The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-12-15

it, be denied Divine forgiveness.
But" says one woman, there is a
horrid creature that has so injured me
that rather than make up with her |
would die first" Well, sister. YOU NAV
take your choice, for one or the other it
will be-your complete pardon of her
or Gods eternal punishment of You.
But" says some man. that fellow VITO
cheated me out of those goods or da m
aged my business credit or started that
lie about me in the newspapers by
his Perfidy broke up my domestic hap
piness, forgive him cannot. forgive
him | will not" Wen, brother, take
your choice. You will never be at peace
with God till you are at peace with man.
Feeling as you now do, you would not
get so near the harbOr of Heaven as to
see the lightship. Better leave that man
with the God who said: "Vengeance is
mine, will repay" You may cay: II
will make him sweat for that yet; ! will
make him squirm; | mean to pursue
him to the DEATH" but you are damag-
ing yourself more than you damage
him, and you are making Heaven for
DOhA SCuA uI DOSSlDlllAy II VIII
not be recOnciled to you. be reconcileG
TO him. In five or six hours it Will be
.sundown. The dahlias will bloom
against the western sky. Somewhere
between this and that take a shovel and
bury the old quarrel at least six feet
deep. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath"
Oh. it makes one feel splendid to be
able by Gods help 10 practice unlim-
tied forgiveness. 1t improves ones body
and soul. My brother, it will make you
measure three or four more inches
around the chest and improve your
respiration so that you can take deep
er and longer breath. 1t improves the
countenance by scattering the gloom
and makes you somewhat like God
himself. He is omnipotent. and we
cannot copy that. He is independent
of all the universe, and we cannot copy
that. He is creative. and we cannot
copy that. He is omnipresent. and we
cannot copy that. But He forgives with
a broad sweep all faults, and all neg.
lects, and all insults, and all wrong
dOings, and in that way we may copy
Eim with mighty success. Go harness
that sublime action of your soul to the
Sunset-the hour when the gate of
Heaven opens to let the day pass into
the eternities, and some of the glories
escape this way through the brief open
ing. We talk about the italian sunsets
and sunset amid the Apprentices and
sunset amid the cordilleras. but ] will
tell you how you may see grander sun
set than any mere lover of nature ever
beheld; that is, by hinging into it all
your hatreds and auimosities, and let
the horses of fire trample them, and the
chariots of fire roll over them, and the
spearmen of fire stab them, and the
beach of fire consume them. and the bill
lows of fire Overwhelm them.
Again, we should not let the sun go
down on our wrath, because ii is of lit
tie importance what the world says of
you or does TO you when you have the
affluent God of the sunset as your pro-
wider and defender. People talk as
though it were a fixed spectacle of ma
ture and always the same. But no one
ever saw two sunsets alike, and if the
world has existed 5000 years there have
been about 100000 sunsets, each of
them as distinct from all the other pic
lures in the gallery of the sky as
Titian's Last Supper" Rubens' De
scent From the Cross" Raphael's
TRANSPORTATION" and Michael Angeles
Last Judgment" are distinct from
each other. If that God is of such infinite
resources that he can put on the wall of
the sky each evening more than the
Louvre and Luxembourg galleries all
in one is my God and your God, our
provider and protector, what is the use
of our worrying about any human an
tagonism? If we are misinterpreted,
the God of the maEy-colored sunset
can put the right color on our action.
If all the garniture of the western heav-
ems at eventide is but the upholstery of
one of the windows of our future home,
what small business for us to be chas-
ing enemies! Let not this Sabbath sun
go down upon your wrath.
Mohammed said: THE sword is the
key of Heaven and hell" But, my hear
ers. in the first day we will find just
the opposite of that TO be true, and that
the sword never unlocks Heaven, and
that he Who heals wounds is greater
than he who makes them. and that on
the same ring are two keys-God's for
giveness of us and our forgiveness of
enemies-and these two keys unlock
paradise.
And now | wish for all of you besO-
hful sunset to your earthly existepr1.
With Of hnS hppr1 ~ =
day of trouble, and with others of yea
it will be far from calm. When the sun
rose at six o'clock, it was the morning
of youth, and fair day was prophesied,
but by the time the MONDAY or middle
life had come and the clock of your
earthly existence had struck 12, cloud
racks gathered, and tempest beloved
in the track of tempest. But as the
evening of old age approaches, | pray
God the skies may brighten and the
clouds be piled up into pillars as of ce-
stfal temples to which you go, or
move as with mounted cohorts come to
take you home. And as you sink out
of sight below the horizon, may there
be radiance of Christian example lin
gering long after you have gone, and on
the heavens be written in letters of
sapphire and on the waters in letters of
opal and on the hills in letters of en-
erald: Thy sun shall no more go
down. neither shall the moon withdraw
itself, for the Lord shall be thine ever |
lasting light. and the days of thy |
shall be ended" So shall the |
sunset of earth become the sunrise OF
Heaven.