Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-01-24
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 19.--In this dis.
course DR.. Talmage makes practical
use OF an occurrence in the orient
which has seldom attracted particular
attention; text. ii Kings vi, 6. 'The
iron did SWIM"
A theological seminary in the valley
of palms, near the river Jordan, had
become so popular in the time OF
Elisha, the prophet, that more accom-
modatjons were needed for the stu
dents. The classrooms and the dor
mitories must be enlarged or an en-
tirely new building constructed. What
will they do? Win they send up to
Jerusalem aud solicit contributions for
this undertaking? VIII they send out
agents to raise the money for a new
theological seminary? Having raised
the money, will they send for cedars
of Lebanon and marble from the quar-
ries where Ahab got the stone for the
pillars and walls OF his palace? No;
the students propose to build it them
selves. They were rugged boys. who
had been brought up in the country
and who had never been weakened by
the luxuries OF city life. All they ask
is that Elisha, their professor and
prophet go along with them to the
woods and boss the Job. They start
for the work, Elisha and his students.
Plenty Of lumber in those regions
along the Jordan. The sycamore is n
stout, strong tree and good for timber.
Mr.. Gladstone asked me if 1 had seen
IN Palestine any sycamore tree more
beautiful than the one we stood under
Mt Hawarden. told him had not.
The sycamores near the Jordan are
now attacked by Elisba's students, for
they must have lumber for the new
theological seminary. / suppose some
of the students made an awkward
stroke, and they were extemporized
axmen. Stand from underl Crash
goes one of the trees and another and
another. But something now happens
so wonderful that the occurrence viii
tax the credulity of the ages, so Won
derful 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
modern AK. it differed in the fact that
instead of the helve or handle being
thrust into n socket in the iron head
the head Of the AK was fastened on the
handle by leathern thong, and so 1t
might slip the helve. A student of the
seminary was swinging his AK against
one Of those trees, and whether IL was
at the moment he made his first stroke
and the chips few or was after he had
cut the tree from all sides so deep that
1t was ready TO fan we are not told.
but the ax head and the handle parted.
Being near the riverside, the ak head
dropped into the river and sank to the
muddy bottom. Great was the stu
dents dismay. II It had been his own
ak, 1t 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 IL to him, but
God helps the helpless, and he gener-
ally helps through some good and SYM
pathetic soul. and I'm this case 1t was
Elisha, who was I'm the woods and on
the river bank at the time He did not
see the Ak head fly OF, and so he asked
the student where it dropped. He was
shown the place where It went down
into the river. Then Elisha broke or
branch OF tree and threw IL into the
water, and the AK head rose from the.
depths OF the river and foated to the
bank, so that the student had Just to
stoop down and take up the restored
property. Now you see the meaning OF
my text, ''The iron did swim"
The Iron Did Swim.
Suppose hundred years ago some
one had told people that the time
would come when hundreds of thou
sands or tons OF iron would float on
the Atlantic and Pacific iron ships
from New York to Southampton, from
London to Calcutta, from San Francis
CO to Canton The man making such
prophecy would have been sent to
an asylum or carefully watched as in
competent 10 go alone. We have all
In our day seen iron swim. Now, if
man can make hundreds of tons of
metal float, l am disposed TO think
that the Almighty could make an ak
head float.
What" says some one. would be
the use OF such a miracle?" OF vast,
OF Infinite. OF eternal importance. Those
students were preparing for the min
lstry. They had Joined the theological
seminary to get all it's advantages.
They needed to have their faith
strengthened; they needed to be per-
suaded that God can do everything;
they needed to learn that God takes
notice OF little things; that there is no
emergency or life where he is not will
Ing TO help Standing on the banks of
That Jordan, those students OF that day
or the recalled AK head had their faith
REINFORCED, and nothing that they had
found out in the classrooms of that
learned institution had ever done more
In the way OF fitting them for their
coming profession.
L hear from different sources that
there Is great deal of infdelity In
some or the theological semlnaries of
our day. They think that the garden
OF Eden Is an allegory, and that Moses
did not write the Pentateuch. and that
the book OF Job is only n drama, and
That the book OF Jonah is an unrelia.
Die fish story, and that water was not
turned into wine, although the bar
tender now by large diution turns
wine into water. and that most OF the
so called miracles OF the Old and the
New Testaments were wrought by nat
urai causes When those infideIs grad
uate from the theological seminary
and take the pulpits OF America as
expounders of the Holy Scriptures,
Wnat advocates they will be OF that
gospel for the truth OF which the mar
tyrs diedl Hail the Polycarps and
Hugh Latimers and John Knoxes of
the twentieth century, believing the
Bible Is true in spots! Would to God
mat some great revival of religion
might sweep through all the theoloa-
icai seminaries of this land, confirming
the faith Of the coming expounders of
an entire Bible!
The Right to borrow.
furthermore, in that scene Of the
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