Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1892-04-09
NUMBER III

tnre, not persecution. not an assault,
| during all these twenty three years but
turned out for our advantage, and ought
not to believe that '.all things work to-
gether foe goodr Hosannahl
Another lesson have learned during
! these twenty-t6ree years is that it is not
necessary to preach error or pick flaws i'll
the old Biblei in order to getan audience:
the old Book without any fixing up is
good enough for NE, and higher criti-
cism, as it is called, means lower reli-
gion. Higher criticism is another form
of infdclity. and its disciples will be-
licve less and less. until many of theni
will land in Nowhere. and become tho
worshipers of an eternal What is it,
The most Of these higher critics seem
to be seeking notoriety by pitching into
the Bible. 1t is such brave thing to
strike your grandmother. The old Cos
pei put in modern phrase, and without
any of the conventionaliri,sa1 and adapted
to all the wants and woes of humanity,
Shave found tho rnighticst magnet. and
| we have never lacked an audience.
BIZ essing sof lny family u.
ways had a great, ifdl
preach to. That old Gospel have
preached to You these twentY-three
years of my Brooklyn pastorate, and
that old Gospel will preach Till die.
and charge my son, who is on the way
u, tho ,,,i1io+,x- RI ,,ro.ob IL rtar va =
for remember Iauls thunderbolt, .'If
any man preach any other Gospel, let
him be accursed." And now, Us stand
here on my twenty-third anniversary.
SEQ two audiences. The one is made up
of all those who have worshiped with
us in the past. but have been translated
to higher realms.
What groups of children-too fair and
too sweet and too lovely for earth, and
the Lord took them, but they seem pres
ent today. The Group has gone out of
the swollen throat, AMI the pallor from
the cheek, and they have OH them tho
health and radiance of heaven. Hail,
groups of glorilcd children! bow glad
I am to have you come back to us today!
And here sit those aged ones who de-
parted this life leaving ali awful va
cancy in home and church. Where are
your staffs, and where are your gray
locks, and where your stopping Shout
ders, ye blessed old folks? "Oh," they
say, I'VE are all young again, and the
bath in the river from under the throne
has made rs agile and bounding. In
the place from which we come they use
no stats, but scepters!" Hail. fathers
and mothers in Israeli How glad we
are to have you come back to greet us!
But the other audience see in imagi-
nation is made mp Of MI those. to whom
we have had opportunity as a church.
directly or indirectly. of presenting the
Gospel. Yea, all my parishes seem TO
come back today. The people of my
first charge in Bcllcville. N. j. The peo-
pie of my second charge in Syracuse.
N. Y. The people of my third charge
in Philadelphia. And the people of all
these three Brooklyn Tabcrnacies. Look
at them. and all those whom through
the printing press we have invited to
God and heaven now seeming to sit in
galleries above galleries-ffty galleries,
hundred galleries. a thousand galleries
hi oh ---------------
greet them all in your name and in
Christ's name, all whom have con-
fronted from my first sermon i'll my
first village charge, where my lips
trelnb!ed and my knees knocked to-
gether from alright. speaking from the
text, jeremiah j. 6, "Ah, Lord tiod, be-
hold cannot speak, for am child!"
until the sermon preach today from
Luke tx, SO. LET rs make three taber-
nacles," those of the past and the pres
emit, all gather in imagination if not in
reality. all of Us grateful to God for past
mercies. all of as sorry for misimproved
opportunities, all hopeful for eternal
raptures. and whilo the visible and tie
invisible audiences of the present and
the past co1nlningle, give out to be
sung by those who are here today, and
to be sung by those who shall read of
this scene Of Renaissance and congratu-.
lation, that hymn which has been roll
ing on since Isaac Watts started it one.
hundred and fifty years ago:
Our God. our help in ages past,
Our hope for years 10 come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal homo.