St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1897-06-12

kDA Il JONL 1Zs
8 or or 7 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 Ell
gar A. Poc's insane raven allghting ON
the chamber door, ''only this and moth
ing more, you will find Elijah's two
ravens, or two ravets of the Lord, the
one bringing brca.t and the other
bringing meat-plumed butcher and
baker.
God is intimate in resource. When
the city Of Rochelle was besicged, and
the inhabitants were dying of the
famine, the tides washed up ON the
beach rs never before. and rs never
since. enough shell-6sa 20 Seed the
whole city. God is good. There is
no mistake about that History tells us
that in 1855 in England there was =
great drought. The 2crops failed; but
in Essex. on the rocks, in place where
they had neither sown nor cultured, .
great crop ofpeas grew until they filed
hundred measures; and there were
blossoming vines enough, promising as
much more.
But why 60 so fart 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 ncighbors But these
after awhile began to fail, and the
neighbors said to Mr.. Birdscye, of
whom I shall speak: ''You must not
send your flocks 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 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 sobbiDg
at that altar that the family might
not perish for lack of water, and that
the herds and focks might not perish.
The family rose from the altar. Mr..
Birdseye, the old man, took his staff
and walked out over the hills. and in
a place where he had been scores Of
times without noticing anything par
ticular. he saw the ground was very
dark, and he tooss- his staff and turned
up the ground, end water started; and
he beckoned to his servants, and they
came and brought pals and buckets
until all the family and all the aocks
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 , living
fountain to-day.
Now, I call that old grandfather
Elijah, ard / call that brook that be-
gan to roll then, and is rolling still.
the brook Cherith; and the lesson to
me and to all who hear it is, when you
are in great stress of circumstances.
pray and dig, dig and pray, and pray
and dig. How does that passage go?
'sThe mountains shall depart and the
hills be removed, but my lovingkind-
ness shall not fail" If your mer-
chandise, if your mechanism, il
your husbandry fail, look out
for ravens II you have in your
despondency put God on trial and con-
demned Him as guilty of cruelty. l
move to-day for a new trial. If the
biography of your life is ever written.
I will tell you what the first chapter.
and the middle chapter, and the last
chapter will be about, If it is written
accurately. The first chapter about
mercy. the middle chapter about mercy,
the last chapter about mercy. The
mercy that hovcred over your cradle.
The mercy that will hover over your
grave. The mercy that will cover all
between.
Again, this story Of the tsxt impress
ses me that relief came to this prophet
with the most unexpected and with
seemingly impossible conveyance. If
it had been a robin-redbreast, or . mu-
steal meadow lark. or q meek turtle
dove, or q sublime albatross that had
brought the food to Elijah, it would
not have been SO surprising. But. no.
It was q bird SO fierce and inauspicate
that we have fashioned one of our
most forceful and repulsive words ont
of it-ravcnous. That bird has . pas
sion for picking out the eyes OF men
and of animals It 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 Elijah
gets for six months or . year is from
ravens. So your supply is going to
come from an unexpected source.
You think some great-hearted, gem
erous man will come along and give
you his name ON the back of your
note. or he viii! go security 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 quar-
ter. The providence which seemed
ominous will be to you more than that
which seemed suspicious 1t will not
be a chafiinch with breast and wing
dashed with white and brown and
chestnut; it will be black raven.
Mrs Jane Pithey, Of Chicago. . we'll
known Chicago woman, was left by her
husband widow with one-half dollar
and q cottage. She was palsied. and
had . mother 90 years of age to sup
port. The widowed soul every day
asked God for all that was needed in the
household. and the servant even was
astonish I'd 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