Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1902-02-06
handle. The body is the handle of the

from the place where your cradle was
rocked and your fathers grave was dug
Weakened though you may be by lions
roar or panther's scream. God will help
you, whether Mt the time the forest around
yoM raves in the midnight hurricane or you
suffer from something quite insignificant,
like the loss of an axe head. Take your
Bible out under the trees. if the weather
will permit. and after you have listened to
the solo of bird in the tree tops or the
long meter psa m OF the thunder, read
those words of the Bih,e. which must have
been written out Of doors: ''The trees OF
the Lord are full of sap, this cedars of
Lebanon which He hath planted, where
the birds make their nests; as for the
stcrk, the fir trees are her house. The high
hills are refuge for the wild goats and
the rocks for the comics. Thou makest
darkness. and it 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
all. The earth is full of Thy riches" How
do YOU like that sublime pastoral?
My subject also reminds lis of the i'm
portance of keeping our chief Implement
for work in good order. think that Young
theological student on the banks of Jor
dan was to blame 70" not examining the
axe before he lifted it that day against a
tree He could in = moment have found
out whether the he.vc and the head were
firmly fastened. The simple fact was that
the axe was u in good order or the
strongest stroke that sent the edge into
the hard sycamore would not have left
the implement headiess. 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 Bibe study and
strengthened by prayer. The reason 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 eouil
brium we lose our head. We expend i'll
useless excitement the nervous energy that
we ought to have employed in direct,
straightforward work.
Your axe may be pen or a type or a
yardstick or scales 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
cnAd on the grindstone Of affiictiou.
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
whose axe was not ground on the revolv-
ing wheel of mighty trouble. 1t was not
David, for he was dethroned and bounded
by uniiial Absalom. Surely it was not
Paul, for he was shpwrecked 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
To hI,1l tbronob
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
be turned into possibilities. That axe
head was sunken in the muddiest river
that could be found The alarmed student
| and may dive for it aad perhaps fetch it
up. but can the sunlen 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
of Jordan 'the iron did SWIM I
Some one asks me, 'Did you ever see
iron swim?" Yes, yes; many "a time. |
saw a soul hardened until nothing could
make it harder. All styles of sin had
piled that soul. 1t was petridcd as to all
fine feeling. 1t had been hardening for
thirty years. II had gone. into the deep
est 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 ard sullen stream,
and tie sua!,ea scpl responded to its pow
CT and rose into The, light, and, to the as
= oe ha oh
the iron did sw-in,," l have seen hum
dreds Of ea,as like that Whc;. TIE dying
. b.ai.t on the cross beside Christ Was cot.
verted. When Jerry McAuley, .rrt+ial
graduate OF Sing Sing prison, was changed
| into great evangelist, so useful in recla-
nation of wandering msn lnd women that
the merchant princes OF New York esGab-
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 mightiest preachers
of the gospel that England ever saw.
When John Bunyan, whose curses
shocked even the profane OF the fish mar
kes, was so changed in heart and life that
he could write that wonderful dream, The
Pilgrims Progress" in such way that un-
counted thousands have found through it
the road from the ''city of destruction" to
the celestial city, In all these cases L
think iron was made to swim. | worship
the God who can do the impossible.
You have wayward boy. Only God
knows how you have cried over him. You
have tried everything foS 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 sulks 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 and 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
hard list against your face from his little
hand in infancy pat.ing your check!
Father! Mother! That IS an impossible
that | would like to see God take hold of,
the conversion of that boy, for he win
never be anything but boy. to you,