The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1901-05-03

hills. Hunger shut out, and plenty
sits within. God, who feedeth every
living thing, has blessed the ant hill.
In contrast with that insectile be-
havior, what do you think of that
large number of prosperous men
and women who live up to every dol
lar that they make, raising their
familie; in luxurious habits and at
death expecting some kind friend to
give their daughters employment as
music teachers or tyFewriters or gov
eminent employees? Such parents
have no right to children. Every
neighborhood has specimens of such
improvidence. The two words that
most strike me IN the text are "sum-
mer" and winter" Some people
have no summer in their lives. From
the rocking cradle to the still grave
it is relentless January. Invalid in
fancy followed by some crippling &C
cident or dimness of eyesight or dull
ness of hearing or privation or disas-
ter or unfortunate environment make
life a perpetual winter. But in most
lives there is period of summer, al
though it may be a short summer,
and that is the time to provide for
the future.
One of the best ways of inSuring
the future is to put aside all you can
for charitable provision. You put a
crumhbling stone in the foundation
of your fortune if you do not in your
plans, regard the sufferings that you
may alleviate. You will have the
pledge of the high heavens for your
temporal welfare when you help the
helpless, for the promise is: blessed
is he that considereth the poor. The
Lord will deliver him in time of
trouble" Then there is another way
of providing for the future. If you
have $1,000 a year income, save 500;
or $4,000 a year, save $500; or $4,000,
save $1,000. Do you say such econ
omy is meanness? 1 say it is n vast
er meanness for you to make no pro-
vision for the future and compel
your friends or the world to take
care of you or yours in case of be-
reavement or calamity.
Going out of this world without
| leaving a dollar for those who re-
main behind, if you have done your
! best you have a right to put your
| head in calm confidence on the pill
| low which Jeremiah shook up in the
forty-ninth chapter of his prophecy:
leave thy fatherless children, 1 will
preserve them alive, and let thy wild
Ows trust in me-" But if having the
means through mortgages or houses
or life insurance for providing for
| helpless widowhood and orphanage
! you make no provision for post NOR
tenn need, how dare you go and take
| q palace in Heaven and let your wife
and children go to the pOorhouse or
! into a struggle for bread that makes
! life a horror and sometimes ends in
| suicide?
But my subject reaches higher than
| temperatures = foresight for the
| soul, provision for eternal expert
ences, preparation for the far be-
yOnd. Ant hills, speak out and teach
us a larger and mightier lesson OF
| preparing food for the more impor-
| tant part of us! Do you realize that
man may be millionaire or a
mUltimillionaire for time and a
| bankrupt for eternity, prince for
a few years and n pauper forever?
| The ant would not be satisfied with
gathering enough food for half a
winter or quarter of a winter. But
| how many of us seem content,
though not having prepared for the
| ten-millionth part of what will be
our existence! Put yourself in right
relations to the Christ of the ages,
| through Him seek pardon for all you
! have ever done wrong and strength
/ for all you will be called to endure
and there will be no force in life
or death or eternity to discomfit
you. 1 declare it! There is enough
of transforming and strengthening
power in Christ for both hemi-
/ spheres.
Furthermore, go to the ant and
consider that it does not decline
work because it is insignificant The
| fragment OF seed it hauls into its
habitation may be so small that the
unaided eye cannot see it, but the in
sectile work goes on, the carpenter
ant at work above ground, the ma
son ant at work underground. Some
of these creatures mix the leaves of
the fir and the catkins of the pine
for the roof or wall of their tiny
| abode, and others go out as hunters
looking for food. while others in do
mestic duties stay at home. Twenty
specks of the food they are moving
toward their granary put on a bal
ance would hardly make the scales
culver. All of it work on a small
scale. There is no use in our refus-
| ing a mission because it is insignifi-
cant. Anything that God in His prov
idence puts before us to do is impor-
tant. The needle has its office as
| certainly as the telescope and the
spade as a parliamentarian scroll.
There is no need of our wasting time
and energy in longing for some other
sphere. There are plenty of people to
do the big and resembling work of the
church and the world. No lack of brig
adler generals or master builders or
engineers for bridging Niagaras or
tunneling Rocky mountains. For
every big enterprise of the world a
dozen candidates. What we want is
private soldiers in the common ranks,
masons not ashamed to WELD trowel,
candidates for ordinary work to be
done in ordinary ways in ordinary
places. Right where we are there is
something that God would have US do.
Let us do it, though it may seem to be
as unimportant as the rolling of
grain or corn into an ant hill.
Furthermore, go to the ant and con-
slider its indefatigab leness. If by the
accidental stroke of YOUR foot or the