Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1907-06-29

ties, and when I arrived at the post
Office l got my money as ] expected.
Now, that is the way we should honor
God. We should believe In him. We
should ask big things Of him. And
then we should 20 forth I'm simple
faith. expecting that he will answer
our prayers" No man ever spoke truer
words than these.
The more | pondered upon this part
Of my subject the more / remembered
that the greatest workers for Jesus
Christ have been men who had no
financial capital save their faith. They
lived in one sense up to the last cent Of
their income. They prayed for big
things, and then, having deliberately
and calmly made up their minds that
God wanted them to undertake big
things, they went ahead and built their
hospitals and started their reformatory
movements, and their money came
the wilderness came day by day to
feed the Israeltes when they were on
their way to the Promised Land. Some
time ago there came into my posses
sion book with this suggestive title,
"Tales Of Trust" 1t is written In the
anecdCtal style. There page after page
is ilIed with the answers men have re-
ceived to their prayers. AS / turned
these leaves over ! said to myself: III
all these stories are true, how negli-
gent have and other men been Of this
mighty powerl One fact | knOw-if all
the answers that God has sent to pray
or had been written down. II only the
instances IN which God came to the
financial help Of those who were doing
big things for him because they had
asked of him big things, I suppose that
even the world itself could not contain
the books that would be written"
Faith In Men.
But not in prayer alone is a brimful
gospel faith necessary. We must have
faith in the men and the women by
whom we are surrounded if we would
accomplish great things for his honor
and glory. We must believe that God
can enter into the hearts of our friends
and recreate them into mighty spir-
itual forces for good as he can enter
into our lives and make us mighty
spiritual agencies. Paul writes in one
of his epistles, 81 can do all things
through Christ, who strengtheneth me-"
Paul had a right to say that / have
right to say that about myself. And
| also have right to say that about
every man, woman and child with
whom | come in contact in daily life.
Now, there is no human power which
will more quickly make a man use
full servant Of Jesus Christ than the
divine faith which we have in our
brothers and sisters that through God
they can do all things.
But the great trouble with our at
tempt to reclaim men IS this: When
men and women start to do wrong,
when they begin to wander down into
the paths of sin, the world loses faith
in these sinners. When these sinners
try to come back to the straight paths
of purity and truth the world fights
them back and turns toward them the
cold shoulder Of indifference and doubt.
And after the world loses faith In
man, then the time is not far distant
when that man will lose faith in him
self, and then-God pity him! For,
with a jump, he will leap over the
precipice Of despair. Oh. faith, thou
mighty faith, thou faith by which Abel
sacrificed and Enoch walked and Abra-
ham went forth into an unknown land
to find an inheritance for his children;
oh. faith. thou mighty faith, by which
Joseph ruled and Moses led the chill
dren Of Israel forth from their Egyp-
tan bondage and with which Joshua
rocked down the Jericho walls; oh,
faith, thou mighty faith, with which
Peter and James and Mary Magdalene
bended the knee to worship Christ;
oh. faith, thou mighty, divine faith,
shall we not lay hold Of thee and
through the power Of the Holy Spirit
save our fallen fellow men for CODY
Mothers Are Faithful.
Did | say that all the world would
| lost It's faith in q man after a man has
sinned seven times seven? Yes, | said
| that. but | must make one exception.
There is always one human being who
will never lose faith in us when we
have done wrong, and that Is our
mother. That is the reason why the
| Christian mothers love Is the most
potent of all loves for the salvation or
a sinner. The mothers faith Will not
give her children up, and that Is the
reason why they win so many of their
wayward children for Christ The
warden Of one of our prominent state
penitentiaries a few years ago was
asked II the prisoners friends, as a
rule, continued to visit them. NO"
was the reply; "they are usually men
who have been scOurge and disgrace
to their families. 1t is relief to be rid
of them. Their friends, their wives
and even their children make one or
! two perfunctOry visits at first ana tnen
! give them up. In the course of year
or two they are forgotten by all, as If
they were in their cofiins, except by
their mothers. Their mothers always
come and keep coming and try to infu-
ence me IA their behalf. No matter
how black dyed in crime a rufiian may
be. his mother will know some good
point to tell me of him. She never
wholly loses her faith in him." Is not
that. O man. the history of our lives
When we did wrong, did not our moth
srs cling to us so closely that we could
not shake them OFF, And today Is not
one of the greatest powers by which
we may win men to the cross OF Iesus
Christ the mother faith In our hearts
Oh, that by the grace Of God we coulo
all have a mothers faith in those who
are treading the path Of sinl Would