The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1890-11-20


find your own way. with ears 10 select your
| own music, with hands to fight your own
battles There Is only one being in the uni.
| verse whose advice you need and that is God.
Have your own well and the Lord will al IL.
Dig IL II need be through two hundred feet
| OF solid rock. Dig IL with your pen. or dig
u with your yard stick, or dig IL with your
! shovel, or dig it with your Bible.
In my small way | never accomplished
anything for God or the church.or the world.
OF my FAMILY, or myself, except in contradic.
| ton TO human advice and in obedience r.,
divine counsel. God knows everything, and
what Is the use OF going for advice TO human
| beings who know so little that no one but tho
al seeing God can realize how little IL is' I
suppose that when Jacob be-an to 'dir this
well on which we are sitting this noontide
/ people gathered around and said, "What a
useless expense you are going to- when roll
| ing down from yonder Mount Gerizim md
down from yonder Mount Ebal and ous
! yonder in the valley Is plenty of waterp'
oh, replied Jacob, that is all true, but
suppose my neighbors should got angered
against me and cut Off my supply of mount
ain beverage, what would l do, and what
MSsls Mosas my bsrgi family DO and what would
pckases and i,S erowbors % snd e brigade OK
depths OF these rocks and make me independ-
ent OK all except Him who fills the bottles OF
the cloudsl must have my own well ~
Young man, drop cigars and cigarettes
and wine cups and the Sunday excursions,
and build your own house, and have your.
own wardrobe and be your own canitaIsti
why have only five hundred dollars in
! come Year, says some one. Then spend
four hundred dollars of IL in living, and ten
! per cent. of 1t, or fifty dollars in benevo-
lence, and the other fifty in beginning to
dig your own well. Or II you have thou
sand dollars year spend eight hundred
dollars OF II in living, ten per cent, or ono
hundred dollars, i'm benevolence, and the re-
naming one hundred In beginning to dig your
, own we'll. The largest bird that ever flow
through the air was hatchcd out Of one egg.
and the greatest estate was brooded out OF
one dollar
/ suppose when Jacob began 20 dig this
| we'll on whose curb we are now seated this
December noon,it was dry season then as
now, and some one comes up and says:
! Now Jacob, suppose you get tho well fifty
feet deep or two hundred feet deep and there
should be no water to fill IL, would you not
feel sillyV People passing along tho road
and looking down from Mount Gerizim or
Mount Ebal near by would laugh and say:
THAT is Jacobs WELL great hole in the
rock. Illustrating the mans folly Jacob
replied: There never has been well in
Palestine or any other country that once
thoroughly dug was not sooner or later filed
from the clouds, and this will be no excep-
| ton"
For months after Jacob had completed tho
the deluded old man put their hand over
their mouth to hide sucker, and the well
remained as dry as the bottom of a kettle
that had been hanging over the fire for three
hours. But one day the sun was drawing
water. and the wind got round TO the east
and IL began TO drizzle, and thon great drops
splashed all over the we'll curb, and the
heavens opened their reservoir and the rainy
season poured its floods for six weeks, and
there came maidens 10 tho we'll with empty
pals and carried them away full, and the
cames thrust their mouths into the troughs
and were satisfied, and the water was in the
, wen three feet deep, and atty feet deep, and
| tNo hunife5 feet deep, aud all the Bc1ouins
Of the neighborhoot and all tho passersby
realized that Jacob was wise In having his
/; own well. My hearer, it is your part to dig
| your own well, and 1t is Gods part TO fill IL.
You do your part and He will do His part
! Much is said about good luck" but peo-
| pie who are industrious and self denying al
most always have good luck You can af-
ford to be laughed at because of your appi-
cation and economy. for when you get your
well dug aud filed it will be your turn to
laugh.
But look up from this famous well and
see two mountains and the plain between
t.,n, on which was gathered the largest
religious audience that ever assembled on
, earth, about five hundred thousand people
| Mount Gerizim. about eight hundred feet
| high, on one side, and on the other Mount
Ebal, the former called the Mount of Bless
ing and the latter called the Mount of
Cursing. At Joshuas command six tribes
stood on Mount Gerizim and read the
blessings for keeping the law, and six
tribes stood on Mount Ebal reading tho
curses for breaking the law while the five
hundred thousand people on the plain cried
Amen with an emphasis that must have
made the earth tremble. II do not believe
Nhat ~ ,s,...
tops are two miles apart, and how could
voice be heard from top 10 top" My answer
| Is that while the tops are two miles apart,
| the bases OF the mountains are only half
mile apart, aud tho tribes stood on the sides
OF the mountains and the air Is SO clear and
the acoustic qualities OF this great natural
amphitheatre 80 perfect that voices can bs
distinctly heard from mountain To mount
ain, as has been demonstrated by travellers
fifty times In the last fifty years.
Can you imagine nything more thrilling
and sublime and overwhelming than what
| trnnspred on those two mountain SIDES, and
in the plain between, when the responsive
| service went ON and thousands of voices on
| Mount GeriZim cried, blessed shalt thou he
| in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in th1
| fields, blessed shall be thy basket and thy
| store" and then from Mount Ebal, thousands
OF voicas responded. crying: Cursed bc he
that removeth his neighbours landmark!
! Cursed be he that maletn the blind to wan.
| der out of the way" and then there rolled up
| from all the spaces between the mountains
that one word with which the devout OF earth
close their prayers and the glorifled OF heaven
| finish their doxologies, Amen! Amenm-
that scene only to bo surpassed by the
| times which are coming, when the churches
| and the academies of music and the audi
toriums Of earth, no longer large enough t.
| hold the worshipers OK God; tho parks tho
mountain sides, the great natural amphitho-
| atres OF the valleys shall be filed with the
/ outpouring populations of the earth and
| mountain shall reply 10 mountain, ms Mount
! Gerizm 20 Mount Ebal, und all the people
J between shall ascrihe riches ani honor and
/ glory and dominion and victory to God the
| Lamb and there shall arise an amsn like the
booming OF the heavens mingling with tha
| thunder of the seas.
On and on we ride until now we have
come TO Shiloh, Il dead city on hill sur
rounded by rocks, sheep. goats, olive gardens
ana vineyards. Here good lili fell backward
and broke his neck, aud lay dead at the news
| from his bad boys, Phneas and Hophni: aud
life Is not worth living after ones children
have turned out badly, and more fortunate
| was Eli, instantly expiring under such It'd
| ings than those parents who, their children
recreant and prohigate, live on with broken
hearts 10 sec them going down into deeper
and deeper plunge. There are fathers and
| mothers here to-day to whom death would be
happy release because of their recreant sons
| A.tI Ia