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

ScuOOlS, ana our prayer meetings, and
our churches to gather the people, we
must freshen up. The simple fact is,
| the people are tired of the humdrum of
religiOnists. Religious humdrum is the
worst of all humdrum. You say over
and over again: Come to Jesus" until
the phrase means absolutely nothing.
Why do you not tell them a story
which will make them come to Jesus
in five minutes? You say that all
Sunday-school teachers, and all
evangelists, and all ministers. must
bring their illustrations from the
Bible. Christ did not when lie
preached. The most of the Bible was
| written before Christ's time, but
where did He get His illustrations? He
drew them from the lilies, from the
ravens, from salt, from a candle, from
bushel, from long-faced hypocrites.
from gnats, from moths, from large
gates and small gates, from a camel,
from the needles eye, from yeast in the
dough of dough bread from a mustard
seed, from fishing net, from debtors
and creditors. That is the reason null
titudes followed Christ. HIS illustra-
| tions were so easy and SO underestimate
! BILE. Therefore, my brother Christian
worker, if you and find two ilIustra-
tiOns for a religious subject, and the one
is Bible illustration and the other is
outside the Bible, He will take the lat
ter because want to be like my Master
| Looking across to hill, Christ saw the
| City of Jerusalem. Talking to the people
about the .conspicuity of Christian ex-
ample, He said: THE world is look
sng at you; be careful A city that is
set on a hill can not be hid" WhileH e
was speaking of the divine care of
Gods children bird flew past. He
said: behold the ravens" Then,
looking down into the valley, all COW
cred at that season with flowers,
he said: Consider the lilies" Ga, my
brother Christian workers, what is the
use of our going away off in some OBJ
scure part of history, or on the other
side the earth, to get an illustration,
when the earth, and the heavens are
full of illustrations. WHY should we
go away off to get an illustration of
the vicariOus suffering OF Jesus Christ,
when as near us as Bloomfield, n
j., two little children were walk
ing on the rail track, and a
train was coming; but they were
on a bridge of trestleworl1, and the
little girl took her brother and let him
down through the trestleworh as gently
as she could toward the water, very
carefully and lovingly and cautiously,
so that he might not be hurt in the
fall and might be picked up by those
who were standing near by. While
doing that the train struck her, and
hardly enough of her body was left to
gather into a funeral casllet. What
was that? Vicarious suffering. Like
Christ. Pang for others. Woe for
others. Suffering for others. Death
for others.
But while half of the doors Of the
church are to be set open toward this
world, the other half of the doors of
the church must be set open toward
the next. You and tarry here only a
brief space. We want somebody to
teach us how to get out of this life at the
right time and in the right way. Some
fall out of life, some go stumbling out
of life, some 90 grooming out of life,
some go cursing out of life. We want
to go singing, rising, rel )lcing, tri
umphing. We want the half doors Of
the church set in that direction. We
want half the prayers that way, half
the sermons that way. We want to
know how to get ashore from the tu-
multi of this world into the land of
everlasting peace. We do not want
to stand doubling and shivering
when we go away from this world;
we want our anticipations aroused
to the highest pitch. We want
to have the eXhiIaration of diving
child in England, the father telling
me the story. When he said to her:
lis the path narrow?' she answered.:
The path is narrow; it is so narrow
that | can not walk arm in arm with
Christ, SO Jesus goes ahead, and He
says: Mary, follow" Through the
church gates set heavenward how many
of your friends and mine have gone?
The last time they were out of the
house they came to church. The earth
ly pilgrimage ended at the pillar of
public worship, and then they marched
out TO a bigger and brighter assem-
blage. Some of them were so old they
could not walk without cane or two
crutches; now they have eternal jul
they could not walk except as |
the maternal hand guided them;
now they bound with the hilari. |
ties celestial. The last time we saw
them they were wasted with malariaI |
CT pulmonic disorder; but now they |
have no fatigue, and 10 difficulty OF |
in the pure air of Heaven. |
How | wonder when you and | shall |
cross over! Some of you have had about /
enough of the humping and failing of |
this life. A draught from the fountains
of Heaven would do you good. Com
plete release you could stand very we'll.
If you got on the other side and had
permission TO come back, you would
not come. Though you were invited
to come back and join your friends on
earth you would say: No, let me
tarry here until they come, l shall not
risk going back; if a man reaches
Heaven he had better stay here"
Oh, l join hands with you in that up
lifted splendor.
When the shore is won at last,
Who viii count the pillows past?
In FIeybourg, Switzerland there is
The trunk of tree 400 years old That
rec was planted to commemorate an
event. About ten miles from the city
he Swiss conquered the Burgundians,
and young wanted to take the tidings
20 the city. lie took tree
branch and ran with such speed
,he ten miles, that when he reached
he city waving the tree branch he had
'nly strength to cry "Yictory!' and
dropped dead. The tree branch that
lie carried was planted, AMI it grew to