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

conduct serious self examination. The
call TO a fast should reach the ear Of
every Christian. What does that meanf
Shall our wives and mothers and sis
ters go to the grocer and the butcher
and the baker and say, 1--WE do not
want any more meat or vegetables or
bread for the next forty days" Does
It mean that all the members Of home
shall 20 without physical nutrition, as
DIR. Tanner tasted for forty days and
Leonard Thress tasted for fifty days
and Rev. G. H. Dalrymple tasted for
thirty-nine days and Milton Rathburn
tasted for thirty-six days and Estella
F. Kuenzel tasted for forty-one days?
Oh, no. The habit Of fasting. inspired
by boastful folly and the desire of see
ing how long we can live without tast'
ing food, is just as sinful as the oppo-
site extreme Of gluttony, to see how
much one can eat without utterly de-
stroying the smooth workings Of the di-
gestiye organs.
Spiritual housecleaning does not
mean the complete abstinence from
physical food. 1t does mean emphatic
ally the reconsecration and the rededi-
cation Of the domestic fireside to Jesus
Christ through self abnegatlon. 1t
means that we shall have prayers at
the cradle. 1t means that we shall
have prayers in the bedroom and pray
ers in the parlor and prayers in the sit
ting room and prayers in the kitchen
and have the dining room spread with
q gospel banquet Of the bread Of life"
If next week you were to entertain the
king of England or the emperor OF Ger
many, you would turn your home up
side down to make it attractive for the
advent of his majesty. Shall we not in
the same way, by spiritual houseclean-
ing, prepare for the entertainment OF
our Heavenly King by casting out Of
doors all sinful thoughts and desires
which find lodgment in our hearts?
Preparations For Christ.
The Lenten season in the home means
simply the spiritual preparation for
Christ to visit the home. When Mar
tin Farduhar Tupper, the famous Eng
lish poet, came to visit US in Brooklyn
we gave to him the very best room in
the house. We gathered together the
most famous literary men of the city
to meet him. At that party Horace
Greeley came, and William Cullen
Bryant came and read his "Thanatop-
Sis" and George William Curtis came,
and / think John G. Whittier came. l
well remember my mother giving to
me Tupper's popular book, "Proverbial
Philosophy" and saying: Read that
book. You should know who Martin
Farquhar Tupper Ia before he comes,
and then you can honor him as he
should be honored." In like manner
the Lenten season in the home is an
appropriate time for the spiritual prep
aratiOn for Christ's coming to the
home. The children should be told all
about him and be prepared to welcome
the Saviour as a friend. The cook and
the chambermaid should be told all
about him, so that they may know how
Chri ( loved Martha, the busy cook, as
,y~!fass tho pentle Mary who sat at his
feet. Home friends should be told all
about him, so that they also may come
in and honor the divine guest. AS we
in the Brooklyn home read and reread
the writings Of the English poet in or
der to know what his thoughts might
be, so to prepare for the advent Of
Christ in the home we should read and
reread the words which he spoke unto
his disciples of old. We should prepare
to greet Christ not as O stranger, but
as q long loved and anxiously awaited
friend
For Better Church Life.
The Lenten season is an annual plea
for the spiritualization Of the church
Ministers Of the different Protestant
churches are more and more getting
into the custom of going into re
treat at least once year, where by
fasting and prayer they may spiritual
| IL prepare themselves for their &C.
clesiastical ministrations. At least
once a year as church members we
should 60 into a spiritual retreat"
In that retreat" we should call upon
our Heavenly Father that the Holy
Spirit may bless US In our relation
ship with our midweek prayer meet
ings and Sunday schools and Christian
Endeavor societies and bless us In our
relationship to his great church at
large.
After Jesus Christ drove the money
changers out Of the temple, were the
attempts to secularize the house Of
God into a place for mere educational
and literary and musical and social
and financial enjoyment forever aban-
donedi Do not some Of US, conscious
ly and unconsciously, fall into the er-
ror of coming to church merely on ac-
I count of the oratorical gifts Of the
preacher2 Did not thousands upon
thousands Of worshipsrs sit at the feet
of a Beecher, a Cumming, a Rowland
Hill and q John Wesley, not because
tuey were WOleulpluB OOut OuI iothei
because they were worshiping bril-
liant man? Do not thousands upon
thousands of people go to the great
cathedrals of Europe In order to hear
the music, just as those same musical
lovers would sit at the feet of Liszt,
q Paderewsk or a Damrosch?
We know that the finest living mu-
sical composer of Italy leads the Vati-
can choir and the finest organist OF all
London is master of st. Paurs famous
organ and that Plymouth church was
not more noted for the fact that 1t had
one of the greatest Of preachers than
that it had one Of the greatest OF mu-
sicians, who was able to make its or
gan pipes weep and sob as well as
sound a mighty hosanna. Are not some
Of our churches on account of their
wealth being more and more secular
| i1ad into morn aocial cluh92 Do not