The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-03-03
SPRINGTIME OF LIFE.
A Sermon on the Scenes of Youth
by DR.. Talmage.
A Mans True Character VIII Come
Out Beside the Fireside-HOme
Should Be the Brightest
Place ON Earth.
IVA ShinptOn.

| washington, Copyright, 1S99)
Many tender recollections are stirred
by DR.. Talmage's discourse, and scenes
of boyhood and girlhood days will be
lived over again; text, Timothy, v. 4:
| ''Let them learn first to show piety at
| home"
During the summer months the tend
| ency is to the fields, to visitation, to for
| eign travel and theEwatering places,
and the ocean steamers are thronged,
| but in the winter it is rather to gather
in domestic circles, and during these
months we spend many of the hours
within doors, and the apostle comes
| to us and says that we ought to eXer-
else Christian behavior amid alb such
| circumstances. Let them learn first
to show piety at home"
There are a great many people long
| ing for some grand sphere in which
to serve God. They admire Luther at
the diet of Worms and only wish they
had some such, great opportunity in
which to display their Christian Prov
ess. They admire Paul making Felix
| tremble, and they only wish that they
had some such grand occasion in which
to preach righteousness, temperance
and judgment to come. All they want
is an opportunity to exhibit their
| Christian heroism. Now, the apostle
practically says: 81 will show you a
| place where you can exhibit all that
| is grand and beautiful and glorious
| in Christian character, and that is the
| domestic circle. Let them learn first
| to show piety at home" If one is not
| faithful in an insignificant sphere, he
| will not be faithful in a resounding
sphere. If Peter will not help the
| cripple at the gate of the temple, he
| will never be able to preach 5000 into
| the kingdom at the Pentecost. If Paul
| will not take pains to instruct in the
way of salvation the jailer of the Phil
ippian dungeon, he will never make
| Felix tremble. He who is not faithful
in skirmish would not be faithful in
an Armageddon. The fact is, we are
all placed in just the position in which
we can most grandly serve God, and
we ought not to be chiefly thoughtful
| about some sphere of usefulness which
we may after awhile gain, but the all
| absorbing question with you and with
me ought to be: Lord, what wilt thou
have me now and here to do?"
There is one woMl in st. Pau's ad-
juration around which the most of our
thoughts will revolve. That word is
thome." Ask ten different men the
meaning of that word, and they will
give you ten different definitions. To
one it means love at the hearth, plen-
ty at the table, industry at the work
stand, intelligence at the books, devo-
ton at the altar. In that household
discord never sounds its warwhoop and
| deception never tricks with its false
face. To him it means greeting at
the door and a smile at the chair, peace
lowering like wings, JOY clapping its
hands with laughter. Life is tran
quill lake. Pillowed on the ripples sleep
the shadows. Ask another man what
home is, and he will tell you it is want
looking out of a cherries fire CRATE,
kneading hunger in an empty bread
tray. The damp air shivering with
curses. No Bible on the shelf Chill
dren robbers and murderers in embryo.
Obscene songs their lullaby. Every
face a picture of ruin. Want in the
front. No Sabbath wave rolling over
that doorsill. Vestibule of the pit.
Shadow of internal walls. Furnace for
forging everlasting chains. Fagots for
an unending funeral pile. Awful word.
1t is spelled with curses, it weeps with
ruin, it chokes with woe, it swears with
the death agony of despair. The word
''home" in the one case means every
thing bright. The word ''home" in the
other case means everything terrific.
1 shall speak now OF. home as a test
of character, home as a refuge, home
as political safeguard, home as
school and home as type of Heaven.
And in the first place home is pow
erful test of character. The disposi-
ton in public may be in gay costume,
while in private it is dishabille. AS play
actors may appear in one way on the
stage and may appear in another way
behind the scenes, so private charac-
ter may be different from public char
acter. Private character is often pub
lie character turned wrong side out. A
man may receive you into his parloV as
though he were distillation of smiles,
and yet his heart may be a swamp of
nettles There are business men who
all day long are mild and courteous and
genial and good natured in CONNER
cial life, damming back their irritabili-
ty and their petulance and their dis
content, but at nightfall the dam
breaks and scolding pours forth in
floods and freshets.
Reputation is only the shadow of
character, and a very small house some
times will cast very large shadow.
The lips may seem to drop with myrrh
and cassia and the disposition TO be as
bright and warm as a sheath of sun
beams, and yet they may only be
magnificent show window for wretch
ed stock of goods. There is many
man who is affable in public life and
amid commercial spheres who in
cowardly way takes his anger and his
petulance home and drops them in the
domestic circle. The reason men do
not display their bad temper in public
is because they do not want to be
knocked down. There are men who
hide their petulance and their irrita-
biIity Just for the same reason that
they do not let their notes go TO pro-
test-it does not pay-or for the same
reason that they do not want a man in
their stock company TO sell bis stock
below par lest it depreciate the value.
As at sunset sometimes The wind