jonathan took on the end of the rod
and brought to his lips, but that which
God puts on the banqueting table of
mercy, at which We are all IN ited to
sit. L was reading of a boy among the
of Switzerland ascending a
dangerous place with his father aa1
the guide. The boy stopped on tbs
edge OF the cliff and said;
There is flower mean to
get" Come away from there
said the father; you will fall Off"
No" said he; Il must get that beau
Clful flow en-" Aud the guides rushed
toward him to pull him back, when,
Us
nave it." he fell 1900 feet Birds of
prey were seen few days later Giro
ling through the air aud lowering
gradually to the place where the corpse
lay. Why seek flowers off the
edge of "a precipice when you can walk
knee-deep amid the full blooms of
the very paradise of God? Wheu
a man may sit DIT the Kings ban quet,
why will he go down the steps and
for the refuse and bones of a
hounds kennel? ''Sweeter than honey
and honeycomb," says David, is the
truth of God. With honey out of the
rock would have satisfied thee" says
God to the recreant. Here is honey
gathered from the blossoms of trees of
life, aud with rod made out of the
wood of the cross L dip it up for ali
your souls.
The poet Hesiod tells of an ambrosia
and a nectar, the drinking of which
would make men live forever, and one
sip of the honey from the Eternal Rock |
Will give Jyou eternal life with God. |
Come off the malarial levels of d sinful
life. Come and live on the upIands of
grace, where the vineyards sun them
selves. ION, taste and see that the Lord |
is gracious" Be happy now and happy
forever. For those who take differ
emit course the honey will turn to gall |
For many things L have admired Percy
the great English poet, but 1
del lore the fact that it seemed great |
swee tnesS to him to diShonOr God. The
poem Queen Nab" has in it the ma.
ligning of the Diety. Shelley was i'm
plous enough to ask for Rowland Hills |
Surrey Chapel that he might denounce
the Christian religion. He was in great |