Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1907-10-19


German kaiser. On its peace footing
Germany has today an army of nearly
n million men. Then it has two great
reserve corps. the landwehr and the
landsturm. That means that every
ablebodied man in the German empire
is part of the nucleus of regiment.
Each man has his place At the ma
tional call TO arms all the men from
the farm. the counter and the Office
repair to their mobiizing stations.
There the uniforms and the guns await
them Each horse and saddle In the
empire is numbered And at a given
signal every ablebodied man from
twenty to sixty can be swung to the
frontier for defensive or offensive pur-
poses But the gospel army is larger
than that of the combined armies Of
tie German empire
The Gcspe' Army.
The gospel army is not limited to
any one nation II Is not restricted, as
other armies are to one sex 1t Is not
decreased by the limitation of age. Old
men belong to it. Children belong to
lt Husbands and wives and brothers
and sisters belong to it. White and
red and black and yellow skinned
races. all belong to it. This army is
made I'D OF all kinds of people Of all
| churches. And yet, strange to say,
/ there are some mistaken men and wo-
men who think the gospel church Is
not an army at all. They suppose 1t Is
mere aggregation Of few corporal
! guards" whereas 1t is numerically
| greater than all the combined armies
Of England and Germany and France
| and Italy and Austria and Russia and
, Japan and China put together. II we
could only get all Christians to form
into line and march side by side and
keep step the pounding Of their united
feet would make this old earth trem-
bic. Great. Great Infinitely great Is
the gospel army!
| That the host is mighty one is dem
| onstrated by the marvellous statistics
| of missions both home and foreign 1t
was only a few years ago comparative
lv that William Carey died. He died in
1894. Yet up to his time but little was be-
ing done for the salvation Of the outside
world. 1t was only in the beginning of
the last century that five humble stu
dents met behind a haystack in Will
Jamestown. Mass, to form the Amerl-
can Foreign Missionary society. YET
there are today 2S,3S6 mission stations
in heather lands. There are organized
thousands of churches among the ma
tions groping about in idol worship.
And there Is not a strategic point ID
any island or upon any continent which
today has not gospel missionary
preaching there.
Study today your muster rolls or the
| Christian Endeavor societies and your
Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip
and your EpwOrth league. Study TO-
day your enrolment of denominational
churches. How the number swells
Larger and larger 1t grows. Like st
John In his vision Of the other world
we can cry as we see this gospel army
marching. After this | beheld, and
10. a great multitude that no man
could number. of all nations and kin
dreds and peoples and tongues, stood
before the throne and before the Lamb
clothed with white robes and palms IL
their hands. and cried with loud
voice, saying, Salvation to our Lore
| which sitteth upon the throne and unto
the Lamb" The first great fact whicf
ought to impress us as to the churcf
army Of Jesus Christ Is the INFINITE
numbers of its marching soldiers.
An Army With Banners.
Next to the vastness of this army OF
the church of God | am impressed
with the banners which are futterinl
over it. You know that what the mill
tary uniform is to the soldier as an In
dividual the flag or banner is to The
army as a whole. It Is the sign Dl
which the soldiers of one nation arr
distinguished from the soldiers OF an
other nation. Because our own De
, loved American flag represents 81
much you always find 1t the most non
ored emblem in the camp or IN tn'
, field. was never more impressed
with this fact than some time ago
when went to the Preside, or arm!
quarter of San Francisco. went Their
with a very important message to tn
commandant of the post, Colonel Lun
, deem, from the commanding general o
r the coast, Lieutenant General MacAr
, thur. Suddenly, while | was talking
, TO the colonel. the sunset gun was tre'
and the post flag began to dutter down
: At once Colonel Lundeen stopped talk
, ing TO me and faced about and stoo'
at attention before those falling colors
, Not one word would he speak until IN
: ceremony of lowering the flag wa
\ ended.
The flag, the American flag, mean
. so much. 1t is the protecting embleu
t Of our national government. In tim
a of battle it is the great rallying poln
for our soldiers. Where the flag goe
/. our soldiers always follow. When tn
!. flag goes down confusion relgns; henc
one of the most dangerous yet mos
j. honored posts in the army Is that OF
t color guardsman. SO precious are tn
d regimental colors that they are Away
e surrounded by the best and the braves
soldiers when the regiment Is In tn
field.
Now, it is appropriate for the gosp'
!. army to have flag like any other a
n nv. What kind Of banner Is foatln
= over this great army Of the church
There is only one flag, and that Is To
banner Of the cross. Whatever you d'
u wherever you go, there in the gosp'
r army you can always find the one bal
e ner of the cross. AS in other organize
5. armies. there are in the gospel force
It different regiments, which are ca
e ed denominations. There Is the Epl
IS copalian regiment, the Baptist reg
4lo Drochvtarian regiment II