The Bossier banner., 1897-06-17

loo,: up, and you will see two black
spors on the sky, and YOU will hear the
flarping of wings, and instead of Ed
gar A. POe'S insane raven allghtlng on
the chambe door, "only this and moth
inr more" YOU viii find Elijah's two
ravens, or two ravens of the Lord, the
one bringing Dread and the other
bringing meat-plumed butcher and
baker.
God is intimate in resource. When
the city of Rochelle was hesieged, and |
the inhabitants, were dying Of the |
famine, the tides washed up on the |
beach as never before. and as never |
since, enough shcll-fsh to feed the |
whole city. God is good. There IS |
no mistake about that. History tells us
that in boo in England there was a
great drought. The scrops failed: but
in Essex. on the rocks, in a place where
| they had neither sown nor cultured,
great crop of;peas grew until they filled
hundred measures: and there were
! bIossoming vines enough, promising as
! much more.
| But why 90 SO far? | can give y02
| family incident. Some generations
! back there was great drought IN
| Connecticut, New England. The water
disappeared from the hills, and the
J farmers living on the hills drove their
cattle down toward the Valleys, and
had them supplied at the wells and
fountains of the neighbOr>. But these
after awhile began to fail. and the
ncighbors said to Mr.. Eirdseye, of
whom | shall speak: You must not
send your tiOcks and herds down here
any more; our wells are giving out
Mr.. Birdseve, 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-an 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
the herds and tioclls 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 took his staff and turned
up the ground, and water started; and
he becllOned to his servants, and they
came and brought pals and buckets
until all the family and all the tloclts
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 d living
: fountain to-day.
; Now, | call that old grandfather
Elijah, and | call that brook that be
: gan to roll then, and is rolling still
5 the brook Chcrith; 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
t and dig. How does that passage go:
| THE mountains shall depart and the
| hills be removed, but my lovinglind-
ness shall not fail" If your mer-
, chandi>c, if your mechanism, if
= your hu>bandry fail, lock out
/ for ravens. If you have in your
= despondenry put God on trial and con-
V dcmned Him as guilty of cruelty, |
y move to-day for a new trial. If the
y biography of your life is ever written,
Il | will tell YOU what the first chapter,
IL and the middle chapter and the last
t chapter will be about, if it is written
t accurately. The first chapter about
d mercy, the middle chapter about mercy
e the last chapter about mercy. The
/ mercy that hovered over your cradle
: The mercy that will hover over your
J. grave. The mercy tina. viii cover al
Y between.
i Again, this story Of the text impress
II Sos me that relief came to this prophe
II with the most unexpected and will
/ seemingly impossible conveyance. |
Il it had been robin-rcdbreast, or a mu
1t steal meadow lark or a meek turtle
g dove. or a sublime albatrOs> that hac
le brought the food to Elijah, it would
E. not have been SO surprising But, no
N 1t was bird SO fierce and inauspicat
to that we have fashioned one of on
le most forceful and repulaive words on
Id of it-ravenous That bird has pas
J.. sion for picking out the eyes of mel
st and of animals. 1t loves to maui tn
lc sick and the dying. 1t swallows wit
Sc vulturouS guzzle everything it can pu
IL. its beak on; and yet all the food Elk
1t gets for six months or a year is fror
ravens. SO your supply is going t
re come from an unexpected source.
rs You think some great-hearted. ger
IL crous man will come along and Civ
or YOU his name on the back of You
rs note, or he will go security for you i
es some great enterprise. No. he wi
lg not. God will open the heart of som
1t. Shylock toward you. Your relief vi
tn come from the most unexpected qua1
lie ter. The providence which SCENE
as oninou> will be to you more than thu
x, which seemed suspicious. 1t will n,
od be Il chatfnch with breast and win
er dashed with white and brown an
er chestnut; it will be black raven.
cr Mrs. Jane Pithev, of Chicago. a wei
nj known Chicago woman, was left bV III
He husband Il widow with one-half doll;
lp. and cottage. She wa, palsicd, an
ng had d mother % years of age to SUI
MS port. The widowed soul every da