The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-05-05
Home Religion.

THE following paper was readily Miss Lizzie
Hundley before the 9Th sunday meeting of the
Memphis Association, held at Bethlehem last
week, and is published by request of the Asso-
ciatiOn.l
We are living to-day in an enlightened and
christian age, in a land dotted with schools and
churches. In the midst of so many social and re-
lgious blessings it does not seem in harm ony with
our surroundings to speak of tha neglect of home
religion yet We must ad nit there is serious neg
ligence. Even in our Own State, of which we are
justly proud of the fairest among the sister,
hood, with its great band of noble christian work
ers state in which the gospel is proclaimed from
thousands of pulpits yet learn from the report
of the Tennessee Baptist Convention of last Octo-
Der there million unsaved souls in Tennes-
See many towns in our State without church of
any kind, and ninety thousand homes in Tennes-
see without Bible. Ninety thousand homes in
our own State where Gods Word is not read, and
the eternal truths of life are not taught!
Can the halowed name of "home" be applied to
a family circle, if the government of that house,
hold is not based upon the principles and COM
mands of the Holy Bible?
1t is home influence and home religion that
gives to the nation her greatest statesmen and the
pulpit the greatest diyines, though the world may
never know-may never seek the from
which this greatness flows.
Like mighty river as it flows through the land
giving life, health and happiness to thousands,
and bearing the wealth OF many cities upon its
ample waters, yet its source may be traced to
tiny spring. So it is in the career of those who
fill the largest space in the worlds eye. Those who
accomplish most for the cause of christianity may
no OF If hal 10 nj
and home impressions.
Religion is practical, it is sensible, and it is
divine. If it does NOT shed its penetrating rays
and light the little sphere in which move, if
those with whom we are in constant association
are not influenced to higher and nOber life, there
IS a failure part TO perform christian duty,
as a distinguished writer has said We have
ceased to apply first principles No matter how
nigh Oue may ascend in the science of mathemat-
les there must be continual use of the first prin
ciples, or the fundamental rules. The mathema-
tician in solving the most complicated problems
must use the same elementary principles taught to
him in the beginning of the subject, and without
a thorough understanding of these rules and with
out continual recurrence to them there can be no
possible advancement. The same reasoning holds
good in respect to christianity, the scheme of
dempt1oR.
No matter to what heights may climb in
the domain of christianity, or how far one may ad-
vance in the divine life, how often the gospel
may be proclaimed, or to what extent its princi-
pies may be applied, there must be by logical ne
cessity continual recurrence to first principles
which the entire structure of christian religion
is built.
Just what owe to the christian influence
thrown around us in childhood days can never be
to1Y iS ha
lore the judgment bar of God; for the light that
shines from a christians life reaches the Heaven
from whence it came.
The mother of Moses so instiled in his heart the
teachings of his forefathers and the promises of
God that all the charms of the royal court could
not efface them from his memory, cause him to |
forget his mission.
The influence of home has kept many young |
man from the saloon, and from the gambling den. |
Faith in mothers religion has checked many a |
career, and brought many wanderers |
home TO God. Reverence for the God that father
and mother worship aud serve causes the sinstain-
ed soul to pause the very brink of destruction,
and forever abandon the fatal step.
1t is the memory of home religion, and the de-
yotion of dear ones to the family circle which
scatters the four winds of the earth, the strong
est theory of infdelity, or skepticism.
state prisons and county jails are not filled with
men who have been reared in christian homes
The kind words, the sympathy, the counsel, the
prayers all memory's treasures
The gentle influence OF home aud childhood with
III their tender and hallowed associations steals
ver the soul and quiekens the most callous heart.
Death may have long since Iaimed the loved
mes severed the ties and left the hearthstone des
late; change may have brought strangers to the
aered spot where the years Of childhood we're
pent; the ''effacing finger of time may have
rased many impressions of early life from the
mind, or buried them deeply beneath the per-
licking cares of every day life-yet the true heart
ever ceases to thank God for the blessings Of de-
oted christian parents and HONE RELIGION. z
A good variety of fresh :
L. Cd - To,