Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-09-12
AMOMAC g n VA, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER H. 1896

dition that demands sympathy. And yet
most of the worlds sympathy amounts
to absolutely nothing. People go to the
wrong crib or they go in the wrong
way. When the plague was in Rome, a
great many years ago, there were 80
men who chanted themselves to death
with the litanies of Gregory the Great
literally ohanted themselves to death
and yet it did not stop the plague. And
all the music of this world cannot halt
the plague of the human heart come
to some one whose ailments are chronic,
and I say, "In heaven you will never
be sick" That does not give you much
comfort. What you want is soothing
power for your present distress. Lost
children, have your come to you and
tell you that i'll ten years, perhaps, you
will meet those loved ones before the
throne Of God. But there is but little
coincidence in that. One day is year
with them, and ten years Is small
eternity. What you want is sympathy
now-present help. come TO those of
you who. have lost dear friends and say
"Try to forget them. Do not keep tho
departed always in your mind" How
can you forget them when every figure
in the carpet and every book and every
picture and every room calls out their
name Suppose I come to you and say
by way Of coincidence. "God Is wise. !"
"Oh," you say, "that gives me no
belpr' Suppose come to you and say,
"God. from all eternity, has arranged
this trouble. "Ah, )" you say, that
does me no good" Then I say, with
the swift feet of prayer so direct to the
corncrib for a heavenly supply" You
60 You say, Lord, help me; Lord,
comfort me-" But no help yet No
comfort yet. 1t is all dark.
What is the matteri I have found.
You ought to 60 God and say; "Here,
o Lord, are the wounds of my soul,
and i bring with me tho wounded
Jesus. Let his wounds pay for my
wounds, his bereavements for my be-
reavements, his loneliness for my lone
illness, his heartbreak for my heart
break. o God, for the sake of the
Lord Jesus Christ-the God, the man,
tho Benjamin, the brother-deliver my
agonized SOUL o Jesus of the weary
foot, ease my fatigue. o Jesus Of the
aching head, heal my aching head.
o Jesus of the Bethany sisters, roll
away the stone from the door of our
grave. =" That is the kind of prayer that
brings help, aud yet how many of you
are getting mo help at all, for the rea-
son that there is i'll your soul, perhaps,
secret trouble. You may never have
mentioned it to single human ear, or
you may have mentioned it to some one
who is now gone away, and that great
sorrow is still in your soul. After
Washington Irving was dead they found
little box that contained o braid Of
hair and miniature and the name OF
Matilda Hoffman and memorandum
of her death and a remark something
like this 1.-The world after that was q
blank to me. went into the country,
but found no peace in solitude. tried
to get into society, but found no peace
in society. There has been horror
hanging over me by night and by day,
and l am afraid to be alone.
How many unuttered troubles among
you'll No human ear has ever heard that
sorrow. Oh, troubled soul. want to
tell you that there is one salve that can
cure the wounds of the heart, and that
is the salve made out Of the tears Of a
sympathetic Jesus! And yet some Of
you will not take this solace, and you
try chloral, and you try morphine, and
you try strong drink, and you try change
of scene, and you try new business as
sociations and anything and everything
rather than to take the divine compan-
ionship and sympathy suggested by the
words of my text when it says, "You
shall not see my face again unless your
brother be with you" Oh, that this au-
dience today might understand some
thing of the height and depth and length
and breadth and immensely and infnity
of Gods eternal consultations!
An Element of Failure.
I 90 farther and find in my subject
hint as to why so many people fail OF
heaven. We are told that heaven has IL
gates, and some people infer from that
fact that all the people will 60 in with
out reference to their past life. But what
is the use of having gate that is not
sometimes to be shut? The swinging of
a gate implies that our entrance into
heaven is conditional. 1t is not none
tary condition. If we come to the door
of an exquisite concert, we are not sur
prised that we must pay a fee, for we
know that fine earthly music is expen-
siye. But all the oratorios of heaven cost
nothing. Heaven pays nothing for its
music. 1t is all free. There is nothing
to be paid at that door for entrance, but
the condition of getting into heaven is
our bringing our divine Benjamin along
with u.s. Do you notice how often dying
people call upon Jesus? 1t is the usual