Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1893-12-16

the heavens grandly and gloriously looks
out on them. God can. by his grace
make Renan believe in the divinity of
Jesus and a-Tyndall in the worth Of
prayer.
Robert Newton stamped the ships
deck in derisive indignation at Chris
tianity only little while before he be-
came Christian. Stout of my house,"
said fatherto his daughter, 81 if you will
keep praying" Yet before many months
passed the father knelt atthe same altar
with the child. And the Lord Jesus
Christ is willing to look out from heaven.
upon that derisive opponent of the Chris
tian religion and address him, not in
! glittering generalities, but calling him
by name: John! Georgei Henry
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou mea"
HOPE FOR THE WORST.
Again, learn from this subject that
there is hope for the worst offenders. It
was particularly outrageous that Saul
should have gone to Damascus on that
errand. Jesus Christ had been dead only
three years, and the story of his kindness,
and his generosity, and his love filled all
the air. It was not an old story, as it is
now. 1t was a new story. Jesus had
only three summers ago been in these
very places, and Saul every day in Jeru-
salem must have met people who knew
Christ people with good eyesight whom
Jesus had cured of blindness, people
who had been dead and who had been
resurrected by the Saviour, and people
who could tell Paul all the particulars of
the crucifxion-just how Jesus looked in
the last hour, just how the heavens grew
black in the face at the torture.
He heard that recited every day by
people who were acquainted with alfthe
circumstances, and yet in. the fresh mem
DRY of that scene ne goes to persecute
Christ's disciples, impatient'at the time
| it takes. to feed the horses at the inn, not
pulling at the snaffle. but riding with
loose rein faster and faster. Oh, he was
the chief of sinners! No outbreak of
modesty when he said that. He was q
murderer. He stood By when Stephen
died and helped in the execution Of that
good man.
When the rabble wanted to be unim-
peded in their work of destroying Steph-
en- and wanted to take off their coats,
but did not dare to lay them down lest
they be stolen, Paul said, "Ill take care
of the coats" and they put them down
at the feet of Paul, and he watched the
coats, and he watched the horrid man.
Cling of glorious Stephen. Is it a wonder
that when he fell from the horse he did
not break his neck-that his foot did not
catch somewhere in the trappings Of the
saddle, and he was not dragged and kicked
to death? He deserved to die miserably,
wretchcdly and forever, notwithstanding
all his metaphysics, and his eloquence,
and his logic.
TILE CHIEF OF SINNERS.
He was the chief of sinners. He said
what was true when he said that. And
yet the grace of God saved Inn, and so
it will you. If there is any man in this
house who thinks he is too.bad to be
saved and says, have wandered very
sggrie,yously from God; /, do not1belieYe7
there is -anyzhope for me, y tell you the.
l.storyof this, man in THE stextswho was
|.broughtsto Jesus Christ in spite of his
l:sinsiand opp osiition + hereanay be soma;
| here WHO are as stoutly opposed TO Christ:
as Paul was. There may be some here
who are captive of their. sins as much so
as the young man who said in regard to
Ills dissipating habits: 81 will keep on
with them. know I am breaking my
mothers heart, and know am killing
myself, and I know that when I die I
shall go to hell, but it is now too late to
stop"
The steed on which you ride may be
swifter and stronger and higher melted
than that on which the Cilician perse-
cutor rode, hut Christ can catch it by
the bride and hurl it back and hurl it
down. There is mercy for you who say
YOU are too bad to be saved. You say
you have put off the matter SO long;
Paul had neglected it a great while.
You say that-the sin you have commit
ted has been among the most aggravat-
ing circumstances: that was so with
Paul's.
You say you have exasperated Christ
and coaxed your own ruin; so did Paul.
And yet he sits today on one of the high
est of the heavenly thrones, and there is
mercy for you, and good days for you,
and gladness for you, if you will only
take the same Christ which first threw
him down and then raised him up. 1t
seems to me as if. can see Paul today
rising up from the highway to Damas-
Gus, and brushing off the dust from his
cloak, and wiping the sweat of excite
ment from MS brow, as he turns to US
and all the ages, saying 'This faith
full saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom l am chief
THE SUBLIME REALITY.
Once more. learn from this subject
that there is a tremendous reality in re-
ligion. If it had been mere optical de-
fusion on the road to Damascus, was not
Paul lust the man to find it out? If it
had been sham and pretense, would he
not have priclsed the bubble? He was
man of facts and arguments, Of the most
gigantic intellectual nature, and not
man of hallucinatioDs. And when Isee
him fall from the saddle; blinded and
overwhelmed, say there must have
been something in it. And, my dear
brother, you will find that there is some
thing in religion somewhere. The only
question is, Where?
There was q man who rode from SIAM
ford to London, So miles, in five hours
on horseback. Very swift. There was
woman of Newmarket who rode on
horseback thousand miles in thousand
hours. Yer. swift. But there are those
here-aye, all of Us ere speeding. on at
Of tboucon0fNl6