Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1888-10-27

tie blacSlleSS OF darkness forever. DuI
should like as minister when I am dying to
be ahlo truthfully to say what captain of
the nslsh army, fallen Mt the head OF his col
umn. and dying on the Egyptian battlefield,
said to Gen. Wolesey who came to condole
with him: II led them straight; didn't lead
them straight, Generals" God has put us
ministers us captains in this battlefield of
truth against error. Great ut last will be our
cliasrin if we fall leading the people the
wrong way; but great will be our gladnesS
if when the battle is over we can hand
our sword back to our great Commander
saying: Lord jesus We led the people
straight: didn't we lead them straight"
Those ministers who SO off Mt q tangent and
preach some other gospel are not stars but
comets, and they flash across the heavens
little while and make people stare, and throw
1owna few metooric stones and then so out
Of sight if not out of eXistence. Oh, brethren III
the ministry, let us remember that God calls
lis stars. and our business is to shine and to
keep our own sphere. and then when we get
llone irving to light up the darkness OF tins
world, we will wheel into higher spheres,
and in us shall be fulfilled the promise
''they that turn many to righteousness
shall slime as the stars forever and
ever" All! the ministers are not all Peck
sniirS and canting hypocritleS, as some
would have YOU think! Forgive me if, hay
lug in Your presence at other times gloritied
the medical profession and the legal profess
sion and the literary profession-I glorify
my own. have seen them III their homes
and heard them i'll their pulplts and u
grander array of men never breathei, ana
the Bible figure is not strained when IL calls
them stars; and whole consultations OF
glorious ministers have already taken their
5laces on high whore they shine even brighter
than they Shone on earth: Edward N. Kirk,
of the Congregational Church; Stephen h.
Tying, of the Episcopal Church; Matthew
Simpson OF the Methodist Church; John
Bowling, of the Baptist Church; Samuel h.
TalmaGe, of the Presby terian Church; Dr.
Dewitt, of the Reformed Church; John
Chambers, of the Independent Church; and
there. stop, for it so happens that l have
mentioned the seven stars OF the seven
churches.
pass on to another mighty Bible seven land
they are the seven seals ST. John in vision
saw n scroll with seven seals. and he heard
an angel cry: "Who is worthy TO loose the
seals thereof!n Take eight or ten sheets
of toolscap paper, paste them together and
roll them into scroll, aud have the scroll
ut seven different places sea]ed with
sealing wax. You unroll the scroll till you
come to one of these seals, and then you can
90 no further until you break that seal; then
unroll again until you come to another seal
and you can go no further until you break
that seal; then you go on until all the
seven seals are broken, and the contents
OF the entire scroll are revealed.
Now, that scroll with seven seals held by the
angel was the prophecy of what was to come
OF the earth; it meant that the knowledge OF
the future was with God, and no man and no
angel was worthy to open it; but the Bible
seals. He broke the first seal and un
rolled the scroll, aud there was @
painting of white horse, and that meant
prosperity aud triumph for the Roman
empire, and so it really came to pass that for
ninety years virtuous emperors succeeded
each other, Nerva, Trajan and Antoninus.
Christ in the vision broke the second seal and
uurolled again and there was a painting OF q
red horse, and that meant bloodshed, and
so it really came to pass and the next ninety
years were red with asSassnations and wars
Then Christ broke the third seal and I'M
rolled it and there was painting OF black
horse, which in all literature meauS fam
ine. oppression and taxation and SO il
really came to pass. Christ went on
until He broke all the seven seals and
opened all the scroll. Well. the future of all
of us is q sealed scroll, and l am glad that nc
one but Christ can open it. DO not let us
join that class of Christians in our day who
are trying to break the seven seals of the
future. They are trying to peep into
things they have 40 business with. They
try to foretell what is going to come
to them and what is going to come on the
earth. They know nothing about it. Christ
is the only one who can break the seal OF the
future Bible prophecy was not written to
help us to tell things in the future, but to
have us, when the things actually. do
come to pass. compare them with prophecy
and so learn Gods foreknowledge and the in
spiration Of the Scriptures. But you go
into the study of the prophecies in order
to find out what is going to happen year
from now, or twenty years from now, or one
thousand years from now, and will
make a prophecy OF my own, and
that is that you will have your
positively get into public or private insane
asylum wnere the greatest Of expounders
and preachers OF prophecy ended his life a
few years since, and where you may regale the
visitors of the institution by incoherent num-
biings over something from DANIEL or hevea-
tionS about the leopard which means Greece,
and the bear which means Medo-Persia,
and the image with the great toes. What q
mental wreck did the persistent attempt TO
forestall events make OF that miracle Oh
preachers Edward Irving. OF London. IL
would take several mad-houSeS to hold the
demented victims of the improper use OF
the Prophecies of Daniel and Revelation
What are not those books to
be studieds Yes. No part of the
Bible is more important Neither is there
any more important shelf in that apothecary' s
store than the shelf on which are the bella
donna and the morphine, but be more care
full in using them than in the use OF pepper
mint and ginger. Keep your hands OF oil the
seven seals. Christ will break them soon
enough Don't go to some necromancsr or
spiritualst or sootEsayer or fortune-teiler 20
fin.l out what is going to happen to yourseii,
or your family, or your friends. WI io I'LL
Christ breaks the seal to find out whether IN
your own personal life or the life OF
tue nation or the life of the world.
it is going to be the white horse OF
prosperity or the red horse OF war or
the black horse of famine. You will soon
enough see him paw and hear him neigh.
Take care of the present and the future VIII
take care of itself. If a man live seventy
wears his biography is in scroll having at
least seven seals; and let him not during the
first ten years of life try 10 look into the
twente;, nor the twenties into the
thirties, nor the thrties into the fortles, nor
the fortes into the tfties. nor the hftleS INTO
the sixties, nor the sixties into the seventies
From tile way the years have got the haolt
OF racing along, guess YOU Will not nave
to wait great while before all the
seals of the future are broken.
would not give two cents to Know
how long am going to live, or IN what uay
OF what year the world is going to be- &c,
mollShed. | would rather give thousandi
dollars not to know. Suppose some one could
break the next seal in tue scroll OF your per
sonal history and should tell you that on the
18th of July. 1870, you were TO die, the sum
mer after the next: how much would you ne
good for between this and that! 1t WOULD
from now until then be prolonged funeral.
You would be counting the months and the
days and your family and and friends rth T SH vo Ss
would rub your hands together and whine
zone yesr from to-day I am to go. Dear me! /
wish no one had told me so long before |
wish that necromancer had not broken the
seal of the future" And meeting some
undertaken you would say: II hope you Will
keep yourself free for an engagement the
Fourth of July, 1880. That day you will be
needed at my house. To save time you might
as well take my measure now, i've feet, eleven
inches.n I am glad that Christ dropped
thick veil over the hour of our demise and