Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-04-30


those who were physically disorderedl
Moses-I know be was nervous from the
clip he gave the Egyptian. Job-his
blood was Initiated and diseased, and
his skin distressfully eruptive. David
ho had running sore, which he speaks
of when he says, "My sore ran in the
night and ceased not. ~ jeremiah had
enlargement Of the spleen. Who can
doubt it who reads Lamentations? Paul
tho had lifetime sickness which the
commentators have been guessing about
for years, not knowing exactly what the
apostle meant by "a thorn in the flesh. y
I do not know either, but it was some
thing sharp, something that stuck him.
gather from all this that physical dis
order may be the means of grace to the
soul You say you have so many tempta-
tions from bodily ailments and if you
were only we'll you think you could be
n good Christian While your tempta-
tions may be different they are no more
than those of the man who has an appe-
tito three times day and sleeps eight
hours every night.
Views OF Heaven.
From my observation I judge that
invalids have a more rapturous view OF
tho next world than well people and
will have higher renown i'll heaven.
The best view of the delectable noun
tains is through the lattice Of the sick
1900. u,l>o,o oro tro;nc WINNING avarv
hour between pillow and throne, be-
tween hospital and mansion, between
bandages and robes, between crutch and
palm branch. Oh. wish some Of you
people who are compelled to cry: "My
head, my head My foot, my foot! My
back, my backl" would try some of the
Lords medicinel You are going to be
we'll anyhow before long. Heaven is an
old city, but has never yet reported one
case of sickness or one bill of mortality.
No ophthalmia for the eye. No pneu-
monia for the lungs. No pleurisy for the
side. No neuralgia for the nerves. No
rheumatism for the muscles. 1.-The in
habitants shall never say, am sick. "
"There shall be no more pain. -
Again, you ought to make the best Of
life's fnality Now, you think have
very tough subject. You do not see how
1 ain to strike spark of light out OF
the flint of the tombstone. There are
many people who have an idea that
death is the submergence of everything
pleasant by every thing doleful If my
subject could close in the upsetting OF
all such preconceived notions, it would
close we'll. Who can judge best of the
features of man-those who are close
by him, or those who are afar off?
"Oh," you say, "those can judge best
of the features of a man who are close
by him.
Now. my friends, who shall judge of
the features of death-whether they are
lovely or whether they are repulsive?
You? You are too far off. If want to
get judgment as to what really the
features of death arc, will not ask you;
will ask those who have been within a
month of death or week OF death or
all hour of death or minute of death.
They stand so near the features, they
can tell. They give unanimous testi-
mony, if they are Christian people, that
death, instead of being demoniao, is
cherubio Of all the thousands of Chris
tians who have been carried through the
gates of the cemetery. gather up their
dying experiences and you will find
they nearly all bo dered on jubilate.
How often you have seen dying man
join in the psalm being sung around his
bedside, the middle of the verse opening
to let his ransomed spirit free, long
after the lips could not speak looking
and pointing upward.
Not Gods Best Work.
Some of you talk as though God had
exhausted himself in building this
world and that all the rich curtains he
ever made be hung around this planet
and all the flowers he ever grew he has
woven into the carpet of our daisied
meadows. No This world is not the
best thing God can do; this world is
not the best thing that God has done.
One week of the year is called BIOS
som week-called so all through the
land becau use there are more blossoms IN
that week than in any other week OF
the year. Blossom week! And that is
what the future world is to which the
Christian is invited-blossom week for
ever. 1t is as far ahead of this world as
paradise is ahead of Dry Tortugas, and
yet here we stand shivering and fearing
to 20 out, and we want to stay on the
dry sand and amid the stormy petrels,
when we are invited to arbors OF jas
mine and birds of paradise.
One season l had two springtimes l
went to New Orleans in April, and l
marked the difference between going to-
ward New Orleans and then coming
back. AS / went on down toward New
Orleans the verdure, the foliage, became
thicker and more beautiful. When l
came back, the farther came toward
home the less the foliage, and less and
less it became until there was hardly
any. Now, it all depends upon the d.
rection in which you travel. II a spirit
from heaven should come toward our
world, be is travelling from June toward
.)ecem ber from radiance toward dark
ness, from hanging gardens toward Ice
beres. And one would not be very much
surprised if spirit of God sent forth
from heaven toward our world should
be slow to come. But how strange it is
that we dread going out toward that
world when going is from December to-
ward June, from the snow of earthly
storm to the snow of Edenic blossom,
from the arctics of trouble toward the
tropics of eternal joy.
Oh, what an ado about dying We
get so attached to the malarial marsh
in which we live that we are afraid to
go up and live on the hilltop. We are
alarmed because vacation is coming.