The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1902-01-23

bilities may be turned into posslbili-
ties. That ak head was sunken in the
muddiest river that could be found.
The alarmed student Of Elisha may
know where it went down and may
dive for it, and perhaps fetch it up,
but can the sunken ak 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 power 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"
Some one asks me, did you ever
see iron swim?" Yes, yes; many
time. l saw a soul hardened until
nothing could make it harder All
styles of sin had piled that soul. 1t
was petrified as to all fine feeling. 1t
had been hardening for thirty years.
1t had gone into the deepest depths
1t 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 respond
ed to it's power and rose into the light,
and, to the establishment of the
church and the world. 1.-The iron did
swim" | have seen hundreds of cases
like that. When the dying bandit on
the cross beside Christ's cross was
converted. When Jerry McAuley. a
rufiian graduate of Sing Sing prison,
was changed into a great evangelist,
so useful in reclamation of wandering
men and women that the merchant
princes of New York established for
him the Water Street and Cremorne
missions and mourned at his burial
amid the lamentations of a city.
When Newton, the disappearing sail
or, under the power of the truth was
brought to Christ and became one of
the mighticst preachers of the gospel
that England ever saw. When John
Bunyan, whose curses shocked even
the profane of the fish market, was
SO changed in heart and life that he
COulu Wlllc lIdL WUlueilNl aiSdlL,
The Pilgrims Progress in such a
way that uncounted thousands have
found through it the road from the
city of destruction to the celestial
city" In all these cases 1 think iron
was made to swim. | worship the GOD
VINO can do the impossible.
You have Maynard boy. Only God
knows how you have cried over him
You have tried everything for his ref
5 ormation. Where is he now-in this
4 city, in the country, or has he crossed
the sea-" oh" you say, 81 do not
: know where he is. He went away il
the sulks and did not say where lie
was going" You have about made VI
e your mind that you will never heal
e from him again. Pretty hard pay hi
! gives you for all your kindness ant
d the nights you sat up with him whel
n he was sick. Perhaps he struck 70,
II one day when you were trying to per
r suade him to do better. How differen
s. was the feeling of that hard ifs
o against your face from his little han,
u in infancy patting your cheek! Fla
II Their! Mother! That is an impossible
Y that l would like to see God take hole
i of, of the conversion of that boy, 70
o he will never be anything but boy tt
d you, though You should live to see hin
y fifty years of age. Did you say hi
G heart is hard? How hard? Hard a
n stone? Yes" you say, harder thai
n that. Hard as iron" But here is
n God who can lift the soul that ha
l. been deepest down. Here is a God VIII,
e can raise soul out of the black
st est depths of sin and wretchedness
Here is a God who can make irol
; swim, the God of Elisha, the God O
! the young student that stood in dis
v may on the banks of the Jordan at tn
o time of the lost AK head. Lay hold O
J. the Lord in a prayer that will take NJ
ia denial.