Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1906-10-20

with incense waving 1owers, and their
wheatfields with their ripened grain.
making the valleys look like a banquet
hall of gold. and the blue heavens un'
blackened by one dark cloud. The sun
for them would send forth never
ceasing radiance. "Oh, why should we
have the rain? they cry. why do
the December winds come to make our
teeth chatter and our blood to freezer
Why do we have the spring freshets
wash out our roads and sweep away
our country bridges? Why all this dis
order and confusion In the natural
world? No man can worship God In
drizzling fog or be truly happy when
he has to hug n fire In house whiCh
has to be hermetlcally sealed to keep
out the winters biting blasts" Thus
we hear the weather pessimists com
plain when the country roads are i'm
! passable with snowdrifts, and the Ice
has to be broken in the drinking
troughs. and the twinkling stars are
snuffed out by the black robes or
shrieking tornado, and midnoon by an
eclipse of the sun is changed into the
darkness of midnight.
bad weather "A Blessing.
But I'm the light Of my text, are not
atmospheric disorders blessing? Are
not the frosts and the raindrops and
the soft white quilts of snow flung over
our lawns and the spring freshets bene-
factors instead Of curses? / enter the
silent American forests In January.
There find everything lifeless and
still. Here and there l may see the
track of a doe or wild rabbit. There
7 may hear once in awhile a squirrel
chatterng and scolding at me. But for
the most part the paths of the woods
are deserted and everything Is still. l
20 I'D to one of the grand old trees
and pat its sides and sympathetically
saw: "Poor fellow! How cold you must
be- How you must long again to be
dressed in your beautiful robes OF
green. How bitter you must feel at
these blizzards which chill you and
stop your sap from flowing, as tney
are now trying to CONCEAL my blood by
freezing it In my veins" But much
to my surprise, the old oak Is not salts
fed with my sympathy. mo, no,
manr' 1t answers sharply. "The frost
Is not my enemy, but my friend. II
comes to me as a lover and puts It's
white arms about me and says: Tree
want thee to live hundred years
I want thee to grow thousands upon
, thousands of leaves. But in order tc
do this | must husband thy strength
must give thee an annual rest.
!, must enrich the soil where thy roots
are buried. Trust me. Believe me.
am thy friend, for the deeper pile the
snowbanks about thy trunk the richel
the food thou shalt have to live upof
when the warm summer sun comes
= back from its journey on the other sid'
a of the equator and kisses thy cheeks
. The frost Is my friend and not my enc
my" When the tree speaks thus, In
. stead of condemning a winter blizzard
= 7 thank God for the winters cold a
a well as the summers heat.
IL The Necessity of Rain.
turn from the forests and enter IN
!. valleys. There find the corn and tn
q wheat a = the vegetables growing e'
4 Aafrrvlnara IL, is nnW July Instead C, Q
= without my heavy Doors auu me-,
tosb NV wife warned me that 1t mlgn
:. rain when l started out, but heeue
- NOT her advice. The dark clouds wer
even then gathering. Suddenly ther
- sounds a muttering Of thunder. Inc
Ir the lightnings fash and tree Is sna
- tored nv nv side. Then comes the raj
- falling in a perfect deluge. Ihe raj
y doos NOT matter much to me, because
- know that if | walk briskly and Kee
"a nv blood in circulation snail IN IN
"a catch cold. But the poor flowers! III
20 moor grain The poor corn. Ihey see
no to he almost human. They seem
bo hang their heads as though they DO u
". want the water to spatter into tne
os faces. Poor things, poor things!
bo GOV Rut almost instantly a migh
ne chorus of protest sounds from u
,Ir fields. 1--WE are not poor things, IN
in answer 1--WE are parched, and u
,ot has sent US this rain to quench o
nv thirst We are filthy, and God has Sc
os rs this shower bath to cleanse US
would die Of hunger, but God, by u
rain has swelled the brooks until th
od come leaping down the mountain slo
IN irrigate the valleys that our 10
'ot NAV be molstened so that our roofs c
no suck it up. God has sent us this atni
nheric disorder that we may gr'
W strong and feed q hungry world. 1
NM rain is just as essential to our liVes
-, -, the sunbeam" Wonderful and true
No sver that. When l tramped nome
t did not find fault with my wet g
op, ments. I knew that the rain, as tr
~ as the sunshine, was sent as mess
cer Of divine love. "Where no o.
are the crib is clean, but much
.as. crease IS by the strength Of the o
: DO YOU not grasp the sublime prov
g tor as applied to the physical or natr
,rv. life?
~ But we can have "a stagnating
80, mos in our mental life as well as
9r,, 9J our physical or lower entities:
IN, ~ H. man who physically basks under
summer sun, who never wishes 10
'a,r any manual labor, who always
a,, , down in preference to standing up
;; you III rides instead of walks; the man
am never takes any more active exer
!V than walking upstairs to his bed
% - who never feels the exhilaration
." a,. pedestrian expanding his chest aga
'Oua the beating winds, either become
.',ru ~ physical degenerate or is foollshly
'u.n = ing his own death warrant. On
es it other hand, the man who simply al
es it bis brain to lie fallow, who never