Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1890-05-10


fore have been torn to tattsrs by explosion
Of temper Now there is no harm i'll get
ting mad if You only get mad at sin. Yon
need to bride and saddle those hot brelthel
passions and with them ride down nJus-
tics and wrong. There are THOUSAND
things in the world that we ought to be
mad at. There is no harm in getting rel
hot if you only bring to the forge that
which needs hammering. MAJ wio has
no power OF righteous indignation Is au
imbccie But be sure it is righteous in
dignation, ami not u pstulancy that blurs
aud unravels aud dspletss the soul.
There is Il large class Of perSoas IN mid-hts
who have still iu them appatites thu
were arousel in early manhood, at a tim3
when thay pridel themselves on being
little fast. :" 'higa livers," "fres au1 easy"
':hail fellows well nat" They are now paying,
in compound interest, for troubles they
collected twenty years ago. Soma of you
are trying to escape. and You wlll-yet
very narrowly, las with the skin OF your
teeth God AMI your own soul only know
what the struggle is. Omnipotent grace
has pulled out mlnya soul that was deeper
in the miro than you are. They line the
beach of heaveu--the multltuls whom God
has rescued from the thrall OF suicidal
habits 1t YOU this day turn your back on the
wrong and start ANEW, Col will help you.
On, the weakness OF human help Meu will
sympathize for q while, and then turn You
off Ifyou ask for their their pardon, they
will give it, aul say they will try You again;
,blt, falling away again uadsr the powe: OF
temptation, they cast You oil forever. Buj
God forsives seventy timss seven; yea, ssvsa
hundred times; yen, though tais bs the tea
thousandth time, He is more earnest, more
sympathetic, more helpful, this last time than
when You took Your first miSStep.
It. with all the influences favorable for
right life, men make 50 many mistakes, how
much harder it is when, for instance, some
appetite thrustS its iron grap2le into tue roots
of the tongue, and pulls n man down with
hands of destruction. If, under such clrcum-
stances. he break away, there will be no sport
in the undertaking. no holiday enjoyment,
but struggle in which the wrestlerS move
from side to side, AMI bend and twist, and
watch for an opportunity To get in heavier
stroke until with one final effort i'll which
the muscles are diStende1, and the veins
stand out, aud the blood starts. the swarthy
habit falls unler the knee of the victories
capped at last as with the skin OF his teeta.
The ship Emma, bound from Gottenburs
to Harwich, was sailing on. when the man on
the loo iout saw som ,5hing that he pro.
nouncei vessel bottom up There WAS
something on ii that looked like a sea- gull.
but was afterward founi to be u waving
handkerchief In the small boat the crew
pushed ont to the wrecS AMI foun1 That it
was 4 caoSized vessel, aud that three men
had been digging their way out through the
bottom of the ship. When the vessel cap
sized they had no means of escape. Tho
captain took his penknife and dug away
through the plankS until his knife broke.
Then an old nail was found. with which they
attempted to scrape their way out of the
darkness. each one working until his hand
was well nigh paralyzed and he sank back
faint and sick. After long and tedious work
the light broke through the bottom OF the
ship. A handkerchief was hoisted Help
came They were taken ON board the vessel
and saved. Did ever men come so near
watery grave without dropping into it?
How narrowly they escapsd.-escapsd only
with the skin Of their teeth
There are men who have been capSizsd of
evil passions, and capSiZsd mid-ocean, ana
they are a thousand miles away from any
shore of help They have for years been try
ing to dig their way out. They have been
can never be delivered unless they will hoist
some signal of distress However weak and fee
BILE it may be, Christ will seq itand bear down
upon the helpless craft. and take them on
board, and will be known in earth and in
heaven how narrowly they escaped-''eS-
capped as with the skin of their teeth"
There are others who in attempting to
come to God must run between a great
many business parplexities. II a man 80
over to business ut 10 o'clock in the morn
ing. and comes away at 3 o'clock IN the at
ternoon. he has some time for religion; but
how shall YOU find time fos religious con-
temptation when You are driven from sun
rise to sunset, and have been for five years
going behind in business. and are frequent
Is dunued by creditors whom you cannot
pay, and when, from Monday morning I'M
til Saturday night, YOU are dolging bills
that YOU cannot meet? You walk day by
day in uncertainties that have kept your
brain on fire for the past three years. Some
with less business troubles than you have
gone crazy The clerk has heard noise in
the back counting-room, and gone in, and
found the chief man Of the firm ravlnS
maniac: or the wife has heard the bang OF
q pistol in the back parlor, and gone IN,
stumbling over the dead body OF her hus-
banda suicide There are in this house
to-day three hundred NEIL pursued, har-
rassed trodden down end scalped OF bust
ness perplexities, and which way to turn
next they do not know Now God will not
be hard on you He knows what obstacles
are in the way of your being a Christian,
and your first effort in the right direction
He will crown with success. Do not let
Satan, with cotton bales and kegs, and hogs
heads and counters and stocks OF unstable
goods, block up your way TO heaven. Gather
about your loinS Take an agonizing look
into the face of God, and then say: Here
goes one grand effort for life eternaln' and
then bound away for heaven, escaping as
with the skin of your teeth"
In tue last day it will be found that Hugh
Latimer and John Knox and HusS and Rid
ley were not the greatest martyrs, but Chris
tian men who went up lncorrupt from the
contaminations and perplexitles OF W all
street, Water street, Pearl street. Broad
street. State street and Third street. On earth
they were called brokers, or stock jobbers, or
retailers, or importers; but i'll heaven, Chris
tian heroes. No fagots were heaped abou:
their feet: no inquisition demanded from
their recantation: no soldier aimed a pike at
their heart; but they hal mental tortureS,
compared with which all physical consuming
is as the breath of spring morning.
! find in the community large class OF
men who have been 50 cheated, SO lied
about so outrageously wronged, that they
have lost their faith i'll everything. In
world where everything seems so topsy
turvy they do not see how there can be
any God. They are confounded and fren-
zied and misanthropic. Elaborate argu-
ments to prove to them the truth of Chris
tianity, OF the truth OF anything else, touch
them nowhere Hear me, all such men.
preach to youno rounded periods no orna-
mental discourse; but put my hand on
your shoulder, and invite you into the
peace of the Gospel. Here is rock on which
you may stand firm, though the waves
dash against it harder than the Atlantic
pitching its surf clear above Eddystone
Lighthouse Do not charge upon God all
these troubles of the world. As long as the
world stuck to God, God stuck to the world;
but the earth seeded from his government,
ana hence all these outrages and all these
woes God sgood For many hundreds of
years He had been coaxing the world to come
back to Him; but the more He has coaxed the
more violent have men been in their resist
ance, and they have stepped back and stepped
back until they have dropped into ruin.
Try this God, We who have hal the blood
hounds after you, and who have thought
that God had forgotten you. Try Him.
,l-oa liz hall II