The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-07-01
ct for the silent heart

/ my SObi my oOns my pOOI oOhS WOulC
God l had died for thee, oh, my SON
my son!"
You may judge of amusements by
their effect upon physical health. The
need of many good people is physical
recuperation. There are Chritiam mer
who write hard things against their
! immortal souls when there is not ling
the matter with them but an incom-
petent liver. There are Christian peo-
| pie who seem to think that it is good
! sign to be poorly, and because Richard
| Baxter and Robert Hall were invalids
/ they think that by the same sickness
| they may come to the same grandeur
| of character. / want to tell Christian
deople that God will hold you re-
/ Sponsible for your invalidism if it is
| your own fault, and when through
right exercise and prudence you might
be athletic and well. The effect of the
! body upon the soul you acknowledge.
Put man of mild disposition upon the
animal diet of which the Indian par
| takes, and in a little while his blood
| will change its chemical proportions.
1t will become like unto the blood OF
| the lion, or the tiger, or the bear, while
his disposition will change and be-
come fierce, cruel and unrelenting.
| The body has a powerful effect upon
the soul. There are people whose
ideas of Heaven are all shut out with
clouds of tobacco smoke. There
are people who dare to shatter the
physical vase in which God put the
jewel of eternity. There are men with
great hearts and intellCctS in bodies
worn out by their own neglects Mag
nificent machinery capable of propell-
ing Il great Etruria across the Allan
tic, yet fastened in rickety North
River propeller. Physical develop
ment which merely shows itself in a
fabulous lifting, or in periIeus rope
walking, or in pugilistic encounter,
eXcites only our contempt, but we con-
TESS to great admiration for the man
who has a great soul in an athletic
body, every nerve, muscle and bone of
which is consecrated to right uses.
Oh, it seems to me outrageous
that men through neglect should
allow their physical health to go
down beyond repair, spending the rest
of their life not in some great enter
prise for God and the world, but in
studying what is the best thing to take
for dyspepsia. A ship which ought,
with all sails set and every man at his
post, to be carrying a rich cargo for
eternity, employing all it's means in
stopping up leakagcS! When you may,
through some of the popular and
healthful recreation of our time, work
off your spleen and your querulousness
and One-half of your physical and
mental ailments, do not turn your back
from such grand medicament.
Again, judge of the places of amuse-
ment by the cOmpaniOnship into which
they put you. If you belong to an or
ganiZatiOn where you have to associate
with the Incorporate, with the IN
clean, with the abandoned, however
well they may be dressed, in the name
of God quit it. They will despoil your
nature. They will undermine your
moral character. They will drop you
when you are destroyed. They will
not give one cent to support your chill
dren when you are dead. They will
weep not one tear at your burial
They will chucl<le over your damna-
ton. But the day comes when the
men who have eXerted evil influence
upon their fellows will be brought to
judgment. Scene: The last day Stage:
The rocking earth. Enter dukes, lords,
kings, beggars, clowns. No sword.
No tinSel. No crown. For footlightS,
the kindiing flames of a world. For
orchestra. the trumpcts that wake the
dead. For gallery, the clouds filled
with angel spectators. For applause,
the clapping floods of the sea. For
curtains, the heavens rolled together
as IL scroll. For tragedy, the doom of
the destroyed. For farce, the effort to
serve the world and God at the same
time. For the last scene of the fifth
act, the tramp of nations across the
to the right others to tn
left.
Again, any amusement that gives
you a distaste for domestic life is bad.
How many bright domestic circles have
been broken up by sinful amusements?
The father went off, the mother went
off, the child went off. There are all
arounds US the fragments of blasted
OI! if you have wan
dered away, L would like to charm
you back by the sound of that
one word, Home" Do you not |
know that you have but little |
more time to give to domestic well
fare? Do you not see, father, that your |
children are soon to 60 out into the |
world, aud all the influence for good |
you are to have over them you must |
nave how? Death will break in on |
your conjugal relations, and, alas! if |
you have to stand over the grave of |
one who persisted from your neglect.
saw a hayward husband standing at
he deathbed of his Christian wife,
Ind l saw her point to ring on her
niger and heard her say to her hus-
Iand: do you see that ring?" He re.
died: Yes, | see it." WELL said |
lie, do you remember who put it
here?' Yes, said he, Il put it there.
And all the past seemed to rush up
IN him. BY the memory of that day,
When in tile presence OF men and an
,els you promised to be faithful in joy
md sorrow, and in sickness and in
lealth, by the memory of those pleas
mt hours when you sat together in
our new house, talking of a bright
uture; by the cradle and the excited
lour when the life was spared and an
ther given; by that sick bed, when the
title one lifted up the hands and called
or help and you knew he must die, and
&c put an arm around each of your
ecl1s and brought you very near to-
ether in that dying kiss; by the little
rave in the cemetery that you never
hink of without rush of tears; by the
amily Bible, where in it's stories of
love is the brief but ex-
reSSive record of births and deaths; |