Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1902-06-14

tender, living, forgiving heart Of
Christ, make composite picture.
When you graduated from college, the
photographer made a composite pic
ture of your class. He took all the diff
ferent photographs of the members
and passed them rapidly before the
cameras eye. Then the various photo
graphs were combined in u single pic
ture, and that was called the class por-
trait. SO upon Christ's heart there is
q composite picture. That composite
portrait is made up Of your Christian
mothers and fathers faces, your
Christian wife's and child's faces; it
is made from the faces Of the Chris
tan men and women who have died
in the past and of those who are living
today. VIII you have your face in this
composite picture, which is inefface-
ably stamped upon the great heart Of
Christ?
Divine Love Not Blind.
But, sad to relate, after all Christ
has suffered and done for us, his face
may be a cOndemning face. The d.
vine love may be great enough to sur
pass all human understanding, yet the
divine love is not blind. The spirit Of
God will not always strive with man.
In Ezekiel we read, "My face will
turn also from them" Oh, the awful
moment when Christ's face, on account
of our unrepented sins, shall become
c0ndemning face! This is one charac-
teristic Of Christ which all unrepentant
sinners and some ministers preaching
in the sacred pulpits are trying not to
see. But if Jesus is not to have con-
demning face for the unrepentant sim
ner how can you account for the para
bic Of the shepherd separating the
sheep from the goats? There is going
to come day when Christ shall gath
er before the judgment seat of GOd ell
the nations Of the earth. Crash! crash!
crashl will go every tombstone. The
mausOleums shall rock and heaye as
the Philippian Jail trembled during the
night Of Paups and Silas' incarceration.
Every gate and sab door will fly open.
The tall cemetery shafts shall tumble
as did the walls Of Jericho ut the blast
of the rams horn. The bodies Of the
sailors sleeping by the coral reefs, the
emigrants who died when crossing the
prairie, the arctic explorers buried un-
der the snow and ice, the missionaries
who died upon the KOngO-they shall
all come up. The dead which slept un-
der the dome Of Tai Mahal and the
poor unknown patient who died in the
county hospital and whose body was
buried in pOtter's field shall come up.
The bodies Of the rich and the poor
alike, the black and the white, the Jew
and the gentile-they shall all come up.
Then Christ shall separate this multi
tude which is gathered before him as
shepherd separates his sheep from
the goats. Toward the sheep the Say
iour will turn a fOrgiving face, but
toward the goats he shall turn a con-
demning face when he says, Depart
from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire."
If Christ is not to have a cOndemning
face to those who have not repented
of their sins. how can you account for
the scene in the parable Of the ten vir-
gins? AS we read that parable we see
the five foolish virgins who had not
prepared for the BridegrOOm's coming
standing without and pounding upon
the door Of the banquet hall. We soon
hear them crying: Lord, Lord, open
unto us. But he answered and said,
Verify say unto you, know you not"
Two men shall be working in the fields;
the one shall be taken and the other |
left. Two women shall be grinding at |
the mill the one shall be taken and the |
other left. Two immOrtals shall be |
standing at the marriage altar; the
one shall be taken and the other left. |
Oh, my friends, beg and plead with |
you to look into the forgiying face Of |
Christ while it is yet time! Do not let |
the SaviOUr's face ever become to you |
\ condemning face.
When the apostate Julian was dying |
upon the field of battle, he looked up |
and saw the oyerhanging cross and the
face Of Jesus. Then he cried, Thou,
o Galilean, thou hast at last con-
queredw Shall we moi one and all be
by the face of Jesus Christ
not as the infdel was con-
quered. but conquered by the Christ
love; conquered by our making COM
plete surrender to him of our lives, con-
quered by having our faces as his dis
ciples engraved upon Christ's heart?
copyright. 1902. Louis Klopsch. N. VI