Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-02-15
ACIOMAC G. r. VA. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15 1896

must begin somewhere. Why not here9
Some one must give the rallying cry,
why may not I, one Of the Lord serv-
ants? By providential arrangement, I
am every week in sermonic communica-
tion with every city, town and neigh
borhood Of this country and now give
the watchword to north and south and
east and west Hear and see it, all peo-
ple-this call to forward movement,
this call to repentance and faith, this
call to continental awakeningl
Mighty Men OF the Past.
This generation will soon be ont of
sight. Where are the mighty men of the
past who trod your Pennsylvania avenue
and spake in yonder national legislature
and decided the stupendous questions of
the supreme judicatory? Ask the sleep
ers in the Congressional cemetery. Ask
the mausoleums all over the land. Their
tongues are speechless, their eyes closed,
their arms folded, their opportunities
gone, their destiny fixed. How soon
time prorogues parliaments and adjourns
senates and disbands cabinets and emp
ties pulpits and dismisses generations
What we would do we must do quickly
or not do at all. call upon people who
cannot come forth from their sickbeds
to implore the heavens in our behalf
from their midnight pillows, and I call
upon the aged who cannot, even by the
help Of their staff, enter the churches
to spend their last days on earth in sup
plicating the salvation Of this nation,
and 1 call upon all men and women
who have been in furnaces of trouble, as
was Shadrach, and among lions, as was
Daniel, and in dungeons Of trouble, as
was Jeremiah, to join in the prayer, and
let the church of God everywhere lay
hold of the Almighty arm that moves
nations Then senators Of the United
States will announce to the state legis-
latures that sent them here, and mem
bers of the house of representatives will
report to the congressional districts that
elected them, and the many thousands
Of men and women now and here en-
gagged in the many departments Of ma
tional service will write home, telling
all sections of the country that the Lord
is here and that he is On the march for
the redemption of America. Halleluiah,
thu Lord is coming hear the rumbliDg
Of his chariot wheels. / feel on my
cheeks the breath of the white horses
that draw the Victor see the flash of
his lanterns through the long night of
the world sin and sorrow
We want in this country, only on a
larger scale, that which other centuries
have seen of Gods workings, as in the
reformation of the sixteenth century,
when Martin Luther and Philip Me-
lanchthon led on as in the awakening of
the seventeenth century, when Bunyan
and Flavel and Baxter led on as in the
awakening of the eighteenth century,
when Tenant and Edwards and the
Wesleys led on; as in the awakening Of
1857, led on by Matthew Simpson, the
seraphic Methodist, and Bishop Mac
Ilvaine, the apostolic Episcopalian, and
Albert Barnes, the consecrated ~Presby-
terrain, and others just as good in all
denominations Oh, will not some of
those glorious souls of the past come
down and help us? Come down off your
thrones, Nettleton and Finney and Daniel
Baker md Edward Payson and Truman
Osborne and Earle and Knapp and In
skip and Archibald Alexander-that Al
exander the Great of the Christian
churches. Come down How can you
rest up there when the world is dying
for lack Of the gospel? Come down and
agonize with US in prayer. Come down
and help us preach in our pulpits. Come
down and inspire our courage and faith.
Heaven can get along without you bet
ter than we can. But more than all, and
overwhelmed with reyerent emotion, we
ask it, come, thou of the deeply dyed
garments of Bozrah, travelling in the
greatness of thy strength, mighty to
savel Lord God of Joshua, let the sun
of this century stand still above Gideon
and the moon above the valley Of
Ajalon until we can whip out the five
kings of hell, tumbling theJ" down the
precipices as the other five kings went
over the rocks to Bethhoron. Ha Ha J
1t will SO surely be done that cannot
restrain the laugh of triumph.
Call to the Pulpits.
From where the seaweed is tossed on
the beach by the stormy Atlantic to
the sands laved by the quiet Pacific this
country will be -amanuel's land, the
work beginning at Washington, if we
have the faith and holy push and the
conservation requisite. First of all, we
ministers must get right. That was a
startling utterance of Mr.. Swinnock
when he said, 1T is doleful thing to
fall into hell from under the pulpit; but,
oh, how dreadful a thing to drop thither
out of the pulpit % That was all all sug-
gestive thing that Paul wrote to the
Corinthians, LEST that by any means,
when have preached to others, myself
should be castaway That was an in
spring motto with which Whiteield
sealed all his letters, "We seek the
stars" Lord God, wake up all our pull
pits, and then it Will De as When VEIN
preached, and it was said that men fell
before the word like Stacked lime. Let
us all, laymen and clergymen, to the
work. What Washington wants most Of
all is an old fashioned revival Of reli-
! gion, but on vaster scale, so that the
world will never be compelled to say as
of old, 1--WE never saw it on this fash
ion.'' But remember there is human
side as we'll as divine side to reviv-
al. Those of us brought up in the coun.
! try know what is called "a raisirg"-
the ~oighbors gathered together to lift
the ..eavy frame for new house after
the timbers are ready to be put into
their places. 1t is dangerous work, al I'd
there are many accidents. The neign-
bors had gathered for such "a raising,