The Brookhaven leader., 1886-07-01
and pray and dig. How does that passage

IL your Merchandise, VI your meCudu-
ism, IL your husbandry 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 biography Of your life
Is ever written will tell you what the
first chapter and the middle chapter and
the last chapter will be about, il it 10
written accurately. The first chapter
about mercy, Che 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 be-
tween.
Again, this story OF the text impresses
me that relief came to this prophet with
the most unexpected and with seemingly
impossible conveyance. If it had been
robin-redbreast OF a musical meadow lark
or a meek turtle dove or a sublime al
batross that had brought the food to
Elijah, it would not have been so surpris-
ing. But no. 1t was a bird so fierce and
inauspicate 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
animals. 1t loves to maui the sick and the
dying. 1t swallows with vulturous guzlie
everything 1t can put its bsak on; and vet
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. You think some great-heartsd,
generous man will come along and give
you his name on the back of your note, or
he will go security for you in some great
enterprise. No, he will not. God will
open the heart of some Shylock toward
you. Your relief will come from the most
unexpected quarter. The providence
which seemed ominous will be to you more
than that which seemed suspicious. It
will not be chatfinch with breast ant
wing dashed with white and brown and
chestnut, it will be a black raven.
Here is where we all make our mistake
and that is in regard to the color Of COTS
providence. A white providence comes to
us and we say: "Oh it is mercy" Tn n
a black providence comes toward us, and
we say: "Oh, that is disaster" The white
providence comes to you, and you havs
great business success, and you have So
600, and you get proud, and you get inie-
pendent Of God, and you begin to feel that
the prayer, "Give me this day my daily
bread" is inappropriate for you, for YOU
have made provisions for hundred years.
Then q black providence comes, and it
sweeps every thing away, and then yoa
begin to pray, and you begin to feel your
dependence, and begin to humble before
God, and you cry out for treasures in
Heaven. The black providence brought
you salvation. The white providence
brought you ruin. That which seemed
to be harsh and fierce and dissonant was
your greatest mercy. 1t was a raven.
There was a child horn in your house
All your friends congratulated you. The
other children of the family stood amazed
looking at the newcomer, and asked
great many questions, genealogical and
chronological. You said-and you said
truthfully-that white angel flew
through the room and left the little one
there. That little one stood with its two
feet in the very center of your Sanctuary
of affection, and with its two hands it
took hold Of The altar of your soul. But
one day there came one Of the three
scourges of children-scarlet fever, or
Group, or diphtheria-and all that bright
scene vanished. The chattering, the
strange questions. the pulling at the
dresses as you crossed the floor all ceased.
AS the great friend of children stopped
down and leaned toward that cradle, and
took the little one in his arms, and walked
away with it into the bower Of
eternal summer, your eye began to
follow him, and you followed the
treasure he carried, and you have been
following them ever since; and instead of
thinking of Heaven only once a week as
formerly, you are thinking of it all the
time, and you are more pure and tender
hearted than you used to be, and you ars
patiently waiting for the day break. 1t 10
not self-righteousness in you to acknowl-
edge that you are a better man than you
used to be-you are a better woman than
you used to be. What was it that brou mt
you the sanctifying blessing? Oh, it was
the dark shadow on the nursery; it was
the brooding of great black trouble; it
was a raven-it was raven! Dear Lor d :,
teach this people that white providences
do not always mean advancement, and
that black providences do not always
mean retrogressiOn.
Children of God, get up OUT Of your de-
spondency. The Lord never had so many
ravens as he has this morning. Fling
your fret and worry to the winds. Some-
times under the vexations of life you feel
like my little girl of four years, who said
under some childish vexation: "Oh, wish
| could go to Heaven and see God and
pick howersW He will let you go when
the right time comes to pick flowers. I'M
til then, whatever you want, pray for. I
suppose Elijah prayed pretty much all
the time. Tremendous work behind him.
Tremendous work before him. God has
no spare ravens for idlers or for people
who are pray erless. put it in the boldest
sh ape possible and / am willing TO risk
my eternity on it; ask God in the right
way for what you want, and you shall
have it if it is best for you.
Ny friend. YOU have right to argue
from precedent that God is going to take
care of you. Has He not done it two or
three times every day? That is most mar
velous. l look back and wonder that cd
has given me food three times day reg.
III arly all my lifetime, never missing but
once, and then | was lost in the mount
aims; but that very morning and that very
night met the ravens.
o, the Lord is so good that l wish all
this people would trust Him with the two
lives-the life you are now living and tina
which every tick of the watch and every
stroke of the clock inform you is approach
ing. Bread for your Immortal soul comes
to-day. See! They alight on the plat
form. They alight on the backs of all the
pews. They swing among the aches. RAJ
vensl Ravens.
Blessed are they that hunger after right
eonsness for they shall be filled