The Monitor-register., 1897-05-14
hover over your grave. The mercy tina
will cover all between.

pccbcu CA
Again, this story of the text impresses
me that relief came to this prophet with
the most unexpected and with seeming
ly impossible conveyance. If it had been
a robin redbreast, or a musical meadow
lark, or a meek turtledove, or a sub
lime albatross that had brought the
food to Elijah, it would not have been
SO surprising. But no. 1t was a bird SO
fierce and inauspicate that we have fash
toned one of u most forceful and re-
pulsive words out of it-ravenous. That
bird has a passion for picking out the
eyes of men and of animals. 1t loves to
maui the sick and the dying. 1t swal-
lows with vulturous guzzle everything
it can put its beak on, and yet all the
food Elijah gets for six months OF a
year is from ravens. So your supply is
going to come from an unexpected
source.
You think some great hearted, gener-
GUS 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 to-
ward you. Your relief will come from
the most unexpected quarter. The Prov
idence which seemed ominous will be
to you more than that which seemed
suspicious. 1t will not be a chafinch
with breast and wing dashed with white
and brown and chestnut. 1t will be a
black raven.
Here is where we all make our mis-
take, and that is in regard to the color
of Gods providence. A white provi-
dence comes to Us, and we say, "Oh, it
is mercy!" Then a black providence
comes toward us, and we say, ooh,
that is disaster!' The white providence
comes to you, and you have great bust
ness success, and you have 500, 600,
and you get proud, and you get indie
pendent of God, and you begin to feel
that the prayer, "(1ive me this day my
daily bread" is inappropriate for you,
for you have made provision for 100
years. Then a black providence comes,
and it sweeps everything away, and
then you begin to pray, and you begin
to feel your dependence, and begin to
be humble before God, and you cry out
for treasures in heaven. The black prov
idence 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 born in your house. All your
friends congratulated you. The other
children of the family stood amazed,
looking at the newcomer and asked a
great many questions, genealogical and
chronological. You said-and you said
truthfully-that a white angel flew
through the room and left the little one
there. That little one stood with its
two feet in the very sanctuary of your
affection, and with its two hands it
took hold of the altar of your soul. But
one day there came Il 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 foor-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 be-
gan to follow him, and you followed
the treasure he carried, and you have
been following them ever since, and in
stead 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 are patiently waiting for the
daybreak. 1t is not self righteousness in
you to acknowledge that you are a bet
ter man than you used to be-you are a
better woman than you used to 3be.
What was it that brought you the sane
tifying blessing? Oh, it was the. dark
shadow Oh the nursery, it was the dark
shadow on the short grave, it was the
was the b~rooding Of a great black trou-
BILE, it was a raven-it was a ravenl
Dear Lord, teach this people that white
p%rovidences do not always mean adj
vancement and that black proyidences
do not always mean retrogression.
Many Rooms.
Children of God, get up out of your
dependency. The Lord never had SO
many ravens as he has today. Fling
your fret and worry to the winds.
Sometimes under the vexations of life
you feel like my little girl of 4 years,
who said under some childish vexation,
"Oh, l wish I could go to heaven and see
God and pick fowersl'' He will let you
go when the right time comes to pick
flowers. Until then, whatever you want
pray for. l suppose Elijah prayed pref
ty much all the time. Tremendous work
behind him, tremendous work before
him. God has no spare ravens for idlers
or for people who are prayerless. 1 put
it in the boldest shape possible, and l
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.
Mrs. Jane Pithey Of Chicago, a we'll
known Christian woman, was left by
her husband a widow with one half
dollar and a cottage. She wal palsied
and had a mother 80 years of age to
support. The widowed soul every day
asked God for all that was needed in
the household, and the servant even was
astonished at the precision with which
God answered the prayers of that wom-
an, item by item, item by item. One
day, rising from the family altar, the
servant said, "You have not asked for
coal, and the coal is out"
Then they stood and prayed for the
+, coal. One hour after that the servant
threw open the door and said, ''The
coal has come" A generous man, whose
name 1 could give you, had sent-as
never before and never since-a supply
of coal. You cannot understand it. l
do. Ravens! Ravensi
My friend, you have a 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 marvellous. | look back and won
der that God has given me food three
times a day regularly all my lifetime,
never missing but once, and then L was
lost IN the mountains, but that very
morning and that very night l met tine
ravens.
Oh, the Lord is SO good that I wish
all his people would trust him with the
two lives-the life you are now living
and that which every tick of the watch
and every stroke of the clock informs
you is approaching. Bread for your i'm
mortal soul comes today. Seel They
alight on the platform. They alight
on the backs of all the pews. They
swing among the arches. Ravensl
Ravensl blessed are they that hunger
after righteousness, for they shall be
filed To all the SHINING, and the sor-