Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1906-02-17
NUMBER 81

the purity Of the precious Stones uii VI
which implies that in heaven, when we
shine as the stars forever and ever, we
shall all keep our own lndiylduallueS
and have our distinctive Characters
tics Of light Yes, heaven is to be
place of infinite variety Of immortal
life. but though you and |, when we
reach heaven, will be different IN many
ways. there is one way which we snah
all be similar when we shine as tDe
Etars forever and ever. we snail al
shine with a supernatural light.
How do | know this? Why, also by
.he symbol of the stars. Let me e&-
olain. Now a star is not planet IKE
;be earth. 1t IS a self luminous BODY,
like the sun. 1t is a great furnace Id
the heavens. which goes on, year after
wear and century after century and
millennium after millennium, giving
forth its heat and light as our own.
SIN for millions Of years has been heat
ing and lighting our planet NOW
comes the practical question: what
fuel feeds those seemingly ineXhausu-
ble furnaces? 1t is absurd to suppose
that here and there a stray meteor
drawn into those awful masses OF neat
could keep up the supply and combus-
ton century after century ana Hllllen-
nium after millennium. Sir William
Thomson. the celebrated mathematician
and physicist, says that the sun WI
burn at least five or six million years
longer. When one estimates the fact
that the suns volume or bulk Is at
least 100000 times larger than the
earth he begins partly to realize the
enormous heat which this stars light is
giving forth. What causes all this lght
Of the star? "Oh," you answer, 81 can
not explain it upon any rational
grounds. Let US say it comes from
! Cod" Thus say we in reference TO that
spiritual light which shall make us
shine as the stars forever and ever.
Friend. no earthly light will make you
thus shine forever and ever. Have you
the spiritual light? Have you that light
which comes only from touching the
living Goals of the spirits fire? If you
have not that spiritual light within you,
will you let God put it there nowf
Their influence Lasting.
But there is still another fact to
which | want to call your attention to
these spiritual stars. Though they may
shine forever and ever in heaven, their
spiritual light will not be lost to earth
as long as this world lasts. My text
reads thus: "They that be wise shall
| shine as the brightness Of the hrma-
ment. and they that turn many to
Righteousness as the stars forever and
ever" Do you not see It? AS the i'm
mortal soul winner leaves this planet
he will not only shine in the other
world. but also in this world. NO"
saws some one, 81 do not see it," | viii
] explain it in the words of great as
tronomer. Listen: "SOme stars are so
distant that their beams may have oc-
cupied thousands Of years in journey
ing to the earth, yet these bodies, IL
suddenly an1ihilated, would still con-
Ltinue to shine upon US for thousands OF
years to come" SO there are great men
whose existence has long since termi-
mated. but the influence Of whose spirit
still irradiates our world. Milton,
Shakespeare and the great poets and
historians and philosophers though
gone from our sphere, still shine upon
it as stars of the first magnitude. II
our light for good or evil is to shine
and continue to shine after we have
gone into the eternities, how can we
neglect to make that light the spiritual
light it ought to be?
To show the length Of time the light
Of some of the stars would continue to
shine upon the earth after the star IT.
self was dead | would quote from an
address which DR.. Gill, the astronomer,
delivered before the Royal institute OF
London a few years ago. Among 9th
er things he said: so far as all existing
researches 60 Centauri is the nearest
Of the fixed stars. To get some idea OF
its distance we will imagine railroad
, reaching from the earth to that lumi-
nary. Travelling at the rate Of sixty
, miles per hour it would take 4S,663OOO
, years for the train to reach this nearest
star" 70 brain staggers under such
, a computation, but it is one still more
profound that the prophet makes when
, he tells us that the winner of souls
shall shine forever and ever. Our lights
q for good or evil will shine longer than
r even the farthermost star Of space
: whose light now touches TIKI earth.
They will shine on and Oh Us tne win
ners of souls. or their eyi. results will
. continue to be felt as the destroyers Of
, souls who will never reach heaven, be-
! cause we have been false beacons to
i those lost ones.
Would you not be a spiritual star,
y winning souls for Christ? Sir David
r Brewster gives an account Of a lost
n star. In the astronomical system to
= which our earth and sun belong there
is a certain comet which has gone as
tray. The astronomers can find no
trace of this vagrant comet. BY their
mathematical calculations this comet
has appeared at least thirteen times
since it was lost in 1770 But amid the
: spiritual stars which come to God in
= Chrst's name there shall be no lost
= stars. All shall shine forever and ever.
= Friend. would you not be one? Would
. You not turn many to Righteousness and
>, have their effulgence shine by your side
through all the eternitles. a star! A
= star! Thou canst be living, eternal
- spiritual star, shining forever for God.
g copyright, 1906 by Louis Klopsch.l
@ Death Warning.
It Oliver Wendell Holmes recorded MS
8 protest against the custom OF telling a