Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-06-20

ing out Of tankards Of solid. gold OF
looking off over rivers and lakes upon
nations subdued and tributary, crying,
as not this great Babylon which 1 have
built?'
What battering ram smote the walls!
What plowshare upturned the gardens:
What army shattered the brazen gates:
What long, fierce blast of storm put out
this light which illulnined the world!
What crash of discord drove down the
music that poured from palace window
and garden grove and called the BAN
queters to their revcl and the dancers tC
their feet? walk upon the scene of des-
olation to find an answer and pick up
pieces Of bitumen and bricl. and broken
pottery, the remains of Babylon, and as
in the silence Of the night hear the
surging Of that billow Of dcsolation
which rolls over the scene, 1 hear the
wild waves saying: Babylon was
proud. Babylon was impure. Babylon
vas Il star, but by sin she turned tc
wormwCod and has fallen.
Possibilities.
From the prosecutions of the pilgrim
fathers and the Hugucnots III other
lands God set upon these shores a ma
ton. The council fires OF the aborigine:
went out IL the. greater light Of free
government. The sound of the warwhooI
was exchanged for the thousand wheels
of enterprise and progress. The mild
winters, the fruitful summers, the
hcalthful skies charmed from other
lands race Of hardy men who loved
God and wanted to be free. Before the
woodman's uX forests fell and rose again
into ships Inasts and churches pillars.
Cities on the banks Of lakes begin to
rival cities by the sea The land quakes
with the rush Of the rail car and the
waters are churned white with the
steamers wheel Fabulous bushels OF
western wheat meet on the way fabu-
lous tons of eastern coal. Furs from the
north pass on the rivers fruits from the
south. And trading i'll the same market
is Maine lumbeIman and South Caro-
lima rice merchant and Ohio farmer and
Alaska fur dealer And churches and
schools and asyluns scatter light and
love and mercy and salvation upon co.
coo, Coo OF people.
pray that our nation may not copy
the crimes Of the nations that have per-
ishcd and our cup Of blessing turn TO
wormwood, and like them we 60 down.
l am by nature and by grace an optimist,
and expect that this country will con-
time to advance until Christ shall come
again. But he not deceived Our only
safety is in righteousness toward God
and justice toward man. If we forget
the goodness Of the Lord to this land,
and brcal; bis S;ibbaths, and improve
rot by tie dire disasters that have again
and again come to Us as nation, and
we learn saving lesson neither from civil
war nor raging epidemic nor drought
nor mildew nor scourgc Of locust and
grasshopper nor cyclone nor earthquake
if the political corruption which has
poisoned tie fountains of public virtue
and bcslimed the high places of author
ity, making free government at times a
Kissing and byworl i'll all the earth
if the drunkenness and RIGHTEOUSNESS
that stagger aud blasphcmc i'll the streets
Of our great cities as though they We're
reaching after the fame of Corinth
and Sodom are not repcntcd of, we
will yet see the smoke Of our nation
ruin; the pillars of our national and
state capitols will fall more disastrously
than when Samson pulled down Dagon,
and future historians Will record upon
the page believed with generous tears
The story that the free nation of the
west arose III sp!ondor which made the
world stare. 1t had magnificent posi-
bilitics. 1t forgot God. Ithatad justice.
It hugged its crime. 1t halted Oh its
high march. 1t rceled under the blow Of
calamity. It fell. And as it was going
down all the dcspotisms of earth from
tie top of bloody thrones began to shout,
"Aha, so would we have itr' while
struggling and oppressed people looked
out from dungeon bars with tears and
groans and cries of untold agony, the
scorn of those and the woe Of these unit
ing in the exclamation: Look yonderl
There fell a great star from heaven, burn
ing as it were lamp and it fell upon
the third part of the rivers and upon the
fountains of waters, and the name Of
the star is called Wormwoodr'