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Show ! Great Personages of the Bible ! Br ! REV. LEONARD A. BARRETT , Enoch OOAIJO pppi-ial trait of character stands out unique In every life. V'aiiiufi)n is niiii'inlen''J for lii.s yeu-fial.sliip yeu-fial.sliip In directing affairs 111 the formative period of our national life. Lincoln Is cliaracterizt'i as a man of ijnrunveniional siii'-ci-ily, a man who j would have died fr tin; Iruth. In the Held of literature, Kmw-nii will always be .';Hken of as an ifi'-ali.-t, Kobert Ilrini'iiin as a (heist, an I Tr!iii--"ii as i .lei.-,!. In (In- biography of tin- I;il;le, I'eter is knovwi as tin1 ro'k apn.-'tle, I'u ill as a missionary, anil .John as the ti.i'htathe 1 i si-ii !. In the (ihl Testament, Tes-tament, .Muses will hi.- thought of primarily pri-marily as Ihe law iver, anil .lusima Hie Irao'er at uhese command the sun j Has ri'i.ortisl to have sine:! Mill. I la- v i J was the puet, anil .Solomon the j v ! man. The i-haraeler of Iinuch is ! latere. iliiu', fur the reason tiiat we J know very llllli; al.oitt him. Large I lortions of history nr.! associateil Willi the n of oilier I ; 1 1 j I i t-; 1 1 characters, . hut n, so of Knoeli. Where he was horn, who his parents were, what profession pro-fession or railing he pursueil are unknown un-known to us. All we know of I his interesting in-teresting charaeter Is told in two sentences: sen-tences: "Ihiuch walked with Cod: ond lie was not fur Cod took him," Is the Old Testament staiement, and the i following is Ihe New Testament valu- j Hliiin of his lite: "Ly faith l.'noch was I Iriinslaled that lie should not .see death, and was not found, hecause Ood had translated him; for hel'ore his translation he had Mils testimony, that he pleased Cod." These two sentences, even though a very hrief biography, give us n good deal of in formal ion. It was no easy mutter for IOiioch to walk wilh find. The rial ion was .surrounded with the pagan practices of those who worshiped idolatrous gods. With an environment of this nature it took a nl ron,' conviction of mind ami determination deter-mination of heart to stand firm in his ; hellof. In spite of all the allurements ' of the surrounding paganism of his ciay, j'.nocti walked with God. lie was, therefore, a strong man with firm and unallerahle convictions. He must also have possessed a character sufficiently strong and virile to compel him to act true to those convictions and not pretend pre-tend to believe one thing and act as though he secretly believed another. The story is told of one who while worshiping In a beautiful temple saw vision of the Savior. The worshiper , desired to remain in the temple and continue indefinitely in his expression of praise and worship. He remembered, remem-bered, however, that not very faraway from the temple beautiful there was a large number of people who were very poor and sorely in need of boih food and shelter. While hesitating whether to go and minister to those poor people or remain at his worship wor-ship in the temple he seemed to have heard a voice saying to him: "Minis- tpP tn flincri In 1 , 1,1 uc-cu, leeo iiie ntingry, clulhe the naked, visit those in prison!" He feared to go away from the temple tem-ple lest when he returned the vision -of the Savior would be no longer there. At last he obeyed the voice which bade him go. ne went like a good Samaritan and did all he could i to alleviate the suffering of those in need. When he returned tn the temple tem-ple he was very conlieVnt the vision lie had seen would he gone. To his great astonishment he mnv the vNinn of Ihe Savior even r-wrp beautiful than before. As he 'ooked at the 1 vision he remarked: "And yon are I slid here." "Yes." was (he reply. "Iladst i thou remained I must have gone, be- cause thou didst go I hive remained." I Knoch was a man who possessed a ! deep faith and also n large capacity j for service. Otherwise it could never ! have been said of trin that "He j pleased Cod." We are also told that he was trans- j luted. While we do not know exactly ! how this occurred, it cu'lainiy was a direct evidence of Oivim favor and in'- ; dicalive of how much God thought of! lii m. j Old you ever study the epitaphs upon ! tombstones? Some of .iem are very' ridiculous and some are very serious. I One of these very ridiculous epitaphs i can bo seen in a very old cemetery. I I pen a tombstone is recorded tiU i name of the deceased, the date of his birth and death, and, n.-cording to the custom of many year ago. the cause ot his death was also engraved upon the stone, so that the eutire inscription ivad like this: John Smith hern died met his death bv having been kicked by a nm;?. t'lider this inscription was engraved the words-"V.ell words-"V.ell done thou good and faithful rvant." While soim are uninten-1 tionally very, ridiculous, othe-s are' very serious and beautiful ,;llt I where can we find the story of an en. t:-e life told ii- so short and simple ' '" 'lenient. "Knee!, walked with "'l" Cuizo'. needed eight volumes ot 1 pages-each to write the history of . l-i-ance. Irving femi.-, ,,,.lt he IUi;,K , two volumes of -l.,0 pages each to write He.- biography of Washington The biographies of Xapo'eon and Lincoln are so numerous we cannot even count ' "' The shortest biog,;!,;v " which we have any record is the o ' ' 1,1 i ne record of our lives will not likely be written in books ot many thousand pages, but upon the stone which shall mark a last res,ino Place could there be engraved a more simple, sublime and viclorious epl taph than that by which Pinodi win 'd ways be known: "He walked with o'od and pleased Him." (. 1925. Western Newspaper Union.) |