Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-07-31

rnaU was not worth more than 50 cents
Oh q dollar goes 10 par, and the opening
of Il new street doubles the value of his
house, or in any way of million God
blesses him.
Christian Generosity.
Once the man finds out that secret
and he goes OIL to fortune. There are
men whom l have known who for ten
years have been trying to pay God
81 900. They have never been able to
get it paid, for just as they were taking
out from ono fold of their pocketbook a
bill mysteriously somehow i'll some
other fold of their pocketbook there
came larger bill. You tell me that
Christian generosity pays i'll the world
to come. l tell you it pays now, pays
in hard cash, pays in government Sc
curities. You do not believe it? All,
that is what keeps you back. l knew
you did not believe it. The whole world
and Christendom is to be reconstructed
OIL this subject, and as you are q part
of Christendom let the work begin i'll
your own soul. But" says some one,
II don't believe that theory, because l
have been generous and have been
losing money for ten years. " Then God
prepaid you, that is all.
What became of the money that you
made in other days? You say to your
son, "Now 1 will give you $500 every
year as long as you live" After awhile
you say, "Wcll, my son, you prove
yourself so worthy of my confidence l
will Just give you $780, in a single
lump" And you give it to him, and he
starts off. In two or three years he does
not complain against you: Father is
not taking care of me. ought to have
$500 year. You prepaid your son,
and he docs not complain. There are
thousands of us now who can this year
get just enough to supply our wants.
But did not God supply for us in the
past and has he not again and again and
again paid MS in advance? In other
words, trusted you all along trusted
you more than you had right to ask:
Strike, then, Il balance for God. Econo-
mize i'll anything rather than i'll your
Christian charities. There is not more
than Ole out of 800 of you who ev : give
enough to do you any good, 3 Id when
some cause of Christianity, ONE mis-
sionary society or Bible society or
church organization, comes along and
gets anything from you what do you
say? You say, II have been bled. "
And there never was more significant
figure Of speech than that used in COM
mon parlance. Yes, you have been bled,
and you are spiritually emaciated, when
if you had been courageous enough to
go through your property and say,
''That belongs to God, and this belongs
to God, ard the other thing belongs tc
God, land no more dared to appropriate
it to your own use than something that
belonged to your neighbor, instead OF
being bled to death by charities you
would lave been reinvigorated and re-
cuperatid ard built up for tinc and for
eternity. God will keep many of you
crampcd in money matters until the day
of your death unless you swing out into
larger gcnerosities.
a Great Promise.
People quote as joke what is o
divine premise, Cast thy bread upon
the waters and it will return to thee
after many days. - What did God mean
by that? There is an allusion there. In
Egypt when they sow the corn it is at
a time when the Nile is OVERLOOKING its
banks, and they SOW the seed corn on
the waters, and as the Nile begins to
recede this seed corn strikes III the earth
and comes up harvest and that is the
allusion. 1t seems as if they are throw
ing the corn away Oh the waters, but
after awhile they gather it up in har-
vest Now says God i'll his word, Cast
thy bread upon the waters, and it shall
come back to thee after many days. ="
1t may seem to you that you are throw
ing it away on charities, but it will
yield harvest of green and gold-a
harvest on earth and harvest in heav-
en-. If men could appreciate that and
act on that, we would have no more
trouble about individual or national
! finances.
Prescription the third, for the cure of
all our individual and national finan-
cial distrosses, great spiritual awaken
ing. 1t is 10 mere theory. The mer-
chants of this country were positively
demented with the monetary excite
ment in 1851. There never before nor
since has been such a state OF financial
depression as there was at that time
A revival came, and 500, 600 people
were born into the kingdom of God.
What came after the revival? The
grandest financial prosperity we have
ever had in this country. The finest
fortunes, the largest fortunes in the
United States, have been made since
1857. We'll" you say, "what has