The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1902-01-31
THE IRON DID SWIM"
sermon Of DR.. Talmage from a Lit
tle-Used Text.
r~..on Drawn from Story of the STU
dent and HIS Lost Ak Head ana
Its Recovery-Wonders OF
Divine Power.
r-onvright. 1902, by Louis Klopsch. N. III
washington,

makes practical use of an occurrence
I'm the orient which has seldom at
tracted particular attention. 1eA''
, Kings sc: "The iron did swim.
A theological seminary in the var
Yey of palms, near the river JORDAN
mad become SO popular in the tinne
of Elisha, the prophet, that more ac-
<commodations were needed 1or VIZ
students. The classrooms ana ehe
dormitories must be enlarged or an
entirely new building constructed.
What will they do? Will they sehu
up to Jerusalem and solicit contriou-
tions for this undertaking? VIII lnoJ
send out agents to raise the money
for new theological seminary! nav
ing raised the money, will they senu
for cedars of Lebanon and marpie
from the ouarries where Ahab got tne
stone for the pillars and walls Oh ms
palace? No; the students propose 70
build it themselves. They were rug
syed bows who had been brought up
in the country and who had never
been weakened by the luxurles OF Guy
life. All they ask is that Elisha their
professor and prophet, go along WIN
them to the woods and boss the Joo.
They start for the work, Elisha anu
his students. Plenty of lumber IN
those regions along the Jordan. Inc
sycamore is a stout, strong tree anu
good for timber. Mr.. Gladstone ASKED
me if | had seen in Palestine any syc-
amore tree more beautiful than the
one we stood under at Hawarden. !
told him | had not.
The sycamores near the Jordan are
now attacked by Elisha's students
for they must have lumber Tor the
new theological seminary. l suppose
some of the students made an aWK-
ward stroke, and they were extern
porized aXmen. Stand from undef!
Crash goes one of the trees, and an
other and another. But something
NOW happens so wonderful that the
occurrence will tax the credullty OF
the ages, so wonderful that many
still think it never happened at all.
One of the students, not able to own
an ak, had borrowed one. You must
remember that while the ak OF olden
time was much like our modern ak, II
differed in the fact that instead OF
the helve or handle being thrust into
q socket in the iron head the head OF
the ak was fastened on the handle by
a leathern thong, and so it might slip
the helve. A student of the seminary
was swinging his AK against one OF
those trees, and whether it was at
the moment he made his first stroke
and the chips flew or was after he
had cut the tree from all sides SO
deep that it was ready to fall we are
mot told, but the ak head and the
handle parted. Being near the river
side. the ak head dropped into the
river and sank to the muddy bottom
Great was the students dismay. II
1T had been his own ak it would have
been bad enough, but the AK did not
belong to him. He had no means to
buy another for the kind man who
had loaned it to him, but God helps
the helpless, and He generally help:
through some good and sympathetic
soul. and in this case it was Elisha
who was in the woods and on the
river bank at the time. He did MOI
see the ak head fly off, and so h
asked the student where it dropped
He was shown the place where il
went down into the river. TheI
Elisha broke off branch of tire,
and threw it into the water, and tn,
ak head rose and floated to the bank
so that the student had just to stool
down and take up the restored prop
erty. Now you see the meaning o
INV text: "The iron did SWIM"
Suppose hundred years ago som
one had told people that the tim
would come when hundreds of thou
sands of tons of iron would float Of
the Atlantic and Pacific-iron ship
from New York to Southampton
from London to Calcutta, from Sal
francisco to Canton. The man max
ing such a prophecy would have bee
sent to an asylum or CAREFUL
watched as incompetent to go alone
We have all in our day seen iro
swim. Now, if man can make hun
dreds of tons of metal float, 1 ar
disposed to think that the Almight
could make an AK head float.
"What," says some one, would b
the use of such a miracle?" OF vast
of infinite, of eternal Importance
Those students were preparing 70
the ministry. They had Joined tn
theological seminary to get all ii
advantages. They needed to hav
their faith strengthened; they needle
TO be persuaded that God can do e'