Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1897-05-14

I which YOU Will BE- laid out. God has already
ordered all the food You will ever eat. down
o. the last rrumh that will Dee put in your
mouth Ia the diving sacrament. II may not
| be- just the Kind II food or apparel We would
/ prefer. The sensible parent depends on
I his own Judgment as 20 what ought TO De
I the apparel aud the food 90 the minor 10
I the family. The child would say, Give me
I Sugar and CONNECTIONS oh. no. say
| the parent. You must have something
I palmer first" The child would say, "Oh,
/ give me these great blOtchrs OF color Ia the
garment" NO, says the parent; THAT
I wouldn't be suitable"
Now. God is our Father. and We are min
I ors. and Tie l. going to clothe us ana 'eed
~. although lie may not always yield TO
/ our infantile wish forth sweet and glitter.
! These ravens OF the text did not bring
4 pomesranates from the glittering platter
/ OF King Ahab. They brought bread and
milk. God had all the heavens aud the
earth before Him and under Him, and yet
He sends this plain food, because it was best
/ for Elijah to have it. Oh, be strong, my
! nearer in the fact that the same God Is GO
ing TO supply YOU. IL is never hard times
with Him. His ships never break on the
rocks. His banks never fail. lie has the
I supply for you, and He has the means for
sending it. lie has not only the cargo, but
/ the ship. II il were necessary, He would
| swing out from the heavens a flock of
ravens reaching from His gate TO yours I'M
/ 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
I 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 one morning to last until the
! next morning. They came twice a day and
brought Just enough for one time, You
| known as well rs that the great fret of the
world is that we want a surplus, We want
. the ravens 10 bring enough for iifty years.
You have more confidence in the Wash
/ ington banks or Bank OF England than you
1 have in the Royal Bank Of Heaven. You
| say: "All that is very poetic, bat you may
have the black ravens. Give me the gold
eagles We had better be content with
T just enough. II in the morning your fam
/ lily eat up all the food there Is in the house.
/ do not sit rown and cry and say II don't
/ know where the next meal is to come from"
About >, or q, or o'clock in the morning
/ just look up, aud you will see two black
/ spots on the sky, and YOU will hear the tlap-
/ ping Of wing, and instead Of Edgar A, Pocs
insane raven alight on the chamber door,
] "Only this and nothing more YOU will
/ find Eliiah's two ravens, or two ravens of
the Lord. the one bringing bead and the
other bringing meat -piumed butcher and
/ baker
God is infinite in resource. When the city
Of Rochelle was besieged and the inhahi-
tants We're dying Of the famine the tides
washed up on the beach as never before
and as never since, enough shelltlsh to feed
/ the whole city. God is good. There Is no
/ mistake about that. History tells US that
in 1855 in England there was "A great
. drought. The crops failed, but in Essex
. ON the rocks, in Il place where they had
1 neither s0wn nor cultured, a great crop of
and there We're bossoming vines enough.
promising rs much more.
But why 20 so fqry | can give you a
family incident. Some generations back
. there was a great drought in Connecticut
New England. The water disappeared from
/ tn" 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 | shall speak
You must not send your ,flocks and herds
down here any more Our wells are giving
out Mr.. Birdseyc the old Christian man
gathered his family ut 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
sohbing at that altar that the family might
not perish for lack Of water and that the
herds and hocks might not perish
The family rose from the altar. Mr.
Birdseye, the old man. took his stan and
walked out over the hills, and In place
where he had seen scores of times without
noticing anything particular, he saw the
ground was very dark, and he took his
stan 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
ilocks 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 a 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 Cherth.
and the lesson to me and to all who hear it
Is when you are in great stress Of circum-
stances, pray and dig, dig and pray, and
pray and dig. How does that passage 60?
The mountains shall depart and the hills
be removed, but Ny loving kindness shall
not fail" If your merchandise. II YOUR
mechanism, ii your husbandry fail look out
for ravens II you have in your despOnd-
ency put God on trial and condemned
Him as guilty Of cruelty, l move to-day for
a new trial If the biography of your life
is ever written, | will tell you what the
lTSI tHdptcr ana the Nluule cnapttr anu
the last chapter will be about If 1t 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
(
robin redbreast. or q musical meadow lark
or meek turtlodOve, or a sublime alba
tross that had brought the food to Elijah.
it would not have been so surprising. But
no. 1t was bird so fierce and inauspicate
, that we have fashioned one of our most
, fOrceful and repulsive words out of it
raven0us. That bird has a passion for
picking out the eyes of men and of ami
, | mails. 1t loves to maui the sick and the
: | dying, 1t swallows with vulturous guzzle
!, everything it can put its beak on, and yet
+ all the food Elaiah gets for six months or
, a 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
4 | on the back,of your note, or he will go Sc
\ curity for you in some great enterprise
A No, he will not, God will open the heart OF
\ some Shylock toward you, Your relief will
q come from the most unexpected quarter
q The providence which seemed ominous
n will be TO you more than that which seemed
d suspicious, 1t will not be chafltnch with
/, breast and wing dashed with white and
e brown and chestnut, 1t will be black
y raven.
; Here is where we all make our mistake
and that is in regard to the color Of Gods
providence. A white providence comes to
=, as, and we say "Oh, it is mercy!' Then a
" black providence comes toward us, and we
. say, "Oh that is disasterl" The white pro-
q violence comes to you. and you have great
= business success, and you have 100000, and
> you get proud, and you get independent OF
" God and you begin to feel that the prayer
y "Give me this day my daily bread" is in.