Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1893-11-25

wrote his mother in one Of the New Eng.
land whaling villages that he was com.
ing home In certain ship. Motherlike
she stood watching, and the ship was il
the ofing, but fearful storm struck II
and dashed the ship on the rocks thai
night. All that night the mother prayed
for the safety of the son, and just al
dawn there was knock at the cottage
door, and the son entered, crying out
Mother, ] knew you would pray me
homer I'll would ask all those In this
assemblage who have been prayed home
to God by pious mothers to stand up,
there would be scores that would stand,
and If I should ask them to give testi-
mony 1t would be the testimony Of that
New England son coming ashore from
the split timbers of the whaling ship
"My mother prayed me homel"
THE "IFs" OF INcREDULITY.
Another Bible eff" is the "if' Of In
credulity. Satan used 1t when Christ,
vitality wasadepressed by 40 days absti-
nence from food and the tenpter point
ed to some stones, in color and shape
like loaves Of bread, and said, "f thou
be the Son Of God, command that these
stones be made bread" That was ap-
propriate, for Satan is the father OF
that "if'' of incredulity. Peter used that
same eff when, standing on the wet
and slippery deck of q fishing smack on
Lake GaIlee, he saw Christ walking on
the sea as though it were as solid as q
pavement Of basalt from the adjoining
volcanic hills, and Peter cried out, eff
1t be thou, let me come to thee on the
water"
What preposterous ".ifp What hui
man foot was ever SO constructed az to
walk on water7 In what part Of the
earth did law of gravitation make excep-
ton to the rule that man will sink to
the elbows when he touches a wave Of
river or lake, and will sink still farther
unless he can swim? But here Peter looks
out upon the form in the shape of man
defying the mightiest law of the uni
verse-the law of gravitation-and stand
ing erect on the top of the liquid. Yet
the incredulous Peter cries out to the
Lord, "If it be thou" Alas. for that in
creduIous ''ifr' It is working as power
fully in the latter part of this nineteenth
Christian century as it did in the early
part of the first Christian century.
Though a small conjunction, it Is the
biggest block today in the way of the
gospel chariot. eff" "Ifp We have
theological seminaries which spend most
of their time and,employ their learning
and their genius in the manufacturing
of "ifs." With that weaponry are as
sailed the Pentateuch, and the miracles,
and the divinity of Jesus Christ. AL
most everybody is chewing on an "if."
When many man bows for prayer, he
puts his knee on an "if." The door
through which people pass into infdelity
and atheism and all immoraities has
two doorposts, and the one is made up OF
the letter '.i" and the other Of the let
ter ar
There are only four steps between
strong faith and complete unbehef: First,
surrender the idea of the verbal inspirac
ton Of the Scriptures and adopt the idea
general gssnper Eisedl
by the Lord. Second, surrender the idea
that they were all generally supervised
by the. Lord and adopt the theory that
they were not all, but partly, supervised
by the Lord. Third, believe that they are
the gradual evolution of the age, and
men wrote according to the wisdom Of
the times in which they lived. Fourth,
believe that the Bible is bad book and
not only unworthy of eredence, but per-
nicious and debasing and cruel.
Only four steps from the stout faith In
which the martyrs died to the blatant
caricatre of Christianity as the great
est sham of the centuries. But the door
to all that precipitation and horror Is
made out Of an eff" The mother Of
unrests in the minds Of Christian people
and in those who regard sacred things
is the "if" Of incredulity. In 1879, in
Scotland, saw letter which had been
written many years ago by Thomas Car
lyle to Thomas Chalmers. Carlyle, at
the time of writing the letter, was q
young man. The letter was. not to be
published until after the death of Car
lyle. His death having taken place, the
letter ought to be published.
It was letter in which Thomas Car
lvle expresses the tortures of his own
mind while relaxing his faith in Chris
tianity, while at the same time he ex-
presses his admiration for DR.. Chalmers,
and in which Carlyle wishes that he had
the same faith that the great Scotch min
lister evidently exercised. Nothing that
Thomas Carlyle ever wrote in "Sartor
or the French Revolution
or his Life of Cromwell" or his i'm
mortal Essays" had in it more Won
drous power than that letter which be-
walled his own doubts and extolled the
strong faith of another.
Imade an exact copy Of that letter,
with the understanding that it should not
be published until after the death OF
Thomas Carlyle; but returning to my no.
tel in Edinburgh, felt uneasy lest some
how that letter should get out of my pos
session and be published before its time.
So took it back to the person by whose
permission had copied it. All reasons
for it's privacy having vanished, wish
it might be published.
AN INCIDENT.
Perhaps this sermon, finding its way
into a Scottish home, may suggest Its
printing, for that letter shows more
nightly than anything l have ever read
the difference between the II know" OF
Paul, and the 81 know" Of Job, and the
ST know" of Thomas Chalmers, and the
oI know" Of all those who hold with a
firm grip the old gospel, on the one hand,
and the unmooring, bestorming and tor
turing 'if" Of incredulity on the other.
I like the positive faith of that sailor boy
that Captain Judkins of the steamship
lfH