The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-26

ouCCeSsIul m the pIOIecsioHS. eating the sick or advocating the law
 or preaching the gospel. fought their OWE Msy on and up. Those are the Kind oI men men who know what education Is worth ana Know how to use it. Many or us remember that In college days the sons of anluent fathers, with plenty of money |
 p spend and horses to drive and libra- rles crowded with books never read and |
 wardrobes that kept them in pcrplexity |
 as to which of many garments was ap- |
 propriate for the weather that day, were
 have been worth to the . world nothing |
 since, while the young men in college
 who had to economtze three months in
 cs1s to book they nesdsd snd
 diploma have since wrought nightly for God and the truth. turning the world up-
 side down because it was wrong side up.
 In the summer watering places, North,
 South, East and West. in the great ho-
 tels. serving at table and in baggage
 room. are theological students who are
 in July and August the means by which they may study the other months of the
 year. hail them;. cheer them; bless
 observatories, the pr. Motts in your med
 ical colleges, the Rufus Choates in your
 courtroonis. the Bishon McIlvanes in your
 pulpits. Let them not now be ashamed of the ax which they hew the beam Tor
 Elisha's seminary.
 Superiority of God.
 Those students in the valley of palms
 bv fine Jordan had a physical strength and hardfhood that would help them m their mental and spiritual achieveme@ntS @ torment need brawn as well as praih,
 strong bodies as well as illumined minds and consecrated souls, Many or tnose church and state got muscle and power of endurance from the fact that In early life they were compelled to use ax or blow or. fail or hammer; wnile many s.yt,& hrn oh m in life give out before the battle IS won. They are keen and sharp of mind, put have no physical endurance They nave the ax head, but. no handle. The pouy Is the handle of the soul.
 Let all those who toll for their .educa- ! ton remember they are especially Ia, | the ax head should fly the heive that | very hinderment may come time turn | out advantageously, as the accfuent by | the river Jordan. which seemed to finish | build the new seminary resulted m l splendid demonstration of the power Of l Elisha,s God to help any one who helps | himself. No ax that was ever wielded | has wrought so we'll as that. ax, the
 handle and head of which parted.
 Notice, also. how God is superior to | strongest law of nature, the law of gray | itation. The stick that Elisha threw into | the Jordan fioated, but the ax head sunk. By inexhorable law it must go down ,ihnat into | sO | so much as touch the hard. heavy metal sought the surface. There 1t is. the l floating ax head. What a rebuke to | those who reject miracles on the ground | that they are contrary to nature. as | though the law were stronger than the | God who made the law! Again and again
 Witness the scene on the banks of the | same Jordan. where, in after time, the l ax head sank and rose. Elijah stood 1 there, wearing cape of sheepskin,, when I fohf Gfir in | a flashing eQuipage descended. EliJah | stepped into it. and on wheels of hre. drawn by horses of fire. he rose. Fifty tains to see If the body of Elijah had
 Ha picked at bx birds of prey. but the search was in vain. The law of gravitation had l been defeated.
 Wonders of Divine Power.
 There Christ stood by his disciples on the Mount of Olives after his coming | out of the scpulcher. No ladders iet | down for his ascension. but his feet iift from the hill, and he goes up until the | curtain of cloud drops, and he is in- | visible. Law of gravitation again unhar-
 messed. Enoch, Methuselah's father, es,
 caping death, went up bodily ana nd VIII VIII all the good who shall be still alive at 1 the end of the world They will not need
 wings. Every one of the millions Of our
 planet who, loved and served the Lord. if then alive. will "be caught up: as | the Bible says. body as well as soul, the
 law of gravitation paralyzed. Goa
 Oh. like the miracles. because they
 show God independent of everything | Notice also the divine mower in the I backwoods. Wonderful things were donn l at the cities of Jericho and Jerusalem | and Babylen and Nineveh, and the great | cities of our time have seen the divine | power. but this miracle of my text WAS
 in the backwoods. far away from tne | city, in the lumber districts, where the | students had gone to cut timber for the ! new theological seminary. And 1T tnis
 sermon shall come sar as It tn wii ast some tbirty | years. without missing week. let me
 say to those far away from the house
 of God and in the mountain districts | that my text shows the divine power In | the backwoods The Lord by every stream as He certainly was by the Jor- | dan, on every mountain as surely as as on Tiberias. by every rock as by the | one whose gushing waters slaked the | thirst of the marching Israelites.
 est 0 neishbor sT @ may may be miles away, be- cause the width of the continent may separate you from the place where your
 cradle was rocked and your tSo1h fa,heT So | may be by Hons roar or panthers 1 scream. God will help you,. whether at | the time the forest around you raves | from something quite insignificant, like | the loss of an ax head. Take your Bible l out under the trees. if the weather VIII permit and after you have listened to | the solo of a bird in the treetops or the | long meter psalm of the thunder. read | those words of the Bible, which must | have been written out of doors: The trees of the Lord are full of sap, the cadars of Lebanon which He hath plant | ed where the birds make their nests; | as for the stork. the fir trees are her house. The high hills are a refuge for | tke wild goats and the rocks for the | comics, Thou makest darkness. and It l Is night wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. The 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 them alK The | earth is full of Thy riches" How d" you like that sublime pastoral.
 Overcome Evil.
 My subject also reminds us of the i'm | portance of keeping our chief implement | for work in good order. l think that yo1ng theological student on the banks of Jordan was to blame for not exam l ming the ax before he lifted 1t that day | against d tree. He could in moment have found out whether the helve and | the head were firmly fastened, The
 simple fact was the ax was not an good order or the strongest stroke that sent | the edge into the hard sycamore would not have left the implement headless. e. CfoA han ufvan aXerv one Of ua an