The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1901-02-08
SUBSCRIPTION: $1.OO Per Year


when skillful workmen took hold of it
to toss it, or whirl it, or shape it into
crowns, or hoist it into columns, or
spring it into arches, or lift it into
stars, or turn it into crescents, or build
it into temples. You forget you ever
saw the less glorious waters at Chats
worth, England, or Versailles. France.
as you stand in the balcony of the pal
ace overlooking the Finland gulf, be-
wildered and transported as you look
at the one display called the Golden
Stairway fountain. The water rolls
down over "a steps one foot high and
20 feet long. All of these "a steps are
covered with sheets of FURNISHED gold.
Silver step of the water on stairs OK
gold! What glee of liquids! Rolling.
dashing, foaming, enrapturing splen-
dorsi Chorus of f1oodsi Poetry of wa
ters! Doxology of torrents! But that
which most impressed me there and
elsewhere is the abundance of water,
the fact that there are so many waters
that the continents can afford to throw
them away into the sea, Hudsons and
Ohios, Oregons and Amazons, Rhines
| and Danubes and Volgas, and so abun-
dant that the earth can afford to have
its oceans evaporate into the heavens,
| Mediterraneans and Atlantics and Pa
cifics. How rich the earth is with wa
ters! Best beverage of all the nations,
for after the richest banquet with the
richest beverages everyone wants at
least a sip of it-water, cool water,
! God descended wateri
With still more abundance is the air
distributed. An earth full of it. sky
| full of it. Swiftest and strongest eagle
! cannot fly so high as not to have it in
| the nostril or under the wing. And
what affiuence of sunlight! No one but
the infinite God could dispense so much
of it. The golden candlestick set on
the blue mantel of the heavens! So
great that the Almighty is compared to
it, the psalmist crying out: "The Lord
God is SUM-" 1t is high time that we
recognize in our liturgies and in our
formulas of prayer the three most
abundant blessings of the universe
which come to all.
Some scientists are now discussing
the opening of communication be-
tween our earth and the planet Mars.
Experiments are being made, but they
will not succeed. We cannot build a
fire large enough to attract the at
tention of that world or lift lens
powerful enough to see any response
interstellar. We do not positively
know that that world is occupied by
living beings, or that if it is occupied
communication with them would be
desirable. 1t might not be so good a
world as this, and thus communica-
ton with it would be debasing. But
7 roinioa fn haf iS in
touch with other worlds. for their
improvement and a depot for glorious
arrivals. 1t is thoroughfare between
this world and that world and a COM
ing and going perpetual. Going out OF
this world is as natural as coming in
TO it, but the one is with pang and
the other is with rapture if we are
fitted for the uplifting process. 1t
shall be well with you. Now, do not
get so frightened about that asthma
or that cough or that influenza or
that threatened pneumonia. The
worst thing that fatal disease can
do is to usher you into coronation and
enthronement. 1t shall be well with
you. Take as good care of your health
as you can, have all the sanitary laws,
keep in this world as long as you
are permitted to stay and then when
the heavenly call comes be glad to go.
1 do not care much about what your
"last words" are going to be. People
put too much emphasis on "last
words" 1 woud rather know what
your words are now, in days of health
and with mental faculties in full play
your words of kindness, your words
of sympathy, your words of helpful
ness, your words of prayer. So live
that if you do not say word during
the last day of your life there will be
no doubt here about the place of your
destination. You will go right into
sanity, prophetic, evangelistic, apos-
tolic, cherubic, seraphic, archangelic.
deific presence.
1t shall be well with you. Mother,
you will go right up into the possess
sion of the babe that the scarlet fever
or Group took out of your arms, a
sorrow that still stings you, and you
often say she would now be so many
years old if she had lived. You will
go into the presence of the old folks,
for 1 hope you are of Christian an
cestry, and you will find that they
have no dimness of sight or halting
have taken a draught from the foun-
tain of perpetual youth that springs
from under the throne of God. Oh,
the blissful companionship of Heavens
in which you shall enter! It shall be
well with you. I ring this bell OF
emancipation and triumph. / like the
way the sexton rings the bell of the
old country meeting house. 1 used to
stand and admire him pulling the
rope of that bell. He rings it a good
while, so that every farmhouse within
FIVE miles hears it. He may halt a
moment to take breath and give the
sweet sounds time to stir up all the
echoes of the hills. And when he is
old and not strong enough to pull the
rope any more, then he sits and lis
tens while his son rings the church
bell. So my text seems a bell of in
vitation and victory. / began to ring
it in the opening of this discourse L
hope to ring it as long as I live, and
may those who come after us keep
on ringing it till those farthest Off
from God shall come into the great
temple of Gospel comfort and all the
weary put down their burdens at its
altar and find that peace which the
world can neither give nor take away.
Three times more 1 ring it. 1t shall
be welli 1t shall be weIi 1t shall be-
well!
Not Dependable.