Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-12-18
AcCOMAN O. r. Va SATURDAY DECEMBER Is 1897.


than one with vision dim and uncertain,
then God will require of us efficiency
just in proportion to what he has given
us. Physical energy ought to have as
good digestion of truth as we have ca
pacity to assimilate food. Our spiritual
hearing ought to be as good as our phys
ical hearing. Our spiritual taste ought
to be as clear as our tongue. Samsons
in body, we ought to be giants in moral
power.
The Lost Strength.
But, while you find great many men
who realize that they ought to use their
money Alright and use their intelligence
Alright, how few men you find aware OF
the fact that they ought to use their
physical organism arightl With every
thump of the heart there is something
saying, Work, work." And lest we
should complain that we have no tools
to work with God gives us our hands
and feet, with every knuckle and with
every joint and with every muscle, say
ing to us, "Lay hold and do something. "
But how often it is that men with
physical strength do not servo Christ
They are like a ship full manned and
full rugged, capable of vast tonnage,
able to endure all stress of weather, yet
swinging idly at the docks, when these
men ought to be crossing and recrossing
the great ocean of human suffering and
sin with Gods supplies of mercy. How
often it is that physical strength is used
in doing positive damage or in luxurious
ease, when, with sleeves rolled up and
bronzed bosom, fearless Of the shafts OF
opposition, it ought to be laying hold
with all its might and Juggling away to
lift up this sunken wreck of a world.
1t is most shameless fact that much
of the business of the church and Of the
world must be done by those compare
lively invalid Richard Baxter, by rea-
son of his diseases, all his days sitting
in the door Of the tomb, yet writing
more than 100 volumes and sending out
an influence for God that will endure
as long as the Saints Everlasting
Rest. Edward Payson, never knowing
a well day, yet how he preached and
how he wrote, helping thousands of dy-
ing souls like himself to "swim in sea
of glory!" And Robert M'Cheyne, a
walking skeleton, yet you know what
he did in Dundee and how he shook
Scotland with zeal for God. Philip bod
bridge, advised by his friends, because
of his illness, not to enter the ministry,
yet you know what he did for the rise
and progress of religion" in the church
and in the world.
Wilberforce was told by his doctors
that he could not live a fortnight, yet
at that very time entering upon philan-
thropic enterprises that demanded the
greatest endurance and persistence.
Robert Hall. suffering excruciations,. so
that often in lis pulpit while preaching
he would stop and lie down on sofa,
then getting up again to preach about
heaven, until the glories of the celestial
city dropped on the multitude, doing
more work perhaps than almost any
well man i'll his day.
Oh, how often it is that men with
great physical endurance are not SO
great in moral and spiritual stature.
While there are achievements for those
who are bent all their days with sick
ess-achievements of patience, achieve
ments of Christian endurance-1 call
upon men of health today, men of mus
Gle, men of nerve, men Of physical pow
er, to devote themselves to the Lord.
Giants in body, you ought to be giants
in soul.
Samson's Misguided Strength.
Behold also in the story of my text
illustration of the damage that strength
can do if it be misguided. 1t seems to
me that this man spent great deal OF
his time in doing evil-this Samson OF
my text. To pay bet which he had
lost by guessing of his riddle he robs
and kills 30 people. He was not only
gigantic in strength, but gigantic in
mischief and q type of those men in all
ages of the world, who, powerful in
body or mind or any faculty of social
position or wealth, have used their
strength for Ubiquitous purposes.
1t is not the small, weak men Of the
day who do the damage. These small
men who go swearing and loafing about
your-stores and shops and banking
houses, assailing Christ and the Bible
and the church-they do not do the
damage. They have no influence. They
arc vermin that you crush with your
foot. But it is the giants of the day,
the misguided giants, giants in phys
ical power. or giants in mental acu-
men, or giants in social position, or
giants in wealth, who do the damage.
The men with sharp pens that stab re-
ligion and throw their poison all
through our literature, the men who
use the power of wealth to sanction in
iquity and bribe justice and make truth
and honor bow to their golden scepter
Misguided giants-look out for them.
In the middle and latter part of the last
century, no doubt, there were thousands
of men in Paris and Edinburgh and
London who hated God and blasphemed
the name of the Almighty, but they did
but little mischief-they were small
men, insignificant men. Yet there were
giants in those days.
Who can calculate the soul havoc OF a
Rousseau, going CD with very enthu-
siasln of iuiquity, with fiery imagina-
tion Selling upon all tic inprlsive ma
lures ci lis day, or David HuEe, who
employed his life as t. spider employs
its summer, i'll spinning cut silken
wcLs TO tap the uuwary, or Voltairc,
the most learned man CT his day, mar
shaling great hest OF skcp;ics and lead
ing item out i'll the dark land Of ini-
deity, or Gibion. whn showed all un-
controllable grudge against religion in
his history of one of the most fascinat-
!ne periods of the worlds existence,
"The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire'-a book in which, with all
! .,,, ,f u; p r,oDi,,c l,a r,aOOified