Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-11-06

Then it is in after life that the great
temptation of success comes. If man
mako fortune before 80 years Of age,
he generally loses it before 40. The sol
id and the permanent fortunes for the
most part do not come to their climax
until in midlife or in old age The most
of the bank presidents have white hair.
Many OF those who have been largely
successful have been flung of arrogance
Or worldliness or dissipation in old age.
They may not have lost their integrity,
but they have become so worldly and
SO selfish under the influence Of large
success that it is evident to everybody
that their success has been temporal
calamity and all eternal damage. Con-
corning many people, it may be said it
seems as if it would have been better ii
they could have embarked from this life
at 20 OF 80 years Of age.
Do you know the reason why the vast
majority of people die before 80? 1t is
because they have not tho moral endur-
ance for that which is beyond the 30,
and merciful God will not allow them
to DO put to tho fearful strain
On the Defensive.
Again, there is q blessing in an alb
breviutcd earthly existence in the fact
that one is the sooner taken Off the de-
fensive AS soon as one is old enough tc
take care of himself he is put on his
guard. Bolts Oh the doors to keep out
tho robbers Fireproof safes to keep of
tho flames Life insurance and fire in
surance against accident. Receipts lest
you have to pay debt twice. Lifeboat
against shipwreck. Westinghouse air
brake against railroad collision, and
hundreds of hands ready to overeach
you and take all you have. Defense
against cold, defense against heat, de-
tense against Sickness defense against
the worlds abuse, defense all the way
down to the grave, and even the tomb
stone sometimes is not u sufficient bar
ricade.
II soldier who has been on guard,
shivering and stung with the cold, pac-
ing up and down the parapet with
shouldered musllet. is glad when some
one comes to relieve guard and he can
go inside tho fortress, ought not that
man to shout for JOY who can put down
his weapon of earthly defense ana go
into the kings castle? Who is the more
fortunate, the soldier who has to stand
guard ~ hours or the man who has to
stand guard six hours? We have common
sense about everything but religion,
common sense about everything but
transference from this world.
Again, there is blessing in an alb
breviated earthly existence in the fact
that one escapes SO many bereavements.
The longer we live the moro attach
ments and the more kindred, the more
chords to be wounded or rasped or sun
dered If man live On to 70 or 81
years of age, how many graves are cleft
at his feet In that long reach OF time
father and mother go, brothers and sis
tiers 90, children go, grandchildren 60,
personal friends outside the family Cir
Gle whom they had loved with q love
like that of David and Jonathan. Be-
sides that some men have natural
trepidation about dissolution, and ever
and anon during 40 or so or 60 years
this horror of their dissolution shudders
through soul and body Now, suppose
the lad goes at l6 cars of age? He es-
capes SO funerals, 90 caskets, so obse-
quies, SO awful wrenchings Of the heart
It is hard enough for US to bear their
departure, but is it not easier for Us to
bear their departure than for them to
stay and bear so departures? Shall we
not by the grace Of God rouse ourselves
into generosity of bereavement which
will practically say, 1t is hard enough
for ME to go through this bereavement,
but how glad am that he will never
have to 90 through it," So | reason
with myself, and so you will find it
helpful to reason with yourselves. Da-
vid lost his son Though David was
king he lay Oh the earth mourning and
inconsolable for some time At this dis
lance of time, which do You really think
was the one TO be congratulated, the
short lived child or the long lived IA
ther? Had David died as early as that
child died he would, in the first place,
have escaped that particular bereave-
ment, then he would have escaped the
worse bereavement of Absalon, his rec
reant son, and the pursuit of the Phills'
tines, and tie fatigues OF his military
campaign, und the jealousy Of Saul, and
the pertidy of Ahithophel, and the curse
Of Shimei and the destruction of bis
family at Zililag, and, above all, he
would have escaped the two great ca
lanities of his life. the great sins OF
unclcanness and murder David lived
10 lie of vast use to the church and the
world, but so far as his own happiness
was concerned does it not seem to you
that it would have been better for him
to have gone early?
Temptation.
NOW, ILLS, lily Llicii'in, eNPi"AHo ooA'4N
things that to you have been inexplica-
BILE This shows you why when Gcd
takes little children from q household
he is very apt to take the brightest the
most genial. the most sympathetic, the
most rale1ta.l Why? 1t is because that
kind of nature suffers the most when Ii
does suffer, and is most liable to temp
tation. God SAW the tempest sweeping
up from the Caribbean. and lie put the
delicate craft Into the first harbor-
Taken away from the evil to come
Again, my friends, there is y blessing
in an abbreviated earthly existence il
the fact that it puts one sooner i'll TIT
center of things All astronomers, inf
del as we'll as Christian, agree in be
lieving that the universe swings arount
some great center Any one who ha
studied the earth and studied the heav
ems knows that Gods favorite figur
in geometry is circle. When God pu
forth his hand to create the universe