The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-02-03
ANOTHER'S BURDENS.
DR.. Talmage Asks Us to Assist the
Heavy Laden.
We should Beware OF SeIfishness-
Kind Words Are as Cold Water
to Thirsty S0ul-Heip
the Needy.

are under the pressing load of fatigue
ard care and responsibility. The text
is Galatians vi, 2: Bear ye one an
others burdens, and so fulfill the law
OF Christ"
Every man for himself! If there be
room for only one more passenger in the
lifeboat, get in yourself. If there be
a burden to lift, you supervise while
others shoulder it. You be the digit
while others are the ciphers on the
right hand side-nothingin in themselves,
but augmenting you. In opposition to
that theory of selfshness Paul ad-
vances in my text the gospel theory:
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so
fulfill the law of Christ"
Every body has burdens. Sometimes
they come down upon the shoulders.
sometimes they come down upon the
head, sometimes they come down upon
the heart. Looking over any assem-
bly,, they all seem well and bright and
easy, but each one has burden to lift,
and some of them have mere than they
can lift. Paul proposes to split up
these burdens into fragments. You
of yours, and each one will take part of
the others, and so we will fulfill the law
of Christ.
Mrs. Appleton. of Boston, the daugh-
ter of Daniel Webster, was dying after
long illness. The great lawyer, after
pleading an important case in the
courtroom, on his way home stopped at
the house of his daughter and went
into her sickroom. She said to him:
Father. why are you out to-day in this
cold weather without an overcoat?"
The great lawyer went into the next
room and was III a flood of tears, say
ing: Dying herself, yet thinking only
of me-" Oh, how much more beautiful
is care for others than this everlasting
taking care of ourselves. High up in
the wall of the temple of Baalbec there
are three stones, each weighing LOO
tens They were lifted by a style of
machinery That is now among the lost
arts. But in my text is the gospel ma
chinery, by which the vaster and heav-
Ter tonnage of the worlds burdens is %
be lifted from the crushed heart of the
human race. What you and 1 most
need 10 learn is the spirit of helpful
ness.
Encourage the merchant. IF he have
a superior style of goods, tell him so. If
he have with his clerks adorned the
show windows and the shelves, COM
pliment his taste. If he have a good
business locality, if he have had great
success, if he have brilliant prospects
for the future, recognize all this. Be
not afraid that he will become arrogant
and puffed up by your approval. Before
night some shopgoing person will come
in and tell him that bis prices are exor-
bitant and that his goods are of an in
ferior quality and that his show win
dow gave promise of far better things
than he found inside. Before the night
of the day in which you say encourag
ing words to that merchant there will
be some crank, male or female, who wiz
come into the store and depreciate
every thingaGd haul down enough goods
from the shelves to fit out family for
a whole winter without buying a cents
worth. If the merchant be a grocer,
there will be some one before night who
will come into his establish ment and
taste of this and taste of that and taste
Of everything else, in that way stealing
all the profits of anything that he may
purchase-buying three apples while he
is eating one orange!
Before the night of the day when you
approve that merchant he will have a
bad debt which he will have to erase,
bad debt made by some one who has
moved away from the neighborhood
without giving any hint of the place of
destination. Before the night of the
day when you have uttered encourag
ing words to the merchant there will be
some woman who will return to his
store and say she has lost her purse;
she left it there in the store, she brought
1t there, she did not take it away, she
knows it is there, leaving you to make
any delicate and tary infer
ence that you wish to make. Before
night that merchant will hear that
some style of goods of which he has
large supply is going out of fashion, and
there will be some one who will come
into the store and pay bill under pro-
test, saying he has paid it before, but
the receipt has been lost. Now, encour-
age that merchant, not fearing that he
will become arrogant or puffed up, for
there wiz be before night enough un-
pleasant things said to keep him from
becoming apoplectic with plethora of
praise.
Encourage newspaper men. II you
knew how many annoyances they have,
if you understood that their most elab-
crate article is sometimes flung out be-
cause there is such great pressure on
the columns and that an accurate re-
port of speech is expected, although
the utterance be so indistinct, the dis
course is one long stenographic guess.
and that the midnight which finds you
asleep demands that they be awake, and
that they are sometimes ground be-
tween the wheels of our great brain
manufactures; sickened at the often
approach OF men who want compliment
tary newspaper notices. or who want
newspaper retraction; one day sent to
report a burial, the next day TO report
a pugilistic encounter; shifted from
place to place by sudden revolution
which is liable to take place any day in
our great journalistic establishments;
precarous life becoming more and
more precariouS-if you understood it
you would be more sympathetic. Be
affsbIe when you have not an ak to be