The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-07-22

what cave to swoop. This is the same God
that is going to supply you. He is your
father. You would have to make an ella
borate calculation 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 with
out calculation. You have plate at his
table and you are going to be waited on,
unless you act like a naughty child and
kick and scramble and pound saucily the
plate and try to upset things. God has
vast family, and everything is methodized,
and you are going to be served If you will
only wait your turn. God hes already or
dered 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
prefer. 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 chi Id would say:
"Give me sugars and corrections"
"Oh, no." says the parent. "you must
have something palmer first"
The child would say: "Oh, give me
these great blotches of color in the gar
ment."
"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
| to our infantile wish for sweets and gilt
ter. These ravens of the text did not
bring pomegranates from the glittering
platter of King Ahab. They brought
bread and meat. God had all the Heavens
and the earth before him and under him,
and yet he sends this plain food, because
it 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 cargo but the ship. If it were
necessary He would swing out from the
Heavens flock of ravens reaching from
his gate to yours, until the food would be
flung down from the sky from beak to
beak and from talon to talon.
Notice again in this story of the text,
that the ravens did not allow Elijah to
hoard up a surplus. They did not bring
enough on Monday to last all the week.
They did not bring enough one morning
to last until the next morning. They
came twice day and brought just enough
for one time. You know as we'll as that
the great fret of the world is that we want
q surplus--we want the ravens to bring
enough to last for fifty years. You have
more confidence in the Fulton Bank or the
Nassau Bank or Bank of England tha an
you have in the bank of heaven. You
say:
"All that is very poetic, but you may
have the black ravens; give me the gold
eagles"
We had better be contented with just
enough. II in the morning your family
eat up all the food there is in the house
do not sit down and cry and say:
~ don't know where the next meal Is tx
come from"
About five or six or seven O'Clock in the
morning, just look up and you will Sc,
two black spots on the sky, and you will
hear the tapping of wings, and instead oil
Edgar A. Poe's insane raven alighting or
the chamber door, "only this and nothing
more" you will find Elijah's two ravens
or the two ravens of the Lord, the on,
bringing bread and the other bringing
meat-plumed butcher and baker.
God is infinite in resource. When th,
city of Rochelle was besieged and the in
| hatf tov 10 - A..
tides washed up on the beach as never be
fore, and as never since, enough shell-fisl
to feed the whole city. God is good
There is no mistake about that. History
tells us that in 1865 in England there wa,
great drouth. The crops failed, but il
Essex, on the rocks, in q place where they
had neither sown nor cultured, a grea
crop Of peas grew until they filled hun.
dred measures; and there were blossom
, ing vines enough promising as mucl
! more.
But why go 90 far! l can give you
family incident. Some generations bacl
there was great drought in Connection,
New England. The water disappears
from tho hills, and the farmers living o.
the hills drove their cattle down towar,
the valleys and had them supplied at tn
wells and fountains Of the neighbors. Blu
} these after awhile began to fail, and tn
: neighbors said to Mr.. Birdseye, of whom
! shall speak:
, "You must not send your focks an
herds down here any more, our wells ar
, giving out.n
Mr.. Birdseye, the old Christian ma
gathered hts family at the altar, and wit
his family he gathered the slaves of tn
.. hoasehold-for bondage was then i
vogue in Connecticut-and on their knee
! before God they cried for water; and th
! family story is that there was weeping an
great scbbing at that altar that the famil
might not perish for lack of water, an
that the herds and focks might not perish
The family rose from the altar. Mr.. Birds
, eyn, the old man, took his staff and Wake
ont over the hills, and in place where b
bad been scores of times without noticin
any thing particular, he saw the groun
, was very dark, and he took his staff an
turned up the ground, and water started
md he beckoned to his servants, and the
came and they brought pals and bucket
until all the family and all the aocks an
the herds were cared for, and then the
made troughs reaching from that plae
! 4ruvp tn he