Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1908-02-22

Does 1t pay? Does II pay to be good =!
Does 1t pay to do right? And. my
friends, if it does pay to do right, how
great must be the remorse that comes
when q man realizes that by his own
sins, his own follies, his own evil
deeds, he has brought poverty and
misery upon himself and those he
loves?
You are not like man who has been
brought up in an irreligious home. You
know what the beauties and joys Of the
gospel life mean. You have seen this
happiness revealed In your fathers and
mothers lives. You have felt the JOY
of the gospel In your own life. If |
mistake not, some years ago you joined
the church. You have been a worker In
the Masters vineyard. Tell me, are
you going to put all that past JOY
away? Are you going to turn your
back upon the only life which you
know Is worth living? Are you going
today to grip hands with sin and then
endure the evfI results Of the sin you
have brought upon yourself and your
dear ones? Remember that the condi-
ton of the man who has once known
the Christian hope and has departed
from it is infinitely worse than that Of
the man who has never known 1t at all,
for then the specter of remorse points
her finger at you and says, "You have
brought this misery upon yourself. and
you alone are responsible" And Jesus
fndeth him in the temple and said
unto him: Behold, thou art made whole.
| Sin no more lest worse thing come
| upon thee"
But when the backslider relapses into
evil he does more than clasp hands with
sin. He not only seeks sin. but he
turns his back upon God and the good
people with whom he used to associate.
AS the pendulum swinging In one di-
rection gathers momentum and swings
| Just as far in the othe direction, so the
backslider when he goes astray is apt
to go further astray because he has
once been good. AS remorse gnaws at
| his heart, 80 lngratitude makes him go
just as far away from good associates
as he possibly can go.
A Protoges Ingratitude.
Here, for instance, is young fellow
whom you have made your protege
You felt you had the means and ought
| to help some one in life. SO this boy
| appealed to your sympathies, and you
| took him to your heart You educated
him and started him in business. You
pushed him rapidly forward. You
gave him an interest in the firm. You
loved him as a son. Time passed on.
Suddenly you awoke to an awful fact.
You found that this young man whom
you had loved had desecrated your
| home. You found that he had broken
every law Of justice and honor and
| truth. The meanest human cur that
ever crawled in slime could not be
more untrue to you than he has been.
What do you do? Do you upbraid him
and make him suffer the penalty Of
| the law? No. Like loving father,
your heart is broken. You would like
| to forgive him. You would even like
to give him another start. But he will
| not let you love him. He will flee
away from you. He will get just as
| far away as he can. Like Absalom Of
| old. all that he will do Is to associate
| with your enemies. And all that you
can do Is to go weeping to your bed
chamber as you cry, "Oh, my son Abb
salon, my son, my son Absalom!
Would God had died for theew Now,
my brother, is that the kind of ingrati-
tude you mean to show to God? Are
you about to drift into sin? Are you
going to turn your back upon Christ?
Are you ready to separate yourself
from those sweet Christian associa-
tions which contribute to our spiritual
| life? Remember this: No Christian
man ever flung himself into sin but
he proved himself an migrate and his
shame led him to get just as far away
from God and from his people as he
could go.
There is another fact which the
Christian must bear well in mind.
Though the gospel life grows sweeter
and purer and more triumphant the
longer a man lives it, yet the old scars
of sin remain indelible. And when a
| Christian backslides 1t is like the re-
lapse of an attack Of typhoid fever or
pneumonia. The relapse Is always more
| dangerous than the first attack. Then
the physical organism Is weakened.
Then the disease can the more easily
attack the vital parts. You and had
better beware. We ought never to let
those old wounds Of sin reopen. If
they are once allowed to bleed again
there will be a hemorrhage which Will
sap away our lives.
Struck In Same Place.
| You know there is an old proyerD
among the soldiers that in time of war
no two bullets ever struck twice in the
same place. But that Is not always
true. Dr. Ryan In his book entitled
Under the Red Crescent gives q
vivid account of the siege Of Kalafat.
The bullets were falling in a perfect
hurricane. Suddenly there came tum-
bling over the wall monster shell
and 1t crashed into the ground and
burst, tearing a great hole out Of the
earth as large as a house. A poor
frightened mother gathered her three
children about her and ran to this hole
for protection. But hardly had she set
tied herself there than there was heard
the singing Of another shell flying from
a gun two miles away, and 1t flung II
self into that hole and tore those foul
human beings into shreds. "Oh," yor
say, that was horrible; that was grew
some; that was overpowering% Yes, Il
was. 1t was tragic because 1t was sc
unusual for two shells to strike the
same place. But want to tell you thai
when Satan aims his guns for BON
bardment he has been hitting US In the
same way for the last twenty years
And, just as a prizefghter can keeE