The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1902-03-21


one of them shall get the religion of
Christ in his heart and the other shall
not get it, the one who becomes a son
of the Lord Almighty will live the
longer. with long life will l satisfy
him and show him my salvation"
Again 1 remark that godliness is
good for the intellect. 1 know some
have supposed that just as soon as a
man enters into Christian life his in
tellect goes into bedwarfing process.
So far from that, religion will give new
brilliancy to the intellect, new strength
to the Imagination, new force to the
will and wider swing to all the intel
lectual faculties. Christianity is the
great central fire at which philosophy
has lighted it's brightest torch. The re-
ligion of Christ is the fountain out of
which learning has dipped its clearest
draft. The Helicon poured forth no
such inspiring waters as those which
flow from under the throne of God
clear as crystal. Religion has given
new energy to poesy, weeping in DR..
Young's Might Thoughts" teaching
in Cowper's Task" flaming in Charles
Wesley's hymns and rushing with
archangelic splendor through Millions
paradise Lost"
Now, I commend godliness as the
best mental discipline, better than
bellies lettres to purify the taste, bet
ter than mathematics to harness the
mind to all intricacy and elaboration,
better than logic to marshal the intel
lectual forces for onset and victory.
1t will go with Hugh Miller and show
him the footprints of the Creator in
the red sandstone. It will go with the
botanist and show him celestial glories
encamped under the curtain of a water
lily. 1t will go with the astronomer on
the great heights where God shepherds
the great flock of worlds that wander
on the hills of Heaven answering His
voice as he calls them all by their
names.
Again I remark that godliness is
profitable for ones disposition. Lord
Ashley, before he went into a great
battle, was heard to offer this
prayer: 80 Lord, I shall be very
busy to-day. If I forget Thee, for
get me not" With such Christian
disposition as that a man is indie
piety will have tinge of our natural
temperament. If man be cross and
sour and fretful naturally, after he
becomes a Christian he will always
have to be armed against the rebel
lion of those evil inclinations. But
religion has tanned the widest ma
lures. 1t has turned fretfulness into
gratitude, dependency into good
cheer, and those who were hard and
ungovernable and uncompromising
have been made pliable and cOnsilia-
tory. Good resolution, reformatory
effort, will not effect the change. 1t
takes a mightier arm and a mightier
hand to bend evil habits than the
hand that bent the bow of Ulysses,
and it takes a stronger lasso than
ever held the buffalo on the prairie.
A man cannot go forth with any
human weapons and contend sue
cessfully against these Titans armed
with uptorn mountains. But you
have known men into whose spirit
the influence of the Gospel of Christ
came until their disposition was en-
tirely changed. So it was with two
very antagonistic. They had done all
they could to injure each other.
They were in the same line of bust
ness. One of the merchants was con-
verified to God. Having been convert
ed, he asked the Lord to teach him
how to bear himself toward that
business antagonist, and he was i'm
pressed with the fact that it was his
duty when a customer asked for GER
tain kinds of goods which he had not,
but which he knew his opponent had,
store. I suppose that is about the
hardest thing a man could do; but,
being thoroughly converted to God,
he resolved to do that very thing,
and, being asked for a certain kind
of goods which he had not, he said:
You go to such and such a store,
and you will get it." After awhile
merchant No. 2 found these custom
ers coming, so sent, and he found
also that merchant No. 1 had been
brought to God, and he sought the
same religion. Now they are good
friends and good neighbors, the
grace of God entirely changing their
"Oh," says some one, 81 have
rough, jagged, impetuous nature, and
religion can't do anything for me-"
Do YOU know that Martin Luther and
Newton and Richard Baxter
had impetuous and all consuming ma
lures, yet the grace of God turned
them into the mightiest usefulness?
A manufacturer cares but very little
for a stream that slowly runs
through the meadow, but values a
torrent that leaps from rock to rock
and Pushes with mad energy through
the valley and out toward the sea
Along that river you will find fiut
tering shuttles and gF1nding mill and
flashing water wheel. And a nature
the swiftest, the most rugged and the
most tremendous-that is the nature
God turns into greatest usefulness.
Oh, how many that have been pug
nacious and hard to please and iras
chile and more bothered about the
mote in their neighbours eye than
about the beamlike ship timber in
their own eye who have been entirely
by the grace of God and
have found out that goodness is
profitable for the life that now is as
we'll as for the life to come"
Again 1 remark that religion is good
for worldly business. know the gen.
eral theory is the more business the
less religion, the more religion the less
business. Not so, thought DR.. Hans in
his Biography of a Christian Mer