Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1902-01-30
ON The IMPOSSIBLE,
IR. TALMAGE'S SUNDAY SERMON

II. TALMAGE'S SUNDAY SERMON !
His Discourse Shows How God Ac-
composites Things Beyond Human
Reason.
WASHINGTON, D. C.-In this discourse
Oh. Talmage makes practical use OF al oc-
currence i'll the Orient which has seldom
attracted particular attention; text, IL
Kings vi, 6, The iron did swim.'
a theological seminary in the valley OF
palms near the River Jordan, had become
50 popular IN the time OF Elisha, the pro-
phet, that more accommo ationss.Mere
needed Tor the students. The ciassrccms
and the dor1nitories must be enlarged or
an entirely new building constructed.
What will they do? Will they send up to
Jerusalem and solicit contributions for
this undertaking? Win they send out
agents to raise the money for new theo-
lnoney, will they send for cedars Of Leb-
anon and marble from the quarrles where
Ahab got the stone for the pillars and
walls OF his palace? No; the students
propose to build it themselves. They
were rugged boys, who had been brought
up in the country and who had never
been weakened by the luxuries of city life.
and prophet, SO along with them to the
woods and boss the job. They start for
the work, Elisha and bis students. Plenty
OF lumber IN those regions a.ong the Jor
dan. The sycamore is a stout, strong
tree ard good for timber. Mr.. Gladstone
asked me if I had seen in Palestine any
sycamore tree more beautiful than the one
we stood under at Hawarden. told him
l had not.
The sycamores rear the Jordan are
now attacked by E.isha's students, for
they must have lumber for the new thso-
| logical seminary. I suppose some of the
students made an awkward stroke, and
! they were e-stemporized axemen. Stand
| from under! Crash goes one of the trees
and another and another. But something
! now happens SO wonderful that the occur
renee Will tax the oreduiity of the ages, so
wonderful that many still think it never
i happened at all. One of the students, not
! able to own an axe, had borrowed one.
! You must remember that while the axe Of
o1den time was much like our r'odern axe,
it differed in the fact that instead of the
he.ve or handle being thrust into socket
in the iron head the head Of the axe was
| fastened on the handle by leatherl
/ thong, and so it might sip the helve. A
student Of the seminary was swinging his
IKE against one of those trees, and whether
it was at the moment he made his first
had cut the tree from all sides so deeu
that it was ready to fall We are not tod
but the axe head and the handle parted
Being near the riverside, the axe head
i dropped into river and sank to the muddy
: bottom. Great was the students dismay
If it had been his own axe, it would have
been bad enough. but the axe did not be-
long to him. He had no means to buy an
other for the kind man who had loaned il
to him, but God helps through some good
and sympathetic soul. and in this case il
was Elisha who was in the woods aud or
the RIVER bank at the time. He did not
see the axe head fly off. and SO he asked
the student where it dropped. He was
shown the place where it went down inte
the river. Then Elisha broke off branch
of tree and threw it into the water, ane
the axe head rose from the depths of the
river and hoated to the bank, SO that the
student had just to stoop down and takt
up the restored property. Now You SEE
the meaning Of my text, "The iron die
SWIM"
Suppose hundred years ago some OF.
had tod people the time would come wheI
hundreds of thousands Of tons Of iro1
would feat on the Atlantic and Pacific
iron ships from New York to Southamp
ton from London to Calcutta, from Sa:
Francisco to Canton. The man making
such a prophecy would have been sent t.
an asylum or carefully watched as lncom
petent to go alone. We have all in on
make hundreds Of tons Of metal float,
, am disposed to think that the Alaight,
; could make an axe head float.
"What," says some one, would be tn
{ use of such n1irac,e" OF vast, of inf
mite, Of eternal Importance. Those. stu
! dents were preparing for the ministry
They had joined the theological seminar
L. III cd
have their faith strengthened; they needle
to be persuaded that God can do every
thing: they needed to learn that Go
takes notice of little things: that there
no emergency of life where He is not vii
ing to help.
Standing on the banks of that Jordan
those students Of that day of the recalie
) axe head had their faith REINFORCED, an
; nothing that they found out in the c.ass
rooms of that learned institution had eve
done more in the way of fitting them TO
> their coming profession.
. I hear from different sources that ther
is great deal OF inide.ity in some Of tn
think that the Garden Of Eden is an ale
, | cory, and that Moses did not write tn
, Pentateuch, and that the book Of Job
: only drama, and that the book of iona
is an unreliable fish story, and that waite
was not turned into vine, although tn
bartender now by large dilution turn
: wine into water, and that most of the Sc
;, called miracles Of the O.d and the Me-
= Testamepts were wrought by naturi
| causes. When those infdels gradual
from the theological seminary and tax
the pnipits Of America. as expounders, c
$ the Hoy Scriptures, what advocates the
| will be of<that gospel for the truth c
| which the martyrs died.
Hail the Po,ycarps and Hugh Latimc1
and John Knoxes of the twentieth Gel
a fury, believing the Eib:e is true in spots
Woald to Cod that some great revival {
religion might sweep through al the thee
f losicol seninaries OF this land, confirn,in
; the With of the coming eSpounders OF a
entire Bible!
Furthermore, in tha. scene of the tex
God sanctions borrowing and sets fort
a tue Importance of returning. do nc
:. think there would have been any mirac;
performed If the roung man had owne
the axe that slipped the he,ve. The youn
] man cried out ia the hearing CT the Pre-
phet. "Alas, master, for it was borrowed
He had right to borrow. There az
; times when we have not only a right t