St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-03-01

whether Lne naive ana the mead were
firmly fastened. The simple fact was
the ak 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 III
with which to hew. Let us~keep il
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 ak 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 equilibrium we lose our head.
We expend in useless excitement the
nervous energy that we ought to have
employed in direct, straightforward
work. Your ak may be pen or .
type or a yardstick or scales or .
tongue which in legislative hall OF
business circles or Sabbath class or
pulpit is to speak for God and right
worth much until it has been sharp
ened on the grindstone Of afiliction.
Go right through the world, and go
right through all the past ages, and
show me one man or woman who has
done anything for the world worth
speaking of whose Ak was not ground
on the revolving wheel of mighty trou-
bic. It was not David, for he was de-
throned and bounded by unfilial Alb
salon. Surely it was not Paul, for he
was shipwrecked and whipped with
80 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 depicted by
cartoonists with more meanness than
| any other man ever suffered, on the
way to meet bullet crashing through
his temples.
But I 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 impossi-
bilities may be turned into possibili-
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 with
out hand thrust deep into the mud at
the bottom Of the river? No; that is
impossible. I 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: ibid you ever
see iron swim?'' Yes, yes; many q
time. I saw a soul hardened until
nothing could make it harder. All
styles of sin had piled that soul. 1t
was petrifed as to all fine feeling. It
had been hardening for 80 years. It
had gone into the deepest depths.
1t had been given up as lost. The IA
ther 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 it's power and rose into the light,
and, to the establishment of the church
and the world, "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, ruffian gradu-
ate of Sing Sing prison. was changed
into 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
Of a city. When Newton,
the disappearing sailor, under the pow
er 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 market, was so changed in heart
and life that he could write that won
derful dream, "The Pilgrims Prog
ress," in such way that uncounted
thousands have found through it the
road from the "city Of destruction" to
the celestial city" In all these cases
think iron was made to swim. wor.
ship the God who can do the impossi. |
ole.
You have wayward boy. Only God
Knows how you have cried over him.
You have tried everything for his ref
orma ton. Where is he now-in this
,ity, in this country, or has he crossed
The sea? "Oh," you say, II do not
know where he is. He went away in
he sulks and did not say where he
vas going" You have about made up
your mind that you will never hear
rom him again. Pretty hard pay he
gives you for all your kindness and
he nights you sat up with him when
le was sick. Perhaps he struck you
me day when you were trying to per-
uade him to do better. How different
vas the feeling of that hard fist
gainst your face from his little hand
n infancy patting your cheek! Fa-
her! Mother! That is an impossible
hat would like to see God take hold
#, the conversion of that boy, for he
viii never be anything but boy to
ou, though you should live to see him
0 years of age. Did you say his
cart is hard? How hard? Hard az
tone? EYES," you say; "harder than
hat. Hard az iron." But here is q
Tod who can lift the soul that has
cen deepest down. Here il God
tho can raise soul out of the black
st depths of sin and wretchedness. (.
[ere is a God who can make iron J.
vim. the God of Elisha, the God Of .
be young student that stood in dis
lay on the banks of the Jordan at the
me of the lost ak head. Lay hold of (.