The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-09-16

yourselves, how are you to save 9TH
ers? By testimony. Tell it to your
family. Tell it to your business asso-
ciates. Tell it everywhere. We will
successfully preach no more religion
and will successfully talk no more re-
ligion than we ourselves have. The
most of that which you do to benefit
the souls of this generation you will
effect through your own behavior. Go
wrong, and that will induce others to
go wrong. Go right, and that will in
duce others to go right.
L confess to you that my one wish is
to serve this generation, not to antag-
onize it, not to damage it, not to rule
it, but to serve it. l would like to do
something toward helping unstrap its
load, to stop its tears, to balsam its
wounds and to induce it to put foot on
the upward road that has at its termi-
nus reclamation rapturous, and gates
Pearline, and garlands amaranthine,
and fountains rainbowed, and domin-
ions enthroned and coroneted, for can
not forget that lullaby in the closing
words of my text: David, after he had
served his own generation, by the will
of God, fell on Sleep" What lovely
sleep it wasl Unfilial Absalom did not
trouble it. Ambitious Adonijah did not
worry it. Prosecuting Saul did not har-
row it. Exile did not fill ii with night
mare. Since a red-headed boy amid his
fathers fiocks at night he had not had
such u good sleep. AT 20 years of age
he laid down to it. He had had many
troubled sleep, as in the caverns of
Adullam or in the palace at the time
his enemies were attempting his cap
ture. But this was a peaceful sleep, a
calm sleep, a restful sleep, glorious
sleep.
Away with all your gloomy talk
about departing from this world! If
we have served our generation, it will
not be putting out into the breakers;
it will not be the fight with the king
of terrors; it will be going to sleep.
A friend, writing me from Illinois, says
that Rev. DR.. Wingate, president of
Wake Forest college, North Carolina,
after most useful life, found his last
day on earth his happiest day, and that
in his last moments he seemed to be
personally talking with Christ, as
friend with friend, saying: "Oh, how
delightful it is! l knew you would be
with me when the time came, and |
knew it would be sweet, but l did
not know it would be as sweet as it is"
The fact was he had served his gen.
Grafton in the Gospel ministry, and
by the will of God he fell asleep. When
in Africa Majwara, the servant, looked
into the tent of David Livingstone and
found him on his knees, he stepped
back, not wishing to disturb him in
prayer, and some time after went in
and found him in the same posture and
stepped back again, but after awhile
went in and touched him, and, loI the
great traveller had finished his last
journey, and he had died in the grand
est and mightiest posture man ever
takes-on his knees. He had served
his generation by unrolling the scroll
of continent, and by the will of God
fell on sleep. In the museum of
England, there is a frag
ment of a book that was found in the
arctic regions, amid the relics of Sir
John Franklin, who had persisted amid
the snow and ice, and the leaf of that
piece of a book was turned down at
the words: ''When Thou passest
through the waters, I will be with
thee" Having served his generation
in the cause of science and discovery,
by the will of God he fell on sleep.
Why will you keep us all so nervous
talking about that which is only a dor
mitory and a pillowed slumber, cano-
pied by angels wings? Sleep! Trans
porting sleep! And what glorious
awakening! You and have sometimes
been thoroughly bewildered after
long and fatiguing journey. We have
at a friends house for the
night, and after hours of complete I'M
we have opened our
eyes, the high risen sun full in our
faces, and before we could fully collect
our faculties have said: where am I,
whose house is this and whose are
these gardens?" And then it has
flashed upon us in glad reality.
And l should not wonder if after we
have served our generation and by the
will of God have fallen on sleep, the
deep sle@p, the restfuI sleep, we should
awaken in blissful bewilderment and
for a little while say: where am 1?
What palace is this? Why, this looks
like Heaven! 1t is. 1t is. Why, there is
a building grander than all the castles
of earth heaved into a mountain of
splendor-that must be the palace of
Jesus. And look there at those walks
lined with foliage more beautiful than
1 ever saw before, and see
those who are walking down those aisles
of verdure. From what have heard of
them those two arm in arm must be
Moses and Joshua, him of Mount Sinai
and him of the hating sun over Gideon,
and these two walking arm in arm
must be John and Paul, the one so
gentle and the other so mighty.
But 1 must not look any longer at
those gardens of beauty, but examine
this building in which l have just
awakened. l look out of the window
this way and that and up and down,
and 1 find it is a mansion of immense
size in which L am stopping. All its
windows of agate and its colonnades of
porphyry and alabaster. Why, / won
der if this is not the house Of many
of which l used to read?
1t is. 1t is. There must be many of
my kindred and friends in this very
mansion Hank! Whose are those
Foices? Whose are those bounding
feet? l open the door and see, and, 10,
they are coming through all the cor
ridors and up and down all the stairs,
our long absent kindred. Why, there
IS father, there is mother, there are
the children. All well again. All
young again. All of US together gain.
And as we embrace each other with
he cry, Never more to part; never