Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1892-02-06

more WIDELY Known LAdn any rOCucl
period in the calendar of heaven
None of the whole hours of heaven
are measured off, none of the years
none of the centuries. Of the mil
lions of ages past and the millions q
ages to come, not one is especially
measured off in the Bible. The hall
hour of my text is made immortal
The only part of eternity that was
ever measured by earthly tilnepiece
was measured by the minute land Of
my text
Oh. the half hours They decide
everything. am not asking what
you will do with the years or months
or days Of your life, but what of the
half hours9 Tell me the history Ct
your half hours and l will tell yor
the story of your whole life on ea1'tl
and the story of your. whole life II
eternity. The right or wrong things
you can think in thirty minutes, the
right or wrong things you can say II
thirty minutes, the right or wrong
things you can do in thirty minutes
are glorious or baleful, inspiring OF
desperate. Look out for the frag
ments of time. They are pieces OF
eternity.
It was the half hours between shoe
ing horses that made Elihu Burritt
the learned blacksmith, the hall
hours between professional calls as
physician that made Abercrombie the
Christian philosopher, the half hours
between his duties as schoolmastel
that made Salmon P. Chase chief jus
tice, the half hours between shoe
lasts that made Henry Wilson vice
president of the United States, the
half hours between canal boats that
made James A. Garfield president.
The half hour day for good books
or bad books, the half hour day for
prayer or Incidence, the half hour q
day for helping others or blasting
others, the half hour before you so
to business, and the half hour after
you return from business; that
makes the difference between the
scholar and the ignoramus, between
the Christian and the infidel, be-
tween the saint and the demon, be-
tween triumph and catastrophe, be-
tween heaven and hell. The most
tremendous things of your life and
mine were certain half hours.
The half hour when in the parson-
age of a country minister resolved
to become a Christian then and there
the half hour when / decided to be-
come a preacher of the Gospel; the
half hour when l realized that nay
son was dead the half hour when
stood on the top of my house in Ok
ford street and saw our church burn
the half hour in which I entered
Jerusalem; the half hour il which ]
assembled Mount Calvary; the half
hour in which stood on Mars hill
the half hour in which the dedicatory
prayer of this temple was made, aud
about ten or fifteen other half hours
are the chief times OF my LIE.
You may forget the name OF the
exact years or most of the important
events of your existence, but those
half hours, like the half hour of my
text, will be immortal. | do not
query what you will do with the
twentieth century, do not query
what you will do with 1892, but
what will you do with the next halt
hour2 Upon that hinges your DIES
tiny. And during that some of you
will receive the Gospel and make
complete surrender, and during that
others of you will make final and
fatal rejection of the full and free
and urgent and impassioned offer OF
life eternal.
Oh, that the next half hour might
be the most glorious thirty minutes
of your earthly existence. Far back
in history great geographer stood
with a sailor looking at a globe
that represented our planet, and he
pointed to place on the globe where
he thought there was an undiscov.
cred continent. The undiscovered
continent was America. The geog-
rapher who pointed where he
thought there was new world was
Martin Behaim, and the sailor to
whom be showed it was Columbus.
This last was not satisfied till he had
picked that gem out of the sea and
set it in the crown of the worlds
geography.
Oh, We, who have been sailing up
snd down the rough seas of sorrow
and sin, let me point out to you an
other continent, yea, another world,
that you may yourselves find a rap
tu1ous world, and that is the world a
half hour of which we now study.
Oh, set sail for it! Here is the ship
and here are the compasses. In other
words, make this half hour, begin
ming at twenty minutes of twelve by
my watch, the grandest half hour OF
your life and become Christian.
Pray for a regenerated spirit.
Louis XIV, while walking in the
garden at Versailles, met Mansard,
the great architect, and the architect
took off his hat before the king.
"Put on your hat" said the king,
'for the evening is damp and>cold. ;
And Mansard, the architect, the rest
of the evening kept on his hat. The
dukes and marquises standing with
bare heads before the king expressed
their surprise at Mansard, but the
king said, 81 can make duke or q
marquis, but God only can make a
Mansard." And 1 say to you, my
hearers, God only by his convictlng
I0 n