Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1901-11-09

IL you i've Il ItW years lOuBcrs tucy
will call you the "old chap" What
are those rough words with which
your children are accosting you? They
are the echo of the very words you
used in the ear of your old father
forty years ago. What is that which
you are trying to chew, but find 1t
unmasticatable and your jaws ache
and you surrender the attempt? Per-
haps 1t may be the gristle which you
gave to your father for his breakfast
forty years ago.
A gentleman passing along the ave-
nue. saw son dragging his father into
the street by the hair of the head. The
gentleman, outraged at this brutal con-
duct, was about to punish the offender,
when the old man arose and said:
Don't hurt him. It's all right. Forty
years ago this morning I dragged out
my father by the hair Of his headr 1t
Is circle. Other sins may be adjourn
ed to the next world, but maltreatment
OK parents Is punished In this world.
That circle Is made quickly, very quick
ly. Oh, what a stupendous thought that
the good and the evil we start come
back to us! Do you know that the Judg-
ment day will be only the points at
which the circles join, the good and the
bad we have done coming back to us
unless divine Intervention hinder-com-
ing back to us with welcome Of delight
or curse of condemnation?
Gods Mighty Memory.
Oh, / would like to see Paul, the inva-
lid missionary. at, the moment when his
influence comes to full orb-his infu-
ence rolling out through Antioch,
through Cyprus, through Lystra,
through CorInth, through Athens,
through Asia, through Europe, through
America, through the first century,
through five centuries. through twenty
centuries, through earth, through heav-
en-, and at last the wave Of influence,
having made full circuit, strikes his
soul. Oh, then | would like to see him!
No one can tell the wide sweep OF the
circle Of Paurs influence save the one
who is seated on the circle Of the earth.
| should not like to see the counte-
nance Of Voltaire when his influence
comes to full orb. When the fatal hem
orrhage seized him at elghty-three years
of age, his influence did not cease. The
most brilliant man of his century, he
had used all his faculties for assaultiDg
Christianity, his bad influence widen
ing through France, widening out
through Germany, widening through all
Europe, widening through America,
widening through the 123 years that
have gone since he died, widening
through earth, widening through the
great future, until at last the accumu-
lated influence Of his baleful teachings
and dssolute life will beat against his
dismayed spirit, and at that moment
1t will be enough to make the black
hair of eternal darkness turn white
with horror. No one can tell how that
bad mans influence girdled the eartn
save the one who is seated on the circle
Of the earth-the Lord Almighty.
"Well, now," say some, this, In
some respects, is very glad theory
and in others a very sad one. We
would like to have the good we have
done come back TO us. but the thought
that all the sins we have ever commit
ted will come back to us fills US with
alright" My brother, | have to tell
you God can break that circle and VIII
do so at your call. can bring twenty
passages Of Scripture to prove that
when God, for Christs sake, forgives
a man the sins Of his past life never
come back. The wheel may roll on
and OH, but you take your position
behind the cross, and the wheel strikes
the cross and is shattered forever. The
sins fly off from the circle and fall at
right angles with complete oblivion.
ForgivenI Forgiven! The meanest
thing a man can do Is after some ditfi-
Guilty has been settled to bring it up
again, and God will not do anything
like that. Gods memory Is mighty
enough to hold all the events OF the
ages, but there Is one thing that Is
sure to slip his memory, one thing he
Is sure to forget, and that Is pardoned
transgression. How do | know itf l
will prove 1t. Their sins and their
iniaulties will I remember no more"
blessed Is he whose transgression Is
forgiven"
The Eternal Circle.
But do not make the mistake or
thinking that this doctrine Of the circle
stops with this life. 1t rolls on through
heaven. You might quote In opposi-
ton to me what st. John says about
the city of heaven. He says 1t "lieth
four square" That does seem to mill
tate against this idea Of circle. But
do you not know there Is many
square house that has family circle
facing each other and In a circle NOV
ing, and | can prove that this is 80 In
regard to heaven. st. John says, Il
heard the voice Of many angels round
about the throne and the beasts and
the elders" And again he says, Il
saw round about the throne four and
twenty seats" And again he says,
There was a rainbow round about the
throne"
The two former imply circle; the
last, either a circle or a semicircle. The
seats facing each other, the angels fac
ing each other, the men facing each
other. Heaven an amphitheater OF glo-
ry. Circumference Of patriarch and
prophet and apostle. circumference OF