The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1902-01-03

1
| selves.
! Notice also my text takes it for
| granted that you must put on the har-
ness, else how can you take it off? Life
is battle-a 80 years, a 40 years or
60 years war. Helmet you must have,
for the battleaxes of skepticism and
agnosticism are aimed at your head.
| Every possible effort will be made to
make you think wrong. The young
man who gets his head filled with
wrong notions about God, about Christ,
about the soul, about the great beyond,
is already captured. Put on the helmet,
the latchet we'll adjusted under the
chin. Think right and you will act
right. Yes, breastplate for the heart.
That is the most important part to be
| defended. That decides what you love
and what you hate, what you hope for
and what you despise. That decides
earthly happiness and eternal destiny.
Keep the heart pure and the life will
be pure. Have the heart corrupt and
your actions will be corrupt. Oh, that
all of US might have a new heart COW
cred with divinely wrought breast
PLATED Yes, greaves for the feet. So
many dangerous roads are we COM
PEELED to walk. So many people tread
on sharp prongs of temptation and go
lame and limping all the rest of their
| days. Iron mailed shoes for the feet.
Young man, see that you have on
complete armor. 1t looks bright now,
and it seems as if you could march
right on without opposition or attack.
but be not deceived. There are hidden
foes ready to halt you on your way.
The same cup that Benhadad drank out
of just before his defeat will be offered
to effect your defeat. His intoxicated
brain saw victory when there was
nothing but rout and ruin. What work
Benhadad's cup made for Benhadad's
armyi What shipwrecks on the sea,
what disasters on the land, caused by
inflaming liquids put upon the tongue
to set seething the brain! How many
kings of thought and influence, with
crowns brighter than the one Ben
hadad wore, have by strong drink been
put into flight as base as that in which
Benhadad rode! "Give them to me-"
says the demon of inebriacy. give
them to me; hand them down-the
brightest legislators of the land. L
will thicken their tongue; 1 will bloat
L
steps; I will damn their soul. Hand
them down to me-the physician out
of his laboratory, the attorney from
the courtroom, the minister of the
Gospel from the affairs of God. Hand
them down to me, the queens of the
drawing-room, and L will disgrace
their names and blast their homes and
throw them down farther than Jezebel
fell to the dogs that crunched her car
cass."
We hold our breath in horror as once
in awhile we hear of some one, either
by accident or suicide, going over Nj
agara falls, but the tides, the depths,
the awful surges of intemperance are
every hour of the day rushing scores
of immortals dawn into the unfath-
omed abysm. Suicides by the hundreds
of thousands! Suicides by the million!
Beware of the cup out of which Ben
hadad drank personal and national
demolition.
I congratulate all those who are
now in the thickest of life's battle
that the time is coming when the
struggle will end and you will put the
harness off, helmet and greaves and
VI SdSO p1dCO hdN1uS 1u1Al1SQ their HIS
sion. You cannot in one visit to Lon
don Tower see all. You must go again
and again to that place which is as
sociated with the story of Lady Jane
Grey and Anne Boleyn and Walter
Raleigh and Sir Thomas More. You
will see the crowns of kings and
queens, the robe worn by the Black
Prince, and silver baptismal fonts
from which royal infants were chris
tened, and the block on which Lord
Lovat was beheaded. But no part of
London Tower will more interest you
than the armory, in which is skillful-
ly and impressively arranged collec-
ton of all styles of armor worn be-
tween the thirteenth and eighteenth
centuries, suggesting 500 years of
conf1ict-cuirass and neck guard and
chin piece and lance rest and gauntlet
and girdle and mailed apron. You see
just how from head to heel those old
time warriors were defended against
sharp weapons that would cut or
thrust or bruise and allowing them
to come out of battle unhurt when
otherwise they would have been slain.
o We soldiers of Jesus Christ, when
the war of life is over and the victors
rest in the soldiers home on the
heavenly heights, perhaps there may
be in the city of the sun tower of
spiritual armor such as incased the
warriors for Christ in earthly COM
bat. Some day we may be in that
armory and hear the heroes talk of
how they fought the good fight of
faith and see them with the scars of
wounds forever healed and look at
the weapons of offense and defense
with which they became more than
conquerors. In that tower of Heaven,
as the weapons of the spiritual con-
flict are examined, ST. Paul may point
out to us the armor with which he
advised the Ephesians to equip them
selves and say: THAT is the shield
of faith That is the helmet of sal
Walton. That is the girdle of truth.
That is the breastplate of righteous
ness. Those are the mailed shoes in
which they were shod with the prepa-
ration of the Gospel" There and
then you may recount the contrast
between the day when you enlisted
in Christian conflict and the day
when you closed it in earthly fare
well and heavenly saluta tion, and the
text, which has so much meaning for
us now, will have more meaning for
us then: LET not him that girdeth
on his harness boast himself as he
that putteth it off,
Advice tn Young Men