Connecticut western news., 1897-05-13

ground, and water started, and he beck oned to his servants, and they came and brought pails 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 living fountain today.
 Now I call that old grandfather Eli jah, 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 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? ''The noun tains shall depart and the hills be re- moved, 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 despondency put God on trial and con- demned him as guilty of cruelty, Imove today for new trial. If the biography of your life is ever written, will tell you what the first chapter and the mid dle 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 lowered over your cradle. The mercy that will hover over your grave. The mercy that will cover all between.
 Unexpected Relief
 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 robin redbreast, or 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. It was bird so fierce and inauspicate that we have fash toned one of our most forceful and re- pulsive words out of it-ravenous. That bird has passion for picking out the eyes of men and of animals. It loves to maui the sick and the dying. It swal- lows 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, gener- ous 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. It will not be chafflnch with breast and wing dashed with white and brown and chestnut. It will be black raven.
 Here is where we all make our mis- take, and that is in regard to the color of Gods providence. A white proyi- dence comes to us, and we say, "Oh, it is meroy" Then black providence comes toward us, and we say, "Oh, that is disasterl" The white providence comes to you, and you have great busi- ness success, and you have $100, 900, and you get proud, and you get inde- pendent of God, and you begin to feel that the prayer, "Give me this day my daily bread" Is inappropriate for you, for you have made provision for 100 years. Then 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 idenoe brought you salvation. The white providence brought you ruin. That which seemed to be harsh and fierce and dissonant was your greatest mercy. It was 8 raven. There was . 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 1t took hold of the altar of your soul. But one day there came one of the three scourges of children-scarletf fever, or croup, 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. It is not self righteousness in you to acknowledge that you are bet ter man than you used to be-you are better woman than you used to be. What was it that brought you the sanc- tifying blessing? Oh, it was the dark shadow on the nursery, 1t was the dark shadow on the short grave, it was the dark shadow on your broken heart, it was the breeding of great black trou- ble, it was a raven-it was ravenl Dear Lord, teach this people that white providences do not always mean ad- vancement and that black providences do not always mean retrogression. Many Rooms.
 Children of God, get up out of your despondency. The Lord never had so many ravens as he has today. Fling your fret and worry to the winds. | Sometimes under the vacations of life you feel like my little girl of 4 years, who said under some childish vexation, "Oh, wish could go to heaven and see | God and pick fowers!' He will let you go when the right time comes to pick flowers. Until then, whatever you want pray for. I suppose Elijah prayed pret- | ty much all the time. Tremendous work l behind him, tremendous work before