Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1902-01-30
NEW SERIES-VOI. XII Nu2

rlrSii 1ISii thSiedi ana Spiritual achievements
We VINO are toilins for the worlds better
Tnen5 need Drawn as well as brain. ssrn,v
boaies as well as li'umined minds ard con-
secrated sou 5. Many Of those who are
now dong the best work in church and
state got. !nusc,e and power Of endurancs
from the fact that in cary life they were
compelled to use axe Or p.ow O. tiail or
hammer, while many who were broueht 5
up In the lu1uries OF life give out before
the batt.c IS won. They arc keen and
sharp OF mind, but have no physical en-
durance. They have the axe head, but no
hs1t-e. 1he body is the handle of the
son'.
My subject also reminds us of the im- :
portanee OF keeping our chief implement
ior work IA good order. I think that young
theological student oa the banks of Jor-
Gan was TO b,ame for not examining the
axe before he lifted it that day against a
tree. He could il a moment have iound
out whether the he.ve and the head were
firmly fastened. The simple fact was that
the axe was not ia good order or the
strongest stroke that sent the edge into
the hard sycamore would not have left
the implement head.ess. So God has given
every one OF us an axe with which to hew1
Let Us keep it in good order, having
been sharpe1cd by Bib'e study and
sometimes fail IN our work is because VIC
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 equili-
brium we lose our head. We expend In
useless excitement the nervous energy that
we ought to have employed in direct.
straightforward work
Your axe may be pen or a type OF 4
yardstlck or q scales or TONGUE which in
legislative hail or business circles or Sab.
bath c.ass or pulpit is TO speak for God
and righteousness, but the axe will not
be worth much until it has been sharp
cncd on the grindstoae Of af1iction.
Go right through the world and Ed
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. It was not
| by unfiiial Absaiom. Surely it was not
Par', for he was shnwrecked and whipped
| with thirty-nine striDes from rods of e.na~
| wool on his way to beheadrent.
Surely it was not Abraham Lincoln,
called by every vile name that human
and satanic turpitude could invent and de-
plcted by cartoonists with more meannes3
than any other man ever suffered, on the
way to meet bullet crashing through his
| 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 an
| this theme how the irpossibilities may
| be turned into possibilities. That axe
head was sunlen in the Inuddiest 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 axe head he lifted
without hand thrust deep into the mud
| impossible. l admit, SO far, as human pow.
er is concerned, it is impossible, but with
God all things are possible. After the
tree branch was thrown upon the surfac
of Jordan "the iron did swina.''
Some one asks me, Did you ever sec
iron swim:' Yes, yes; many time. k
saw soul hardened until nothing eeuEH
piled that soul. It was petrifed as to all
fine feeling. It had been hardening. for
thirty years. It had gone into the deep
est depths. It had been given up as lost
The father had given it up. 'fhe mother,
the last to Go SO, had given it up. Bur
one day in answer to some prayer branch
OF the disfo-iaged tree OF Ca.vary was
thrown into the dark and sullen stream,
and the sunken soul responded to it's pow
er and rose into the light, and, to the as
tonish1nent of the church and the woc.d,-
s'the iron did SWIM I have reen hun
dreds of cases like that When the dying
bandit on the cross beside Christ was con-
l VerLGO. w nSl OGIiy N1Sadicy, AuL10AL
graduate of Sing Sing prison, was changed
into a great evangelist, so useful IN recsa--
nation of wandering men and women that
the merchant princes of New York estab~
ished for him the Water street and Crc-
!. morne missions and mourned at his burial,
amid the lamentations Of q city. When
Newton, the b,asphcming sailor, under the
power Of the truth was brought to CHRIST
: and became one Of the mightlest preachers
, of the gospel that England cve- saw.
When John Bunyan, whose. curses
shocked even the proiane OF the tlsh mar
ket, was SO changed in heart and life that
} he could write that wonderful dream, The
Pilgrims Progress in such way that I'M
counted thousands have found through it
. the road from the Getty 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 everyt thing for his refornat:a1-
. country, or has he crossed the ssa: Oh;
YOU say, 81 do not know where he is.~ He
went away in the sulSs and did not say
, where he was going.v You have about
} mace up your mind that you will never
} hear from him again. Pretty hard pay he
: kgves you for all your kindness and the
: nights Won sat up with him when he was
you were trying to persuade him to do bet
ter How different was the feeling Go OF ,;l., that
hard fist against your face from hiss little
, hand in infancy patting your check.
. Father! Mother! That is an impossible
that would like to see God take ho.d ct;
the conversion of that boy, for he viii
{ rever be anything but boy, to You.
though you shd I'D live live to- to siS hs m heara y
hard? How hard? Hard as stone? Yes =
YOU say. "hardcr than that. Hard as
iroa." But here is God who caa hit
: the soul that has been deepest down.
Here is a God who can raise a, soul ont
/ of the b,aclest depths Of sin and wretch
edness Here is God who can make iroa
swim, the God of Elisha. the God of the
! young student that stood in dismay on the
banks of the Jordan at the time OF the lost
: axe head Lay ho;d of the Lo-d II pray
er that viii take no denial.
: A'as, there are impossio'es bcfor: thou-
sands of peop'e-called to do work that It
is impossible for them to 60. called to bear
burdens that it is impossible for them to
} bear, called to endure suffering that It y