Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1893-12-09
"a

ing Thank God for frostsI What
helped make Milton the greatest Of poets?
The frost of blindness. What helped
make Washington the greatest Of gen.
erals? The frosts of Valley Forge. What
made it appropriate for one passing John
Bunyan's grave to exclaim, 'Sleep on,
thou prince of dreamerss' The frosts Of
imprisonment.
The greatest college from which we
can graduate is the college Of frosts Es-
pecial trial fits for especial work. Just
now watch, and you will see that trou-
BILE is preparative and educational. That
is the grindstone On which battle axes
are sharpened. / have always noticed
in>my own case that when the Lord had
some especial work for me to do it was
preceded by especial attack upon me.
This is SO proverbial in my own house
that if for something I say or do get
poured upon me volley of censure and
anathema, my wife always asks: "Iwon-
der what new opportunity Of usefulness
is about to open? Something good and
grand is surely comingr'
What is true in my case is true on
larger or smaller scale in the history Of
every man and woman who wants to
serve the Lord. Without complaint
take the hard knocks. You will see
after awhile, though you may not APP
preciate it now, that by the breath of
good and loving God frost is given.
Let the corners of your mouth, so long
drawn down in complaint, be drawn up
in smiles of content
For many years poets and essayists
have celebrated the grace and swiftness
of the Arabian horses. The most won
derful exhibition Of horsemanship that I
witnessed was justoutside of the city
of Jerusalem-ap Arabian steed mounted
by an Arab. Do you know where these
Arabian horses got their feetness and
poetry of motion? Long centuries ago
Mohammed, with $4,000 cavalry on the
march, could find for them not a dropof
water for three days. Coming to the
top of hill river was in sight. With
wild dash the $4,000 horses started for
the stream. A minute after an armed
host was seen advancing, and at Moham-
med's command 100 bugles blew for the
horses to fall in line, but all the 10000
continued the wild gallop to the river,
except five, and they, almost dead with
thirst, wheeled into line of battle.
Nothing in human bravery and self
sacrifice excels that bravery. and self sac-/
rifce Of those five Arabian warehouses;.
Those five splendid steeds Mohammed
chose for his own use, and from those
five came that race of Arabian horsesfor
ages the glory of the equestrian world.
And let me say that in this great war Of
truth against error, of holiness against
sin and heaven against hell. the best
warehouses; are descended from those who
under pang and self denial and trouble
answered the gospel trumpet and wheeled
into limo. Out of great tribulation, out
of great fires, out of great frosts, they
came.
And let me say it will not take long
for God to make up to you in the next
world for all you have suffered in this.
As you enter heaven he may say: "Give
this man one of those lowered and col
onnaded palaces on that ridge of,gold
overlooking the sea of glass. Give this
woman home among those amarinthine
blooms and between those fountains
tossing in the everlasting sunlight. Give
her a couch canopied with rainbows to .
pay her for all the fatigues of wifehood
and motherhood and housekeeping, from
which she had no rest for 40 years. Z:
"Cupbearers of heaven, give these new
" arrived souls from earth the costliest
beverages and roll to their door the
grandest chariots, and hang on their
walls the sweetest harps that ever
thrummed to fingers seraphic. Give to
them rapture on rapture, celebration on
celebration, jubilee on jubilee, heaven
on heaven. They had hard time on
earth earning livelihood, or nursing
sick children, or waiting on querulous
old age, or battling falsehoods that
were told about them, or were compelled
to work after they got short breathed
and rheumatic and dim sighted.
"Chamberlains of heaven! Keepers of
the kings robes! Banqueters Of eternal
Ioyalty! MAKE Up ~ lne.u :. nuHuA Gu
fold, thousandfold, a millionfold for
all they suffered from swaddling clothes
to shroud, and let all those who, whether
on the hills, or in the temples, or on the
thrones, or on jasper wall, were helped
and sanctifed and prepared for this
heavenly realm by the mission Of the
frosts, stand up and wave their scepters!"
And I looked, and behold, nine-tenths Of
the ransomed rose to their feet and nine
tenths of the scepters swayed to and fro
in the light of the sun that never sets,
and then l understood, far better than l
ever did before, that trouble comes for
benefcent purpose, and that on the cold
est nights the aurora is brightest in the
northern heavens, and that "by the
breath of God frost is given"