Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1890-03-15

children rising up 10 call you blessed, can re-
member when you were quite jealous of the
belle of the village who was so transcendlV
fair and popular. But while you have these
two honorable and queenly names of wife and
mother. she became poor waif of the street,
and went into the blackncss of darkness for
ever. Live life over again? Why, it many
Of those who are now respectable were
permitted TO experiment. tho next
journey would be demolition. You
rot through, as Job says, by the skin OF the
teeth. Next time you might not get through
at all Satan would say: II know him now
better than did before, and have for fifty
wears been studying his weaknesses, and
will weave stronger web of circumstances to
catch him next time" And Satan would
concenter his forces on this one man, and the
last state of that man would be worse than
the first My friends, our faces are in the
right direction. Better go forward than
backward, even if we had the choice. Tho
greatest disaster / can think of would
fe for YOU to return to boyhood in 1890. Oh,
if life were smooth Luzerne or Cayuga Lake,
| would like to get into Il yacht and sail ovor
il, not once but twice-yea, thousand
times But life is an uncertain sea, and
some of the ships crash OH the iceberSs ct
cold indifference and some take fire of evil
passion, and some lose their bearings andrun
into the skerries. and some are never heard
Of Surely OH such treacherous sea rs that
one voyage is enough
Besides all this, do you know if you could
have your wish and live life over again it
would put You so much further from reun-
ion with Your friends in heaven? Ii you are
in the noon of life or the evening of life you
are not very far from the golden gate ut
which you are to meet your transported and
unparalleled loved ones. You are now, let
us say, twenty years or ten years or one year
off from celestial conjunction. Now suppose
YOU went back III your earthly life thirty
years or forty years or fifty years, what al
awful poStponenenJ of the time OF reunion!
1t would be as though YOU were going to San
Francisco to Il great banquet, and you got to
Oakland, four or five miles this side Of it,and
then came back to Hoboken or Harlem to get
a better start; as though you were going
to England TO be crowned and having come
in sight of the mountains of Wales
YOU put back 10 Sandy Hook IN order
TO make q better voyage. The further
on you got in life, if Christian, the;
nearer you are TO the renewal or broken
mp companonship NO; the wheel OF
time turns in the right direction, and it is.
well it turns so fast Three hundred and
siNty-five revolutions i'll Il year and for
ward. rather than three hundred and
SiXty-tive revolutions III u Year ana back
ward. But hear We! hear ye! while Tell
YOU how YOU NAV practically live your life
over again and be all the better for it. You
NAV put into the remaining years or
Your life all you have learned OF wisdom
in your past life. You mag mako the
coming ten wears worth the preced-
he would like to live his life over again be-
cause he would do so much better. and yet
goes right on living as he has always lived,
do YOU not see he stulrifeS himself? He
proves that if he could go back he would do
almost the same as he has done If a man
eat green apnies some Wednesday i'll cholera
time and is thrown into fearful cramps and
saws on Thursday: Il wish had been more
prudent in my diet; oh, ii ! could live Wednes-
dav over again" and then on Friday eats APP
pies Just as green, he proves that 1t would
have been 10 advantage for him to live
Wednesday over again. And If we, depior-
ing onr past life and with the idea OF I'M
prOvement, long for an opportunity TO try 1t
over again, vet 20 on making the same mis-
takes and committing tue same sins, we only
demonstrate that the repetition OF our exist
ence would afford 10 improvement. 1t was
grsen apples before and IL would be
green apples over again. AS soon as snip
captain strikes rock in the lake or sea he
reports it and buoy is swung over that reef
and marines henceforth stand of from
that rock And all our mistakes
in the past ought to be buoys warning us to
keep in the right channel There is no ex-
cuse for us il we split on the same rock
where we split before. Going along the
sidewalk at night where excavations are be-
ing made we frequently see lantern on
framework, and we turn aside, Tor that Ian.
torn saws. keep out of this hole And all
along the pathway of life lanterns are set as
warnings, and by the time we come to mid,
life we ought to know where it IS safe TO walk
and where it is unsafe
Beside that we have all these years been
learning how to be useful, and i'll the next
decade we ought to accomplish more for God
and the church and the world than in any
previous four decades The bost way to
atone for past Incidence or past transgres-
sion is by future asSduity. let you often
find Christian men who were not con-
verified until they were forty or fifty,
as old age comes on. saying: Nv ell.
my work is about done and it is time for me
to rest They gave forty years of their life
TO Satan and the world Il little fragment OF
their life to Grd, and now they want to rest.
Whether tina, belongs to comedy or tragedy
say not The man vino gave ehalf OF his
earthly ex stence to the world and of the re-
manning ,wc-quarters oneto Christian WORK
and the other to rest. would not, l sup
pose. get very brilliant reception in
IL.
in heaven they would be appro-
plate for his garland or if there is any
hrone with broken steps it would be appro-
pirate for his coronation; or any harp with
relaxed string it would be appropriate for
his lingering. Ny brother, you give nine
tenths of your life to sin and Satan and then
get converted and then rest awhile III sancti-
fed laziness and then coup to get your neav-
enly reward, ana ! warrant it will not take
the cashier OF the royal banking house
a great while to count out to you all
your dues He will not ask you whether you
will have it in bills of large denomination or
small would like to put one sentence OF
my sermon in italics, and have 1T under
scored. and three exclamation points at the
end OF the sentence, and that sentence IS
this: As We cannot live our lives over again,
the nearest we can come to atone for the past
is by redoubled holiness and industry IN the
future.
If this -ail train of life has been detained
and switched off and is far behind the time
table, the engineer for the rest of the way
must put on more pressure Of steam and go
q mile minute in order to arrive at the
right time and place under the approval OF
conductor and directors.
AS / supposed it would be, there are multi
tudes of young people listening to this sermon
vi n-Oui tuiS SuOJSSU i.s'o "OeSu 'Ao4 'AS
force of galvanic battery Without my
saying word to them, they have soliloquizedt
saying: "As one cannot live his life over
again, and l can make only one trip, must
look out and make no mistakes; have out
one chance and I must make the most OF 1t.
Ny young friends, am glad you
made this application of the SER
mon yourself When a min
, lister toward the close Of his sermon says
Now a few words by wey OF application
people begin to look around for their hats
and get their arm through one sleeve Of their
overcoats, and the sermonic application is a
failure. am glad you have made your own
application and that you are resolved. like
Quaker of whom read years ago, who, in
substance, said: ct SHALL be along
this path of life but once and 50 must co
all the kindness can and all the good can"
My hearers, the mistakes of youth can never
be corrected. Time gone is gone forever,
An opportunity passed the thousandth, part
OF second has by one leap reached the