Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1899-12-09

and hospitals, but accuracy in making
and prudence In running machinery OF
/ all sorts have almost abolished the list
of casualties, and sobrety and indus
: try have nearly abolished pauperism.
so TINT those buildings. which once
] were hospitals and almshouses, have
Lnen turned into beautiful homes for
the less prospered. and if you will look
In you will see the poorest table has
abundance and the smallest wardrobe
luxury and the harp, waiting to have
it's strings thrummed. leaning against
the piano. Whiting for Its keys to be
fingered. Yes. we have on the shelves
/ of our free libraries the full story Of
| dispenSarieS. and clutches, and clinics.
and surgery. and what time Of suf-
fering there must have been on those
battletields of Sedan and Gettysburg
and South Africa one or two hundred
years ago.
a New World Dorm.
"Hospitnls and almshouses must
have been necessity once, but they
would be useless now. And you see
all the swnmps have been drained. The
sewerage of the great towns has been
perfected And the worlds climate
Is so improved that there are no pneu-
monias to come out Of the cold or
rhcumutismS out of the dampness or
| feyers out OF the heut. Consumptions
banshed pneumonlas banished. diph-
iberia punished. ophthalmia banished,
neuralgias banished. AS near as
can tell from what have read. our
atmosphere of this century Is min
Cling Of the two months Of May and
October of the nineteenth century.
And we believe what our escort says,
for us we pass on we find health glow
ing in every cheek. and beaming in
every eye. aud springing in every step,
and articuating in every utterance,
aud you and whisper to ench other as
our escort has his attention drawn to
some new sunrise upon the morning
sky, and we say. each to the other:
"Who would believe that this Is the
world we lived in over hundred years
ago? Look at those men and women
we pass on the road. How improved
the human race! Such beauty! Such
strength. Such gracefulness. Such
genlallty, Faces without the mark Of
one sorrow, Checks that seem never
to have been wet by one tear! A race
sublimated! A new world bornp'
But say to our escort: Did all this
) merely happen so? Are all the good
there spontaneously good? How did
you get the old shipwrecked world
afioat again. out of the breakers into
the smooth seas?" mo, no." responds
our twenty-flrst century escort. do
(Sou see those towers? Those are the
( towers of churches. towers of reforma-
tory institutions. towers of Christian
schools. Walk with me. and let us en-
ter some of these temples" We enter,
i and | find that.the music is IN the ma
jor key. and none Of 1t in the minor.
GLORIA in Excelsis" rising above "Glo-
ria in Excelsis." Tremolo stop In the
organ not so much used as the trumpet
stop. More of Ariel than of Naomi. More
chants than dirges.
But say to our twenty-frst century
escort: 81 cannot understand this.
Have these worshipers no sorrows, or
have they forgotten their sorrows?'
Our escort responds: "Sorrowsl Why,
they had sorrows more than you could
count. but by divine illumination
that the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries never enjoyed they under
stand the uses Of sorrow and are COM
forted with a supernatural coincidence
such as previous centuries never ey re-
rienced."
Prophecy FULFILLED.
ask again of the interpreter, Has
death been banished from the world p
The answer is. No: but people die
now only when the physical machinery
is worn out and they realize it is time
to go and that they are certainly and
without doubt going into world
where they will be infinitely better
off and are to live in mansion that
awaits their immediate occupancy"
But how was all this effected?" ask
our escort. Answer: by floods Of gos-
pei power You who lived In the
nineteenth century never saw re-
vival of religion to be compared with
what occurred in the latter part Of the
twentieth and the early part Of the
twenty-first century. The prophecy
has been fulfilled that a nation shall
be born In day'-that is. 100000
or 10000. 900 or 4O.0000O0 people con-
verted in "a hours.
AS you and see in this terrestrial
visitation of the coming centuries that
the church has. under God. accom-
Dlished SO much. we ask our escorts the
spirit of the twentytrst century. to
show us the different kinds of
churches So we are taken in and out
of the churches Of different denomina-
tions. and we find that they are just
as different in the twenty-6rst century
SIS they were different in the nine
teenth. when we worshiped in them.
There is unity in them as to the great
essentials of salvation. But we enter
the Baptist church. and it Is baptismal
| day. and we see the candidates for
| membership immersed. And we go
into Presbyterian church and see a
group of parents around the baptismal
font holding up their children for the
christening. And we enter the Episco-
nal church and hear the solemn roll of
her lturgies. and her ministers are
eowned and surpliced. And we enter
the Lutheran church, and we hear IN
the sermon preached the doctrines Of
the greatest of German reformers. And
we 20 into the Methodist church just
In time to sit down at love feast and
give audible Amen" when the service
stirs US. At least so kinds of churches
In the twenty-frst century, as there
were $50 different kinds of churches
| n, 4bo pipotoonth cnntiiry