Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1888-04-27
roiiIiuiii.ss. and It's leaves take the form OF

rouhuings, ililn It's leaves take the form or q
crown. II this emperor tree bo planted by a
rose bush it grows u little higher than tho
bush, and spreads out above it crown. II
it be planted by the side of another tree it
grows a lttl. higher than that tree and
spreads above it crown Would God that
this religion of Christ, more wonderful
emperor tree, might ovcrshadow all'your
lives; arc you lowly in ambision or circun-
stance, putting over you its crown, ore you
high i'll talent and position, putting over you
its crown. Oh, for more of the saccharine
in our lives and less of the wormwoodi
Whut is true of individuals is true of ma
TONS God sets them up to revolve US stars,
but they may fall wormwood.
Tyre-the atmosphere Of the desert fra
grant with spices coming i'll caravans, to her
fairs; all seas cleft into foam by the keesa of
her laden merchantmen; her markets rich
with horses and camcls from Togarmah,
her bazaars filled with upholstery from
Dedan, with emeralls and coral and agate
from Syria, with wines from Helbon, with
embroidered work from Ashur and Chill
I. mad Where now the glcnm Of her towers,
$ where the roar of her ,chariots, where the
.sInasts Of her shipsf Let the fishermen who
their nets where :onceS shes Jet the
sssea Hes cup on et6gs baEra4n where
head
ths faGs WHO Set their rude
! tents where once her palaces glittered, an
swer the question. She was star, but by
her own sin turned to worrnwood and has
fallen.
Hundred gated Thebes-for all time to BIO
the study of antiquarian and hieroGlyphist;
her stuperdous ruins spread over twenty
seven miles, her sculptures presenting in
figures of warrior and chariot the victories
with which the now forgotten kings of Egypt
shook tue nations; her obelisks and columns
Carnac and Luxor, the stupendous temples
of her pride Who can imagine the greatness
( of Thebes i'll those days, when the hippodrome
rang with her sports and foreign royalty
/ bowed at her shrines and her avenues roared
with the wheels Of professions in the wake Of
returning conquerers! What dashed down
the vision of chariots and temples and
thrones7 What hands pulled upon the
columns of her gloryi What ruthlcssness
defaced THE scultured wall and broke obelislls
nnd left her indescribable temples great
skeletons of grunitei What spirit of de-
structon spread the lair of wild beasts in her
royal sepulchers, and taught the miserable
cottagers of today to build huts in the courts
of her temples, and sent desolation and ruin
skulking behind the obelisks and lodging
among the sarcopliagi and leaning against
the columns and stopping under the arches
and weeping in the waters which go mourn
fully by, Us though they were carrying the
! tears Of all ages? Let the munrmies break
their long silence and come up to shiver in
the desolnrion, and point to fallen gates and
shattered statues and defnced sculpture, re-
spending: "Thebes built not one temple to
God. Thebes hated Righteousness and loved
sin. Thebes was star, but she turned to
wormwood and has fallen"
Babylon-with her $50 towers aud her
hiuzen gates and her embattled walls, the
splcndor of the earth gathered within her
Palaces her hanging gardens built by
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS to please his bride Amyittas,
who had been brought up in mountainous
ct:untry and could not endure the flet country
ruund Babylon, those hanging gardens built,
terrace above terrace, till at the height OF
400 feet there wore woods waving and
fountains playing, the vcrdure, the foliage.
the glory looking rs if mountain were Oh
the wing On tho tip top O king walking
with his queen, among statues snowy white,
looking up Mt birds brought from distant
lands, and drinking out OF tankards of solid
gold, or looking Off over rivers and lakes up
on nations subdued and tributary, crying, Is
not this great Babylon which have builtf
Si1h%es sh Ia ttS upEGraa tAe Rf
Inv shattered the brazen gatcsi What
long, fierce blast of storm put out this
/ ;.,t, tn1 tha hot
| crash OF discord drove down the music
that poured from palace window and gar
den grove, and called the banquetcrs to their
revel and the dancers to their fceti | walk
upon the scene of desolation to find an an
swer and pick up pieces of bituri-D and
brick and broken pottery, the remains OF
Babylon, and as in the silence of the night /
hear the surging Of that billow Of desola-
ton which rolls over the scene, hear the
wild waves saying, Babylon was proud.
Babylon was impure. Babylon was star,
but by sin she turned to wormwood and has
fallan.n
From the prosecutions OF the Pilgrim
Fathers and the Huguenots in other lands
God set upon these shores nation. The
council fires of the nlorigines went out in
the greater light of q free government. The
sound of the war whoop was exchanged for
the thousand wheels of enterprise ami pro-
eress The mild winters. the fruitful sum-
mcrs. tile healthful skies charmed from other
lands a race of hardy men who loved God
| ard wanted to be free. Before the wood
mans AK forests fell and rose again into
SLIPS masts and churches pillars. Cities
on the banks of lakes begin to rival
cities by the sea. The lnnd quukes witk
the rush of the rail car and the
waters are churned white with the
steamers wheel. Fabulous bushels OF western
wheat meet on the way fabulous tons OF
eastern coal. Furs from the north pass or
the rivers fruits from the south. And trad
iny in the same market is Maine lurlbermnn
! and South Carolina rice merchant and Ohio
farmer and Alaska fur dealer. And churchoe
and schools and nsylunls scatter light anu
love and mercy and salvation upon oO,OO0,OOO
of people
pray that our nation may not copy the
crimes of the nations that have persisted, anc
our cup of blessing turn to worinwood anu
like them we go down aln by nature and
by grace an optinist, and expect that this
country will continue to advance until the
world shall put on millennial era, and thai
when Christ comes again he will set his throEc
somewhere between the Alleghanies and tho
Sierra Nevadas Dut be not deceived. OF:
only safety is in righteousness toward &c.
and Justice toward man. five forget the
goodness of the Lord to this lard, and break
/ His Sabbaths, and improve not by the dire
disasters that have again and again come to
us as people, and we learn saving lesson
neither from civil war nor raging epidemic,
nor drought nor mildew nor scourge of locust
and grasshopper, if the political corruption
which has poisoned the fountains of public
virtue and beslimed the high places of author
ity, making free government at times hiss
ing and byword in all the earth; if the
drunkenness and licentiousl.css that stagger
] aud hlacnhnn,a in the streets of our great