Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-08-14
AC(NMAC G IT. VA, SATURDAY AUGUST IA 1897

an Alpha anu OtuCSR. A4OW SoA Az w
lion, under his foot crushing king
doms, and yet lamb licking the hand
that Stays him? At what point do the
throne and the manger touch? If Christ
was God, why flee into Egypt Why
not stand his ground? Why, instead Of
bearing tie cross, not lift up his right
hand and crush his assassins? Why
stand and DO spat upon? Why sleep on
the mountain, when he owned the pal
aces of eternity? Why catch fish for his
breakfast Oh the beach in the chill
morning, when all the pomegranates
are his and all the vineyards his and
all the cattle his and all the cartridges
his? Why walk when weary and his
feet Stone bruised, when he might have
taken the splendors of the sunset for his
equipage and moved with horses and
chariots Of fire? Why beg a drink from
the wayside, when out of the crystal
chalices of eternity ho poured the Eu-
pirates, the Mississippi and the ANA
ION, and dipping his hand in the foun-
tains of heaven and shaking that hand
over the world, from the tips of his fin
gers dripping the great lakes and the
oceans? Why let the Roman regiment
put him to death, when he might have
ridden down the sky followed by all
the cavalry of heaven. mounted Oh
white horses of eternal victory?
Who Can Understand?
You cannot understand. Who can?
You Try to confound me- l am con-
founded before you speak. Paul said it
was unseurchabe. He went climbing
up from argument to argument and
from antithesis to antithesis and from
glory to glory and then sank down in
exhaustion rs he saw far above him 9TH
Ell heights of divinity unscaled and ex-
claimed THAT in all things he might
have the Pre- eminence. u
Again, Christ was wonderful in his
teaching The people had been used to
formalities and technicalities. Christ
upset all their notions as to how preach
ing ought to be done. There was this
peculiarly about his preaching-the
People knew what he meant. His illus
trations were taken from the hen call
ing her chickens together, from salt,
from candles, from fishing tackle, from
a hard ere iitor collaring adebtor. How
few pulpits Of this day would have al
lowed him entrance? He would have
boon called undisniscd and familiar in
his style Of preaching. And yet the
people went to hear him. Those old
Jewish rabbits might have preached Oh
the side of Olivet so years and never
got an audience. The philosophers
sncered at his ministrations and said,
"This will never do" The lawyers
caricatured, but the common people
heard him gladly. Suppose you that
there were any sleepy people in his
audiences? Suppose you that any wom-
IN who ever mixed bread was ignorant
of what he meant when he compared
the kingdom of heaven with leaven or
yeast? Suppose you that the sunburned
fishermen, with the fish scales upon
their hands, were listless when he
spoke of tine kingdom of heaven as a
net? We spend three years in college
studying ancient mythology, and three
years in the theological seminary learn
ing how to make sermon, and then
we 60 out to save the world, and If we
cannot do it according to Claude's
"Sermonizing," or Blair's Rhetoric, "
or Kames Criticism, We will let
the world 90 to perdition. If we save
nothing else, we will save Claude and
Blair. We see wreck III sight. We
must 60 out and save the crew and
passengers. We wait until we get on
our fine cap and coat and find our shin
ing cars, and then we push out method
cally and scientifically, While some
plain shoresman, in rough fishing smack
and with broken oar lock goes ont and
gets the crewand passengers and brings
them ashore in safety. We throw down
our delicate oars and say: What
ridiculous thing to save men i'll that
way You ought to have done it scien-
tifcally and beautifully. " "Ah, says
the shoresman, "if those sufferers had
waited until you got out your fine boat
they would have gone to the bottom. y
The work of religious teacher is to
save men, and though every law OF
grammar should be snapped in the un-
deryaking. aud there be nothing but
awkwar;lness and laundering i'll the
mode, all hail to the man who saves
soul.
Christ, in his preaching, was plain,
earnest ard wonderfully sympathetic.
We canius dragon men into heaven.
We cannot drive them in with the butt
end of Il catechism We waste our time
i'll trying to catch flies with acids i'll
stead of the sweet honeycomb of the
eospel. We Try TO make crab apples do
tho work Of pomegranatcs.
The Sorrows of Jesus.
again, jesus was wonderful in his
sorrows. The sun smote him, and the
cold chilled him, the rain pelted him,
thirst parched him and hunger exhaust
ed him. Shall compare his sorrow to
tic sea! No. fer that is sometimes
hushcd into Il calm Shall compare
it with the night? No, for that some
times CLEANS with Orion or kindles
with Aurora. If one thorn should be
thrust through your temple you would
faint. But here is whole crown made
FROM the lhainnus Or spina Christi
small, sharp, singing thorns The mob
make cross. They put down the long
beam, AID On it they fasten shorter
beam. Got him at last Those hands,
that have hecn doing kindnesses and
wiping away tcars-hear the hammer
driving the spikes through them. Those
feet that have been going about on
ministrations of mercy = battered
against the cross. Then they lift it up.
Look, look, lookl Who will help him
now? Come, men of Jerusalem-ye
whose dead he brought to life, ye whose
sick be healed-who will help him?
WIZ ,,,;1 coi1o tho ,t.non0nc Of thn soil