The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1903-03-13

would have killed himself, supposing
that the prisoners had fed. Within
that inner prison Paul stands freed
from his fetters. The hand of Gods
power has pressed open the doors of
that prison as though they had been
made of paper and the bolts had been
but pencil marks. His fingers have
cut the iron bands as though they had
been but ropes of sand. And Paul and
Silas realized that they were in the
hollow of that hand which was
moving so nightly in their behalf.
Yea, and knowing this, Paul stands
calmly and dignifedly in his place and
cries to the jailer to do himself no
harm, for they are all there. And now
we will let the jailer tell who the Man
in Prison is. His cry: what must l
10 to be saved" shows that he has
caught a new glimpse of himself. lie
is lost man, shut up in the prison
house of sin. He sees his doom written
all over the black walls of his hard
heart. In the anguish of his despair
he cries out for deliverance.
1t is the man who realizes he is in
prison who wants to get out. Every
soul is in prison who has not been set
free by Jesus Christ. But oh, sad, sad
fact! thousands upon thousands of
people all over this land, all over the
world, are in prison and do not realize
it, will not believe it! Like the jailer
at Philippi, they sleep in the comfort
of their own self-confidence and believe
that they are safe and free. But the
earthquake of Gods judgment is com
ing as it came there that night at Phil
ippi. God grant that you, my friend,
if you are in the prison house of sin,
may wake up to realization of your
lost condition before it is too late
for the Deliverer o reach your side and
make you free. We cannot argue and
show you by human reason that you
are in prison. Paul did not convince
the jailer that he was the Man in Pris-
on. God, by the cOnvicting power of
His Holy Spirit, did that. Paul might
have spent all that night in fOrcible
argument trying to convince that jailer
| that he was in prison, but the light of
| the morning sun would have seen him
still laughing the apostle to scOrn.
| But Paul let some little seed fall into
| that jailer's heart that night as he was
leaving, after claiming them in the
inner prison, and the Holy Spirit used
it to convict the jailer of sin.
And as soon as he realized that he
was a sinner, that he was help
| less prisoner in the prison house of
sin, he Immediately began to cry for
| deliverance. Satan blinds the human
heart to its real condition and pre-
vents the lips from uttering the cry:
what must do to be saved" he uses
every device to keep his prisoners safe;
he encourages the heart to make all
| manner of excuses for not acceptine Q
Christ as the only Deliverer. What is
he holding up before your eyes which
is making you blind to the fact that
you are hopeless, helpless prisoner in
Satan's death cell? Let Gods Word
convince your heart that "aH have
sinned and come short of the glory o1
| God; that "the soul that sinneth, il
shall die;" that there is salvation il
none other than in Jesus Christ; ant
that ''if the Son shall make you free
We shall be free indeed"
Lydia, Pauls first convert at Phil
ippi, was in prison until the Lor,
opened her heart under the preach
ing of the apostle down by the rive
bank and set her soul free in Chris
Jesus. Before Paul's coming she was {
devOut soul. She believed in God Sh,
was honorable in her dealings. Sh,
was benevolent and kind to thos,
about her. She was faithful in he
home duties, even though the care
of n successful business pressed upoI
her. But, Notwithstanding all this
Lydia was in prison. Her weekl
prayers by the river bank and tn
daily prayers in the home could no
break the prison bars of soul dealt
and save her. All her virtues and he
devotions to her home were no
strong enough to open the door &
the prison house of her soul and Civ
it the right to an eternal dwellin:
place in Heaven. No. Neither will
church membership or religious serv
ice as devout and sincere as that q
Lydia save you, my friend, from tn
| prison house of death which sin ha
built around your soul. Neither ca
you break its walls down by batter
ing it with all your virtues, or til
virtues of your wife, or sister, o
mother, be they ever so many an
ever so rare. You are in prison, a
was Lydia, unless Christ has shake
down the walls by the tread of HI
wounded feet. and unless His mai
pierced hands have struck the shack
les from your fettered limbs.
In Prison.-Being in prison implie
wrong-doing. They put the Violate
of the law in prison, but the law-abit
ing citizen has no fear of the loci
up. The soul is in prison because
has transgressed Gods holy law, nc
once, but scores of times. But eve
if only once, and in only one particJ
lar, Gods Word declares that, "who
soever shall keep the whole law, an
yet offend in one point, he is guilt
of ALL The thief does not have I
commit murder before he is place
in jail. The murderer is not a
lowed his liberty until he has con
mitted arson, burglary and all tn
other crimes in the category. On
broken law is sufficient to land ii:
offender behind the prison bars. On
sin blot on the soul is sufficient I
shut it out of Heaven.
Being in prison means punishmen
1t is the aim of government to max
the punishment fit the crime. Ce,
tain transgressions require certai
penalties. The soul in the priso
| house of sin is in the death cell await
ing it's eternal destruction. God said
ss:p the dav that thou eateSt thereO