The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-01-21

toe uU9 We want q o Skis TOT
work and perfect equilibrium we .ose
our head We expend In useless ex-
element the nervous energy that we
ought to have employed In direct.
straightforward work. Your Ak may
be a pen or q type or q yardstick or q
hall or business circles or Sabbath
class or pulpit Is TO speak for God and
righteousness. but the ax will not be
worth much until IL has been sharp
ened on the grindstone OF afliction.
Go right through the world. and go
right through all the past ages. and
show me n man or woman who has
done anything for the world worth
speaking OF whose Ak vas not ground
on the revolving wheel OF mighty trou.
bic. 1t was not David. for he was de-
throned aud bounded by unfiial Alb.
SALON.. Surely IL was not Paul. for he
was shipwrecked and whipped with
tlirty-nine stripes from DDS of elm
wood on his way TO detachment. Sure
ly 1t was not Abraham Lincoln. called
by every vile name hat human and
satanic turpitude could invent and de-
picted by cartoonists with more mean.
ness than any other man ever suffered.
on the way TO meet q bullet crashing
through his temples.
God Docs the Impossible
But ] have come 10 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 possibilities.
That Ak head was sunker in the mud
diest river that could be found. The
alarmed student OF Elisha may know
where ii went down and may dive for
it and perhaps fetch ii up. but can the
sunken az head be lifted without a
hand thrust deep into the mud at the
bottom of the river? No; that is i'm
possible. ! 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 a
time. | saw a soul hardened until
nothing could make it harder. All
styles of sin had piled hat soul. 1t
was petrifed as to all fine feeling. II
had been hardening for thirty years.
1t had gone into the deepest depths.
1t had been given up as lost. The ia
Their had given it up. The mother. the
last to do SO. had given it up. Bet one
day in answer TO some prayer a 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. 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 ruffian gradu.
ate of Sing Sing prison. was changed
into a great evangelist, S useful in
reclamation of wandering men and wo.
men that the merchant princes Of New
York established for him the Water
Street and Cremorne missions and
mourned at his burial. amid the lamen'
tations Of q 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
market, was so changed in heart and
life that he could write that wonder.
full dream, 1.-THE Pilgrims Progress
in such a way that uncounted thou
sands 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. I wor
ship the God who a do the impossi.
BILE.
Lost and Restored.
You have a hayward boy. Only God
knows how you have cried over him
w. --.z - -,~---- o. IL 80