Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1894-06-16

pstlttCc,. uuu suppOSo Ap OuouSnui
can't attend to religion while am SO
pressed by affairs of state. 1t was
business among other things that ruined
his soul, and I suppose there are thou
sands Of people who are not children Of
God because they havo so much bust
ness. 1t is business in tho store-losses,
gains, unfaithful employees
go Thy Way For This Time"
1t is business in your law of1lce-sub-
penas, writs you have to write out, pa-
pers. you have to file, arguments you
have to make. 1t is your medical pro-
fession, with its broken nights and tho
exhausted anxioties of life hanging
upon your treatment 1t is your real cs-
tate office, your business with landlords
and tenants and the failure of men to
meet their obligations with you Aye,
with some of those who arc hero it Is
the annoyance of the kitchen. and the
sitting room, and the parlor-the wear
ing economy of trying to meet largo cx-
ponses with a small income Ten thou
sand voices of business, business, bust
ness" drown tho voice of the eternal
Spirit silencing tho voice of tho advanc-
ing Judgment day, overcoming the voice
of eternity, and they cannot hear; they
cannot listen. They say, go thy way
for this time" Some of you look upon
your goods, look upon your profession,
you look upon your memorandum books,
and you see the demands that are made
this very week upon your time and your
patience and your money, and while l
mn entreating you about your soul and
thefdanger Of procrastination you say;
Go thy way for this time When have
convenient scason, l will call for thee
Oh, Felix, why be bothered about the
affairs of this world so much more than
about the affairs of eternity? Do you not
know that when death comes you will
have to stop business, though it be In
thesmost exacting period Of it-between
the payment of the money and the TAX
ing Of the receipt The moment he
comes you will have to go. Death
waits for no man, however high, how
ever low. VIII you put your Office,
VIII you put your shop in comparison
with tho affairs of an eternal world,
affairs that involve thrones, palaces,
do,ninions eternalP Will you put 200
acres Of ground against. immensely?
Will you put 40 or 90 years of your
life against millions Of ages? Oh, Felix,
you.might better postpone everything
else, for do you not know that the up
holstering of Tyrian purple in your pal
aco will fade, and tho marble blocks Of
Cnsarea will crumble, and the breakwa-
ter ct tho beach, mado of great blocks
of stone GO feet long, must give way
before tho perpetual wash of tho sea,
but the redemption that Paul offers you
will be forever? And yet and yet and
yet you wavo him back to the guard
room, saying: go thy way for this
time. When I have convenient sea-
son, I will call for thee. "
The Favor Of Men
Again, Felix adjourned this subject
of religion and put off Paul's argument
because he could not give up the hon
ors of the world. He was afraid some
how rsa would be compromised himself
In this matter. Remarks he made after,
ward showed him to be intensely ambi-
tioua Oh, how he Rugged tho favor of
men!
never saw tho honors of this world in
their hollowness and hypocrisy so much
as in the life and death of that wonder
ful man, Charles Sumner. As he.went
toward the place of burial, even hide
pendcnco hall in Philadelphia asked
that his remains stop there on their way
to Boston The flags were at half mast,
and tho minute guns on Boston COM
mon throbbed after his heart had ceased
to beat Was it always sof While he
lived, how censured Of legislative reso-
buttons; how caricatured Of the picto-
rails; how charged with every motive
mean and ridiculous; how all the urns
Of scorn and hatred and billingsgate
emptied upon his head; how, when
struck down in senate chamber, there
were hundreds Of thousands of people
who said, GOOD for him; serves him
right" how he had to put the ocean
between him and his maligners that ne
might have a little peace, and how,
when he went off sick, they said he was
broken hearted because he could not
get to be president or secretary OF stated
o commonwealth of Massachusetts,
who is that man that sleeps in your pub
lie hall covered with garlands and
wrapped in the stars and stripes? Is
that the man who, only q few months
before, you denounced as the foe of re-
publican and democratic institutions?
Is that the Same man? Ye American
people, We could not by one week of fu-
neral eulogium and newspaper leaders,
which the dead senator could neither
read nor hear, atone for 20 years OF
maltreatment and caricature
When I see a man like that, pursued
by all the hounds of the political kennel
60 long as he lives and then buried un-
; der great pile of garlands and amid
the lamentations of whole nation, l
say to myself: What an unutterably
hypocritical thing Is all human ap-
plause and all human favorl You took
Is years in trying to pull down his
fame and then take 25 years in trying
to build his monument. My friends,
was there ever a better commentary on
the hollowness of all earthly favor? If
there are young men who read this who
are postponing religion in order that
they may have the favors of this world,
let me persuade them of their complete
folly. If you are looking forward to
gubernatorial, senatorial or presidential
chair, let me show you your great mis-
take.
Can it be that there is now any young
man saying: LET me have political
office, let me have some of the high
positions of trust and power, and then
/ will attend to religion, but not now.
GO thy way for this time. When +!
have a convenient season, l will call
for theeP"
And now my subject takes deeper
I \