Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-11-20
~ACIMMAC G It VA, SATURDAY NOVEMBER 20 1897


with all the nations of earth and heav-
en-: ~ believe in God, the Father AL
mighty, Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our
Lord, who was conceived by the Holy
Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffer-
ed under Pontius PLATE, was crucified,
dead and buried He descended into
he'll. The third day he rose from the
dead. He assembled into heaven and sit
teth on the right hand Of God the Fa-
ther Almighty. From thence be shall
come to judge the quick and the dead. :"
St. Johns Orchard.
Now, in this discourse of the pomolo-
gy of the. Bible, or God amid the or
chards, having shown you Adams or
chard and Solomon's orchard and Pi-
late's orchard, now take you into st.
Johns orchard, and l will stop there,
for having seen that you will want to
see nothing more st. John himself,
having seen that orchard, discharged a
whole volley of Comel GOMEZ Come!
and then pronounced the benediction
1.-THE grace Of our Lord Jesus Christ be
with you all Amen. Then the BAN
ished evangelist closes the book, and
the Bible is done The dear old book
opened with Adams orchard and closes
with ST. John orchard. st. John went
into this orchard through stone gate.
the black basalt of the isle Of Patmos,
to which he had been eXiled. That or
chard which he saw was and is in heav-
en-.
One person will err in speaking of
heaven as all material, and another per-
! son describes heaven as all figuratlve
and spiritual, and both are wrong
Heaven is both material and spiritual,
as we are both material and spiritual.
While much of the Bible account of
heaven is to be taken fguratively and
spiritually, it is plain to me that heaven
has also q material existence. Christ
said, II go to prepare place for you. I"
Is not place material? God, who has
done all the world building, the Stats
tics of stars so vast as to be bewilder-
ment to telescopes, could have some
where in his astronomy piled up tre-
mendous world to make the Bible heav-
en- true both as material splendor
and a spiritual domain. l do not believe
God put all the flowers, and all the pre-
cious stones, and all the bright metals,
and all the music, and all the fountains,
and all the orchards in this little world
of ours. How much was literal and how
much was fgurative l cannot say, but
St. John saw two rows OF trees On each
side of a river, and it differed from 9TH
er orchards in the fact that the trees
bore l2 manner of fruits The learned
translators of our common Bible say it
means l2 different kinds of fruits in one
year. Albert Barnes says it means IL
crops of the same kind Of fruit in one
year Not able to decide which is the
more accurate translation, adopt both.
If it mean 10 different kinds of fruit, it
declares variety in heavenly joy If
it means 10 crops of the same kind OF
fruit, it declares abundance in heavenly
JOY, and they are both true.
Variety? Oh, yesl Not an eternity
with nothing but music; that oratorio
would be too protracted. Not an eternity
of procession on white horses; that
would be too long in the stirrups. Not
an eternity OF watching the river; that
would be too much of the picturesque.
Not an eternity of plucking fruits from
the tree of life; that would be too much
of the heavenly orchard. But all man
ner Of varieties, and will tell you Of
at least ~ of those varieties: Joy Of di-
vine worship, joy over the victories of
the Lamb who was slain, JOY over the
repentant sinners, joy of recounting our
own rescue, JOY of embracing old friends,
joy at recognition of patriarchs, apostles,
evangelists and martyrs, joy of ringing
harmonies, joy Of reknitting broken
friendships, joy at the explanation Of
Providential mysteries JOY at walking
the boulevards of gold, joy at looking
at walls green with emerald and blue
with sapphire and crimson with jasper
and afash with amethyst, entered
through swinging gates, their posts,
their hinges and their panels of richest
pearl; Joy that there is to be no subsl-
dence, no reaction, no terminus to the
felicity All that makes IL different
joys, IL manner of fruits. So much for
variety But if you take the other inter-
probation and say it means IL crops a
year am with you still, for that means
abundance That will be the first place
we ever got into where there is enough
of everything, enough of health, enough
of light, enough of supernal association,
enough of love, enough of knowledge,
enough of JOY The orchards of this
lower world put out all their energies
! for few days in autumn, and then,
having yielded one crop. their banners
Of foliage are dropped out of the air.
and all their beauty is adjourned until
the bIossoming of the next May time.
But II crops in the heavenly orchard
during that which on earth we call a
year mean abundance perpetually.
The Heavenly Orchard.
While there is enough of the pomp Of
the city about heaven for those who
like the city best, l thank God there is
enough in the Bible about country seen
cry in heaven to please those of us who
were born i'll the country and never got
over it. Now you may have streets Of
gold in heaven. Give me the orchards
with 10 manner of fruits and yielding
their fruit every month, and the leaves
of the trees are for ''the healing of the
nations, and there shall be no more
curse, but the throne Of God and of the
Lamb shall be in it, and his servants
shall serve him, and they shall see his
face, and his name shall be in their
foreheads, and there shall be no night
there, and they need no candle, neither
light of the sun, for the Lord God CIV
eth them light, and they shall reign
forever and ever" But just think OF a
place so brilliant that the MONDAY sun
shall be removed from the mantle OF
f. IL