The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-11-17

our stubborn will made flexible and a
supernatural power demonstrated in
us at every step. A pretty plan of
salvation that would be, of human
drafting and manufacturing! 1t would
be doxology sung to ourselves. God
must have all the glory, not one step
of our heavenly throne made by earth
ly carpentry; not one string could we
twist of the harp of our eternal re-
| joicing. Accept all as an unmerited
donation from the skies, or we will
never have it at all.
"Now," says some one, ''if Christ is
the only way what about the heather,
who have never heard of Him?" But
you are not heather, and why divert us
from the question of our personal sal
vation? Satan is always introducing
something irrelevant. He wants to
take it out of a personality into an
abstraction. Get our own salvation set
tied, and then we will discuss the saliva
lion of other people. But" says some
| one, what percentage of the human
race will be saved? What will be the
| comparative number saved and lost ?"
There Satan thrusts in the mathemat-
les of redemption. He suggests that
you find out the mathematical proper
tion of thu redeemed. But be not de-
ceived. / am now discussing the eter-
nal welfare of OILY two persons, your
self and myself. Get ourselves right
before we bother ourselves about get
ting others right. o Christ, come hith-
er and master our case! Hero are our
sins-pardon them; our wounds-heal
them; our burdens-lift them; our sor-
rows--cOmfort them. We want the
Christ of I;artimeus to open our blind
eyes, the Christ of Martha to help US in
our domestic cares, the Christ of Oil
vet to help US preach our sermons, the
Christ of Lake Galilee to still our tenn
pests, the Christ of Lazarus to raise
our dead. Not too tired is He to come,
though He has on His whipped shoul-
ders so long carried the world woe and
on His lacerated feet walked this way to
accept our salutation.
BY the bloody throes of the noun
tain on which Jesus died, and by the
seDulcher where His mutilated body
was inclosed in Garkened crypt and by
the Olivet from Which He arose, while
astonished disciples clutched for His
robes to detain Him in their compan-
ionship, and by the radiant and omnip-
oteHt throne on which He sits waiting
for the coming of all those whose re-
GemptiOn was settled in Heaven, i'm
plore you 10 bow your head in imme
Giate and final submission. Once exer-
else sorrow for what you have done
and exercise trust in Him for what He
is willing to do, and all is well for both
worlds. Then you can swing out de-
fiance to all opposition, human and dia-
bolic. In conquering His foes He
conquered yours. And have you no.
ticcd that passage in Colossians that
represents Him having despoiled prin-
Cipalities and powers, He made show
of them, openly triumphing," so bring
ing before US that overwhelming spec
tacle of Roman triumph?
When Pompey landed at Brindisi,
Italy, returned from his victories, he
disbanded the brave men who had
fought under him and sent them re-
joicing to their homes, and, entering
Rome, his emblazoned chariot was fol-
lowed by princes III chains from king
doms he had conquered, and flowers
such as only grew under those Italian
skies strewed the way, and he came
under arches inscribed with the names
of battlefelds on which he had tf:-
umphed and rode by columns which told
of the 500 cities he had destroyed and
the 100000 people he had conquered
or slain. Then the banquet was spread,
and out of the chalices filled to the
brim they drank to the health of the
conqueror. ReliSqrius, the great SOL
dier, returned from his military
achievements and was robed in purple,
and in the procession were brought
golden thrones and pillars of precious
stones and the furniture of royal feast<,
and amid the splendors of kingdoms
overcome he was hailed to the hippo
drome by shouts such as had seldom
rung through the capital. Then also
came the convivialities. In the year 374
Aurelian made his entrance to Rome in
triumphal car, in which he stood while
a winged figure of Victory held IA
wreath above his mead. Zenoha. cap
tive queen of Pa .lnEra, walked behind
his chariot, her person encircled with
fetters of gold. under the weight of
which she nearly tainted, but still cap
tive. And there were in the procession
200 lions and tigers and beasts Of many
lands and 1000 gladiators excused from
the cruel amphitheater that they might
decorate the day, and Persian and Arab
ian and Ethiopian ambassadors were in
the procession and the long lines of cap
tives, Egyptians, Syrfans, Gauls, Goths
and Vandals.
It was to such scenes that the New
Testament refers when it spoke of
Christ ''having despoiled princiPaIties
and powers, He made show of them,
openly triumphing." But, oh, the diff
ference in those triumrhs! The Ro-
man triumph represented arrogance,
cruelty, oppression and wrong, but
Christ's triumph meant emancipation
and holiness and joy. The former was
a procession of groans accompanied By
a clank of chains, the other a process
sion of hosannas by millions set for
ever free. The only shackled ones of
Christ's triumph will be Satan and his
cohorts tied to our Lords chariot wheel,
witt all the denominations of all tile
earth bound for an eternal captiTSty.
Then will come a feast in which the
chalices will be filled with the new
wine of the kingdom" Under arches
commemorative of all the battles in
which the hammered armies of the
church militant through thousands of
years of struggle have at last won the
day Jesus will ride, Conqueror of earth
and hell and Heaven Those armies