The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1903-05-22

Il
through Jesus Christ our Lord. " And
then in the eighth chapter he glori-
ously unfolds the life of the saint who
has entered the promised land of full
| blessing in Christ Jesus. He scales
height after height until at last all
! the possibilities of that promise land
lie spread out in their rich beauty and
wide extent before him and he shouts:
I'VE are more than conquerors,
through Him that loved us, for I am
persuaded that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor pow
ers, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature, shall be able to sep
arate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord"
d UT to return to the children of
| - Israel and the circumstances and
events surrounding our text. Wonder
full have been their experiences dur
ing the month which has elapsed since
they escaped from slavery in Egypt.
! The wind has plowed a pathway
through the midst of the sea, the wa
tiers with mighty roar of judgment
have swallowed up their relentless enc
mics, the wilderness tree has yielded
| its boughs to sweeten the bitter wa
tiers of Marah, the camp has been made
at Elm under the sheltering grove of
palm trees and beside the gurgling,
| cool wells of water, and there the
weary people have rested. How God
always brings the soul to the GASES
of Elm after the trying wilderness
! journeyings and the bitterness of the
| pools of Marah have been passed! But
! finally the cloudy pillar lifts and
moves on and the children of Israel
reluctantly strike camp and follow.
| On into the wilderness of Sin they go
towards Sinai. The way is rough and
hard, and the food they have brought
with them is growing scarce. They
are face to face with-they thought
starvation and death, but instead
they were face to face with Gods full
ness and bounty. The barren sandy
wastes of the desert were to spread
the table and Heaven was to rain her
bread upon it from which the hungry
children could eat their fill and want
nothing, neither have anything over.
But notwithstanding that the cloud
| was SUN nONeIlIS O'SI anu 1SdOIhS
them, assuring them of Gods pres
ence, forgetting how the mighty hand
of God had stricken Egypt, had divid
ed the sea, had sweetened the pools
at Marah, had guided them to the re-
freshing gardens of Elm, they take the
last handfuls of corn from their bags,
and while the taste of the cakes made
therefrom is still fresh and sweet in
their mouths they fail to worrying
about the morrow and lusting after
the flesh pots in the land of slavery
which but so short time before they
had left behind. And the cry which
goes up from that camp and beats.
in rebellious discord against the shell
tering, guiding cloud of Gods pres
ence is: would to God we had died
by the hand of the Lord in the land
of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh
pots, and when we did eat bread to
the FULL" And Paul, by whom was
revealed unto US the exceeding riches
which are in Christ Jesus, has declared
that Gin these things they became fig
ures of us, to the intent that we should
not lust after evil things, as they
| also lusted."
IN HE redeemed but unsanctiffed be-
| | lever stands before us. The blood
of the Lamb, Christ Jesus, has been
sprinkled upon the Intel and door
posts of his heart and he has gone out
of the land where darkness and death
reign. He has had some blessed ex-
periences Oh, the sweetness and ioy
of those first days of the new life.
Jesus presence has been felt. He has
led unerringly. He has delivered
nightly when the Devil has pressed
hard. The bitter pools have been
made sweet, and the soul has rested in
the shade of the date palms of Elm
and drank of her refreshing waters,
but the Lord leads the soul out int o the
| wilderness again. and there in the place
| of discipline the soul falls to lusting
after the flesh pots of Egypt. The
! faith which has delivered, and the hope
which has led out towards the prom
ised land of better life, have been
obscured and forgotten as the strong
impulses for the old life, its pleasures,
| its associates, its unrestricted activ-
tiles gain the upper hand The most
unhappy person on earth is the wider
ness Christian.
ITOW could the children of Israel
II murmur so? we ask. We wonder
with exceeding and impatient amaze
ment that they could think that death
amidst the flesh. pots of Egypt was bet
ter than the feeding of the Lord in the
wilderness. And while we marvel we
forget. that Israel is but figure of us
and plainly illustrates the spiritual
conditions which prevail in our own
| lives so often. laundering after the
flesh pots of Egypt prevails to the
present day. Gods children don't get
very far into the wilderness expert
ences of the Christian life sometimes
before they begin to Gong for the in
dulgences of the old life. They forget
that their hunger can be satisfied by
the Lord Who is leading them, that the
mama of Gods bounty is as much
better than the leeks and onions of
Egypt as is life better than death and
Heaven better than earth. Esau was