Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1902-02-01

Lord. how manifold are thy works. In
wisdom hast thou made them all The
earth is full of thy riches" How do
you like that sublime pastoral?
My subject also reminds US of the
plement for work in good order.
think that young theological student
on the banks of Jordan was to blame
for not examining the ak before he
lifted it that day against a tree. He
could in a moment have found out
whether the helve and the head 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 ak
with which to flew. Let us keep it in
good order, having been sharpened by
Bible study and strengthened by
prayer.
Your ak may be a pen or a type
or yardstick or a scales OF a tongue
which in legislative hall or business
circles or Sabbath class or pulpit is to
speak for God and righteousness, but
the ak will not be worth much until
it has been sharpened on the grind
stone of aff1iction.
But have come to the foot of the
Alps, which we must climb befcr0 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
without 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
time I 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 its power and rose into the light,
and, to the astonishment of the
church and the world '.the iron did
swim" 1 have seen hundreds of cases
like that. When the dying bandit on
the cross beside Christ's cross was
converted. When Jerry McAuley, a
ruff1an 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 esta ablished for
him the Water Street and Cremorne
missions and mourned at his burial,
amid the lamentations of city
When Newton, the disappearing SAIL
or, 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 market, was
SO changed in heart and life that he
could write that wonderful dream,
4n6 1lSIAm ITOSISSS, III SUCH u
way that uncounted thousands have
found through it the road from the
s-city of destruction" to the celestial
city" In all these cases think iron
was made to swim. / worship the God
who can do the impossible.
You have a wayward boy. Only God
knows how you have cried over him.
You have tried everything for his ref
ormation. Where is he now-in this
city, in the country, or has he crossed
the sea-" "Oh," you say, ''I 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 per-
suade him to do better. How different
was the feeling Of that hard fist
against your face from his little hand
in infancy patting your cheeki Fa-
ther, Mother. That is an impossible
that would like to see God take hold
of, of the conversion of that boy, for
he will never be anything but a boy to
you, though you should live to see him
nifty 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 a
God who can lift the soul that has