The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-02-28

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/ aud hardih0od 1lat would help them iu
their mental and spiritual achievements
We who are toiliug for Che worlds better
ment need Drawn 1H well as brain, strong
bodies as well as illmined minds and con
seerated souls Many of those who ar
now doing the best work in church and
state got muscle and power Of endurance
from the fact that IN sariy life they wer
compelled 20 use axe or pillow or hml on
hammer, while many who were brought
/ up in the Injuries Of life give out befor,
the battle Is won. They are keen anc
sharp of mind but have no physical EN-
durance. They have the axe head. but nc
handle. The body is the handle Of tho
soul.
DO not feel lonely because your nearest
neighbor may be miles away, because the
width of the continent may separate you
from the place where your cradle was.
rocked and your fathers grave was dug
Weakened though you may be by lions
roar or panthers scream. God viii help
you, whether at the time the forest around
you raves IN the midnight hurricane or you
suffer from something quite insignificant,
like the loss of an axe head Take your
Bible out under the trees, If the weather
VIII permit, and after you have listened TO
the solo Of bird in the tree tops or the,
long meter psalm Of the thunder, read
those words Of the Bible, which must have
been written out Of doors: "The trees. of
the Lord are full of sap, the cedars Of
Lebanon which lie hath planted, where
the birds make their nests as for the
stork, the fir trees are her house. The high
hills are refuge for the wild goats and
the rocks for the comics. Thou makest
darkness, and it is night wherein all the
beasts Of the forest do creep forth. The
young lions roar after their prey and seek
their meat from God. The sun ariseth.
they gather themselves together and lay
them down in their dens Man goeth
forth unto his work and to his labor until
the evening. 0 Lord, how manifold are
Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made
all. The earth is full Of Thy riches" How
do YOU Ike that sublime pastoral?
My subject also reminds us of the inn
portance Of keeping our chief implement
for work IN good order. / 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 a
tree. He could in a moment have found
out whether the helve and the head were
firmly fastened. The simple fact was that
the axe was not in good order or the
strongest stroke that sent the edge into
the hard sycamore would not have left
bNG HllplGulGub uedultSs. 90 NDu has gwen
every one of us an axe with which to hew.
Let us keep it in good order, having
been sharpehed by Bible study and
strengthened by prayer. The reason we
sometimes fail in our work is because we
have a 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 or
yardstick or scales or a tongue which in
legislative hall or business circles OF Sab
bath class or pulpit is TO speak for God
and Righteousness, but the axe will 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 revolv-
ing wheel Of mighty trouble. 1t was not
/ David, for he was dethroned and bounded
/ by un6lial Absalom. Surely it was not
/ Paul, for he was sbipwrecked 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 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 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 il and perhaps fetch it
up, but can the sunken axe head be lifted
without a hand thrust deep into the mud
at the bottom of the river? MOI that is
impossible. / admit, so far as human pow
er Is concerned, IL 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 a, time. |
saw q soul hardened until nothing could
make it harder. All styles of sin had
piled that soul. 1t was petrifed as to- all
fine feeling. 1t had been hardening for
thirty years. 1t had gone into, the deep
est depths. 1t had been given up as lost.
The father had given it up. The mother,
the last to do 50, 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 responded to- its pow
er and rose into the light, and, to the as
constituent Of the church and the world,
"the iron did swim" l have seen hun
!. dreds Of cases like that When the dying
bandit on the cross beside Christ was con.
verted When Terry MpAulev q rllfian
graduate of Sing Sing prison, was changed
into a great evangelist, so useful in recla-
nation Of wandering men and women that
the merchant princes of New York estab
lished for him the Water street and Gre
m0rne missions and mourned at his burial
amid the lamentations Of a city. When
Newton, the blaspheming sailor. under the