Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1901-06-01
NUMBER AZ.

~ Qle.
But If our character and behavior
as a nation are reversed ard good NOR
ais give place to loose living and God
is put away from our hearts. and our
schools and our homes and our people
and our literature be debauched. and
anarchism and atheism have full sway,
and our American Sabbath becomes
Partisan Sabbath. and Infamous
laws get place on our statute
books, end the marriage relation be-
comes a joke instead Of a sanctity,
and the God to whom Columbus pray
ed to ON the day of his landing
from stormy seas and whom Benjamin
Franklin publicly reyerenced when be
moved. amid derisive cries. the regular
opening OF the American congress with
prayer, shall In our national future be
insulted and blasphemed.s then 1t WIN
not be long before we viii need another
Edward GAbbon to write the decline
and fall OF. the United States republic,
and II will not be another case OF de-
struction by the .Goths. and Huns sand
Tartars and Tamerlanes and Attilas
or foreign opposition and bate, but Il
will be case OF world astounding na-
tional suicide.
Invisible Scales.
The wish OF this sermon Is to empha-
size the invisible. to show that there
are other balances besides those made
of brass and platinum and aluminium
and set in earthly storehouses; that the
spirit is the most important part Of us;
that the scales which weigh your body
are not as important as the scales
which weigh your SOUL Depend not
too much for happiness upon the yisi-
BILE. Pyrrhus was king and had large
dominion, but was determined to make
war against the Romans. and Cineas,
the friend OF the king. said to him,
"Sir, when you have conquered them
what will you do nextT Then Sicily
is near at hand and easy to MASTER"
"And what when you have conquered
SicilyY "Then we will pass over to
Africa and take Carthage, which can
not long withstand u.s." when these
are conquered. what will you next at
temptY "Then we will fall in upon
Greece and Macedonia and recover
what we have lost there" swell. when
all are subdued what fruit do you ex-
pect from all your victoriesY "rhen,"
said the king. I'VE will sit down and
enjoy ourselves" "Sir." said Cineas.
may we not do 1t now? Have you not
already a kingdom Of your own? And
he that cannot enjoy himself with
kingdom cannot with the whole world"
/ say to you who love the Lord the
kingdom is within you. Make more OF
the invisible conquests; study a peace
which the world has no bushel to meas
ure, no steelyards to weigh. AS far as
possible we should make our balances
like to the divine balances.
Regeneration.
What a world this will be when II Is
weighed after Its regeneration shall
have taken place! Scientists now guess
at the number of tons our world
weighs. and they put the Apennlnes
and the Sierra Nevadas and Chimbo-
razo and the Hlmalayas In the scales,
but II weighed as to its morals at the
present time in the royal balance the
heaviest things would be the wars, the
international hatreds. the crimes noun
tain high. the moral disasters that stag
ger the hemispheres on their way
through immensity. But when the gos-
pei has gardenized the earth, as 1t will
yet gardenlze It. and the atmosphere
shall be universal balm. and the soil
shall produce universal harvest and
frutage. and the last cavalry horse
shall be unsaddled, and the last gun
carriage unwheeled. and the last for
tress turned into a museum to show
nations IN peace what a horrid thing
war once was, then the world will be
weighed, and as the opposite side OF
the scales lifts as though II was light
as a feather the right side Of the scales
will come down. weighing more than
all else those tremendous values that
st. Peter enumerated = faith. virtue.
knowledge, temperance. patience, god
illness. brotherly kindness, charity.
God forbid that II should ever be
written concerning us as individuals or
communities or nations, as 1t was writ
ten on the wall of BelshaZZar's BAN
quoting hall the hour when Daniel i'm
peached the monarch and translated
the fiery words which blanched the
cheeks of the revelers and made them
drop their chalices brimming with
wine, Thou art weighed In the bal
ances and found wanting"
copyright. 1901, by Louis Klopsch. N. ~