The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1901-02-08
RELIGION A SOLACE.
DR.. Talmage Speaks Comforting
Words for the Righteous.
Discourse for Those Whose Lives
Have Many AnNieties-AII Is Well
for the Believer Trust
Thoroughly in God.

|
Washington,
There is great solace in this dis
course of DR.. Talmage for those whose
lives have many anXieties; text
Isaiah $40: Say We to the right
eous that it shall be we'll with him."
Here is a promise for people who
are all right, but who will come ant
get it? How many, or, rather, how
few, people do you know who are al
right? If it were asked of any assem-
bly, that those who were sinless should
rise up, none would rise except imbe
| Giles and religious cranks. An ac'
cident happened near 60 centuries age
that started the human race in the
wrong way, and we have not got over
1t. We know a great many splendid
men and splendid women, but they
will tell you that they have not al
ways done the right thing or thought
the right thought. If it were any OF
your business, they could give you an
inventory of frailties and mistakes and
infelicities that would be astonishing
Here, then, you sly, is Bible prom
Use that goes a-begging: "Say ye to
the righteous that it shall be well
with him.
1t is my delightful work to-day to
show you that all the sons and daugh-
ters of Adam and Eve may appropri-
ate the benediction of my text if
they will first do the right thing. Over
here in the next street was a man
who in great misfortune lost all he
had and was positively beggared, but
letter comes from some European
city where the land records are kept
announcing to him that great for
tune is his. Now he is as opulent as
he was pauperized. He doffs his rags
and puts on respectable attire and
moves into home appropriate for a
man of vast estate. His worldly cir
cumstances were all wrong last year;
they are all right this year. On the
next street is a man who was from
perfect health Frustrated, and he
seemed to be sick unto death, but a
skillful physician took correct dag
nosis of his disease and by prompt
and vigorous treatment restored him
to his former vigor. AS to his health
he was all wrong before; now he is
all right. In these two ways 1 illus
tldlc
BY sin we have all been morally
bankrupted. Christ the Lord from
His infinite riches pays our debts and
emparadises us in His mercy. From
His richest wardrobe He puts on us
the clean robe of His righteousness
and gives us n palace in the heavens
when we are ready to go up and take
it. Now, as to our spiritual estate, we
are all right. We were morally dis
eased, but Christ the physician, by
a bath in the fountain of grace, cures
us. Now. as to our spiritual health,
we are all right. That is the way we
come to the Righteousness spoken of
in the text. 1t is a contributed right
eousness, made-over Righteousness,
ar imputed righteousness. The mo-
ment you get into right relations with
Christ the Lord that moment you can
appreciate the magnificent comfort of
the text, and 1 defy you, in all this
great book, from the first verse of
the first chapter of Genesis to the
last verse of the last chapter of Rev
elation, to find me a passage with
higher and deeper and broader and
longer comfort than that of the text,
which is as deep as the Atlantic ocean
half way between the continents and
high as the sun when the clock is
striking IL at noon. But I shall be
swamped with the oceanic tides of
this subject unless the Lord help me
to keep a foothold. Say to the right
eous that it shall be we'll with him"
Bear in mind that but few people
can stand worldly success. Water is
a good thing, but too much of it will
drown. Fire is good thing, but too
much of it will destroy. Lightning is
a good thing, but too much of it daz-
zles and blinds. Success is a good
thing, but too much of it has over
whelmed many for this world and the
next. If it were best for us, we would
all be millionaires, live in palaces like
the Alhambra and be as personally at
tractive as Cleopatra appeared to An
tony. But most of folks could not
endure such superabundance, and it
is absolutely necessary in order to
keep them right that nine hundred
and ninety-nine men out of one thou
sand should find life a struggle. It
keeps them out of mischief After
Adam was elected from the premises
where by ten minutes of employment
a day he could keep the garden and
dress it the best thing that could hap
pen to him was compulsion to work
and fight. The ground that bloomed
with spontaneous flowers and rustled
with harvests that owed nothing to
plow or hoe became hostile, and bram-
bic was substituted for rose, and the
panther growled where before he
fawned, and horn and fang and hoof
became belligerent. That Edenic eject
ment shows US as nothing else ever
could that idleness or only a few min
ntes of employment a day are doom
and overthrow. Put it down among
your blessings instead of your mis-
fortunes that you have to work hard
with brain or hand or foot or all three
Of them.
How many men do you know worth
$3.50, 900 who are devout and conse-
Grated and humble and generous and
their means for the worlds
You could count them
up on the fingers of your two hands,
even if by accident or war you had
lost one or two of your fingers. As
to the realm of personal attractive
ness, how many women radiant Of
and graceful of form do
Veu know WHO are unaffected and nat