The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1901-01-25

stefan who has cured more pima eyes,
and bound up more broken hearts, ana
| healed more CHASTITY wounds than all
| the doctors since the time of Escula-
plus. Be obliging and just make the
experiment. If you are not acquainted
with the ordinary modes of prayer, say
| in substance: 20 Lord Jesus, this is q
strange thing for me to do. know
nothing about the formulas of rell-
| gion. These Christian people have been
| talking so long about what thou canst
| do for me 1 am ready to do whatever
thou commandest me. If there be any
power in religion, as these people say,
| let me have the advantage of it," Will
YOU not try that experiment?
| l do not now say there is anything
| in religion. Do not take my counsel
| or the counsel of any. clergyman, for
YOU may dislike clergymen. Perhaps
we may talk professionally. Perhaps
we may be prejudiced in the matter.
Perhaps our advice is not worth TAX
| ing. Then take the counsel of some
very respectable layman, as John Mil
| ton, the poet; as William Wilberforce,
| the emancipation; as Isaac Newton, the
| astronomer; as Robert Boyle, the phil
osopher; as Locke, the metaphysician;
as Morse, the telegrapher; as Washing
| ton, the statesman. They never
preached or pretended to preach, yet,
putting down one his telescope and an
| other his parliamentarian's scroll and
another his electricians wire, came
| forth and commended the religion Of
| Christ as the best thing for the cure
of the worlds woes. If you will not
take the recommendation of ministers
of the Gospel, take the recommendation
of highly respectable laymen.
Oh, men, skeptical and struck
through with unrest! L beg you to-
come off that great Sahara desert of
doubt into the bright and luXuriant
land of Gospel hope and peace. You
do not want your children to come
up in that skepticism. If you do not
believe in anything else, you believe
in love-a fathers love, a mothers
love, a wife's love, a child's love. Then
| let me tell you that God loves you
more than all these together. The
great heart of Christ aches to have
you come in, and He looks into your
eyes this moment, saying: "Other
sheep 1 have which are not of this
fold.'
Again, 1 remark that the Heavenly
Shepherd is going to find great
many of the sheep among those who
have been full of evil habit. They
were all cheated into sin. The spider
does not say to the fly: Come into
the web where 1 kill insects" oh.
no. The spider says: Dearest fly.
come and talk a morning walk with
me on this suspension bridge of Cos
samer glittering with diamonds of
dew Do not be hard on those gone
astray. 1t makes me sad to see Chris
tian people give up prodigal as lost.
There are those who talk as though
the grace of God. were chain of 40
or so links and that when they had
run out there was nothing left to
touch a bad case. If they were hunt
ing and got off the track of the deer,
they would look longer among the
brakes and bushes for the lost game
than they would look for that lost
soul.
They talk about the catacombs of
Naples and the catacombs of Rome
and the catacombs of Egypt, the
great burial places under the city
where is the dust of many genera
tions passed on, but 1 tell you New
York has its catacombs and Washing
ton its catacombs and all our cities
their catacombs. They are under
ground liquor dives, full of dead mems
bones and all uncleanliness. There is
no need of going into the art gallery
to see in skillful sculpture that won
derful representation of a man and
his sons wound round with serpents.
There are families represented here
to-day that are wrapped in the mar
tyrdom of fang and scale and venom,
living LAGOON of ghastliness and
horror.
There is only one class of persons
about whom 1 am disheartened, and
they are the Gospel hardened. They
have been faithful in attendance at
churches for 20, 80 and 40 years, yet
never have surrendered themselves to
God. AS Christ says: "Publicans and
harlots go into the kingdom of heav
en- before them" They have resisted
all the importantly of divine mercy
and have gone through most power
full earthquakes of religious feeling,
and they are farther away from God
than ever. After awhile they will lie
down sick, and some day it will be
told that they are dead. No hope!
But turn to outsiders with an ex-
pectation that thrills through me,
body and soul. "Other sheep / have,
which are not of this fold" You are
not Gospel hardened. You have not
heard many sermons during the last
Few years. You feel the Holy Ghost
this moment in your heart. You do
not weep, but the tear is not far off.
You sigh, and you have noticed that
there is always sigh in the wind be-
fore the rain falls. There are those
here who would give anything if they
could find relief in tears. They say:
"Oh, my wasted life! Oh, the bitter
past! Oh, the graves over which I
have stumbled! Whittier shall I fly?
Alas, for the future! Everything is
so dark, so very dark! God help me!
God pity mel" Thank the Lord for
that last utterance. You have begun
TO pray, and when a man begins to
petition, God steps in and beats back
the hounds of temptation to their
kennel and round about the poor
wounded soul puts the covert of his
pardoning mercy. Hark! I hear
something fall. What was that? 1t
is the bars of the fence around the
sheepfold. The Shepherd let's down
the bars, and the hunted sheep of the
mountain bound in, some of their