The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1901-07-12
SUBSCRIPTION: S1.OO Per Year

Then you have noticed q more sig
nificant fact if you have talked with
people on the subject, that they are
getting Disguised with worldly philos-
ophy as matter OF comfort. They
say it does not amount to anything
when you have a dead child in the
house. They tell you when they were
sick and the door of the future seemed
opening the only comfort they could
find was the Gospel. People are hav-
ing demonstrated all over the land
that science and philosophy cannot
solace the troubles and woes of the
world, and they want some other re-
igion, and they are taking Christian
ity, the only sympathetic religion
that ever came into the world. You
just take a scientific consolation into
that room where a mother has lost
her child. Try in that case your
splendid doctrine of the Survival of
the fittest." Tell her that child died
because it was not worth as much as
the other children. That is your
survival of the fittest." Just try
your transcendentalism, your philoso-
ply, your science, on that widowed
soul, and tell her it was a geological
necessity that her companion should
be taken away from her, just as in
the course of the worlds history the
megatherium and the ichthyosaurus
had to pass out of existence, and then
you go on in your scientific consola-
ton until you get to the sublime fact
that 50,00O,000 years from now we
ourselves may be scientific specimens
on the geologic shelf, petrified speci-
mems of an extinct human race. And
after you have got all through with
your consolation, if the poor aff1ict-
ed soul is not crazed by it, we will
send forth from any of our churches
the plainest Christian we have, and
with one-half hour of prayer and
reading of Scripture promises the
tears will be wiped away, and the
house from floor to cupola will be
flooded with the calmness of an In
dian summer sunset. There is where
1 see the triumph of Christianity.
People are dissatisfied with every
thing else. They want God. They
want Jesus Christ.
The fact is that infidelity and ag-
Mysticism are founded on igno-
rance geological, ignorance chemical,
ignorance astronomical, ignorance
geogra phical. We have heard what
the enemies of Christianity have had
to testify. Now 1 put before you the
testimony of the church on earth and
the church in Heaven. Not fifty, not
thousand, not a million, but all of
the church on earth and all of the
redeemed in Heaven. VIII you take
the evidence of those who have wit
messed as well as felt the power OF
religion, or will you prefer the tes-
timony of those who begin by declar-
ing that they have never witnessed
or felt its power? You tell me that
on a certain 4th of March, 20 years
ago, a president of the United States
was inaugurated. How do 1 know it?
You tell me there were 10000 per-
sons who distinctly heard his inaugu-
raj address. 1 deny both. 1 deny
that he was inaugurated. / deny that
his inaugural address was delivered.
You ask why?- 1 did not see it. I
did not hear it. But you say there
were 10000 people who did see and
hear him. Is not the testimony of
the 10000 who were present worth
more than the testimony of one who
was absent? Now, there are some
men who say they have never seen
Christ crowned in the heart, and they
do not believe it is ever done. There
is a group of men who say they have
never heard the voice of Christ, that
they have never heard the voice of
God They do not believe that any
thing like it ever occurred. / point
to twenty, a hundred thousand or a
million people who say: "Christ was
crowned in our hearts affections, we
have seen Him and felt Him in our
soul, and we have heard His voice; we
have heard it in the storm and dark
ness; we have heard it again and
again" Whose testimony will you
take? These men who say they have
not heard the voice of Christ, have
not seen the coronation, or will you
believe the thousands and tens of
thousands of Christians who testify
of what they saw with their own eyes
and heard with their own ears?
Young man, do not be ashamed to
be friend of the Bible. Do not put
your thumb in your vest, as young
men sometimes do, and swagger
about talking of the glorious light Of
nature and of there being no need
Of the Bible. They have the light of
nature in India and China and in all
the dark places of the earth. Did
you ever hear that the light OF
nature gave them comfort for their
trouble? They have lancets to cub
and juggernauts to crush, but no COM
fort. All, my friends, you had better
stop your skepticism- Suppose you
are put in crisis like that of Col.
Ethan Allen. 1 saw the account and
at one time mentioned it in an adj
dress. A descendant of Ethan Allen,
who is an infidel, said it never oc-
Cured. Soon after 1 received a let
ter from a professor in one of our
colleges, who is also a descendant OF
Ethan Allen and is a Christian. He
wrote me that the incident is accu-
rate; that my statement was anthem
tic and true. The wife of Ethan AL
len was a very consecrated woman.
The mother instructed the daughter
in the truths of Christianity. The
daughter sickened and was about to
die. and she said to her father: "Fa-
Their, shall 1 take your instruction or
shall / take mothers instruction? I
am going to die now; l must have
the matter decided" That man, who
had been loud in his infdelity, said
to his dying daughter: my dear,
you had better take your mother's
religion" My advice is the same to
,,o, n .vouno man. You know reli-