The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1902-08-01

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1t is not man-made, but is God-given.
The everyday religion tests the pow
er of God and is able to go out in the
hour of need and fight the Goliaths
of sin, who are presenting themselves
for battle every day.
The best testimony we had in prayer
meeting recently and the one that
| stirred those in attendance the most
was the statement by a young lady
that the Lord was helping her to wash
the supper dishes, task she disliked
to do very much. Her religion was a
| reality to her, and in the actual ex-
periences of everyday life it was help
| ing her to bear burdens that otherwise
would have been unbearable.
The religion of too many people is
like that of the minister whose little
daughter, when asked what her father
did, said that he didn't do anything
but just preach. There is too much
preaching and too little practicing in
the world to-day. The religion that
will shine forth in the meeting house
and evaporate completely away before
the delayed dinner, or a cross baby in
the home, doesn't serve very much
practical purpose. If my religion does
not make the presence of the Lord so
real as to help me keep my temper
when some one treads upon my toes, or
infringes upon my rights, of how much
use is my testimony in the name of the
same Lord in the prayer meeting? If
my religion does not prevent me from
having two codes of morals, one for
tho homo OH of fTionIc on6
quaintances and another for the time
when 1 am away from home in
strange city, how much do you sup
pose it counts before God? If my re-
ligion may not be applied to the every
day problems of life, and does not
make me a better man in the home, in
the Office or shop, on the street, any
where and everywhere, of what real
value is it to me or any one else?
Many husband or wife or child in a
home knows that the spoken testimony
in Getting is a sound of words, and that
the speaker is hypocrite without
perhaps meaning to be. The strong
est denuncia tons of Christ were spok-
en- against those who wore the cloak
of religion and missed the heart of it
in the everyday life. Religion is good
for nothing if not lived out in the life.
God measures it by the number of
robbed and wounded travellers we, in
the spirit of the Samaritan of the par
able, help by the roadside, by the
number of glasses of cold water
we give in the name of the Master.
by the number of victories we win
over the flesh and the devil. God
does not take us at our own esti-
mate, nor according to the reputation
we sustain in the community, nor the
length of our prayer in church, but
judges US, as Christ declared, by the
fruit we bear. True, we are saved by
faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, but
we determine how much salvation we
really have by the way in which we
apply that salvation to the daily con-
duct. Christ alone can give us a new
heart and renew a right spirit within
us, but having been born again by
faith in Jesus Christ, we must let the
new heart and the Spirit of God dom
mate more and more in every detail
of life. This is the test of our religion.
The steel spring which is going into
the trucks of the railroad coach is as
strong as its weakest point, and no
stronger. One little flaw determines
the fate of that car spring. It makes
no difference how perfect it may be in
all other respects. 1t is rated accord
ing to the pressure it will stand at its
weakest point. You have just as much
religion as you take into the homely
duties of the home, into the fatiguing
work of the office or the workshop, into
the social life in which you circulate;
so much and no more. How much re-
ligion have you got?
Some people are so careful of their
religion that they only get it out once
a week, brush off the dust and carry it
carefully to church, and when the
service is over return it to its resting
place as quickly as possible for fear
it will fade or become furnished from
the vulgar gaze of the world, and, like
the priceless diamond tiara of the rich
lady which she kept locked up in her
safe so carefully and which on being
examined by the expert was found to
be a splendid sham and worthless, so
will the Sunday religion of many a
devotee be found at the last day of
judgment to be nothing more than an
ingenious imitation of the real article
and will not admit to even the vesti-
bule of Heaven.
David's Boast.-And because David's
religion was the real article he was
not afraid to use it seven days in the
week, and he found that the more he
used it the brighter it became. No
wonder he confidently declares: "My
soul shall make her boast in the
Lord" 1t is one thing for the lips to
speak and quite another matter for
every chord of the human heart to
vibrate in actual experience with the
story which the lips are telling. 1t is
so easy for the lips to talk deep re-
ligious truths, and quite another mat
ter to carry those truths down into
the hidden depths of the hearts real
experiences. David, in the security of
the homeland, with no foe to modest
him or make him afraid, never could
have sung this song, but as a fugitive
in the power of heather king, face to
face with death, he knew what it was
to praise God for His faithfulness and
say: This poor man cried, and the
Lord heard, and saved him out of all
his troubles" AS he sees the powerful
army of King Achish surrounding him
in his helplessness, and realizes that
but word from the king is necessary
to set the soldiers upon him and tear
him limb from limb, his spiritual vision,
quickened in the moment of peril, sees
the angel of the Lord and His host en- |
camped round about him to deliver
him. Alone in a strange land. with |