Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-02-27

INC eNper1cuce Oh llOsc pcOplc VIII uiO
spoken of i'll the text, Some on broken
pieces of the ship.
Ono object i'll this sermon is to en-
courage all those who cannot take the
whole system Of religion us we believe
it, but who really believe something,
to come ashore OH that one plank.
do not underrate the value of great
theological system, but where in all
the Bible is there anything that says:
Believe in John Calvin and thou shalt
be saved? or, believe i'll Arminius and
thou shalt be saved? or, believe in synod
of bort aud thou shalt be saved? or, b.
lieve in the Thirty nine Articles and
thou shalt be saved? a man may be or
thodox and go to hell, or heterodox and
20 to heaven. The man who i'll the deep
affection of his heart accepts Christ Is
saved, and the man who does not accept
him is lost
One Central Fact.
believe in both the Heidelberg and
Westminster catcchisms, and wish you
all did, but you may believe in nothing
they contain except the one idea, that
Christ came to save sinners, and that
You are one of them, and you are III
stantly rescued. If you can come III on
the grand old ship, would rather have
you get aboard, but if you can only find
piece of wood as long as the human
body, or Il piece as wide as the out
spread human arms, and either of them
is q piece of the cross, come i'll on that
piece Tens of thousands of people are
today kept out of the kingdom of God
because they cannot believe everything.
am talking with II man thoughtful
aboutshis soul who has lately Travelled
through New England and passed the
night at Andovcr He says to me, Il
cannot believe that i'll this life the dcs
tiny is irrcvocably fixed; think there
will be another opportunity of repent
ance after death. l say to him: My
brother, what has that to do with you?
Don't You realize that the man who
waits for another chance after death
when he has good chance before death
is Il stark fool? Had not you better take
the plank that is thrown to you now
and head for shore rather than wait for
a plank that may by invisible hands be
thrown to you after you are dead? Do
as you please, but as for myself, with
pardon for all my sins offered me now,
and all the joys of time and eternity
offered me now, instantly take them,
rather than run the risk of such other
chance as wise men think they can peel
off or twist out of Scripture passage
that has for all tho Christian centuries
been interpreted another way. . You
say 81 do not like Princeton theology,
or New Haven theology, or Andoycr the
ology." 1 do not ask you Oh board either
of these great men-of-war, their port
holes filled with the great siege guns of
ecclesiastical battle, but do ask you
to take the one plank of the gospel that
You do believe in and strike out for the
pearl strung beach of heaven.
Says some other man, Il would at
tend to religion if l was quite sure
about the doctrine of election and free
agency, but that mikes me all up. "
Those things used to bother me, but l
have T. more perplexity about them,
for say to myself, III l love Christ
and live q good, honest, useful life, l
ann elected to be saved, and if do not
love Christ and live a bad life I will
be damned, and all the theological SEM
inaries Of the universe cannot make 1t
any different. foundercd long while
in the sea of sin and doubt, and it was
as rough as the Mediterranean on the
fourteenth night, when they threw the
grain overheard, but l saw there was
mercy for sinner, and that plank
took, and I have been warming myself
by the bright fire on the shore ever
since.
Doubt Overruled.
While I am talking to another man
about his soul he tells me, II do not be-
come Christian because do not be-
lieye there is any hell at all. y All,
dom you? Do all the people Of all be-
liefs and no belief at all, of good morals
and bad morals, go straight to happy
heaven? Do the holy and the debauched
have the same destination? AT mid
night, in hallway, the owner of a
house and burglar meet. They both
fire, and both are wounded, hut the
burglar dies in five minutes, and the
owner of the house lives a week after
Will the burglar be at the gate of heav-
en-, waiting, when the house owner
comes in: Will the debauchee and the
libertine go right in among the families
of heaven? 1 wonder if Herod is playing
on the banks of the river of life with
the children he massacred. I wonder If
Charles Guitcau and John Wilkes Booth
are up there shootiong at a mark. do
not now controvert it, although must
say that for such miserable heaven l
have no admiration. But the Bible does
not say, Believe in perdition and be
saved" Because all are saved, accord
ing to your theory, that ought not to
keep you from loving and serving
Christ. Do not refuse to come ashore
because all the others, according to your
theory, are going to get ashore. You
may have different theory about chem
istry, about astronomy, about the at
mosphere from that which others adopt,
but you are not therefore hindered
| from action
Bccaus, your theory Of light is differ
ent from others do not refuse to open
your eyes. Because your theory of air
is different you do not refuse to breathe
Because your theory about the stellar
system is different you do not refuse
to acllnowl ledge the north star. Why
should the fact that your theological
theories ere different hinder you from
acting upon what you know? If you
Rave not whole ship fastened in tho
theological drydocks to bring you to