Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1901-01-05

Dttn hOHC 40 iiOot vi iS'Oiihoo ~
Thermopylp. as that OF Horatlus at the
bridge, as that Of Colin Campbell at
Balaklava. Tell them what Napoleon
said to his staff officer when that Off
Ger declared a certain military attempt
to be impossible. impossible" said
the great commander. impossible is
the adjective Of fools"
Show them also that what Is true In
worldly directions is more true In splr-
itual directions. Call the roll Of proph-
cts. apostles and martyrs and private
Christians from the time the world be-
gan and ask them to mention one man
or woman greatly good or useful who
was not deprecated and failed and
made a laughing stock. Racks and
prisons and whips and shlpwrecks and
axes of beheadment did their worst,
yet the heroes were more than conquer
ors. With such things you will Illus
trate that word courage" and they
will go out from your presence to start
anew and right, challenging all earth
and hell to the combat
Help the Fallen.
That word courage" fltly spoken
with compressed lips and stout grip Of
the hand and an intelligent flash Of the
eye-well, the finest apples that ever
thumped on the ground in an autumnal
orchard and were placed in the most
beautiful basket Of silver network be-
fore keen appetites could not be more
attractive.
Furthermore, q comforting word fitly
spoken is a beautiful thing. No one
but God could give the inventory OF
sick beds and bereft homes and broken
hearts. We ought not to let day pass
wlthoul a visit, or letter, or mes
sage, or a prayer consolatory. You
could call five minutes on your way to
the factory; you could leave a half
hour earlier in the afternoon and fill
mission of solace; you could brighten
a sickroom with one chrysanthemum;
you could put a postscript to letter
that would bring the joys of heaven to
a soul; you could send your carriage
and give an afternoon airing to an In
valid on a neighboring street; you could
loan a book with some chapters most
adapted to some particular misfortune.
Go home today and make out list OF
things you can do that will show SYM
pathetic thoughtfulness for the hardly
bestead. How many dark places you
might illumine! How many tears you
could stop or. II already started. you
could wipe away! How much like Je-
sus Christ you might get to be! So
sympathetic was he with beggary, so
helpful was he for the fallen and so
stirred was he at the sight of dropsy,
epilepsy. paralysis and ophthalmia
that, whether he saw it by the road
side. or at the sea beach, or at the min
eral baths of Bethesda, he offered re-
lief. 4Cultlvate genuine sympathy,
Christlike sympathy. You cannot sue
cessfuily dramatize 1t. False sympa-
thy alexander Pope sketches in two
lines:
Re.,f her face her handkerchief she spread
1osgts the GOOD u tasrs she dIc not shed.
There are four or five words which
ftly spoken might soothe and emanci-
pate and rescue. Go to those from
whose homes Christ has taken to him
self n loved one and try the word re
union." not under wintry sky. but In
everlasting sprlngtide; not a land
where they can be struck with disease,
but where the inhabitant never says,
81 am SICK" not reunion that can be
followed by separation. but In a place
"from which they shall go no more out
forever" For emancipation and sigh
ing, immortal health. Reunion or II
YOU like the word better anticipation.
There is nothing left for them In this
world. Try them with heaven. With
q chapter from the great book open
one Of the II gates. Give them one
note Of seraphic harp, one flash from
the sea of glass, one clatter or the
hoofs of the horses on which vlctors
ride. That word reunion or anticipation
fifty spoken Well, no fruit heaped
I'D In silver baskets could equal It or
the 1000 kinds Of apples that have
blessed the world not one Is 80 mellow
or 80 rich or so aromatic, but we take
the suggestion Of the text and COM
pare that word Of comfort fitly spoken
to apples Of gold In baskets Of silver.
Sound the Alarm.
So also is a word of warning. A ship
may sail out Of harbor when the sea
has not so much as a ripple. but what
foolhardy ship company would they
be that made no provision for high
winds and wrathful seas. However
smoothly the voyage Of life may begin
we will get rough weather before we
harbor on the other side, and we need
ever and anon to save some one utter
ing in most decided tones the word
"Bewarep There are all the tempta-
tlons to make this life everything and
10 forget that an inch Of ground Is lar
ger as compared with our eternal exist
ence. There are all the temptations OF
the wine cup and the demijohn ms this
I or any other century has heard OF.
There are all the temptations OF prlue
and avarlce and base indulgence and
ungovernable temper. There Is no
word we all need oftener to hear than
the word beware"
The trouble Is that the warning word
Is apt to come too late. We allow our
friends to be overcome In fight with
some evil habit before we sound an
alarm. After a man Is all on fire with
evil habit your word Of warning Will
have no more effect than would an ad-
dress to a house on fire asking 1t to
stop burning, no more use than steam
tug going out to help ship after 1t has
sunk to the bottom Of the ocean. Wnat
use in word Of warning to that ineori-
ate whose wife was dying from
wounds inflicted by his own hand. AS
he held the hand Of his dying wife ne
| 41,fa rouy fsNTorv | will never