Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-09-04


peck Of chaff that has got into this 5, 900
bushels of wheat, and the only way to get
rid of tie chalf is to throw all the
wheat overheard Now, that is 4 great
deal wiser than the talk of a great many
Christians who want TO throw overheard
all the thousands and tens Of thousands
of souls who have been brought in
through great awalenings. Throw all
overheard because there is peck Of
chatf, quart of chaif, pint of chatfl
l say, let them stay until the last day.
The Lord will divide the chaff from the
wheat
Oh, that these gales from heaven
might sweep through all our churchesl
Oh, for such days as Richard Baxter
saw III England and Robert McCheyne
saw i'll Dundee Oh, for such days as
Jonathan Edwards saw in Northamp-
toni l have often heard my father tell
of the fact that in the early part of this
century revival broke out iii Somer-
Vile, N. j., and some people were very
much agitated about it. They said,
"Oh, you are going to bring too many
people into the church at once!' and
they sent down to New Brunswick to
get John Livingston to stop the revival.
Well, there was no better soul i'll all
the world than John Livingston. He
went up; he looked at the revival. They
wanted him to stop it, He stood i'll the
pulpit OH the Sabbath and looked over
the solemn auditory, and he said:
This, brethren. is in reality the work
of God Beware how you try to stop
it. :" And he was an old man, leaning
heavily on his staff-a very old man.
And lie lifted that staff and took hold
of the small end of the staff and began
to let it fall very slowly through be-
tween the finger and the thumb. and he
said, "Oh, thou impenitent, thou art
falling now-falling away from life,
falling away from peace and heaven,
falling as certainly us that CANE is fall
ing through my hand-falling certain
IL, though perhaps falling very slowly
And the cane kept OIL falling through
John Livingston's hand. The religious
emotion III tho audience was overpow-
ering, and men saw type of their
doom as the cane kept falling and fall
ing until the knob of the cane struck Mr..
Livingston hand, and he clasped it
stoutly and said, but the grace of God
can stop you, as Istoppcd that cane, and
then there was gladness all through the
house at the fact of pardon and peace
and salvation. well" said the people
after the service, Il guess you had bet
ter send Livingston home. He is max
ing the revival worse. T" Oh, for the
gales from heaven, and Christ on board
the ship The da, ger Of the church of
God is not III revivals.
Again, my subject impresses me with
the fact that Jesus WIS God and man i'll
the same being Here he is il the back
part of the beat Oh, how tired he
looks, what sad dreams he must havel
Look at bis countenance. He must be
thinking the cross TO come. Look at
him. He is man-bone of our bone,
flesh of our flesh. Tired, he falls asleep;
he is man. But then | find Christ at
the PROV of the boat J. hear him say,
Peace, be still" And see the storm
l,nceling ut his feet and the tempests
folding their wings i'll his presence. He
is God
If have sorrow aud trouble and want
sympathy, l go and kneel down at the
back part of the boat and say, 30
Christ, weary one of Gennesaret. SYM
pathize with all my sorrows, man of
Nazareth, man of the cross. " a man, a
nun But if 1 want to conquer my spir-
itual foes, if want to get the victory
over sin, death and hell, come to the
front of the boat and kneel down, and
| say, 20 Lord Jesus Christ, thou who
dost hush the tempest, hush all my
grief hush all my temptation, hush all
my sin. I" a man, "a man, God, a God.
The Tempest flushed.
learn once more from this subject
that Christ can hush Il tempest. 1t did
seem rs if everything must 90 to ruin.
The disciples had given up the idea of
managing the ship The crew were ell
tirely demoralizcd. yet Christ rises, and
he puts lis foot on the storm, aud it
crouches at his feet. Oh, yes. Christ
can hush the tempest!
You have had trouble Perhaps it
was the little child taken away from
you-the sweetest child of the house
hold, the one who asked the most Curl
GUS questions and stood around you with
the greatest fondness, and the spade cut
down through your bleeding heart Per-
haps it was al only son. and your heart
has ever since been like dcsolated cas-
tie, the owls of the night hooting among
the falling rafters and the crumbling
stairways
Perhaps it was an aged mother You
always went to her with your troubles.
She WAS in your home to welcome your
children into life. and when they died
she was there to pity you That old
hand will Go You no more kindness.
That white lock of hair you put away
in the casket or in the lovket did not
look as we'll as it usually did when she
brushed it away from her wrinkled
brow in the home circle or in the coun-
try church. Or, your property gone, you
said, ~ have so much bank stock. l
have so many government securities, 1
nave so many houses, have so many
farms all gone, all gone.
Why, all the storms that ever tram
pied with their thunders, all the ship
wrecks, have not been worse than this
to you. Yet you have not been com
pletely overthrown. Why? Christ hushed
the tempest. Your little one was taken
away. Christ says: Il have that little
one. can take care of him as well as
you can. better than You can, Oh, be-
reaved motiler!' flushing the tempest!
When your property went away, God
said, There are treasures in heaven,
in banks that never break. ="
There is one storm into which we
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