Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1899-04-15
N NUMBER 40

Just three years before that day my
mother had left him for the skies, and
he had been homesick to join her COM
pany. He was SO years of age Minis
tiers of the gospel came in to comfort
him. but he comforted them. How
wonderfully the words sounded out
from his dying pillow, 81 have been
young and now am old, yet have l
never seen the righteous forsaken or
his seed begging bread. They bathed
his brow and they bathed his hands and
they bathed his feet and they succeeded
in Frightening out the feet, but they
did not succeed in bathing open the
hand so it would stay open. They
bathed the hand open, but it came shut
They bathed it open again, but it came
shut. What was the matter with the
thumb and the fingers of that old hand?
All, it had so long touched the sword
of Christian conflict that "his hand
clave unto the sword. >
The Grip of Truth.
intend this sermon as a tonic. I
want you to hold the truth with in
eradicable grip. and l want you to
strike so hard for God that it will react
and while you take the sword the sword
will take you You notice that the Off
GERS of the northern army every year
assemble and you notice that the Off
GERS of the southern army every year
assemble Soldiers coming together are
very apt-to recount their experiences
o-1,o 10 q
der who pulls up his sleeve and says,
'.There; was wounded in that arm, :"
and shows the scar And another sol
der pulls down his collar and says
"There; was wounded on the neck. .
And another soldier says. 81 have had
no use of that limb since the gunsbot
fracture Oh, my friends, when the
battle of life is over and the resurrec-
tion has come and our bodies rise from
the dead, will we have on us any scars
showing our bravery for God? Christ
will be there all covered with scars.
Scars on the brow, scars on the hand,
scars on the feet, scars all over the heart
won in the battle of redemption. And
all heaven will sob aloud with emotion
as they look at those scars. Ignatius
will be there, and he will point out the
place where the tooth and paw of the
lion seized him in the Coliseum, and
John Huss will be there, and he will
show where the coal first scorched the
foot on that day when his spirit took
wing of fame from Constance M'Mil-
Ian and Campbell and Freeman, Amer
lean missionaries in India, will be
there-the men who with their wives
and children went down in the awful
massacre at Cawnpur, and they will
show where the daggers Of the sepoys
struck them. The Waldenses will be
there, and they will show where their
bones were broken on that day when
the Piedmontese soldiery pitched them
over the rocks And there will be those
there who took care of the sick and who
looked after the poor, and they will
have evidences of earthly exhaustion.
And Christ, with his SCARED hand wav-
ing over the SCARED multitude, will
say: "You suffered with me CT earth.
Now be glorifed with me in heaven.
And then the great organs of eternity
will take up the chant, and St. John
will play. "These are they who cane
out of great tribulation and had their
robes washed and made white in the
blood of the Lamb.
But what will your chagrin and mine .
be if it shall be told that day on the
streets of heaven that on earth we
shrank back from all toll and sacrifice
and hardship No scars to show the
heavenly soldiery Not so much as one
ridge on the palm of the hand to show
that Just once in all this battle for God
and the truth we grasped the sword so
firmly and struck so hard that the
sword and the hand stuck together and
the hand clave to the sword. Oh, my
Lord Jesus. rouse us to. thy service.
Thy saints in all this glorious war
Shall conquer, though they die.
They see the triumph from afar
And seize it with the eye.
When that illustrious day shall rise
And all thy armies shine
In robes Of victory through the skies,
The glory shall be thine