Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-06-21

come ont of some other cave. They did MOI
jus happen 10 alight there. God treignteo
them, God launched hem, and 'rod toiu then
by what cave to swoop. That IS the same
tod that is going 10 supply you. lie Is your
Father. You would have To make an elabo-
rate calculation before you could tell me row
many pounds of food and how many y ARDS OF
| clothing would be necessary for you ana your
family. But God knows without any calcu-
1 latiOn. You have plate at his table ana YOU
are going to be " aIted on, IN less you act ike
a naughty child and kick and scramble and
pound saucily the plate and try to unset
thugs. God has a vast family, and everything
is methOdlsed, and YOU are gong 10 be served
If you VIII only wait your turn Goa mas
already ordered all the suits OF clothes you
/ Will ever need, down TO the last suit In Wnlcn
you shall he Land out. God has already or
dered all the food you will ever eat, down 10
! the last crumb that will be pat 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 judy
| ment 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 con-
fectlons." "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 garment" NO" says the pa
/ rent, "that wouldn't be suitable"
NOW, God is cur Father and we are minors,
and lie Is going to clothe us and feed us. al
| though He may not always yield to our in
/ iantne 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 all
| the heavens and the earth before Him and
under Him, and yet He sends this plain food,
| because 1t was best for Elijah TO have 1t. On,
| be strong, my nearer, IN the fact that the
| same God is going TO supply YOU! IL is never
hard times" with Him. His ships never
| break on the rocks. His banks never fan.
| He has the supply for YOU and He has the
means for sending it. He has not only the
cargo but the snip. If IL were nece ssary He
would swing out from the heavens flock OF
! " a Ia
the food would be flung down 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 NJ
surplus. They lid not bring enough on Mon
day 10 last ali the week. They did not bring
enough one morning to last until the next
morning. They came twice "A day ana brought
just enough for one time. You know as well
as |, that the great fret OF the world Is that
we want surpluS-we want the ravens TO
bring enough for fifty wears. You have
more con 6dence in the Fulton Bank or Mas
sau Bank or Bank of England than you have
IN the Royal 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 he content with just enough. Hin
the morning your family eat up all
the food there is in the house,
say: II don't know where the next meal
is TO come from" About or or Z o'clock in
the morning just look up and you will see
two black spots on the sky. and you Will hear
b1b UADDln2 OF wings. anu lnsbtdO OF EuEhf
A. Poe's insane raven ahghting on the cham
Der door. ''Ony this and nothing more" you
VIII find Elijah's two ravens, or the two
ravens of the Lord. the one bringing bread
and the other bringing meat-plumed butcher
and baker.
Coz is Infinite in resource. When TIE city
of Rochelle was besieged and the inhabitants
were dying of the famine. the tides washed
up ON the beach as never before, and as never
since, enough she'll fish to feed the whole city.
God is good. There rs no mistake about that.
History tells us that in 1906 In England there
was a great drought. The crops failed, but
in Essex, on the rocks, in place where they
had neither sOwn nor cultured great crop
OF peas grew until they filled hundred meas
ures; and there were blOesoming vines enough
promising as much more.
But why go so far? | can give you family
incident Some generations back there was
great drought IN Connecticut, New Eng
land. The wafer disappeared from the hills,
and the farmers living on the hills drove their
cattle down toward the valleys, and had the N
supplied at the wells and fOun alnsOf their
neighbors. But these after Il while heGan to
tai. and the neighbors said to Mr.. Birdseve
OF whom | shall SPEAK. ~ GU must not send
Your hOcKs and herds down here any more
our wells are giving out" MIR. Birdseye, the
I'D Lhristian 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 COnn"ctlcut-and on their
knees be ore God they cried for water; and the
family story is, that there was weeping and
great sobbiug az that altar that the family
might not per sh for lack Of water. and that
the herds and hocke 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 place where he had been
scores of times without noticing anything
partlcu ar, he saw the ground was very dark.
aud he took his str a ami 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 fiOcSs and the herds were cared for, and
then they made trougns reaching from that
place down to the house and barn, and the
water flowed, and it is living fountain to-
cav.
Now, / call that old grandfather Elijah,
anu can that brook that began to roll then.
and is rolling still. the brook Cherith; aud the
lesson TO me ami to all who hear il Is. when
you are in great stress OF circumstances pray
and dig. dig and pray, and pray and dig.
How uoes that massage go? THE mountains
shall depart aud the hills he removed. but nv
loving kindness shall not FAIL If your mer-
chandise, If your mechanism, if your hus-
bandry fail. look out for ravens. II you have
IN your dependency put God on trial and
condemned Him as guilty OF cruelty, | move
this morning for new trial. II the biogra-
ply of your life il ever written, will tell YOU
what the first chapter and the middle chapter
and the last chapter will be about. If it ia
written accurately. The first chapter about
mercy, the middle chapter about mercy, the
last chapter about mercy. The mercy that
lowered over your cradle. The mercy that
will hover over your grave The mercy that
will cover all between.
again this story of the text impresses me
that relief came to this prophet with the most
uneX pectad and with seemingly impossible
convey ance. If IL hal been a robin redbreast
or a musical meadow lark or a meek turtle
d we or a sublime albatrOss that had brought
the food TO Elijah, il would not have been so
surprl sing. But no. 1t was a bird 80 fierce
and iuauspicate that we have fashioned one
of our most forceful and repulsive words out
Of it-raveuous. That bird has n passion for
pckin out me eyes Of men and Of animals
II loves 70 maui the sick and the dying. 1t
swallows with vulturous guzzle everything il
can out its beak on; aud yet all the food Eli
jah gets for six months or year Is fro n ravens
So your supply is gong TO come from an un-
expected source. You think some great
hearted. generous man viii come along and
/ give YOU MS name on the back OF your note
| or he viii go security for you in some great
/ enterpriBe. No. he will not. God will omen
| the heart OF some Shylock towards you. Your
| relief will come from the most UNEXPECTED
quarter. The Providence which seemed omI-
/ nous will be 70 you more than that which
/ seemed aueploiOus. II will not he q chafiinch
with breast and wing dashed with white
ana brown and chestnut, IL will be a black
/ raven.
Here lie where we all makeour mistake, and
/ that is in regard to the color OF Gods provi-
l dence. A white providence comes TO ia and
\ we cay: "Oh. 10 Is mercym Then black
4 providence comes Oward us and We say: 'Oh
! that Is di,aster" The white providence
/ comes TO you, aud you have great business
/ and YOU get proud, and You get Independent
/ Of God, and you begin 10 feel that the PRAYER,
/ give me this day my daily bread" Is inap-
/ prOpriate for YOU. for YOU have made provis-
/ ION for a hundred years. Then "A black prov
\ idcnce comes, and II sweeps everything away.