Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1894-05-26

told the moment of his coming. But
there are Amalelzitish disastera there
are Amalekitish diseases that some
times como down upon ones home,
making as devastating work as the
day when ziklag took fire. There are
/ families you represent broken up. No
battering ram smote in the door, no
iconoclast crumbled the statues, no
flame leaped amid the curtains, but so
far as oil the Joy and merriment that
once belonged to that house are con-
cerned the home has departed.
Armed diseases came down upon the
quietness Of the scene-soarlet fevers or
pleurisies or consumptions or underlined
disorders came and seized upon some
members of that family and carried
them away. zilslag in ashesl And you
go about, sometimes weeping and some
times enraged, wanting to get back your
loved ones as much as David and his
men wanted to reconstruct their de-
spoiled households Ziklag in ashesl
Some Of you went off from home You
counted the days of your absence. Every
day seemed as long as week Oh, how
glad you were when the time came for
you to go aboard the steamboat or rail-
car and start for homel You arrived
You went up the street where your
dwelling was, and In the night you put
your hand on the doorbell, and, behold
1t was wrapped with the signal of be-
reavement, and you found that Amale-
kitish death, which has devastated q
thousand other households, had blasted
yours You go about weeping amid
the desolation of your once happy home,
thinking of the bright eyes closed, and
the noble hoarts stopped, and the gentle
hands folded, and you weep until you
have no moro power to weep Ziklag IN
ashesl
A gentleman went to friend Of mine
in the city Of Washington and asked
that through him he might get con-
sulship to some foreign port. My friend
said to him, What do you want to go
away from your beautiful home for into
foreign port9' "Oh, he replied, my
homo is gonel My six children are dead
1 must get away, sir. I can't stand it in
this country any longer. ziklag In
ashesl
Shadows of Bereavement
Why these long shadows of bereave-
ment across this audience? Why is 1t
that in almost every assemblage black
is the predominant color of the apparel?
Is it because you do not like saffron or
brown or violet? Oh, mol You say, 1.-The
world is not so bright to US as once it
was, and there is story of silent
voices, and Of still feet, and Of loved
ones gone, and when you look over the
hills expecting only beauty and lowell
ness you find only devastation and woe
ziklag in ashesl
One day, in Ulster county, N. Y, the
village church was decorated until the
fragrance Of the flowers was almost be-
wildering. The maidens Of the village
had emptied the place of flowers upon
one marriage altar. One of their own
number was affianoed TO minister of
! Christ, who had como to take her to his
own home. With hands Joined, amid a
oongratuiatory audience, the VOWS were
taken. IN three days from that time one
OF those who stood at the altar ex-
changed earth for heaven The wedding
march broke down into the funeral
dirge There were not enough flowers
now for the coffin lid, because they had
all been taken for the bridal hour. The
dead minister of Christ is brought to
another village
he had gone out from them less than
q week before in his strength; now he
comes homo hfoless The whole church
bewailed him The solemn procession
moved around to look upon the still
face that once had beamed the messages
of salvation. Little children were lifted
up to look at him. And some OF those
whom he had comforted in days Of sor-
row, when they passed that silent form,
made the place dreadful with their
weeping Another village emptied Of
its fower+some Of them put IN the
shape Of cross to symbolic his hope,
others put in the shape Of crown to
symbolic his triumph A hundred
lights blown out in one strong gust from
the open door Of sepuloher. Ziklag in
ashesl
Heaven TO Win.
/ preach this sermon today because
want to rally you, as David rallied his
men, for the recovery Of the loved and
the lost want not only to win heav-
en-, but want ali this congregation to
90 along with me- I feel that somehow
/ have responsibility in your arriving
at that great city. Do you really want
to join the companionship of your loved
ones who have gone? Are you as anxious
to Join them as David and his men were
to Join their families7 Then am here,
in the name Of God, to say that you
may and to tell you how.
Iremarl1, In the first place, If you want
to join your loved ones in glory, you
must travel the same way they went
No sooner had the half dead Egyptian
been resuscitated than he pointed the
way the captors and the captives had
gone, and David and his men followed
after. So our Christian friends have
gone into another country, and II we
want to reach their companionship we
must take the same road. They repent
ed. We must repent. They prayed. We
must pray. They trusted in Christ We
must trust in Christ They lived re-
ligious life. We must live religious
life. They were in some things like our
selves. / know, now they are gone, there
is halo around their Names but they
had their faults. They said and did
things they ought never to have said or
done. They were sometimes rebellious,
sometimes cast down. They were far
from being perfect So I suppose that
when we have gone some things In Us
that are now only tolersble may BIO al
most resplendent But as they were like