Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1906-04-14
NUMBER 40

watch, ana aInlu great HOSlS VI cdih"-
tions and bluebells and sweet yioletS
and ionqulls and tulips and orchids
and dahIias and asters and pansles ana
heliotropes and wistaria. You say TO
mo. 81 do not care whether there arc
oriental flowers or no. When l thlhk
Of the garden surrounding Christs
tomb | think Of the most beautltul OF
all flowers, and then l say JosephS
garden was like those flowers ana not
only like them, but far more beautiful
than they"
II Was a Wrecked Garden.
You are right my brother No gar
den Of the western hemisphere can DC
as beautiful as the garden Of the Pal
estine hills. where Christ was buried in
Joseph's tomb. But alas, you would
be- very much in error if you thought
this garden about Joseph's tomb was
beautiful when Mary Magdalene and
Mary. the mother of James, entered it
on that Easter morning. If you would
20 with these women there you would
( find the lilies and the roses and all the
other flowers trampled down. 1t was
once beautiful, but now it is a wrecked
garden. This beautiful garden looks
as though it had been uprooted by
herd Of swine or knocked down by a
netting hailstorm. What was the mat
ter? No sooner did this angel Of the
resurrection appear and Christ come
forth from the tomb than the Roman
soldiers fell down like dead men. Ihey
fell fat among the flowers. Then, as
soon as they recovered from thelr
swoon. they rose and in wild terror
fed Those flowers were torn from
their roots or crushed as though a herd
of stampeding cattle had jammed their
boofs into them. What lesson do we
therefore learn from these crushed
flowers lying around in the wrecked
garden surrounding the tomb Of Joseph
Of Arimathea? Why, this is the lesson:
If we can only bring our risen Lord IN
to touch with the intrenched armies Oh
sin he will scatter the Satanic hosts as
he made the Roman guard drop before
him in the sunrise burst Of that first
Easter morn. Oh, my friends, will this
not be your purpose, that Christ may
triumph over all the forces Of evil in
trenched in our city streets?
We can never rid this world Of sin
unless we make the risen Christ our
leader and companion. Almost every
where we turn, even among the beau
tiful flowers about the tomb Of the
dead Christ, we can hear the hiss OF
the serpent. the touch of whose fang
means eternal death unless the wound
is healed by divine medicament. Blsh-
Cd Meade relates how one day he was
out walking in a beautiful garden with
a young lady. ooh, bishop" she cried,
"look at that lovely fower." With that
she reached over to a bush heavily lad
en- with the most exquisite roses. She
reached far forward TO pluck the most
beautiful Of all, when suddenly out Oh
that bush there darted the fang or
snake and fastened itself upon her
arm. So in the world about US. Even
in the most beautiful of flower gardens
we find the Satanic serpents wriegling,
a twisting, kissing, as the Roman guard
as esieanped about tie tomb Of Jo-
seph of Arimathea from "black tri-
day' to Easter morn. Oh, my friends,
will YOU not strive to bring forth this
risen Christ and let him make sin un-
der the fash of his eye crouch and
trample and die?
A Beautiful Legend.
And. if it is important to let the risen
Christ come forth to scatter sin out OF
the hearts of the human race, how
much more important is it to let him
come in touch with our own hearts and
make us pure and true and good and
noble and Christianl There is a beau
tiful legend told that many years ago
a poor, blind pilgrim was journeylne
toward Jerusalem, the City Of Peace
, After he had been many days ana
weeks and months on his way he mel
another traveller going that way. This
stranger said, "Friend, submit thyseli
to me. and l will guide thee to the City
of Peace and give to thee whatsoever
tbou wilt ask" After the twain had
) iourneyed on for some days more, al
l last the pilgrim, utterly Wearied, turned
l and said. "Oh, good friend, thou who
z hast said that thou wilt do everything
I for me if 1 submit myself to thy viii
D omen for me my blind eyes, The
stranger said: Il will. Blind eyes, DC
: We openedr" Instantly the blind MAJ
opened his eyes, and he saw that h'
, had been walking along the edge Oh I
y precipice. And he saw that his guld'
was Jesus Christ.
. Lord Jesus. at this Eastertlde we ar'
pilgrims. We are jOurneying to TN
' New Jerusalem, the City Of Peace. W.
b are iourneying thither by the way o
. the garden. in the midst Of whicl
stands a rned tomb. We are blinded
nv sin. We are lost, and we want
= euide. O thou Christ, who didst ap
b near unto Mary Magdalene, come L
u our rescue. Open our blind eyes. Cr.
INTO us as thou didst to the sinful wo
man Of old: Thy sins are forglyel
S thee. Go in peace Grant US TIL
/ prayer. O Jesus! And may thy ange
a who spoke to Mary Magdalene an'
:! Mary, the mother Of James, speak I
J. us in thy name the glorious message o
o our sins forever pardoned and foreye
!, past!
rCopyright, 1906, by Louis Klopsch.l
D, Poor Fatherl