Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-07-23
do all the kindness I can and all the

forever. An opportunity passed the
thousandth part Of second has by one
leap reached the other side Of great
eternity. In the autumn when the birds
you look up and see the sky
black with wings and the flocks stretch
ing out into many leagues Of air, and so
today I look up and see two large wings
in full sweep. They are the wings of
the flying year. That is followed by
flock Of 3G5, and they are the flying
days. Each Of the flying days is follow
ed by "a, and they are the flying hours,
and each of these is followed by so, and
these are the flying minutes. Where did
this great flock start from? Eternity
past. Where are they bound? Eternity
to come You might as we'll go a-gun-
ming for the quails that whistled last
year in the meadows or the robins that
last year caroled in the sky as to try to
fetch down and bag one of the past OPP
portunities of your life. Do not say, ~
will lounge now and make it up after
ward" Young men and boys, you can't
make 1t up My observation Is that
those who in youth sowed wild oats to
the end Of their short life sowed wild
oats and that those who start sowing
Genesee wheat always sow Genesee
wheat
Happiness of Old Age.
And then tho reaping Of the harvest
is SO different. There is grandfather
now. He has lived to old age because
his habits have been good. His eyesight
for this world has got somewhat dim,
but his eyesight for heaven is radiant.
His hearing is not so acute as it once
was, and he must bend clear over to
hear what his little grandchild says
when she asks him what he has brought
for her. But he easily catches the music
rained from supernal spheres. Men
passing in the streets take off their hats
in reverence, and women say, "What
good old man no Is. ;" Seventy or 80
years, all for God and for making this
world happyl Splendid Gloriousl
Magnificent He will have hard work
getting into heaven, because those whom
he helped to get there will fill up and
crowd the gates to tell him how glad
they are at his coming, until he says,
"Please to stand back a little till pass
through and cast my crown at the feet
of him whom, having not seen, 1 love.
do not know what you call that I call
it the harvest Of Genesee wheat.
Out yonder Is man very old at 40
years Of age, at time when he ought
to be buoyant as the morning. He got
bad habits on him very early, and those
habits have become worse. He Is g man
ON fire, on fire with alcoholism, on fire
with all evil habits, out with the world
and the world out with him. Down and
falling deeper. His swollen hands in
his threadbare pockets, and his eyes
fixed on the ground, he passes through
the street, and the quick step of an In.
nocent child or the strong step Of a
young man or the roll Of prosperous
carriage maddens him, and he curses
society and he curses God. Fallen sick,
with no resources, he is carried to the
almshouse. A loathsome spectacle, he
lies all day long waiting for dissolution,
or in the night rises on his cot and fights
apparitions of what he might have been
and what he will be. He started life
with as good prospect as any man on
the American continent, and there he
is a bloated carcass, waiting for the
shovels of public charity to put him
five feet under. He has only reaped
what he sowed. Harvest Of wild oatsl
"There is way that seemeth right to
a man, but the end thereof is death. "
Begin a New Life.
To others life is a masquerade ball,
and as at such entertainments gentlemen
and ladies put on the garb of kings and
queens OF mountebanks or clowns and
at the close put off the disguise so
great many pass their whole life i'll a
mask, taking off the mask at death.
While the masquerade ball Of life goes
on, they trip merrily over the floor,
gemmed hand is stretched to gemmed
hand, cleaning brow bends to cleaning
brow. On with the dancel Flush and
rustic and laughter Of Unreasonable
merrymaking. But after awhile the
languor of death comes on the limbs and
blurs the eyesight. Lights lower. Floor
hollow with sepulohral echo. Music
saddened into a wall. Lights lower.
Now the maskers are only seen IN the
dim light. Now the fragrance Of the
flowers is like the sickening odor that
comes from garlands that have lain LONG
In the vaults Of cemeteries. Lights low
er. Mists gath. the room. Glasses
shake as though liked by sudden thun-
der. Sigh caught in the curtain. Scarf
drops from the shoulder Of beauty
shroud. Lights lower. Over the slip
perry boards in dance of death glide 5eal-
ousies, envies, revenges lust, despair
and death. Stencil Of lamp wicks almost
extinguished Torn garlands will not
half cover the liberated feet. Choking
damps, chilliness. Feet still. Hands
closed. Voices hushed. Eyes shut.
Lights out.
/ invite you to quit all that and begin
O. new life. Roland went into battle.
Charlemagne's army had been driven
back by the three armies Of the Sara
Gems, and Roland almost in despair took
up the trumpet and blew three blasts in
one of the mountain passes, and under
the power Of those three blasts the Sara
Gems recoiled and fed In terror. But
history says that when he had blown
the third blast Roland's trumpet broke.
take this trumpet of the gospel and l
blow the first blast, "Whosoever will.
I blow the second blast, "Seek ye the
Lord while he may be found" I blow
the third blast, "Now is the accepted
time" But the trumpet does not break.
It was handed down by our fathers to
us, and we will hand 1t down to our
children, that after we are dead they
may blow the trumpet, telling the world
that we have pardoning God, loving
God, sympathetic God ana that more
to him than the throne on which he sits
is the joy of seeing prodigal putting
his thumb on the latch Of his fathers
house. remember that there were two
vessels on the sea and In storm. 1t
IL H.