Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1889-11-16

against lllSU WILL Ol WDut we 40 uOt
know. wonder how it looks over
there. Somebody tells me it is like a
paved city-paved with gold; and
another man tells me it is like q
fountain, and it is like tree, and
it is like a triumphal procession;
and the next man / meet tells
me it is all figurative. really
want to know, after the body is resur.
rected, what they wear and what they
eat; and | have an immeasurable Curl
osity to know what it is, and how it is,
and where it is. Columbus risked his
life to find the American continent,
and shall we shudder to go out on a
voyage of discovery which shall reveal
q vaster and more brilliant country7
John Franklin risked his life to find a
passage between icebergs. and shall
we dread to find passage to eternal
summer2 Men in Switzerland travel
up the heights of the Matterhorn,
with alpenstock, and guides, and
rockets, and ropes, and, getting half
way up, stumble and fall down in q
horrible massacre. They just wanted
to say they had been on the tops Of
those high peaks. And shall we fear
to go out for the ascent of the eternal
hills which start thousand miles be-
yond where stop the highest peaks
of the Alps, and when in that
ascent there is no peril9 A
man doomed to die stepped on the
scaffold, and said in joy: ''Now, in
ten minutes l will know the great
secret" One minute after the vital
functions ceased, the little child that
died last night knew more than Paul
himself before he died. Friends, the
exit from this world, or death, if you
please to call it, to the Christian is glo-
rious explanation. It is demonstra-
ton. 1t is illumination. 1t is sun
burst. 1t is the opening of all the
windows. 1t is shutting up the cate
chism of doubt, and the unrolling OF
all the scrolls of positive and accurate
information. Instead of standing at
the foot of the ladder and looking up,
it is standing at the top of the ladder
and looking down. 1t is the last mys-
terry taken out Of botany and geol-
ogy and astronomy and theology. Oh,
will it not be grand to have all qucs-
tons answered. The perpetually re.
curing interrogation point changed
for the mark of exclamation. All
riddles solved. Who will fear to go
out on that discovery, when all the
questions are to be decided which we
have been discussing all our livesi
Who shall not clap his hands in the
anticipation of that blessed country, if
it be no better than through holy GU
riosity1 As this Paul of my text did
not suppress his curiosity, we need not
suppress ours. Yes, have an unlimit-
ed curiosity about all religious things,
and as this city of Rome was so init
mately connected with apostolic times,
the incidents of which emphasize and
explain and augment the Christian re-
ligion, you will not take it as an evil
dence of q prying spirit, but as the out
bursting of Christian curiosity when
1 say | must also see Rome
DESIRE TO BE CONFIRMED IN THE FU.
TURE.
Our desire to visit this city is also
intensified by the fact that we want
to be confirmed in the feeling that
human life is brief, but its work lasts
for centuries, indeed forever. There.
fore, show US the antiquities of old
Rome, about which we have been
reading for lifetime, but never seen.
In oui~beloved America, we have no
antiquities. A church eighty years
old oyerawes us with its age. We
have in America some cathedrals hun
dreds and THOUSANDS of years old, but
they are In Yellowstone park, or Cali
forlian canon, and their architecture
and masonry were by the omnipotent
God. We want to see the buildings,
or ruins of old buildings. that were
erected hundreds and thousands of
years ago by human hands. They
lived forty or seventy years, but the
arches they lifted, the paintings they
pcnciled, the sculpture they chiseled,
the roads they laid out, understand,
are yet to be seen, and we want You
to show them to u.s. l can hardly
wait until Monday morning. ! must
also see Rome. We want to be i'm
pressed with the fact that what
men do OH small scale or large
scale lasts thousand years, lasts for.
ever, that we build for eternity and
that we do so in very short space OF
time. God is the only old living pres
ence. But it is an old age without
any Of the infrmitics or limitations OF
old age. There is passage of Scrip
ture which speaks OF the birth of the
mountains, for there was time when
the Andes were born, and the Pyre-
nees were born, and the Sierra Ne
vadas were born, but before the birth
of those mountains the Bible tells us,
God was born, aye was never born at
all, because he always existed. Psalm
&c, 2: Before the mountains were
brought forth, or ever thou hadst form
ed the earth and the world, even from
everlasting to everlasting, thou art
God" How short is human life, what
antiquity attaches to its worthl How
everlasting is Godl Show us the an
tiquities, the things that were old when
America was discovered, old when
Paul went up and down these streets
sight seeing, old when Christ was born.
must, must also see Romel
CHRISTIANITY FOR STRONG MEN.
Another reason for our visit to this
city is that we want to see the places
where the mightiest intellects and the
greatest natures wrought for our Chris
tan religion. We have been told in
America by some people Of swollen
heads that the Christian religion is
pusillanirnous thing, good for children
under years of age and small brain
ed people, but not for the intelligent
and swarthy minded. We have heard
of your Constantine the mighty, who
pointed his army to the cross, saying:
hBy this conquer" If there be any
thing here connected with his reign or