Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1894-01-06

Dc OH Jlle ClrCululcIcICe,N lieIe JUL WOIAu
now is? We are like those who study
the American continent while standing
on the Atlantic beach. The way to study
the continent is to cross it or go to the
heart of it. Our standpoint in this world
is defective. We are at the wrong end
of the telescope. The best way to study
piece of machinery is not to stand on
the doorstep and try to look in, but to
go in with the engineer and take our
place right amid the saws and the cyl
inders. We wear our eyes out and our
brain out from the fact that we are
studying under such great disadvantage.
Millions of dollars for observatories to
study things about the moon, about the
sun, about the rings of Saturn, about
transits and occultations and eclipses,
simply because our studio, our observa-
tory, is poorly situated. We are down
in the cellar trying to study the palace
of the universe, while our departed
Christian friends have gone up stairs
amid the skylights to study.
Now, when one can sooner get to the
center of things, is he not to be congrat-
ulated? Who wants to be always in the
freshman class? We study God i'll this
world by the Biblical photograph of him,
but we all know we can in five minutes
of interview with friend get more ac-
curate idea of him than we can by study
ing him so years through pictures Of
words. The little child that died last
night today knows more of God than all
Andover, and all Princeton, and all New
Brunswick, and all Edinburgh, and all
the theological institutions in Christen.
dom. Is it not better to go up to the
very headquarters of knowledge?
Does not our common sense teach us
that it is better to be at the center than
to be clear out on the rim of the wheel,
holding nervously fast to the tire lest we
be suddenly hurled into light and eter-
nal felicity? Through all kinds of optic
al instruments trying to peer in through
the cracks and the keyholes of heaven
afraid that both doors of the celestial
mansion will be swung wide open before
our entranced vision-rushing about
among the apothecary shops of this
world, wondering if this is good for rheu-
matism, and that is good for neuralgia
and something else is good for a bad
cough, lest we be suddenly ushered into
a land of everlasting health, where the
inhabitant never says, Il am sick"
What fools we all are to prefer the cir
cumference to the center! What dread
full thing it would be if we should be
suddenly ushered from this wintry world
into the Maytime orchards of heaven,
and if our pauperism of sin and sorrow
should be suddenly broken up by a pres
entation of an emperor's castle, sur
rounded by parks with springing foun-
tains and paths up midtown which an
gels of God walk two and two.
We stick to the world as though we
preferred cold drizzle to warm habita-
ton, discord to cantata, sackcloth to
royal purple-as though we preferred
piano with four OF. five keys out Of tune
to an Instrument fully attuned as;
sTzarg srt and heaxeIt had syellanged
array ana heaven had gone into deep
mourning, all its waters stagnant, allits
harps broken. all chalices cracked at the
dry wells, all the lawns sloping to the
river plowed with graves, with dead
angels under the furrow. Oh, want to
break up my own infatuation, and L
want to break up your infatuation for
this world tell you if we are ready,
and if our work is done, the sooner we
go the better, and if there are blessings
in longevity, want You to know right
well there are also blessings i'll an abbre-
waited earthly existence.
A FORTUNATE ESCAPE.
If the spirit of this sermon is true, how
consoled you ought to feel about mem
beers of your families that went early.
"Taken from the evil to come" this book
says. What fortunate escape they had!
How glad we ought to feel that they will
never have to go through the struggles
which we have had to so through. They
had just time enough to get out of the
cradle and run up the springtime hills of
this world and see how it looked, and
then they started for better stopping
place. They were like ships that put in
at st. Helena, staying there long enough
to let passengers go up and see the bar
racks of Napoleons captivity and tnen
hoist sail for the port Of their own native
land. They only took this world ''in
transitu." It is hard for us, but it Is
blessed for them.
And if the spirit of this sermon is true,
then we ought not to go around signing
and groaning because another year has
gone. But we ought to go down on one
knee by the milestone and see the letters
and thank God that we are 1865 miles
nearer home. We ought not to go around
with morbid feelings about our health
or about anticipated demise. We ought
to be living, not according to that old
maxim which l used to hear in my boy
hood, that you must live as though every
day were the last; you must live as
though you were to live forever, for you
will. Do not be nervous lest you have
to move out of a shanty into an Alham-
bra.
One Christmas morning one Of my
neighbors, an old sea captain, died. Aft
er life had departed, his face was illu-
minated as though he were just going in
to harbor. The fact was, he had already
got through the "Narrows." In the ad-
Joining room were the Christmas pres
ents waiting for his distribution. Long
ago, one night, when he had narrowly
escaped with his ship from being run
down by great ocean steamer, he had
made his peace with God, and Il kinder
neighbor or better man you would not
find this side of heaven. Without mo-
ment's warning the pilot of the heavenly
harbor had met him just off the lightship.
The captain often talked to me of the
goodness of God, and especially of a
t;,,a ,vhan he was ahout to 90 in New