Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-11-12

but in tho strength of the Lord God
Almighty Tho old habit seiZes him,
and lie seizes it, and the wrestlers bend
backward and forward and from side to
s;la, in awfnl struggle, until the mo-
NEXT comes for his liberation and, with
bCt!, arms infused with strength from
God, he lifts that habit, swings 1t IN
air and halls it into tho perdition from
which it Cane and from which it never
again will rise. Victory, victory, through
our Lord Jesus Christ! Hear it, all ye
wrestlers 1t threw him twice, but the
third time he threw it, and, by the
grace of God, threw it so hard be is as
safe now as if he had been ten years i'll
heaven Oh, l am so glad that Paul in
my text suggests the wrestler and the
power Of the third throw!
But notice that my text suggests that
the wrestlers OH the other side i'll the
great struggle for the worlds redemp-
ton have all the forces Of demonology
to help them, I'VE wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principali-
ties, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. -
All military men will tell you that
there is nothing more unwise than to
underestimate an army. In estimating
what we have to contend with, the
most of the reformers do not recognize
the biggest opposers. They talk about
the agnosticism, and the atheism, and
the materialism, and the nihilism, and
the pantheism, and the Brahmanisn,
and the Mohammedanism as we'll as tho
more agile and organized and endowed
wickednesses of our day. But these are
only part of the hostilities arrayed
against God and the best interests OF
humanity. The invisible hosts are far
more numerous than the visible. 1t is
not so much the bottle it is the demon
of the bottle. 1t is not so much the rou-
lette table, it is the demon of the rou-
lette table. 1t is not so much the act of
stock gambling as it is the demon of
stock gambling 1t is the great host of
spiritual antagonists led on by Aziel OF
Lucifer or Beelzebub or Asmodeus or
Ahrimanes or Abaddon, just as you
please to call the leader infernalistic.
Gan you doubt that the human agencies
Of evil are backed up by Plutonic agen-
cies? If it were only a common war
steed, with painting nostril and f1aunt-
ing name and gathering hoof, rushing
upon US, perhaps we might clutch him
L., t,i,,, hn al In q
launches, but it is the black horse cav
airy of perdition who dash down and
their riders swing swords which, though
invisible cleave individuals and homes
and nations tell you, Paul was right
when he suggested that we wrestle, not
with pygmies, but with giants that will
down US, unless the Lord Almighty is
our coadjutor. Blessed be God that we
have now, and further on will have in
mightier degree that divine help!
The Overthrow of Evil.
The time is coming know it will
quicken your pulses when l mention 1t
when the last mighty evil of the
world will be grappled by righteousness
and thrown Which of the great evils
will survive all tho others know not,
whether war, or revenge, or fraud, or
lust. or intemperance, or gambling, or
Sabbath dissertation. 1t will not be 1.-The
survival of the fittest, but the survival
of the worst. 1t will be the evil the
most thoroughly intrenched, most COM
petely REINFORCED, most patronized by
wealth and fashion and pomp, most APP
plauded by all the municipalities and
powers and rulers CT darkness. 1t will
stand with grim visase looking down
upon the graves CT all the other slain
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES dug b. the hot
shoyeIs Of despair and surmounted by
such eptaphicIogy as this sit hiteth
like serpent and stingeth like an adj
der, - 1.-The wages of sin is death,
"Her house inciineth unto death and
her paths unto the dead, There is a
way that seemeth right to man, but
the end thereof is death. " Yes imag-
inc we have arrived at the time when
we may say, Yonder stands the last and
only great evil of all the world to be
vrestled down 1t stands not only look
ing upon the graves Of all the entombed
and epitaphed iniquitics OF the world,
but ever and anon gazing upward III
defiance of the heavens and shaking its
fist at the Almighty, saying; Nothing
can put me down have seen all the
other enemies Of the human race wres-
tied down and destroyed, but there is
no arm or foot. human Or angelic or
deifo that can throw me. have ruined
whole generations and | swear by all
the thrones of diabolism that will
ruin this generation. Come on, all ye
churches and all ye reformatory insti-
buttons and all ye legislatures and all
We thrones L challenge you. | plant
my feet on this red hot rock of the
worlds woe. 1 stretch forth my arms
for the mightiest wrestle any world has
ever seen. Come on. Come On. I"
Then righteousness will accept the
challenge, and the two mighty wrestlers
will grapple, while all the galleries of
earth and heaven look down from one
side and all the fiery chasms of perdi-
ton look up from the other side. The
two wrestlers sway to and fro and turn
this way and that, and now the mon
ster evil, seems the mightier of the
two, and now righteousness seems about
to triumph The prize is worth strug-
gle, for it is not chaplet of laurel or
palm, but the rescue of a world, and a
wreath put on the brow by him who
promised, "Be thou faithful unto
death, and l will give thee crown. y
Three worlds earth, heaven and hell
hold their breath while waiting for
the result of this struggle, when with
one mighty swing of all arm muscled
with omnipotence righteousness hurls
the las. evil, first Oh its knees and then
Al @@E Il