Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1901-10-05

Yet oblivion does not remove or swal
low anything that had better not be re-
moved or swallowed. The old monster
Is welcome to his meal. This world
would long ago have been overcrowded
II not for the merciful removal Of ma
tions and generations. What IL all the
books had lived that were ever written
and printed and published? The libra
ries would by their lmmensity have
obstructed intelligence and made all re
search impossible. The fatal epidemic
of books was a merciful epidemic
Many of the state and national libra
ries today are only morgues, In which
dead books are waiting for some one to
come and recognize them. What II al
the people that had been born were
still alive? We would have been ell
bowed by our ancestors Of ten centuries
ago, and people who ought to have said
| their last word three thousand years
ago would snarl at US, saying, what
are you doing hereT There would have
been no room to turn around. Some
of the past generations Of mankind
were not worth remembering. The first
useful thing that many people did was
to die; their cradle misfortune and
their grave boon.
In all the Pantheon the weakest god
dess Is Clio, the goddess of history, and
instead Of being represented by sculp'
tors as holding scroll might better be
represented as limping on crutches.
Faithful history Is the saving of a few
things out of more things lost. The
immortality that comes from pomp Oh
obsequies or granite shaft or building
named after Its founder or page Of
recognition In some encyclopedia is an
immortality unworthy Of ones ambi-
ton, for it Will cease and is no immor-
tality at all. Oblivion! A hundred
years. But while / recognize this uni
yersal submergence Of things earthly,
who wants to be forgotten? Not one
of us. Absent for a few weeks or
months from home, II cheers us to
know that we are remembered there.
1t Is a phrase we have all pronounced,
II hope you missed me-" Meeting some
friends from whom we have been part
ed many years we inquire, did you
ever see me beforeT And they say,
YES" and call us by name, and we
feel delightful sensation thrilling
through their hand into our hand and
running up from elbow to shoulder and
then parting the one current of delight
ascending to the brow and the other
descending to the foot, moving round
and round in concentric circles until
every nerve and muscle and capacity
of body and mind and soul is permeat-
ed with delight.
Good Lives Forever.
Now, I have to tell you that this OBJ
livion Of which / have spoken has its
defeats, and there Is no more reason
why we should not be distinctly and
vividly and gloriously remembered five
hundred million billion trillion quadril-
lion quIntilllon years from now than
that we SHOULD be remembered six
weeks. l am going to tell you how the
thing can be done and will be done.
We may build this everlasting re-
membrance," as my text styles it, into
the supernal existence of those to
whom we do kindnesses In this world.
You must remember that this infrm
and treacherous faculty which we now
call memory Is in the future state to be
complete and perfect Everlasting re-
membrancew Nothing will slip the
stout grip Of that celestial faculty. Did
you help a widow pay her rent? Did
you find for that man released from
prison a place to get honest work! Did
you pick up child, fallen on the curb
stone, and by stick Of candy put iu
his hand stop the hurt on his scratched
knee? Did you assure business man,
swamped by the stringency OF the
money market, that times would after
awhile be better? Did you lead Mag
dalen Of the street into a midnight mis-
sion, where the Lord said to her: Mel
ther do I condemn thee. Go and sin
no moreT Did you tell a man, clear
discouraged In his waywardness and
hopeless and plotting suicide, that for
him was nearby laver, In which he
might wash and coronet Of eternal
blessedness he might wear?
What are epltaphs in graveyards,
what are eulogiums in presence OF
those whose breath is In their nostrils,
what are unread biographies in the al
coyes of a city library, compared with
the imperishable records you have made
In the illumined memories Of those to
whom you did such klndnesses? For
get them? They cannot forget them.
Notwithstanding all their might and
splendor, there are some things the glo-
rifled Of heaven cannot do, and this Is
one of them. They cannot forget an
earthly kindness done. They have no
cutlass to part that cable. They have
no strength to hurl into oblivion that
benefaction. Has Paul forgotten the
inhabitants of Malta, who extended the
island hospitality when he and others
WIFI UllD udu lett uuuSu W a OhaP
wreck, the drenching rain and the sharp
cold? Has the victim Of the highway
man on the road to Jericho forgotten
the good Samaritan with medicament
of oil and wine and a free ride to the
hostelry2 Have the English soldiers
who went up to God from the Crimean
battlefelds forgotten Florence Nightin-
gale? Through all eternity will the
northern and southern soldiers forget
the northern and southern women who
to the dying boys in blue
and gray after the awful fights in Ten
nessee and Pennsylvania and Virginia
and Georgia, which turned every house
and barn and shed into hospital and
.ncarnadined the Susquehanna and the
James and the Chattahoochee and the
Savannah with brave blood? The kind
nesses you do to others will stand as
long in the appreciation Of others as
the gates of heaven will stand, as the
"house of many mansions" will stand,
as long as the throne Of God will stand.