Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1902-01-25

| n this discourse DIR. Talmage makes
| ii practical use of an occurrence in the
O. Orient which has seldom attracted
| particular attention; text IL. Kings vi,
| u, 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 accommodations were
1 needed for the students. The class rooms
| and the dormitorieS must be enlarged or
| an entirely new building constructed.
| What will they do? Will they send mp
/ TO Jerusalem and solicit contributions for
| this undertaking? Will they send out
| agents TO raise the money for a new the
| illogical seminary? Having raised the
/ money. will they send for cedars of Lcb
! anon and marble from the quarries wherc
| Ahab got the stone for the pillars aud
/ walls of his palace? No; the students
/ propose to build it themselves. 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. 80 along with
/ them 10 the woods and boss the job. They
/ start for the work, Elisha and his stu
/ dents. Plenty of lumber in those regions
/ along the Jordan. The sycamore is 4
stout, strong tree and good for timber.
i Mr., Gladstone asked me if | had seen
| in Palestine any sycamore tree more
beautiful than the one we stood under
at Hawarden. l told him l had not.
The sycamores near the Jordan are
now attacked by Elisha'S students, for
! they must have lumber for the new the
illogical seminary. l suppose some of the
| students made an awkward stroke. and
they were extemporized axmen. Stand
from under! Crash goes one of 'he trees
/ and another and another. But something
/ now happens so wonderful that the oc-
| curTence will tax the creduity of The
/ ages, so wonderful that many still think
4 it never happened at all. One of the stu
4 dents, not able to own an AK, had Dor
/ rowed one. You must remember that
while the ak of olden time was much like
j our modern AK, il differed in the fact
i that instead of the helve or handle being
/ thrust into a 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
1 one of those trees, and whether il was
dAst 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
| it was ready to fall we are not told, but
| the ak head and the handle parted Be
ing near the riverside, the ak head drop
| ped into the river and sank to the mud
| dy bottom. Great was the students dis
| may. If it had been his own AK, il 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 helps through
/ some good and sympathetic soul. and in
4 this case it was Elisha. who was in the
| woods and on the river bank at The time.
| He did not see the AK head fly off, and
| SO he asked the student where it drop
| ped. He was shown the place where it
went down into the river. Then Elisha
| broke off a branch Of tree and threw
| it into the water, and the ak head rose
| from the depths OF the river and hoated
! to the bank, so that the student had
| just TO stoop down and take up the re~
| stored property. Now you see the mean-
| ing of my text, The iron did swim"
The Iron Did Swim.
| Suppose a hundred years ago some one
| had told people that the time would
1 come when hundreds OF thousands of ions
| of iron would float on the Atlantic and
| Pacific-iron ships from New York to
| Southampton. from London to Calcutta.
| from San Francisco 20 Canton. The
man making such a prophecy would have
been sent 10 an asylum or carefully
watched as incompetent 10 go alone. We
/ have all in our day seen iron swim. Now.
! X man can make hundreds Of tons OF
metal float, / an, disposed 90 think that
| the ,S'mishty could make an Ak head
| float.
Wv nat. says som" one, "wuuid be
the use Of .Gru mracle?' or vast II
infinite, Of eternal importance. Those
students were preparing for the ministry.
They had joined the theological seminary
to get all its advantages. They needed
TO have their faith strengthened; they
needed to be persuaded that God can do
| everything; they needed 20 learn that God
takes notice Of Ittlc things; ;hat ihprc
is no emergency OF life whore he is not
willing to help Standing on the banks
of that Jordan, those students If that
day Of the recalled TX head had their
faith reinforced. and nothing that they
had found out in the class rooms of that
in the way Of fitting them for theig
coming profession.
The Right to Borrow.
Furthermore in that scene Of tho text
God sanctions borrowing and sets forth
the Importance OF returning. ! DO not
think there would have been any miracle
performed il the young man had owned
the ak that slipped the hclve. The young
man cried out in he hearing Of the
prophet, a las master. for it was Dor
rowed"' He had right 20 borrow.
There are times when We have not only
a right TO borrow, but It is a duty 10
borrow. There are times when we ought
to lend, for Christ il his sermon on the
mount declared, Prom him that would
borrow Of thee turn not thou away" 1t
is right that one borrow the means OF
getting an education. as the yOIng stu
dent OF my text borrowed the ax. 1t is
right 70 borrow means for the forward
ing Of commercial ends. Most Of the vast