Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-06-05
ArtzOMAC G n VA, SATURDAY JUNE 1897

OF life have been quadrupled, quintu-.
pied, sextupled, aye, centupled, i'll our
time by the civil war, and at the north
and south. great multitude are fight
ing the battle Of life with half or less
than half the needed physical arma-
ments. I do not wonder at the pathos
of soldier during the war, who, when
told that ho must have his hand ampu-
tated, said, doctor, can't you save it?'
and when told that it was impossible
said, with tears rolling down his
checks: "Wcll, then, goodby, old hand.
hate to part with you. You have done
me good service for many years, but
it seems you must go. Goodby.
A celebrated surgeon told me of q
scene in the clinical department of one
of the New York hospitals, when poor
man with wounded leg was brought
in before the students to be operated on
The surgeon was pointing out this and
that to the students and handling the
wounded leg, and was about to proceed
to amputation when the poor man leap
ed from the table and hobbled to the
door and said, Gentlemen, am sorry
to disappoint you, but by tho help of
God will die with my leg on" What
a terrific loss is the loss Of our physical
facultics!'
The way the battle of Crecy was de-
cided against France was by the Welsh
men killing the French horses, and that
brought their riders to the ground. And
when you cripple this body, which is
merely the animal Oh which the soul
ridcs, you may sometimes defeat the
soul
Gods Help.
Yet how many suffer from this phys
ical taking off Good cheer, my brotherl
God will make it up to you somehow.
The grace, the sympathy of God, will
be more to you than anything you have
lost. If God allows part of your re-
sources to be cut Off i'll one place, he
will add it on somewhere else As
Augustus, tho emperor, took off a day
from February, making it the shortest
month in the year, and added it to Au-
gust, the month named after himself, so
advantages taken from one part OF your
nature will be added Oil to another.
But it is amazing how much of the
worlds work has been done by men Of
subtracted physical organization. S. S.
Preston, the great orator of the south
west, went limping all his life, but
there was no foot put down upon any
platform of his day that resounded so far
as his clubfoot. Beethoven was so deaf
that he could not hear the crash Of the
orchestra rendering his oratorios. Thorn
as Carlyle, lho dyspeptic martyr, was
given the commission to drive can't
out of the worlds literature. The Rev.
Thomas Stockton of Philadelphia, with
one lung raised his audience nearer heay-
en- than most ministers can raise them
with two lungs. In the banks, the insur-
ance companies, the commercial !estab-
lishments, the reformatory associations,
the churches, there are tens of thous-
ands of men and women today doubled
up with rheumatism or subject to the
neuralgias or with only fragments of
limbs, the rest of which they left at
Chattanooga or South Mountain OF the
Wilderness, and they arc worth more to
the world, and more to the church, and
more to God than those of US who have
never so much as had a finger joint
stiffened by felon.
Put to full use all the faculties that
remain and charge OH all opposing cir
cumstances with the determination OF
John of Bohemia, who was totally
blind, and yet at battle cried out, 1
pray and beseech you to lead me so far
into the fight that may strike one good
blow with this sword of mine!" Do not
think so much of what faculties you
have lost as of what faculties remain.
You have enough left to make yourself
felt in three worlds, while you help the
earth and balk hell and win heaven.
Arise from your discouragements, 0
men and women of depleted or crippled
physical faculties, and see what, by the
special help of God, you can accomplish
Alexander and Bucephalus.
The skilled horsemen stood around
Bucephalus, unable to mount OF man
age him, so wild was the steed. But
Alexander noticed that the sight of his
own shadow seemed to disturb the
horse. So Alexander clutched him by
the bride and turned his head away
from the shadow and toward the sun,
and the horses agitation was gone, and
Alexander mounted him and rode Off,
to the astonisbment of all who stood
by. And what you people need is to
have your sight turned away from the
shadows of your earthly lot, over which
you have so long pondered and your
head turned toward the sun-the glori-
Gus sun of gospel consolation and Chris
tian hope and spiritual triumph.
And then remember that all physical
disadvantages will after awhile vanish.
Let those who have been rheumatismed
out of foot, or cataracted out of an
eye, or by the perpetual roar of our cit
les Numbered out Of an ear, look for
ward to the Gay when this old tenement
! house of flesh will come down and a
better one shall be buildcd. The resur-
rection morning will provide you with q
better outfit. Either the unstrung
worn out, blunted and crippled organs
will be so reconstructed that you will
not know them, or an entire new set Of
eyes and ears and feet will be given
you. Just what it means by corruption
putting on interruption we do not
know, save that it will be glory ineiTa-
BILE, no limpiag in heaven, 10 straining
of the eycsight to see things L little
way off, no putting of the hand behind
the ear to double the capacity Of the
tympanum, but faculties perfect, all
the keys of the instrument attnned for
the sweep of the fingers Of ecstasy. But
until that day of resumption comes let
us bear each others burdens and go full
fill the law Of Christ.
Another form of disadvantage under
|