The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1886-07-01

sportsmen to hunt for pigeons; have gone
out on the meadow to hunt for quail; have
gone out on the marsh to hunt for reed
birds; but this morning am out for
ravens.
Notice, in the first place, in the story Of
my text that these winged caterers came to
Elijah directly from God. 81 have COM
manded the ravens that they feed thee,"
we find God saying in an adjoining pas
sage. They did not come out of some
other cave. They did not Just happen to
alight there. God freighted them, God
launched them, and God told them by
what cave to swoop. That is the same God
Father. You would have to make an
elaborate calcula ion before you could tell
me how many pounds of food and how
many yards of clothing would be necessary
for you and your family; but God knows
without any calculation. You have plate
at His table and you are going to be waited
on unless you act like naughty
child and kick and scramble and
pound saucily the plate and try TO
upset things. God has a vast family
and everything is methodized, and you are
going to be served if you will only await
your turn. God has already ordered all
the suits of clothes you will ever need,
down TO the last suit in which you shall be
laid out. God has already ordered all the
food you will ever eat, down to the last
crumb that will be put in your mouth in
the dying sacrament. 1t may not be just
the kind of food or apparel we would pre-
fer. The sensible parent depends on his
own judgment as to what ought to be the
apparel and the food of the minor in the
family. The child would say: "Give me
sugars and confections." "Oh, no., says
the parent, "you must have something
palmer first" The child would say: ooh,
give me these great blotches of color in the
garment" "No," says the parent, "that
wouldn't be suitable"
Now, God is our father and we are
minors, and He is going to clothe us and
feed us, although He may not always yield
10 our infantile wish for sweets and glitter.
These ravens of the text did not bring
pomegranates from the glittering platter
Of King Ahab. They brought bread and
meat God had ali the heavens and the
earth before Him and under him and yet
be sends this plain food, because il was
best for Elijah to have it. Oh, be strong,
my hearer, in the fact that the same God
is going to supply you! 1t is never "hard
times" with him. His ships never break
on the rocks. His banks never fail. He
has the supply for you, and He has the
means for sending it. He has not only
the cargo, but the ship. If it were
necessary He would swing ont from the
heavens flock of ravens reaching from
His gate to yours, until the food would be
flung down the sky from beak to beak and
from talon to talon.
Notice again in this story of the tATt
tnat the ravens did not allow Elijah to
hoard up surplus. They did not bring
enough on Monday to last all the week.
They did not bring enough one morningtO to
last until the next morning. They came
twice day and brought just enough for
one time. You know as well as l, that the
great fret of the world is that we want
want the ravens to bring
enough for fifty years. You have more
confidence in the Fulton bank or Nassau
band or Bank of England than you have in
the Royal bank of heaven. You say: GAIL
that is very poetic, but you may have the
black ravens: give me the gold eagles"
We had better be content with just enough.
If in the morning your family eat up all
the food there is in the house, do not sit
down and cry and say: 81 don't know
where the next meal is to come from"
About or or o'clock in the morning,
just look up and you will see two black
spots in the sky, and you will hear the
Tapping Of wings, and instead of Edgar A.
Poe's insane raven alighting on the
chamber door, "only this and nothing
more," you will find Eliiah's two ravens,
DR. the two ravens of the Lord-the one
bringing bread and the other brinGing meat
--plumed butcher and baker.
God is infinite in resource. When the
city of Rochelle was besieged and the in
habitants were dying of famine, the tides
washed up ON the beach as never before,
and as never since, enough shell fish to
feed the whole city. God is good. There
is no mistake about that. History tells US
that in 1905 in England there was great
drought. The crops failed, but in Essex,
on the rocks, in a place where they had
neither sown nor cultured, great crop of
peas grew until they filled hundred
and there were blossoming vines
enough promising as much more.
But why go so far? l can give you q
there was great drought in Connecticut,
from the hills, and the farmers living on
the hills drove their cattle down t9ward the
valleys, and had them supplied at the wells
and fountains of the neighbors. But these
after a while began to fail, and the neigh
bors said to Mr.. Birdseye, of whom 1 shall
speak; "You must not send your flocks
and herds down here any more, our wells
are giving out" Mr.. Birdseye, the old
Christian man, gathered his family at the
altar, and with his family he gathered the
slaves of the household-for bondage was
then in vogue in Connecticut-and on their
knees before God they cried for water; and
the family story is, that there was weeping
and great sobbing at their altar that the
family might not perish for lack of water,
and that the herds and hocks might not
perish. The family rose from the altar.
Mr.. Birdseye, the old man, took his staff
and walked out over the hills, and in a
place where he had been scores of times
without noticing anything in particular he
saw the ground was very dark, and he took
his staff and turned up the ground, and
water started; and he beckoned to his
servants, and they came and they brought
pals and buckets until all the family and
all the focks and the herds were cared for,
and then they made troughs reaching from
that place down to the house and barn, and
the water flowed, and it is living fountain
to-day.
Again, this story of the text impresses
me that relief came to this prophet with
the most unexpected, and with seemingly
conveyance. If it had been
a robin redbreast, or musical meadow
lark, or q meek turtle dove, or a aublime
albatross that had brought the food to
Elijah, it w2Vld not have been SO surpris-
ing. But no. 1t was bird so fierce and
that we have fashioned one of
our most forceful and repulsive words out
Of it-ravenous. That bird has passion
for picking out the eyes of men and of
1t loves to maui the sick and the
dying. 1t swallows with vulturous guzzle
everything it can put its beak on; and yet
all the food Elijah gets for six months or
a year is from ravens. So your supply is
going to come from an unexpected source.
YOn think some nreat- heartad nenernua