The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-06-02
SUBSCRIPTION: Sl.OO Per Year.

declared it was the best poetry they
had ever heard. That book brought
George Washington down on his knees
in the snow at Valley Forge, and led
the dying Prince Albert to ask some
one to sing Rock of Ages"
| tell you that the worst attempted
crime of the century is the attempt to
destroy this book Yet infidelity, loath-
some, stenchful, leprous, pestiferous,
rotten monster, stretches out its hand,
ichorous with the second death, to take
the hand of this republic. 1t stretches
It out through seductive magazines,
and through Iyceum lectures. and
through caricatures of religion. 1t asks
for all that part of the continent al
ready fully settled and the two-thlrds
not yet occupied. 1t says: Give me
ali east of the Mississippi, with the
KEYS of the church and with the Chris
tian printing presses. Then give me
Wyoming, give me Alaska, give me
Montana, give me Colorado, give me all
the states west of the Mississippi and
will take those places and keep them by
right of possession long before the Cos
pei can De 1ulIy lntFencneu.
And this suitor presses his case APP
pallingly. Shall the banns of that mar
riage be proclaimed? mol" say the
home missionaries of the west, mar
tyr band of whom the world is not
worthy, toiling amid fatigues and ma
Iaria and starvation. mo, not If we
can help it. BY what we and our chill
dren have suffered we forbid the banns
of that narriage!" moi" say all patri-
otic voices. "Our institutions were
bought at too dear price and were de-
Tended at too great sacrifice to be SO
cheaply surrendered" ''No!" says the
God of Bunker Hill and Independence
hall and Gettysburg. 81 did not start
this nation for such a farce" NO!
crv 10000 voices. "To infidel1ty TINS
land shall not be married.
But there is another suitor that pre-
sents his claim for the hand of this re-
public. He is mentioned in the verse
following my text where it says: LAS
the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride,
so shall thy God rejoice over thee" 1t
is not my figure. 1t is the figure of the
Bible. Christ is so desirous to have this
world love Him that He stops at no hu-
initiation of simile. He compares His
grace to spittle on the eyes of the blind
man. He compares Himself to hen
gathering the chickens, and in my text
He compares Himself to a suitor beg
ging a hand in marriage. Does this
Christ, the King, deserve this land? Be-
hold Pilates hall and the insulting ex-
pectoration on the face of Christ. Be-
hold the Calvarean massacre and the
awful hemorrhage of five wounds. ia
cob served II years for Rachel, but
Christ, my Lord, the King, suffered in
torture 33 years to win the love of this
world. AS often princesses at their very
birth are pledged in treaty of marriage
to princes or kings of earth, SO this ma
ton at its birth was pledged to Christ
for Divine marriage.
Before Columbus and his 120 men en-
barked on the Santa Maria, the Pinta
and the Nina for their wonderful voy-
age, what was the last thing they did?
They sat down and took the holy sac
rament of the Lord Jesus Christ. after
they caught the first sight of this coun-
try and the gun of one ship had an
nounced it to the other vessels that land
had been discovered, what was the song
that went up from all the three decks
Gloria in Excelsis." After Columbus
and his 120 men had stepped from the
ships deck to the solid ground, what
did they do? They all knelt and con-
the new world to God. What
did the Huguenots do after they landed
IN the Carolinas? What did the Hol-
and refugees do after they landed in
New York? What did the pilgrim
fathers do after they landed in New
England? With bended knee and up
lifted face and Heaven besieging prayer,
they took possession of this continent
for God. How was the first American
congress opened? By prayer, in the
name of Jesus Christ. From it's birth
ibis nation was pledged for holy mar
riage with Christ.
And then see how good God has been
70 US! Just open the map of the con-
inent and see how it is shaped for inn
properties. Navigable
'ivers, more in number and greater
han any other land, rolling down on
III sides into the sea, prophesying large
and easy commerce.
Look at the great ranges of mountains
imbered with wealth on the top and
ides, metaIed with wealth underneath.
)ne hundred and eighty thousand
quare miles of coal. One hundred and
lightly thousand square miles of iron.
The land SO contoured that extreme
Weather hardly ever lasts more than
hree days-eXtreme heat or extreme
old. Climate for the most part brac-
ng and favorable for Drawn and brain.
Ill fruits, all minerals, all harvests.
scenery displaying an autumnal pa
eantry that no land on earth pretends
o rival. No South American earth
.uakes. No Scotch mists. No London
ogs. No Egyptian plaques. No Ger
manic divisions. The people of the
jnited States are happier than any peo-
lie on earth. It is the testimony of
very man that has travelled abroad.
'or the poor, more sympathy; for the
more opportunity. Oh, how
.ood God was to our fathers, and how
-ood he has been to us and to our chill
rem. To Him-blessed be His mighty
ame-to Him of cross and triumph, to
linn who still remembers the prayer of
he Huguenots and Holland refugees
nd the pilgrim fathers-to Him shall
his land be married. Oh, you Christian
by your contributions and
our prayers, hasten on the fulfllment
f the text.
Needed Him.
sET rnuCf caud than oil oiro1,Iorc av