The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1900-02-23

| people OF the world, try this Almighty
sedatiye. You will live 25 years longer
under its soothing power. T. is not
| choral that you want or morphine that
you want. 1t is the Gospel OF Jesus
Christ. with long life will I satisfy
him"
Again, practical religion is a friend
of longevity in the fact that it removes
all cOrroding care about a future ex-
istence. Every man wants to know
what is to become of him. If you get on
board a rail train, you want to know
at what depot it is going to stop. If
you get on board a ship, you want to
know into what harbor it is gCing to
run, and if you should tell me yo1 have
10 interest in what is to be your future
destiny | would in as polite a way as l
know tell you 1 did not believe you.
Before / had this matter settled with
reference to my future existence the
question almost worried me into ruined
health. The anxieties men have upon
this subject put together would make
a martyrdom. This is a state of awful
unhealthiness. There are people who
fret themselves to death for fear of
dying.
I want to take the strain off your
nerves and the depression off your soul,
and l make two or three experiments.
Experiment the first: When you go out
of this world. it does not make any diff
ference whether you have been good or
bad, or whether you believed truth or
error, you will go straight to glory.
impossible" you say. My common
sense as well as my religion teaches that
the bad and the good cannot live to-
gether forever. You give me no com
fort in that experiment" Experiment
the second: When you leave this world,
you will go into an intermediate state
where you can get converted and pre-
pared for Heaven. impossible" you
say; ''as the tree falleth, so it must lie,
and / cannot postpone to an intermedi-
ate state that reformation which ought
to have been effected in this state"
Experiment the third: There is no fu-
ture world. When a man dies, that is
the last of him. Do not worry about
what you are to do in a future state of
being; you will not do anything. 'Im-
possible" you say. There is some
thing that tells me that death is not the
appendix, but the preface; there is
something that tells me that on this
side of the grave [ only get started and
that L shall go on forever. My power
to think says forever, my affections say
forever, my capacity to enjoy or suffer
forever"
Well, you defeat me in my three ex-
periments. l have only one more to
make, and if you defeat me in that l am
exhausted. A mighty one on knoll
back of Jerusalem one day, the skies
filed with forked lightnings and the
earth filled with volcanic disturbances,
turned His pale and agonized face to-
ward the Heavens and said: Il take
the sins and SORROWS of the ages into my
own heart. I am the eXpiation. Wit
ness earth and Heaven and hell, 1 am
the expiation." And the hammer
struck Him and the spears punctured
him, and Heaven thundered, THE
wages of sin is death!" 'The soul that
sinneth it shall die!" "I will by no
means clear The guilty!" Then there
was silence for half an hour, and the
were drawn back into the
scabbard of the sky and the earth
ceased to culver and all the colors of the
sky began to shift themselves into a
woven out of the falling tears
of Jesus. and there was red as of the
bloodshedding and there was blue as of |
the bruising and there was green as of |
the Heavenly foliage and there was or
ange as of the day dawn. And along |
the line of the blue l saw the words, |
Il was bruised for their iniquities."
And along the line of the red l saw the |
words, ''The blood of Jesus Christ |
from all sim" And along the |
line of the green l saw the words, 1.-The |
leaves of the tree of life for the healing |
of the nations" And along the line of |
the orange / saw the words, "The day
spring from on high hath visited u.s."
And then I saw the storm was over,
and the rainbow rose higher and higher
until it seemed retreating to another
Heaven, and planting one column of it's
cOlOrs on one side the eternal hill and
the other column of it's colors
on the other side the eternal hill it rose
upward and upward, and, behold, there
was a rainbow about the throne.
Accept that sacrifice and quit worry
ing. Take the tonic, the inspiration,
the longevity, of this truth. Religion
is sunshine; that is health. Religion is
fresh air and pure water; they are
healthy. Religion is warmth; that is
healthy. Ask all the doctors, and they
will tell you that a quiet conscience
md pleasant anticipations are hygienic.
offer you perfect peace now and here
after.
What do you want in the future
world? Tell me, and you shall have it.
Orchards? There are the trees with IL
manner of fruits, yielding fruit every
month. Water scenery? There is the
liver of life, from under the throne of
iod, clear as crystal, and the sea of
glass mingled with fire. Do you want
music? There are the oratorio of the
Creation" led on by Adam, and the
,ratorio of the RED Sea-" Led on by
Noses, and the oratorio of the Messiah"
ed on by ST. Paul, while the archangel,
With swinging baton, controls the 144,-
100 who make up the orchestra.
Do you want reunion? There are
our dead children waiting to kiss you,
Waiting to embrace you, waiting to
wist garlands in your hair. You have
been accustomed TO open the door on
his side the sepulcher; l open the door
IN the other side of the sepulcher.
You have been accustomed to walk in
he wet grass on the top of the grave:
show you the underside of the grave.
The bottom has fallen out, and the
ong ropes with which the pallbearers
eft down your dead let them clear
through into Heaven. Glory be to God
or this robust. healthy, religion! It
ill hn,-o n tnndnnc1- to make 1.n11 live |