The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1901-11-01
A WEEKS R

TO <AlSJ OA1C -
-1hea Of the brightest star of that
gr6S OF ted the i'leiades. A Russian
astr hCOn.r .obse we'd that Alcyone is
the r of grAvitation of our solar
system Hugll Macmillan says that
the sun and is planets wheel around
that center at the rate of -422, 900 miles
a day in an orbit which it will take
10000, 600 years to complete. The Plei-
ades appear in the sPringtime anu are
associated with flowers and genR.}
warmth and good weather. The navi-
cation of the Mediterranean was from
May to November-tne rising and the
setting of the Pleiades. The priests
of Belus noticed that rising and set
ting 1000 years before Christ.
Now, the glorious meaning of my
text is plain as well as radiant. To
give Job the beautiful grace of hui
mility God asked him: "Canst thou
bind the sweet influences of the
Pleiades?" Have you any power over
the laws of graduation? Can you
modify or change an influence WELD
ed by star more than 400, 900 miles
away? Can you control the winds of
the springtime Can you call out the
flowers? How little you know com
pared with omniscience! How little
you can do compared with Omnipo-
tencei
The probability is that Job had
been tempted to arrogance by his vast
attachments. He was a metallurgist,
a zoologist, poet. and shows by his
writings he had knowledge of hunt
ing. of music, of husbandry, of medi-
cine, of mining, of astronomy, and
perhaps was so far ahead of the
scholars and scientists of his time
that he may h ;a.y been somewhat
pu n up gregatios 1nfe natSin tbo OF
so soon Slio" human pride as
an interr lllslon near rightly thrust.
Christ iiS :. Paul mounted
the psf ,reat arguments
xvi+h N and her daugf Men of the
ssgT1y Sass ff ifnaa ted sc! Demosthenes
began his speech on the crown and
Cicero his Grafton against Catiline
and Lord Chatham his most famous
orations with question. The empire
of ignorance is so much vaster than
the empire of knowledge that after
the most learned ind elaborate dis
quisition upon any subject of sociol-
ogy or theology the plainest man may
ask question that win make the
wisest speeches.. After the pro-
foundest assault upon Christianity
the humblest disciple may make an
inquiry that would silence a Voltaire.
{ Called upon, as we all are at times,
to defend our holy religion, instead
of argument that can always be an
sweTed by argument let us try the
powe- of interrogati We ought to
lie loaded with at least half a dozen
questions and always ready, and when
Christianity is assailed and we are
told there is nothing in it, and there
Is no God, and there never was
miracle, and that the Scriptures are
unreasonable and cruel, and that
there never will be a Judgment day,
take out of your portable armory of
interrogation something like this:
What makes the condition of women
IN Christian lands better than in
heethen lands? Do you think it would
be. kind in God to turn the human
race into world without any writ
ten revelation to explain and encour-
nge and elevate and save? And if a
tevefa ton was made, which do YOU
prefer, thu Eepds-Vesta of the Pe--
sian or the C5ffueian writings-o OF the
Chinese or the Koran ef Mohammed
or our Bible? If Christ is not a Di-
vine being, what did He mean when
He said: Before Abram was l amp
If the Bible is bad book where are
the evil results of reading it? Did
you see any degrading influence of
the book in your father or mother
or sister, who used to read it? Do
you not think that a judgment day
is necessary in order to explain and
fix up things that were never ex-
illogical and an imposition upon hui
man. credulity, why were Herschel and
Was hiHgton and Gladstone and Will
liam Mckinley its advocates? How
did it happen that our religion fur
nished the theme for the greatest
poem ever written, paradise Lost"
and to the painters their greatest
themes in the elaboration of the
Magi," The Transfiguration,' ''The
Last SUPPER The Crucifixion, 1.-The
Entombment," THE Last Judgment
and that all the schools of painting
put forth their utmost genius in pre-
senting THE Madonna?"
Why was it that William Shakes
peare, after amazing the world as he
viii amaze all centuries with the
splendfor and power of THE Mer-
chant of Venice" and .sCoriolanus,' .
and Richard H." and king Lear
and "Othello," and Macbeth. and
@HamIet.. wrote with his own hand
his last viii and testament, beginning
1t with the words: I'm the name Of
God, amen. 1, William Shakespeare, of
Stratford-on-Avon in the county of
warwick, in perfect health and mem-
DRY, God be praised, do make and or
dain this my last viii and testament
through the only merits of jesus
Christ. my Saviour, to be made par
taker of life everlasting and my body
70 the earth whereof il is made?"
Had Shakespeare lost his reason when