Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1899-01-07
The Furrowed Brow.

E, who estimate thor lie on earth ny
their sorrows aud misfortunes. Through
a great many CT your lives the plow-
share hath Como very deep, turning up
n terrible furrow You have been be-
trayed, and misrepresented, and set up
OH, and slapped of impertinenoe, and
pounded of misfortune The brightest
life must have its shadows and the
smoothest path it's thorns. On the hap
pest brood tho hawk pounces. No
escape from trouble Of some kind
While glorious John Milton was losing
his eyesight ho heard that Salmasius was
glad of it. While Sheridan g comedy
was being enacted in Drury Lane thea
ter, London, his enemy sat growing at
it in the stage box While Bishop Coop
er was surrounded by the favor of
learned men his wife took his lexicon
manuscript, the result of long life Of
anxiety and toll, and threw it into the
fire. Misfortune, trial, vexation for al
most every one! Pope, applaGded of all
the world, has stoop in the shoulder
that annoys him so much that he has q
tunnel dug, so that he may go unob-
served from garden to grotto and from
grotto to garden. Cano, the famous
Spanish artist. is disgusted with the
crucifx that the priest holds before him
because it is such il poor specimen of
sculpture, and so, sometimes through
taste, and sometimes through learned
menace, and sometimes through phys
ical distresseE-aye i'll 10000 ways
troubles come TO harass and annoy.
And yet it is unfair to measure
man S life by his misfortunes because
where there is enc stalk of nightshade
there are so marigolds and harebells;
where there is one cloud thunder
charged there are hundreds that stray
across the heavens, the glory of land
aud sky. asleep in thoir bosom. Because
death came and took your child away
did you Immediately forget all the five
years, or the ten years, or the 10 years
in which sho came every night for a
kiss all the tones of your heart pealing
forth at the sound Of her voice or the
soft touch of her hand? Because in some
financial EurCclydon your fortune went
into lie breakers did you forget all
those years il which the luXuries and
extrayagances of life showered OIL your
pathway? Alas, that is al unwise man,
an ungrateful man, an unfair man, an
unphilosophic man, and, most of all,
an un- Christian man, who measures bis
life on earth by groans and tears and
dyspeptio fit and abuse and scorn and
terror and neuralgia thrust
Again, 1 remark that there are many
people who estimate their life on earth
by the amount of money they have ac-
cumulated. They say, 1.-The year 1866
or 1870 or 1893 was wasted. /" Why?
"Elade no money" Now, it is al cant
add insincerity to talk against money,
as though it had no value. 1t may rep
resent refinement and education and ten
thousand blessed surroundings. 1t is
the spreading of the table that feeds the
childron;s hunger. It is the spreading
of the table that feeds the children s
hunger 1t is the lighting of the fur
mace that keeps you warm. 1t is the
making of the bed on which you rest
from care and anxiety. 1t is the carry
ing of you out at last to decent sepulcher,
and the putting up of the slab on which
is chiscled tho story Of your Christian
hope. 1t is simply hypocrisy, this
TRADE in pulpit and lecture hall against
money.
The Curse of Money.
But while all this is so, he who uses
money or thinks of money as anything
but means TO an end, will find out his
mistake when the glittering treasures
slip cut of his nerveless grasp, and be
goes out of this world without shilling
of money or certificate of stock. He
might better have been the Christian
porter that opened his gate or the be-
grimcd workman who last night heaved
the coal into his cellar Bonds and
mortgages and leases have their use,
but they make a poor yardstick with
which to measure life "They that
boast themselves in theft wealth and
trust in the multitude of their riches,
none of them can, by any means, re-
deem his brother or give to God ran
som for him that be should not see cor
ruption. .
But remark, there ale many
wish there we're more-who estimate
their life by their moral and spiritual
development.
1t is not sinful egotism for Chris
tian man to say II am purer than l
used to be- am more consecrated to
Christ than I used 10 be. l have got
over great many of the bad habits in
which used to indulge. am great
deal better man than | used to be-. y
There is no sinful eactism in that. 1t !
is not base egotism for soldier to say,
Il know more about military tactics
that l used to before took musket in
my hand aud learned to present arms
and when l WAS pest to the drill Off
GER" 1t is not base egotism for sailor
to say, 81 knew better how to clew
down the mizZen topsail than | used to !
before had ever seen ship And
there is no sinful egotisn when Chris.
tian man. fighting the battles OF the
Lord, or if you will have it, voyaging
toward haven of eternal rest, says, II
know more about spiritual tactics and
about voyaging toward heaven than
used to-.
Why, there are these in this presence
who have measured lances with many a
foe and endorsed it! There are Christian
men here who have become swarthy by
hammerine at the forge of calamity.
They stand on an entirely different
plane of character from that which they
once occupied. They are measuring
their life Oh earth by golden gated Sab
baths, by pentecostal prayer meeting,
by communion tables, by baptismal
fonts, by halleluiahs in the temple