The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-05-26

| metnOQlZeQ, anu you are gong W uo SO1 sSu
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 jusl 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 CT the minor In
the family. The child would say, "Give me
sugars and confections." "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" mo says the parent; "that
wouldn't be suitable"
Now, God is our Father, and we are min
ors, and He is going to clothe us and feed
US, although He may not always yield to
our infantile wish for the sweet and glitter.
These ravens of the text did not bring
Of King Ahab. They brought bread and
milk. 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 it. Oh, be strong, my
hearer, 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. II it were necessary, He would
swing out from the heavens a flock Of
ravens reaching from His gate to yours un-
til 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
q 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
world is that we want surplus, we want
the ravens to bring enough for fifty 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 fam
lily eat up all the food there is in the house.
do not sit down and cry and say, II don't
know where the next meal is to come from"
About S, or 6, or o'clock in the morning
just look up, and you will see two black
spots on the sky, and you will hear the flap
ping Of wing, 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 bringing meat-plumed butcher and
baker.
God is infinite in resource. When the city
Of Rochelle was besieged and the inhabi-
tants were dying of the famine, the tides
washed up on the beach as never before,
and as never since, enough shellflsh to feed
the whole city. God is good. There Is no
mistake about that. History tells US that
in 1855 in England there was O great
drought. The crops failed, but in Essex,
on the rocks, in a place where they had
neither sown nor cultured, great crop Of
peas grew until they filed 100 measures,
and there were blossoming vines enough,
promising as much more.
But why so SO far? I can give you
family incident. Some generations back
there was great drought in Connecticut,
New England. The water disappeared 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 I shall speak:
You must not send your ,hocks and herds
out" Mr.. Birdseye, the old Christian 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 Connecticut-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 water, and that thA
herds and fiocks might not perish.
The family rose from the altar. Mr..
Birdseye, the old man, took his staff and
o1 ha nd in nj
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, the water
started, and he beckoned 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 troughs reaching from
that place down to the house and barn,
and the water flowed, and it is q living
fountain to-day.
Now call that old grandfather Elijah,
and call that brook that began to roll
then and is rolling still the brook Cherith,
and the lesson to me and to all who hear 1t
is, when you are in great stress Of circum-
stances, pray and dig, dig and pray, and
pray and dig. How does that passage gor
1.-THE mountains shall depart and the hills
be removed, but My loving kindness shall
not fail" If your merchandise, If your
mechanism, If your husbandry fail look out
for ravens. If you have in your despond-
ency put God on trial and condemned
Him as guilty of cruelty, move to-day for
a new trial. If 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 if it is writ
ten 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 unexpected and with seemingly i'm
possible conveyance. II it had been a
robin redbreast, or musical meadow lark,
or meek turtledove, or sublime alba
tross that had brought the food to Elijah,
it would not have been so surprising. But
no. 1t was bird 80 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 ami
mails. 1t loves to maui the sick and the
diving. 1t swallows with vulturous guzzle
everything it can put its beak on, and yet
all the food Elaiah gets for six months or
year is from ravens. So your supply Is
from an unexpected source.
You think some great-hearted, generous
man will come along and give you his name
on the back of your note, or lie will 90 Sc
curity 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
auspicious It will not be chaffinch with
breast and wing dashed with white and
brown and chestnut. 1t will be black
raven.
Oh, the Lord is so good that wish all