Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1902-01-25

4 Il
| young lions roar after their prey and seek
their meat from God. The sun ariseth,
they gather themselves together and lay
them down In their dens. Man goeth
forth unto his work and to his labor until
the evening. o Lord. how manifold are
/ Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made
all. The earth is full of Thy riches" How
do YOU ike that sublime pastoral?
I My subject also reminds US of the i'm
portance of keeping our chief implement
TOR work in good order. think that young
theological student on the banks OF Jor-
dan was to blame for not examining the
axe before he lifted it that day against a
tree. He could in a moment have found
out whether the helve and the head were
the axe was not IN good order or the
strongest stroke that sent the edge into
the hard sycamore would not have left
the implement headless. So God has given
every one of US an axe with which to hew.
Let US keep it in good order, having
been sharpened by Bible study and
strengthened by prayer. The reason we
sometimes fail in our work is because We
have dull axe or we do not know how
Alright to swing it. The head is not Alright
on the handle. At the time we want the
most skill for work and perfect equih-
brium we lose our head. We expend in
useless excitement the nervous energy that
we ought to have employed in direct,
straightforward work. --si
:. Your axe may be a pen or type or a
yardstick or a scales or a tongue which in
legislative hall or business circles or Sab
bath class or pulpit is to speak for God
and righteousness, but the axe will not
be worth much until it has been sharp
ened on the grindstone OF affection.
Go right through the world and 60
right through all the past ages. and show
me one man or woman who has done any
thing for the world worth speaking Of
ing wheel of mighty trouble. 1t was not
David. for he was dethrcaed and hounded
by unflial Absalom. Surely it was not
Paul, for he was shipwrecked and whipped
with thirty-nine stripes from rods OF elm
wood on his way TO beheadment.
- Surely it was not Abraham Lincoln,
called by every vile name that human
and satanic turpitude could invent and de-
picted by cartoonists with more meanness
than any other man ever suffered. on the
way TO meet bullet crashing through his
temples.
. But have come to the foot of the Alps,
which we must climb before we can see
the wide reach of my subject. See in all
this theme how the impossibilities may
he turned into possibilities. That axe
head was sunken in the muddiest river
that could be found. The alarmed student
of Elisha MAJ know where it went down
and may dive for It and perhaps fetch it
up, but can the sunken axe head be lifted
without hand thrust deep into the mud
at the bottom OF the river? No; that Is
impossible. admit, SO far as human pow
er is concerned, it is impossible, but with
God all things are possible. After the
tree branch was thrown upon the surface
of Jordan "the iron did SWIM"
Soma ono aSEr vna sEI6d vau ava,. eao
iron SWIM" Yes, yes; many time. l
saw soul hardened until nothing could
make it harder. All styles Of sin had
piled tina. soul. It was petrifed as to all
fine feeling. It had been hardening for
thirty years. 1t had gone into the deep
est depths. II had been given up as lost.
The father had given it up. The mother,
the last to do SO, had given it up. But
one day in answer to some prayer branch
of the disfoliaged tree OF Calvary was
thrown into the dark and sullen stream,
and the sunken soul responded to its pow
er and rose into the light, and, to the as
constituent of the church and the world,
the iron did swim" l have seen hun
dreds Of cases like that. When the dying
bandit on the cross beside Christ was con-
verted. When Jerry McAuley, q ruffian
| graduate of Sing Sing prison, was changed
| into a great evangelist, SO useful In recla-
nation of wandering men and women that
the merchant princes of New York estab
: lished for him the Water street and Gre
morne missions and mourned at his burial,
amid the lamentations of a city. When
Newton. the disappearing sailor, under the
power OF the truth was brought to Christ
and became one of the miehtiest preachers
| Of the gospel that England ever saw.
! When John Bunyan, whose curses
shocked even the profnne of the fish mar
ket. was so changed in heart and life that
he coald write that wonderful dream, The
Pilgrims Progress" in such a way that I'M
counted thousands have found through it
/ the road from the city OF destruction" to
:ae celestial city" In all these cases
think iron was made to swim. | worship
the God who can do the impossible.
You have n Maynard boy. Only God
knows how You have cried over him. You
have tried everything for his reformation.
Where is he nOw-in this city, in this
country, or has he crossed the sea? oh"
you say, II do not know where he Is. He
went away in the sullls and did not say
where he was going" You have about
made up your mind that You will never
hear from him again. Pretty hard pay he
gives you for all your kindness end the
nights YOU sat up with him when he was
sick. Perhaps he struck you one day when
you were trying to persuade him to do bet
ter. How different was the feeling Of that
taaA AS "Sn4stSS sSNA 49, -aS-tA ass 49,
hand in infancy patting your cheecki
Father, Mother. That is an impossible
that l would like to see God take hold of.
the conversion of that boy, for he will
never be anything but boy to you,
though you should live to see him fifty
years of age. Did YOU say his heart is
hard? How hard: Hard as stone? Yes"
You say. harder than that. Hard as
iron" But here is God who can lift
the soul that has been deepest down. =
Here is a God who can raise n soul out
OF the blacklist depths of sin and wretch
edness.N Here is God who can make iron
swim, ythe God of Elisha, the God OF the
young student that stood in dismay on the
banks of the Jordan at the time of the lost
axe head Lay hold of the Lord in pray
er that will take no denial.
ALAS, there are impossibles before thou
sands Of people-called TO do work that it
is impossible for them to do, called to bear
burdens that it is impossible for them to
bear, called TO endure suffering that it is
impossible for them to endure. Read all
the gospel promises, raN all your faith,
and. while you will always be called to
worship the God OF hope, to-day, with all
the concentered energies of my soul, I i'm
plore You to bow down and worship the
God who can turn the impossibles into
the possibles. 1t was no trivial purpose,
but for grand and glorious uses I have
spoken to you to-day of the borrowed, the
lost and the restored axe head.
Icopyright. 1902 L. Klopsch.l
THE LEATHER TIRTIF