The Monitor-register., 1897-05-14

there shall be any home to rule; not
one of tariff, but whether there shall be
anything to tax. The great questions
with the vast majority of people are:
How shall l support my family? How
shall I meet my notes? How shall I pay
my rent? How shall I give food, cloth
ing and education to those who are de-
pendent upon me?" Oh, if God would
help me today to assist you in the solu-
ton of that problem, the happiest man
in this house would be your preacher.
I have gone out on a cold morning with
expert sportsmen to hunt for pigeons. l
have gone out on the meadows to hunt
for quail. I have gone out on the marsh
to hunt for ~reedbirds, but today l am
out for ravens.
Winged Caterers.
Notice, in the first place in the story
of my text, that these winged caterers
| came to Elijah direct from God.
81 have commanded the ravens that
| they feed thee" we find God saying in
an adjoining passage. 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 that is
| going to supply you. He is your Father.
You would have to make an elaborate
| calculation before you could tell me
how many pounds of food and how
| many yards of clothing would be neces-
sary for you and your family, but God
knows without any calculation. You
have a 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 a vast family, and every
| thing is m~ethodized, and you are going
to be served if you will only wait your
turn. God has already ordered all the
suits of clothes you will ever need, down
to the last suit in which you will 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 de-
ponds 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 con-
fections." "Oh, mol" says the parent.
"You must have something palmer
first. The child would say, sob, give
me these great blotches of color in the
garment!' NO." says the parent;
''that wouldn't be suitable"
Now, God is u Father, and we are
minors, and he is going to clothe us and
| yield to our infantile wish for the
| 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 be sends this
| plain food, because it was best for Eli
er, in the fact that the same God is 60
ing 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 out from the
heavens a 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 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 nj morning
to last until the mex morning. They
came twice a 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 a surplus, we want the
.ayens to bring enough for so years.
You have more confidence in the Wash
ington banks 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 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, st don't know where
the next meal is to come from" About
3, or 6, OF Z o'clock in the morning just
look up, and you will see two black
spots on the sky, and you will hear the
Tapping of wings, and instead of Edgar
A. Poe's insane raven alight on the
chamber door, "only this and nothing
more" you will find Elijah's two
ravens, or two ravens of the Lord, the
one bringing bread and the other bring.
ing meat-plumed butcher and baker.
A Living Fountain.
God is infinite in When the
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
shellfish to feed the whole city. God is
good. There is no mistake about that.
History tells US that in 1866 in England
there was a great drought. The crops
failed, but in Essex, on the rocks, in a
place where they had neither sown MOI
cultured, a great crop of peas grew un-
til they filled 100 measures, and there
were poisoning vines enough, prom
Using as much more.
But why go SO far? 1 can give you a
family incident. Some generations back
there was a great drought in Connecti-
cut, New England. The water disap-
peared from the hills, and the farmers
living on the hills drove their cattle
down toward the valleys and had them
! supplied at the wells and fountains of
the neighbors. But these after awhile
began to fail, and the neighbors said to
Mr.. Birdseye, of whom l shall speak:
"You must not send your focks 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 gath
cred the slaves of the household-for
bondage was then in vogue in Connect
lcut-and on their knees before God
they cried for water, and the family
story is that there was weeping and
great sobbing at that altar that the
family might not perish for lack of wa
ter, and that the herds and focks might
not perish.
The family rose from the altar. Mr..
Blrdseye, the old man, took his staff
and walked out over the hills, and in q
place where he had seen scores of times,
without noticing anything particular,
he saw the ground was very dark. and
he took his staff and turned up the
ground, and water started, and he beck
oned to his servants, and they came and
brought pals and buckets until all the
family and all the flocks and the herds
were cared for, and then they made