Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1893-12-23

We want to belong to the reserve corps
and read about the,battle while warming
ourselves at the campires or on fur
Tough at home, our feet upon an otto
man, we sagging back into an armchair.
AS you go down the street you see an
excavation, and four or five men are
working and perhaps 20 or 80 leaning on
the rail looking over at them. That is
the way it is in the church of God to-
day. Where you find one Christian hard
at work, there are SO men watching the
job.
Oh! my friends, why do you not go to
work and preach the gospel? You say,
'.I have no pulpit" You have. 1t may
be the carpenters bench, it may be the
masons wall. The robe in which you
are to proclaim this gospel may be
shoemaker's apron. But woe unto you
if you preach not this gospel somewhere,
somehow! If this world is ever brought
to Christ it will be through the unani-
nous and long continued effortsof men
who, waiting forno special endowment,
consecrate to God what they have.
Among the most useless people in the
world are men with 10 talents, while
many one with only two talents, or no
talent at all, is doing great work. and
SO "the lame take the prey"
There are thousands of ministers Of
whom you have never heard-in log
cabins at the west, in mission chapels at
the east-who are warning against the
legions. of darkness. successfully war
ring. Tract distributors, month by
month undermining the citadels Of sin.
You do not know their going or their
coming, but the footballs Of their minis
try are heard in the palaces Of heaven.
Who are the workers in our Sabbath
schools throughout this land today? Men
celebrated, men brilliant, men of vast
estate? For the most part, not that at all.
have noticed that the chief charac-
teristic of the most of those who are sue
cessful in the work is that they know
their Bibles, are earnest in prayer, are
anxious for the salvation of the young,
and Sabbath by Sabbath are willing to
sit down unobserved and tell of Christ
and the resurrection. These are the
humble workers who are recruiting the
great army of Christian youth-not by
might, not by power, not by profound
argument, not by brilliant antithesisf
but by the blessing of God on plain talk,
and humble story, and silent tear, and
anxious look, "the lame take the prey"
Oh! this work of saving the youth of
our country-how few appreciate what
it isl This generation tramping on to
the graye-we will soon all be gone
What of tho nexti
NOT TALENTS, BUT EFFORT.
An engineer on locomotive going
across the western prairies day after day
saw little child come out in front of O
cabin and wave to him. So he got in
the habit Of waving back to the little
child, and it was the days JOY to him to
see this little one come out in front Of
the cabin door and wave to him while
he answered back.
One day the train was belated and it
came on to the dusk of the evening. As
the engineer stood at his post he saw by
the headlight that little girl on the track,
wondering why the train did not come,
looking for; the train, knowing nothing
-of her-periil;E,A great horror seiged.upon:
the engineer. He reversed the engine.
He gave it in chargeof the other man on
board, and then he climbed over the en-
CINE, and he came down on the cowcatch-
er. He said, though he had reversed the
engine, it seemed as though it were go.
ing at lightning speed. faster and faster,
though it was really slowing up, and
with almost supernatural clutch he
caught that child by the hair and lifted
it up, and when the train stopped and
the passengers gathered around to see
what was the matter, there the old en-
gineer lay, tainted dead away, the little
child alive and il his swarthy arms.
"Oh," you say THAT was we'll done.
. But Iwant you to exercise some kindness
and some appreciation toward those in the
community who are snatching the little
ones from under the wheels of tempta-
ton and sin-snatching them from under
laundering rail trains of eternal disaster,
bringing them up into responsibility in
this world and into glory for the world,
to come You appreciate what the en-.
gineer did Why can you not appreciate
the grander work done by every Sabbath
school teacher and by every Christian
worker2
Oh, my friends. want 20 impress upon
myself and upon yourselves that it's not
the number Of talents we possess. but
the use we make of them.
God has a royal family in the world.
Now, if I should ask. Who are the
royal families of history" you would
say, Blouse of Hapsburg, House of Stu
art, House Of Bourbon" They lived in
palaces and had great equipage. But
who are the Lords royal family? Some
of them may serve you in the household,
some of them are in unlighted garrets. |
some of them will walk this afternoon
down the street, on their arm basket
of broken food; some Of them are IN the
almshouse, despised and rejected of men;
vet in the last great day, while it will
be found that some of Us who Jared
sumptuously every day are hurled back
into discontinue, they are the lame that
, One step rafiher: There are a great
many people discouraged about getting
to heaven. at my desk in The Christian
Herald office am in daily receipt of nu-
merous letters from people brought up
in good families, and who had Christian
parentage, but who frankly tell me that
they are astray thousand miles from
the right track and fear their case is
hopeless. My brothers, it is 'toyou I want
to preach now. l have been looking for
you. will tell you how you got astray.
It was not maliciousness on your part.
u 81. 1o1i ffy