Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-02-06

nal and said "Reef sail; make things
snug or put into harbor, for the hurri-
canes are getting their wings out. - AS
the Pleiades were the sweet evangels of
the spring, Orion was the warning
prophet of the winter
Oh, now I get the best view of God 1
ever had! There are two sermons new
er want to preach-tho one that presents
God SO kind, so indulgent, SO lenient, SO
imbecile that men may do what they
will against him and fracture his every
law and put the pry of their impcrti-
nence and rebellion under his throne
and while they are splitting in his face
and stabbing at his heart he takes them
up in his arms and kisses their infuriat-
ed brow and cheek, saying, "Of such is
the kingdom of heaven. The other
kind of sermon never want to preach
is the one that represents God rs all fire
and torture and thundercloud and with
redhot pitchfork tossing the human
race into paroxysms of infinite agony.
The sermon that am now preaching be-
lieves in God of loving, kindly warm
ing the God of spring and winter, the
God of the Pleiade. and Orion.
You must remember that the winter is
just as important as the spring. Let one
winter pass without frost to kill vegeta-
ton and ice to bind the rivers and snowto
enrich our fields, and then you will have
to enlarge your hospitals and your cem-
etcrics ga green Christmas makes a
fat graveyard" was the old proverb.
Storms to purify the air. Thermometer
at 3 degrees below zero to tone up the
system. December and January just as
important as May and June. tell you,
we need the storms of life us much as
we do the sunshine. There are more men
ruined by prosperity than by adversely.
If we had our own way III life, before
this we would have been representations
of selfishncss and worldliness and dis.
gushing sin and pulled up until we
would have been like Julius Caesar, who
was made by sycophants to believe that
he was divine, and the freckles OIL his
face were said to be as the stars of the
armament.
The God of Orion.
One of the swiftcst Transatlantic voy
ages made one summer by the Etruria
was because she had Il stormy wind
abaft chasing her from New York to
Liverpool. But to those going i'll the OPP
posite direction the storm was a buffet
ing and hindrance. It is a bad thing
to have Il storm ahead, pushing us back,
but if we be Gods children and aiming
toward heaven the storms Of life will
only chase us the sooner into the har-
Dor. 1 a1n so glad to believe that tho
monsoons typhoons aud mistrals and
siroccos of the land and sea are not ull-
chained maniacs let loose upon the
earth, but are under divine supervision.
/ am so glad that the God of the seven
stars is also the God of Orion. 1t was
ont Of Duntc's suffering came the sub
lire "Divina Commedia, +" and out Of
John Millions blindness came para
else Lest, and out of miserable infidel
attack came the Bridgewater Treatise"
in favcr OF Christianity, and out Of
Duvid's exile came the songs of conso-
lation, and out of the sufferings of Christ
came the possibility of the worlds re-
demption, and out of your bereavement,
your persecution, your poyerties, your
misfortuncs may yet come an eternal
heaven.
Oh, what mercy it is that in the
text and Ill up and down ne Bible God
induces US to look out toward other
worlds! Bible astronom. i'll Genesis, in
Joshua, i'll Job, in the Psalms, in the
prophets, major and minor, i'll St.
Johns Apocalypse, practically saying:
Worlds, worlds, worlds! Get ready
for them!' We have nice little world
here that we stick to, rs though losing
that we lose all. We arc afraid of falling
off this little raft of world. We are
afraid that some meteoric iconoclast
will some night smash it, and we want
everything to revolve around it and are
disappointed when we find that it re-
wolves around the sun instead of the sun
revolving around it. What fuss we
make about this little bit of q world, its
existence only short time between two
spasms, the paroxysm by which it was
hurled from chaos into order, and the
paroxysm of its demolition.
And 1 ann glad that SO many texts call
us to look off to other worlds, many of
them larger aud grander and more re-
splendent. "Look there" says job "at
Nazareth and Arcturus and his sons!'
"Look there" says st. John, cat the
moon under Christ's feet!' "Look
there, :" says Joshua, "at the sun stand
ing still above Gibeon!" Look there, "
says Moses, sat the sparkling firma-
ment!" "Look there" says Amos, the
hcrdsman, cat the seven stars and
Orionr' Do not let US be so sad about
those who shove off from this world un-
der Christly pilotage. Do not let US be