The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1901-03-15

y .
your soul go out on a celestial adven-
ture, then you can go, but this world
is good enough for me-" You might as
we'll go to man who has just entered
the Louvre at Paris and tell him to
hasten off to the picture galleries of
Venice or Florence. why" he would
say, "what is the use of my going
there? There are Rembrandts and Ru-
benses and Titians here that have not
looked at yet" No man wants to go
out of this world OF out of any house
until he has better house.
To cure this wish to stay here God
surroundings. How shall He do it?
He cannot afford to efface His horizon
or to tear off a fiery panel from the
sunset or to subtract an anther from
the water lily or to Danish the pungent
aroma from the mignonette or to drag
the robes of the morning in mire. You
cannot expect Christopher Wren to
mar his own ST. Paul's cathedral or a
Michael Angelo to dash out his own
Last Judgment" or Handel to dis
cord his Israel in Egypt" and you can
not expect God to spoil the architecture
and music of His own world. How,
then, are we to be made willing to
leave? Here is where trouble comes in.
After a man has had a good deal of
trouble he says: "Well, am ready to
go. If there is house somewhere
whose roof does not leak. l would like
to live there. If there is an atmosphere
somewhere that does not distress the
lungs, 1 would like to breathe it. If
there is a society somewhere where
there is no title tattle. would like to
live there Ifthere is home circle some
where where can find my lost friends,
L would like to go there He used to
read the first part of the Bible chiefly;
chiefly. Why has he changed Genesis
for Revelation All, he used to be anN-
ious chiefly to know how this world was
made and all about its geological con-
struction. Now he is chiefly anxious to
know how the next world was mad e
and how it looks and who live there and
how they dress. He reads Revelation
ten times now where he reads Genesis
once. The old story, I'm the beginning
God created the heavens and the
EARTH" does not thrill him half as much
as the other story, 81 saw a new Heaven
and new EARTH" The old mans hand
trembles as he turns over this apoc-
alyptical leaf, and he has to take out
his handkerchief to wipe his spectacles.
That book of Revelation is a prospectus
now of the country into which he is
soon to immigrate; the country in
which he has lots already laid out and
avenues opened and mansions built.
1t is trouble, my friends, that makes
us feel our dependence upon God. We
do not know our own weaknessor Gods
strength until the last plank breaks. 1t
is contemplate in us that only when
there is nothing else to take hold of we
catch hold of God. Why, do you know
who the Lord is? He is not an autocrat,
seated far up in a palace, from which
He energies once year, preceded by
heralds swinging swords TO clear the
way. No. He is a father, willing at
our call to stand by us in every crisis
and predicamento of life. tell You what
some of you business men make me
think of. A man is unfortunate in his
busin ess. He has to raise good deal
of money, and raise it quickly. He bor
rows on word and note all he can bor-
row. After awhile he puts mortgage
on his house. After awhile he puts
second mortgage on his house. Then
he makes over his life insurance. Then
he assigns all his property. Then he
goes TO his father-in-law and asks for
help. Well, having failed everywhere,
completely failed, he gets down on his
knees and says: "Oh, Lord, have
tried everybody and everything; now
help me out of this financial trouble"
He makes God the last resort instead
of the first resort.
Again, it is the use of trouble to
us for the Office of sym.
pathy. The priests, under the old
were set apart by hav-
ing water sprinkled upon their hands,
feet and head, and by the sprinkling
of tears people are now set apart to
the office of sympathy. When we
are in prosperity, we like to have q
great many young people around US,
and we laugh when they laugh, and
we romp when they romp, and we
sing when they sing, but when we
have trouble we like plenty of old
folks around. Why? They know how
to talk. Take an aged mother, rs
years of age, and she is almost ON
nipotent in comfort. Why? She has
been through it all. At seven o'clock
in the morning she goes over to com
fort young mother who has just
lost her babe. Grandmother knows
all about that trouble. Fifty years
ago she felt it. At IL o'clock. of that
day she goes over to comfort a wild
owed soul. She knows all about that
She has been walking in that dark
valley 90 years. At four o'clock in
the afternoon some one knocks at
the door, wanting bread. She knows
all about that. Two or three times
in her life she came to her last loaf.
At ten o'clock at night she goes over
TO sit up with some one severely sick.
She knows all about it. She knows
all about fevers and pleurisies and
broken bones. She has been doc
toring all her life, spreading plasters
and pouring out bitter drops and
shaking up hot pillows and contriv-
ing things to tempt a poor appetite.
Drs. Abernethy and Rush and Hosack
and Harvey were great doctors, but
the greatest doctor the world ever
saw is an old Christian woman. Dear
me! Do we not remember her about
the room when we were sick in our
boyhood? Was there anyone who
could ever so touch a sore without
hurting it? And when she lifted her
spectacles against her wrinkled fore
head so she could look closer at the