The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-06-24

stuck fast. Inc enemy went DOWN
with laughter and derision to board
the vessel, when the vessel gave a
broadside fire against the enemy, and
by the shock was turned back into the
| stream, and all was we'll. Oh, We who
are high and dry on the rocks of mel
ancholy, give broadside fire of song
against your spiritual enemies, and by
holy rebound you will come out into
the calm waters. If we want to make
ourselves happy we must make others
| happy. Mythology tells us of Am
phion, who played his Tyre until the
noun tains were moved and the walls
of Thebes arose; but religion has a
mightier story to tell of how Christian
song may build whole temples of eter-
nal Joy, and lift the round earth into
sympathy with the skies.
l tarried many nights in London,
| and l used to hear the bells, the small
! bells of the city, strike the hour of
night-one, two, three, four-and
among them the great st. Paul's cathe-
! dral would come in to mark the hours,
making all the other sounds seem ut
/ terly insignificant, as with mighty
! tongue it announced the hour of the
| night, every stroke an overmastering
| boom My friends, it was intended
| that all the lesser sounds of the world
| should be drowned on. in the mighty
| tongue of congregational song beating
against the gates of Heaven. Do you
know how they mark the hours in
| Heaven? They have no clocks, as they
have no candles, but a great pendulum
of hallelujah swinging across Heaven
| from eternity to eternity.
| Let those refuse to sing
! Who never knew our God;
But children of the Heavenly King
Should speak their joys abroad
Again L remark that sanctuary help
ought to come from the sermon. OF a
thousand people in any audience, how
many want sympathetic help? Do you
guess 1OC? Do you guess 500? You
have guessed wrong l will tell you
just the proportion. Out of 1000 peo-
pie in any audience there are just 900
who need sympathetic help. These
young people want it just as much as
the old. The old people sometimes
seem to think they have a monopoly of
the rheumatisms, and the neuralgias,
and the headaches, and the physical
disorders of the world: but | tell you
there are no worse heartacheS than are
felt by some of the young people. Do
you know that much of the work is
done by the young? Raphael died at
81; Richelieu at 81; GuStavus Adolphus
died at IS; Innocent Ill came to his
mightiest influence at 81. Cortez- con-
quered Mexico at 80; Don John won
Lepanto at p; Grotius was attorney
general at "A; and l have noticed amid
all classes of men that some of the
severest battles and the toughest work
comes before 30. Therefore we must
have our sermons and our exhorta-
tions in prayer meeting all sympa-
thetic with the young. And so with
these people further on in life. What
do these doctors and lawyers and
merchants and mechanics care about
the distractions of religion? What
they want is help to bear the whimsi-
calities of patients, the browbeating of
legal opponents, the unfairness of Gus
toners who have plenty of fault-find-
ing for every imperfection of handi-
work, but no praise for twenty excel
Iences. What does the brain-raciIed,
d-blistereI IN IN care for Zwingle's
I'D )ctrine OF Original Sim" or Au-
gustinc's ''Retractions?7 You might
as well go to a IN who has the pleu-
risy and put on his side plaster made
out of DIR. PARIS Treatise on Medical
Jurisprudence.
While all of a sermon may not be
helpful alike to all, if it be Christian
sermon preached by a Christian man,
there will be help for everyone some
where. We go into an apothecary's
store. We see others being waited on;
we do not complain because we do not
Immediately get the medicine; we
know our turn will come after awhile.
And SO, while all parts of sermon
may not be appropriate to our case, If
we wait prayerfully, before the SER
mon is through we shall nave
the divine prescription. 1 say to
young men who are going to preach
the Gospel: We want in our sermons
not more metaphysics, nor more
imagination, nor more logic, nor more
profundity. What we want in our SER
mons and Christian exhortations is
more sympathy. When Father Taylor
preached in the Sailors Bethel at Bos-
ton, the jack tars felt they had help for
duties among the ratlines and fore
castles. When Richard Weaver preached
to the operatives in Oldham, England,
all the workmen felt they had more
grace for the spindles. When DIR. South
preached to kings and princes and
princesses, all the mighty men and
women who heard him felt prepara-
ton for their high station.
People will not go TO church merely
as a matter of duty. There will not
next Sabbath be a hundred people in
this city who will get up in the morn
ing and say: @The Bible says | must
go to church; it is my duty to go to !
church, therefore will go to church
The vast multitude of people who go |
to church, go to church because they |
like it, and the multitude of people !
who stay away from church, stay away /
because they do not like it. | am not /
speaking about the way the world |
ought to be; l am speaking about the |
way the world is. Taking things as
they are, we must make the /
centripetal force of the church !
mightier than the centrifugal.
We must make our churches mag
uSCS W uId" Tue people IheTSuuCo, 50
that man will feel uneasy if he does
not go to church, saying: Il wish l
had gone this morning. L wonder if
can't dress yet and get there in time.
1t is IL o'clock; now they are singing.
1t is 11:3O; now they are preaching. L
wonder when the folks will be home
20 tell us what was said, what has been
going on" When the impression Is con-
irmed that our churches, by architec