The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-06-10

I
that comes down 50 red at your feet,
that il seems as If all the carnage OF
| the storm battle has been emptied into
| it. So in this Bible / see two storms
/ gather, one above Sinai, the other
above Calvary, and they respond one
/ to the other-fash to flash, thunder to
thunder, boom! boom! Sinai thunders.
''The soul that sinneth, it shall die;"
Calvary responds, "save them from
| going down to the pit, for 1 have found
4 ransom"
Sinai says, "Woe! Woer' Calvary an.
swers, "Mercyl Mercyi and then the
clouds burst, and empty their treas
ures into one torrent, and it comes
! flowing to our feet, red with the car
mage of our Lord-in which, if thy soul
| be plunged, like the bird in the text,
| it shall go forth free-free! Oh, / wish
all people to understand this: that
when a man becomes a Christian
| he does not become q slave, but
/ that he ecomes free manI
/ that he has larger liberty after he be.
/ comes child of God than before he
/ became child of God. Gen. Fisk said
| that he once stood at slave block
! where an old Christian minister was
! being sold. The auctioneer said of him.;
| What bid do hear for this man? He
| is a very good kind of a man; he is a
minister" Someb body said, Twenty
dollars" Che was very old and not worth
much); some body else, "Twenty-five-
"Thirtyr--"Thirty-f Forty" The
aged minister began to tremble. He
| had expected to be able to buy his own
freedom, and he had just $40, and ex-
pectcd with the $40 to get free. As the
bids ran UP the old man trembled more
and more. Forty Forty five
Fifty" "Fixty-fve"- "SiXty"-"S Six.
ty-five." The old man cried out "Sev-
enty." He was afraid they would out.
bid him. The men around were trans.
fixed. Nobody dared bid, and the auc.
tioleer struck him down TO himself
done-donel
But by reason of sin we are poorer
than that African. We can not buy
our deliveranca The voices of death
are bidding for us, ard they bid us in,
and they bid us down. But the Lord
Jesus Christ comes and says, II will
buy that man; l bid for him my Beth
lehem manger; bid for him my hun
ger on the mountain; bid for him my
aching head; bid for him nv fainting
heart; bid for him all my wounds"
y voice from the throne of God says,
1t is enough! Jesus has bought him"
Bought with a price. The purchase
complete. 1t is done.
Why, is not a man free when he gets
rid of his sins? The sins of the tongue
gone; the sins of action gone; the sins
- = -
sions of 50, 40, 80, 20 years gone-no
more in the soul than the malaria that
fOated in the atmosphere thousand
years ago; for when my Lord Jesus
pardons a man He purdons him and
there is no halfway work about it.
Here l. see a beggar going along the
turnpike road He is worn out with
disease. He is stiff in his joints. He
is ulcered all over. He has rheum in
his eyes. He is sick and wasted. He
is in rags. Every time he puts down
his swollen feet ne cries: ''Oh, the
painI' He sees n fountain by the
roadside under a tree, and he crawls
uD to that fountain and says: Il
must wash. Here 1 may cool my ul-
GERS. Here may get rested" He
stOOrs down, and scoops up in the
palm of his hands enough water to
slake his thirst; and that is all gone.
Then he stoops down and begins to
wash his eyes; and the rhcum is all
gone. Then he puts in his swollen
feet. and the swelling is gone. Then,
willing no longer to be only half cured,
he plunges in and his whole body is
laved in the stream, and he gets upon
the bank well. Meantime the owner
Of the mansion up yonder comes
down, walking through tAe ravine
with his only son, and he sees the
bundle of rags, and asks: Whose
rags are these?' A voice from
rags" Then says the master to his
son: go up to the house and get the
best new suit you can fnd and bring
it down" And ne brings down the
clothes, and the beggar is clothed in
them, and he looks around and says:
L was filthy. but now ] am clean. 1
was ragged. but now l am robed. I
was blind, but now l see. Glory be to
the owner of that mansion: and glory
be to that son who brought me that
suit of clothes; and glory be to this
fountain, where l have washed, and
where all who will may wash and be
clean!" Where sin abounded, grace
doth much more abound. The bird has
been dipped now, let it fly away.
The next thing L noticed about this
bird. when it was loosened land this is
the main ideal, is, that it hsw away.
Which way did it go? When you let
bird loose from your grasp, which way
does it fly? Up. What are wings for?
To fly with. Is there anything in the
suggestion of the direction taken by
that bird to indicate which way we
ought TO go?
Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings,
Thy better portion trace;
Rise from tranSItory things
To Heaven. thy native place"
We should be going Heavenward.
That is the suggestion. But / know
that we have a great many draw backs.
You had them this morning perhaps.
You had them yesterday, or the day
before; and although you want to be
going Heavenward, you are constantly
But 1 suppose when that
bird went out OF the priests hands it
went by etime stoop-
ing. A bird does not shoot directly
uD, but this is the motion of bird.
So the soul scars toward God, rising
up in love, and sometimes depressed by
trial. 1t does not always SO in the
direction it would like to. But the
main course is right. There is one
passage in the Bible which quote
to myself than any other: He
knoweth our frame, and lie remem-
bereth that we are dust"