Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1902-01-24

Lne rOCkS lOf the confess Ihou
darkness, and it is night, wherein, all II the
young lions roar after their prey and seek
their meat from God. The sun arlseth,
they gather themselves together and lay
them down in their ders. Man goethl
forth unto his work and to his labor until
the evening. o Lord, how manifold are
Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou mace ma
all. The earth is full of Thy riches" How
do you like that sublime pastoral!
My subject also reminds us of the I'M
portance of keeping our chief Implement
for work in good order. I think that young
theological student on the banks OF Jor-
dan was to blame for not examining the.
axe before he lifted it that day against
tree. He could in moment have found
out whether the helve and the head were
firmly fastened. The simple fact was tnat
the axe was not in good order OF tne
strongest stroke that sent the eoge l NO
the hard sycamore would not have lett
the implement headless. So God has gwen
Let us keep it 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 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 eqniil-
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 type or
yardstick or scales or a tongue which IN
legislative hall or business circles or Sab,
bath class or pulpit is to speak TOR COO
and righteousness, but the axe viii not
be worth much until it has been sharp
ened on the grindstone of affection.
Go right through the world and, 60
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 revo!v-
ing wheel of mighty trouble. 1t was not
David. for he was dethroncd and bounded
by unflial Absalom. Surely it was not
Paul, for he was shipwrecked and whipped
with thirty-nine 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 de-
picted by cartoonists with more meanneSs
than any other man ever suffered, on the
way to meet bullet crashing through his
temples. ...,
But have come to tine 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 impossibilities may
be turned into possibilities. That axe
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 axe head be llited
without hand thrust deep into the mud
at the bottom Of the river? No; that IS
impossible. I 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 surface
of Jordan "the iron did swim"
Some one asks me, did you ever see
iron swim?" Yes, yes; many a. time. |
saw soul hardened until nothing could
make it harder. All styles OF SIN had
piled that soul. 1t was petrihed as 70 al
fine feeling. It had been hardening tor
thirty years. 1t had gone into the deep
est depths. It had been given up as lost.
The father had given it up. The mother,
the last to do so, had given it ND. 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 10 its pow
er and rose into the light, and, to the as
Punishment of the church and the world,
"the iron did SWIM" | have seen hun
dreds of cases like that When the dying
bandit On the cross beside Christ was con-
yerted. When Jerry McAuley, a ,rufianl
graduate Of Sing Sing prison, was changed
into O. great evangelist, so useful IN recia-
nation of wandering men and women that
the merchant princes of New York estao-
lished for him the Water street ana gre
morne missions and incurred at his burial
amid the lamentations OF a city Wheh
Newton. the blaspheming sailor, under the
mower 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 mar li
ket. was so changed in heart and lie tn, tnat
he could write that wonderful dream, Inc
Pilgrims Progress" in such way that IN
counted thousands have found through, II
the road from the city OF destruction 70
the Celestial city" In all these cases
think iron was made to swim. worship
the Cod who can do the Impossible, ro5
You have a Maynard boy. Only God
knows how YOU have cried over him. You
have fried everything for his reformation.
Where is he now-in this city, IN this I,
country. or has he crossed the sea? oh,
Won saw, II Go not know where he ls; he
vent away in the sulks and did not, say
where he was going" You have about
made up your mind that you viii never
hear from him again. Pretty hard pay he
gives YOU for all your kindness and the
NIGHTS Won sat up with him when he was
siclI, Perhaps he struck you one day when
Won were trying to persuade him to do bet.
| Ter, How different was the feeling OF that
hard list against your face from his httle,
hand in infancy patting your check
Father! Mother! That is an impossible
chat I would like to see God take hold OF
the conversion of that boy, for he will
never be anything but 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 "a! a;
IRON" But here is God who can Ill
the soul that has been deepest down.
| Here is a God who can raise a soul out
| of tha b,aclyest depths of sin and wretch
| edness. Here is God who can make iron
swim. :the God Of Elisha, the God of the
young student that stood in dismay on the
| hanks of the Jordan at the time OF the lost
| ave head. Lay hold OF the Lord in pray
| CT that viii take no denial.
| Alas, there are impossibles before thou
sands of people-callcd to do work that II
is impossible for them to do, called to beal
burdens that it is impossible for them tc
| bear. called to endure suffering that it !;
imposgible for them to endure. Read al
| the gospel promises, rally all your faith
| and. while you will always be called K
worship the God of hope, to-day, with al
the concentered energies Of my soul, L i'm
! piore You to bow down and worship the
| Cod who can turn the impossibles into
| the possibles. 1t was no trivial purpose
but for grand and glorious, uses l have
spoken to you to-day of the borrowed, the
- o.,J 4bo ras+orod ova head