Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1895-07-20
ACCOMAO G. H. VA. SATURDAY JULY 90 1896

and Goa may forgive, so that you may
at last reach heaven, but you will never
get over some of the mishaps that have
come to your soul as result Of your
neglect of early duty. You may try to
undo it; You cannot undo it. When you
had boys arms, and boys eyes, and
boys heart, you ought to have attend
ed to those things A man says at so
years of age, II do wish could get
over these habits of incidence When
did you get them? At 20 or 25 years of
age. You cannot shake them off. They
will hang to you to the very day of your
death. If young man through long
course Of evil conduct undermines his
physical health and then repents of it in
after life, the Lord may pardon him,
but that does not bring back good phys
ical condition. I said to II minister of
the gospel one Sabbath at the close Of
the service, "Whcre are you preaching
now?" "Oh," he says, 81 am not
preaching am suffering from the phys
ical effects of early sin. can't preach
now; 1 am sick. " A consecrated man
he now is, and he mourns bitterly over
early sins, but that does not arrest their
bodily effects.
Tho simple fact is that men and wom-
en- often take 90 years of their life to
build up influences that require all the
rest of their life to break down. Talk
about man beginning life when he is
81 years of age; talk about woman be-
ginning life when she is IS years of age!
All, mol In many respects that is the
time they close life. In nine cases
out of ten all the questions of eternity
are decided before that. Talk about a
majority of men getting their fortunes
between 30 and 40l They get or lose
fortunes between l0and 90. When you
tell me that a man is just beginning
life, I tell you he is just closing it. The
next so years will not be of as much i'm
portance to him as the first 20
Cannot BE Undone.
Now, why do say this? Is it for the
annoyance Of those who have only a
baleful retrospection? You know that is
not my way. say it for the benefit Of
young men and women. want them to
understand that eternity is wrapped up
in this hour; that the sins Of youth we
never get over; that you are now fash
Joining the mold in which your great
future is to run; that minute, instead
Of being 60 seconds long, is made up Of
everlasting ages. You can see what dig
nifty and Importance this gives to the
life of all our young folks Why, in the
light of this subject life is not some
thing to be frittered away, not some
thing to be smirked about, not some
thing to be danced out, but something
to be weighed in the balances of eternity.
Oh, young man, the sin Of yesterday,
the sin of tomorrow will reach over 49,
900 years-ave, over the great and unend-
ing eternity You may after awhile
say: 81 am very sorry. Now have got
| to be 30 or 40 years of age, and L do
wish I had never committed those sins. "
What does that amount to? God may
pardon you, but undo those things you
never WILL yOu ucfcL CttH.
In this same category of irreyocable
mistakes I put all parental neglect We
begin the education of our children too
late. By thestime they get to be 10 or
t15 we wake up to our mistakes and try
| to eradicate this bad habit and change
that, but it is too late. That parent who
omits in the first ten years Of the child's
life to make an eternal impression for
! Christ never makes it. The child will
probably 60 on with all the disadvan-
tages, which might have been avoided
by parental faithfulness. Now you see
what q mistake that father or mother
makes who puts off to late life adher-
ence to Christ. Here is man who at 80
years of age says to you. 81 must be
Christian, and he yields his heart to
God and sits In the place Of prayer to-
day Christian None of us can doubt
it. He goes home, and he says: Here
at so years of age I have given my heart
to the Saviour Now 1 must establish
family altar" What? Where are your
children now? One in Boston, another
in Cincinnati. another in New Orleans,
and you, my brother, at your fiftieth
year going to establish your family al
tar? Very well, better late than never,
but alas, alas, that you did not do it 20
years ago!
When I was in Chamouni, Switzer-
land, saw in the window Of one Of the
shops picture that impressed my
mind very much. 1t was a picture Of an
accident that occurred Oh the side of
one of the Swiss mountains. A company
of travellers, with guides, went up some
very steep places-places which but few
travellers attempted to go up. They
were, as all travellers are there, fastened
together with cords at the waist, so that
if one slipped the rope would hold him,
the rope fastened to the others. Passing
along the most dangerous point, one Of
the guides slipped, and they all started
down the precipice. But after awhile
! one more muscular than the rest struck
his heels into the ice and stopped, but
Tile TOkJc DIUho, tlllu WV Ii AOHNth W. '3AAN,
thousands of feet, the rest went.
And so I see whole families bound to-
eether By ties of affection and in many
cases walking on slippery places OF
| worldliness and sin The father knows
1t, and the mother knows it, and they
are bound all together. After awhile
they begin to slide down sleeper and
sleeper, and the father becomes alarm
ed, and he stops, planting his feet on
the "rock of ages. - He stops, but the
rope breaks, and those who were once
tied fast to him by moral and spiritual
influences go over the precipice. On,
there is such thing as coming to Christ
soon enough to save ourselves, but not
soon enough to save others.
How many parents wake up IN the
latter part of life to find out the mis-
L.