Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1908-02-15

from the curse of slavery. But today
the southern people are helping the
northern states to get rid of even
greater curse. They are setting us an
example that deserves our imitation.
They are showing us how to get rid
of O curse that is enslaving the souls
of thousands of our citizens. When
the north sees the south prospering
without the saloon, growing In affiu-
ence and happiness, 1t, too, VIII awaK-
en-, and one community after another
will declare for abolition OF the traf-
fic until we become a sober as well
as free people There are to come
constitutional amendments In REFER
ence to our divorce laws and consti-
tutional amendments in reference to
our interstate businesses. Gradually
and yet surely the work of constitution.
al development is going to continue as
Il has in the past under divine guild
ance been continued. Moses did his
difficult work well and faithfully.
| Joshua succeeded him and completed
! II. Thus God bids us to complete the
/ work which our ancestors have begun
I'm the constitution of the United States,
as our children and chlldren's children
must continue our work after we are
gone.
| a Nation Under Protection.
| Oh. that we would plead as much for
| the divine protection in the develop
| ment of our government as our ances-
tors pleaded for that grace before we
were born! We cannot in too many
ways honor that divine guidance. Some
time ago the president Of the United
States had stricken off one of our ma
tional coins the famous motto first put
there by Salmon p. Chase-"ln God
| We Trust" Our president Is deyout
man whose motives are above suspi-
cion. He removed the words, he ex-
planned, because they were made sub
iect of ridlcule But many of us re-
gret the act. The motto was appro-
nrlate for q nation with such history
as ours. AS looked at those words
I could see. the Mayfower pilgrims
crossing the Atlantic to Plymouth rock.
could picture the strange and won
derful movements which led up to the
Revolutionary war. | could see our
forefathers standing with the Declara-
tion OF independence IN one hand and
with the constitution Of the United
States in the other could see Wash
lngton on his knees at Valley Forge,
and John Marshall and Alexander
Hamilton doing their work, and Thom-
as Jefferson and Livingston and Mar
Gus Whitman doing their work, and
Abraham Lincoln on his knees in the
White House. Each generation had a
work for a Moses to do. May we as
true patriotic Joshuas trust him and
continue to trust him In our hearts and
lives though the words "ln God we
Trustn be obliterated from every coin
turned out from our national mints'
Cod has blessed our national life In
the past. "And Joshua left nothing
undone of all that the Lord command
ed Moses"
But when thinking Of the great law
givers of our political life my mind
naturally rrned to the great leaders
- our tn ',gicsl life Some of you
Va 'oe1 cAr Fs-ss. s---r - -s-A -
know that 1t has been asserted that the
form OF the United States government
was copied from the form of the Pres
byteran church Of old Scotland. James
G. Blaine in one of his speeches claim
ed this fact to be true; but. whether 1t
is true or not, one fact is certain-no
temporal government is better than the
prevailing spiritual creed. II q people
have a cruel, a malformed, q bestial
idea Of divine truth, the government
Of that people Is sure to be debased
government. and there Is no exception
TO the rule, so back Of the movers Of
the amendments Of the constitution OF
the United States, back of the signers
of the Declaration Of Independence,
back of Samuel Adams and Harrison
Gray Otis. we must find our John Eli
OTIS. and Roger Williamses, and La
sales, and John Knoxes, and Latlmers,
and Ridleys, and Luthers, and Calyins,
and Savonarolas, and all who have
tried to represent God to the world as
a God of love. You could no more have
Plymouth rock without Marston Moor
or the Declaration of independence
without Bannockburn than you could
have a physical body move and eat and
drink and walk without breath in the
nostrils. Our temporal governments
are only the echoes of our spiritual be-
liefs. The church or the mosque or
the temple always stands above the
legislative hall more potent than the
throne room, and there is no exception
to the rule.
A Broader Catholicity.
AS the mighty lawgivers Of religious
reformation have done their work.
have they not left US some Of their
unfinished labor to complete? Shall
we not today get a broader catholicity,
a wider sweep Of Christ's true purposei
What is the use of having all these diff
ferent Christian denominations, work.
ing In many senses against each other,
instead Of all the different members OF
the different Protestant churches WOE
shibing Side by side7 "Do you know
why gospel missions have made such
wonderful progress in Egypt| asked
Rev. DR.. Smlthers In my presence
short time ago. 1T Is because the
| United Presbyterian church has prac
tically the whole Christian work OF
that country. And if could would al
lot to each sectarian church a country.
would give China to the Methodists'
India to the Congregationalists, Syria
to the Lutherans. Japan to the Episco
palians. And when one Christian de.
| nomination enters country | would
make the other Christian denominations
.f.<.1c 10 lanf