Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1906-04-28


afraid to antagonize them and those
men and women who are their power
full supporters.
The man who dares to attack sin
that is strongly intrenched is liable to
be assailed in character and person.
Ills friends come to him and say: Let
II alone. You will make enemies who
can ruin YOU" Have you never had
such advice given to you? If you have
not you have been all your life trim
mer," a hedger, a polite man. You
have not come forth boldly and de-
csively and attacked wrong wherever
YOU have seen it lift its hideous head.
In other words, you can be classed
among those moral towards whom
James Russell Lowell excorlated when
he said:
They are slaves who fear TO speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not cnooSe
Hatred, scoffing and abuse
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think.
In the right with two or three.
Are You HOnests
The world looks upon you as an hon
est man. Are you honest? | mean, IN
the higher sense Of the word, are you
honest with yourself? The city in
which you live is in a death grapple
with the saloon or, as is Los Angeles,
with an Infamous gambling corpora
ton. Dare you lift up your voice In
protest? "Oh, no." you answer; III l
did those men would boycott me, and
they are my customers. They buy lots
of goods at my store" In your silence
are you not before God committing a
secret sin? For years and years in our
northern states there were hundreds
upon hundreds Of ministers who were
afraid to speak upon the slavery ques-
ton. because if they did they knew
they would split their congregations IN
twain. When my father as a young
man was called to the city Of Philadel-
phia Just before the war the paddock OF
silence was upon many ministers lips
After my father had been there a few
weeks he preached an abolition sermon
That afternoon thirty of his most prom
| jnent families took their hymn books
out of their racks and walked out OF
the church and never came back. Tel
me. are you ready like that to attack
sin wherever you see it? Are you ready
TO denounce sin in high places or IN
low? Are you ready to defy the sin OF
your friends as we'll as the sin Of your
enemies, or are you going to be mum
bered among the "trimmers," the hedg
ers. the polite men, who dare not be
"in the right with two or threeT II
Won do thus. the world may say yor
are honest, but in the sight Of God yoJ
are guilty of a black, heinous secre
sin. You are guilty of the sin Of COW
ardice. the sin of not being an out anC
out disciple of Jesus Christ.
But we must not stop here. In this
catalogue Of secret sins we must name
the malformed offspring Of our minds
called "evil thoughts" By this name
do not mean those "evil thoughts
which some of us are willing to voice
in public, but l do mean those carna
thoughts. those licentlous thoughts
those revengeful and brutal thoughts
those debasing thoughts, which som
Of us at times, to a greater or less de
gree, are ready to foster and let Hy
in our hearts.
The Sin of Evil Thought.
When there are born into the nurser.
of the brain licentious thoughts, re
vengeful thoughts. brutal and accurseC
thoughts, thoughts which come to u
from reading bad books or going wit
improper companions, or evil thought
which come to us we know not from
whence. then we shield these thoughts
We are foolish enough to suppose tina
because the world does not know abou
them we are safe All, no, my friends
Though the world may not see a man
evil thoughts, yet God sees them. "An'
as a man thinketh in his heart so is b
in the sight Of Cod" For God shal
bring every work into judgment wit
every secret thing, whether it be goo
or whether it be evil" Beware hoy
YOU trihe with those bad thoughts
those evil thoughts BY the grace @
God crush them out of your life as yo
would mash the poisonous fang Of
deadly adder under your heel Go
will condemn you not for what 20
do. but also for what you think in tn
inmost recesses Of your mind.
God, make us pure in mind as well a
pure in deed,
But there are still two other classe
Of secret sins to which | would ca
your attention One Of them is tn
sin Of coyet0usness. The other Is th
sin of selfish Indifference to the mlser
and wants of others. Now, this sin
covetousness is such a repellent sin
Gods sight that he wrote a whole con
; mandment against it, This command
ment was not put in the words OF
general statement, but went into sp'
cifc detail. Let me read to you th
command as it was given to Moses o
a table Of stone: Thou shalt not cove
thy neighbOr's house, thou shalt nC
, covet thy nelghbOr's wife, nor his mai
, servant. nor his maidservant, nor b
, OK, nor his ass, nor anything that
thv neighbors" But, though God
; these vehement words has hurled h
, denunciations against coyetousnes
, yet there are many people who almo
every hour of every day Of their live
, are guilty Of this secret sin. The
? never walk along the streets or see
, fine home but they keep saying
r themselves. 81 wish | lived in hou'
, like that; wish could ride in a ca
riage like that; l wish might be aD
. to dress like that; | wish | might ha'
I q servant to wait upon me like that
And all their lives, instead of thankir
God for his mercies, some men ar
- women are in secret rebellion again
: God because he has not done as mu'