The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-03-17

Gle, AttilaS OF the church, AttlaS CT
the state, and one-third of the waters
of all the world. if not two-thirds the
waters, are poisoned by the falling of
the star Wormwood. 1t is not uucom-
plimentary o human nature that most
men, as soon as they get great power,
become overbearing. The more power
men have the better, if their power be
used for good. The less power men
have the better, if they use itfor evil.
Birds circle round and round and
round before they swoop upon that
which they are aiming for. And if
my discourse so far has been swinging
round and round, this moment it drops
straight on your heart and asks the
question: Is your life benediction to
others or an imbitterment. blessing
or curse, a balsam or a wormwood?
Some of you, l know, are morning
stars. and you are making the dawn
ing life of your children bright with
gracious influences, and you are beam
ing upon all the opening enterprises
of philapthropic and Christian endeav-
or, and you are heralds of that
day of gospelization which will yet
flood all the mountains and valleys of
our sin accursed earth. Hail, morn
ing star! Keep on shining with en-
couragement and Christian hope!
Some of you are evening stars, and
you are cheering the last days of old
people. and, though a cloud sometimes
comes over you through the querulous-
ness or unreasonableness of your aged
father and mother, it is only for a mo-
ment, and the star soon comes out
clear again and is seen from all the
balconies of the neighborhood. The
old people will forgive your occasional
shortcomings, for they themselves sew
eral times lost their patience with you
when you were young, and perhaps
whipped you when you did not deserve
it. Hail, evening star! Hang on the
darkening sky your diamond coronet.
But are any of you the star Worm
wood? Do you scold and growl from
the thrones paternal or maternal? Are
your children everlastingly pecked at?
Are you always crying 'Hush!" to the
merry voices and swift feet and to the
laughter which occasionally trickles
through at wrong times and is sup
pressed by them until they can hold it
no longer. and all the barriers burst
into unlimited guffaw and cachinna-
ton, as in this weather the water has
trickled through a slight opening in
the mildam, but afterward makes
wider and wider breach until it carries
all before it with irresistible freshet?
Do not be too much offended at the
noise your children now make. 1t will
be still enough when one of them is
dead. Then you would give your right
hand to hear one shout from the silent
voice or one step from the still foot.
You will not any of you have to wait
very long before your house is stiller
than you want it. Alas, that there
are so many homes not known to the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
toChildren. where children are whacked
and cuffed and ear pulled, and sense
Iessly called to order, and answered
sharply. and suppressed, until it is
wonder that under such processes they
do not all turn out Mana Sahibs!
What is your influence upon the
reighborhood, the town or the city of
your I6SluGuCG. L Will SuBpOSS tbdl
you are a star of wit. What kind of
rays do you shoot forth? Do you use
that splendid faculty to irradiate the
world or to rankle it? ! bless all the
apostolic college of humorists. The
man that makes me laugh is my bene
factor. I do not thank anybody to
make me cry. | can do that without
assistance. We all cry enough and
have enough to cry about. God bless all
skillful punsters, all reparteeists, all
propounders of ingenious conundrums,
all those who mirthfully surprise
us with unusual juXtaposition of
words. Thomas Hood and Charles
Dickens and Sydney Smith had a divine
mission, and so have their successors in
these times. They stir into the acid
beverage of life the saccharine. They
make the cup of earthly existence,
which is sometimes stale, effervesce and
bubble. They placate animosities.
They foster longevity. They slay fol-
lies and absurdities which all the SER
mons of all the pulpits cannot reach.
But what use are you making of your
wit? Is it besmirched with profanity
and uncleanness? Do you employ it in
amusement at physical defects for
which the victims are not responsible? D.?
Are your powers of mimicry used to
put religion in contempt? Is it bunch
Of nettlesome invective? Is it bolt of
unjust scorn? Is it fun at others mis-
fortune? Is it glee at their disap-
pointment and defeat? Is it bitterness
put drop by drop into cup? Is it like
the squeezing of Artemisia absinthium
into draft already distastefully pun
gent ? Then you are the star Worm
wood. Yours is the fun of rattlesnake
trying how we'll it can sting.
ButIwill change this and suppose you
are star of worldly prosperity. Then
you have large opportunity. You can
encourage that artist by buying his pic
ture. You can improve the fields, the
stables. the highway. by introducing
higher style of fowl and horse and cow
and sheep. You can bless the world
with pomological achievement in the
orchard. You can advance arboricul-
ture and arrest the deathful destruc-
tion of the American forests. You can
put piece of sculpture into the niche
of that public academy, you can endow
a college, you can stocking 1000 bare
feet from the winter frost, you can
build a church, you can put a mission
ary of Christ on that foreign shore,
you can help to ransom a world. A
rich man with his heart right-can you
tell me how much good James Lenox
or George Peabody or Peter Cooper
or a William Z. Dodge did while living
or is doing now that he is dead? There
is not city, town or eighborhood tina
has not glorious specimens of conse-
Grated wealth.
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