Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1904-02-27

SHOWS. Jack London, the writer, with
q master hand traces him from great,
big, loving house dog down and down
until he is dog thief among dog
thieves. He traces his degeneracy down
and down until at last the bayings OF
the wolves call him into the darkness
of the northern forests, and 'the call Of
the wild" is answered by "the response
Of the wild"
obey the Divine Command.
Is not society's call too often "the
call of the wild? In the social world
when you give a banquet do you not
for the most part ask only those In
your own social set? Do you obey the
divine command, when thou makest
a dinner or q supper call not thy
friends nor thy brethren, neither thy
kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors, lest
they also bid thee again and recon-
pense be made thee. But when thou
makest q feast call the poor, the
manned, the lame, the blind, and thou
shalt be blessed, for they cannot rec
ompense thee, but thou shalt be recon-
pensed at the resurrection Of the just" !"
Is not society's call often "the call OF
the wild" because 1t is a call to selfish
ness. the call of only doing good to
them who do good to you? Is 1t not
often the call merely Of wealth to asso-
ciate with wealth and social caste with
social caste? Oh, ye worshipers at the
social shrlnes, better heed today the
Lenten CALI Better snuff out the many
lights Of the bathrooms and the ban
quet halls Know ye not that during
the Spring fast" the lowly Nazarene Is
knocking at the door of your hearts
trying to get in2
'Tis true we cannot reach Christ's for
tieth day,
Yet to go part Of that religious way
Is better than no deed
Neither ought other mems abuse OF Lent
Spoil the good use, lest by that argument
We forfeit all our creed.
The Lenten Call.
The Episcopalian Lent, in the next
place, is a protest against business abb
sorption. 1t says to the merchant, the
manufacturer and the professional
man: "You have a right to work. In
deed. you must work and work hard If
you are to support your family and
meet the financial necessities which
are yours. But, o man, you have no
right to make the acquisition of money
the chief object Of your life any more
than you have right to live to eat.
by the sweat Of thy face shalt thou
eat bread But that sweat should not
make thee Indifferent to God or to the
higher purposes of life, FOR which thou
vert created"
But the great danger Of money max
ing is that the acquisition Of wealth
may become a passion. The calls or
the money market become so great and
urgent that an average business man
does not feel that he has time to stop
and think about his relations to God.
Amid the whlrl Of business activities he
feels a great deal as did Oliver Wen
dell Holmes during his trip through
England. He said he went so fast he
had time "to talk with lots Of people,
but he had time to have true conyer-
sation with none" BY that the poet
Holmes meant that he had time to drop
here q word and there word, but he
went through Europe so quickly ne
had no time to exchange heart to heart
thoughts with great thinkers, as he did
with Max Muller when he lay in his
house sick for nearly a week. But,
though the business world would de-
mand all of a mans energies, the
Lenten season comes into busy mer-
chants life and says, 20 man, you
should never be too busy to take time
to think OF your responsibilities to
God! So the Episcopalian Lent sends
its best men straight into the very
heart Of Wall street. In old Trinity
church in the busiest part OF the day
during the Lenten season we hear the
Christian preachers voice calling, as do
the Mohammedan priests from the
mlnarets of the eastern mosques: 20
/ business men, come to prayersl Come
| to prayers! o ye business men, come
to prayers, come to prayers, come to
prayers!"
A Plea For Higher Life.