The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-12-09
SUBSCRIPTION: Sl.OO Per Year.

Iy expired. SO you know E0bU men ana
women who have had enough troubles,
you think, TO crush so people. No
worldly philosophy could take such a
trouble ard set it 10 music or play it
on violin or flute, but dare TO open
that dark saying on a golden harp.
You wonder that very consecrated
people have trouble? Did you ever
know any very consecrated man or
woman who had not had great trouble?
Never! 1t was through their troubles
sanctificd that they were made very
good. If you find anywhere in this
city man who has now and always has
had perfect health and never lost
| child, and has always been popular,
and never had business struggle or
misfortune, who is distinguished for
goodness, pull your wire for tele-
| graph messenger boy and send me
word. aud will drop everything and
go right away to look at him. There
never has been a man like that and
never will be- Who are those arrogant.
seIf-conceited creatures who move
about without sympathy for others and
who think more of St. Bernard cog,
or an Alderney cow, or Southdown
sheep. or a Berkshire pig than of
man? They never had any trouble. or
the trouble was never sanctificd. Who
are those men who listen with moist
eye as you tell them of suffering. and
who have pathos in their voice, ard
| kindness in their manner, and an eX-
cuse or an alienation for those gone
astray? They are the men who have
graduated at the royal academy OF
trouble, and they have the diploma
written in wrinkles on their counte-
nances My! my! What heartaches
they had! What tears they have wept
What injustice they have suffered!
| The mightiest influence for publication
| and salvation is trouble. No diamond
fit for q crown until it is cut. No
wheat Fl for bread till it is ground.
| There are only three things that can
| break off a chain-a hammer, file or
| q fire-and trouble is all three of them,
| The greatest writers, orators and re-
| formers get much of their force from
trouble. What gave to Washington
Irving that exquisite tenderness and
| pathos winch will make his books IA
| vorites while the English language con-
| tinues TO be written and spoken? An
| early heartbreak that he never once
mentioned, and when, 30 years after the
| death Of Matilda Hoffman, who was to
| have been his bride, her father picked
ND a piece of embroidery and said:
THAT is piece of poor MatiIda's work
manship'' Washington Irving sank
| from hilarity into silence and walked
away, Out of that lifetime grief the
great author dipped his pens mightiest
reinforcement. Calvin's institutes OF
Religion" than which a more wonder
| full book was never written by human
| hand was begun by the author at 70
years of age because of the persecution
by Francis, king of France. Faraday
toiled for all time ona salary of 50 a
wear and candles. AS every brick OF the
wall of Babylon was stamped with the
letter n. standing for Nebuchadnezzar
so every part of the temple Of Christian
achievement is stamped with the let
ter I, standing for trouble.
When in England a man is honored
with kniglrthood, he is struck with the
fiat of the sword. But those who have
~
| God were first struck, not with the fiat
of the sword, but with the keen edge OF
the scimeter. To build his magnifi-
cence of character, Paul could not have
spared one lash, one prison, one ston-
ing. one anathema, one poisonous viper
from the hand, one shipwreck. What is
true of individuals is true of nations.
The horrors of the American revolution
gave this country this side of the Mis-
sissippi river to independence, and the
conflict between England and France
gave the most of this country west of
the Mississippi to the United States.
France owned it, but Napoleon, fearing
that England would take it, practically
made present to the United States, for
he received only $15,000,000 for Louisl-
ana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Ne
braska, Iowa, Minnesota. Colorado, Da-
kcta, Montana, Wyoming and the In
dian Territory Out of the fire of the
American revolution came this country
east of the Mississippi, out of the Eu-
ropean war came that west of the Mis-
sissippi river. The British empire rose
to its present overtowering grandeur
through gunpowder plot, and Guy
Fawkes' conspiracy, and Northampton
insurrection, and Walter Raleigh's be
heading, and Bacon's bribery, and
Cromwelrs dissolution of parliament,
and. the battles of Edge Hill, and the
vicissitudes of centuries. So the earth
itself, before it could become an appro-
pirate and beautiful residence for the
human family, had, according to geol-
ogy. to be washed by universal deluge
and scorched and made incandescent
by universal fires, and pounded by
sledge hammer of icebergs, and
wTcnched by earthquakes that split con-
tinents, and shaken by volcanoes that
tossed mountains and passed through
the catastrophes of thousands Of years
before Paradise became possible, and
the groves could shake out their green
banners. and the first garden pour its
carnage of color between the Gihon and
the Hiddekel. Trouble a good thing
for the rocks, good thing for nations.
as well as good thing for individuals.
So when you push against me with
sharp Interrogation point: Why do the
good suffer? ] open the dark saying on
harp and, though | can neither play
an organ or cornet or hautboy or bugle
or clarinet. ] have taken some lessons
in the Gospel harp, and if you would
like to hear me | will play you these:
''AlI things work together for good to
those who love God" Now no chasten-
ing for the present seemeth to be joy
ous. but grievous. nevertheless after
ward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of
righteousness unto them which are eX-