The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1902-03-25
1.-THE IRON DID SWIM"
Rev. DR.. TaImage Tells of Some of
the Wonders of Divine
Power.
Superior to Every Law of Nature Which He
Has Made for Mankind

Has Made for Mankind.
WASHINGTON, d. C.-In this discourse
DIR. Talmage makes practical use OF an oc.
currence IN the Orient which has seldom
attracted particular attention; text, IL
hlngs Vi, b, The iron did swim"
a theological seminary IN the valley OF
palms near the River Jordan, had become
so popular IN the time OF Elisha, the pro-
phet, that more accommodations were
needed for the students The classrooms
and the dormitories must be enlarged or
nm entirely new building constructed.
! What will they do? Will they send up to
! Jerusalem and solicit contributions for
/ agents to raise the money for a new theo-
/ logical seminary? Having raised the
money, will they send for cedars of Leb-
anon and marble from the quarries 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 Injuries of city life.
AL they ask Is that Elisha, their professor
i and prophet, go along with them TO the
! woods and boss the job. They start for
the work, Elisha and his students Plenty
| OF lumber IN those regions along the Jor-
| dan. - The sycamore is a stout, strong
tree and good for timber. Mr.. Gladstone
! asked me If l had seen in Palestine any
! we stood under at Hawarden. l told him
had not.
| ; The sycamores near the Jordan are
! now attacked by Elisha's students, for
they must have lumber for the new theo!
logical seminary. l suppose some of the
students made an awkward stroke, and
| they were eNtemporized 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 credulity of the ages, so
| wonderful that many still think it never
happened at all. One of the students, not
| able TO own an axe, had borrowed one.
! II on must remember that while the axe of
! olden time was much like our modern axe,
/ 1t differed in the fact that instead of the
| helve or handle being thrust into a socket
/ IN the iron head the head of the axe was
| fastened on the handle by a leathern
/ thong, and so 1t might slip the heve A
! student OF the seminary was swinging his
/ axe against one of those trees, and whether
| 1T was at the moment he made his first
stroke and the chips flew or was after he
had cut the tree from all sides so deep
! that it was ready to fall we are not told,
| but the axe mead and the handle parted
Being near the riverside, the axe head
! 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-
I long to him. He had no means TO buy an
other for the kind man who had loaned it
! to him, but God helps through some good
and sympathetic soul. and in this case it
! was Elisha who was in the woods and on
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 into
the river Then Elisha broke off branch
OF tree and threw it into the water, and
the axe head rose from the depths of the
river and foated to the bank, so that the
student had Just to stoop down and take
up the restored property. Now you sec
the meaning of my text, "The iron did
swim" ~ -r
e Suppose a hundred years ago some one
had told people the time would come when
hundreds of thousands of tons of iron
/ would float on the Atlantic and Pacific
iron ships from New York to Southamp.
| ton, from London to Calcutta, from San
Francisco to Canton. The man making
such prophecy would have been sent to
an asylum or carefully watched incom.
petent to 60 alone. We have all in our
day seen iron swim. Now, if man can
make hundreds OF tons of metal float, [
am disposed to thinl, that the Almighty
could make an axe head float.
What" says some one. would be the
use of such a miracle" OF vast, of ici-
mite, Of eternal Importance. Those stu.
dents were preparing for the ministry.
! They had joined the theological seminary
have their faith strengthened; they needed
to be persuaded that God can do every.
thing; they needed to learn that God
takes notice OF little things; that there 10
no emergency OF life where He is not will.
ing to help.
Standing on the banks of that Jordan.
those students of that day of the recalled
axe head had their faith REINFORCED and
nothing that they found out in the class.
rooms of that learned institution had ever
done more In the way OF fitting them for
their coming profession.
l hear from different sources that there
is great deal OF inhdelty in some OF the
theological seminaries of our day. They
think that the Garden of Eden is an allie
gory and that Moses did not write the
Pentateuch, and that the book of job is
only a drama, and that the book of Jonah
is an unreliable fish story, and that water
was not turned into wine, although the
! bartender now by large dilution turns
wine into water, and that most of the so
called miracles OF the Old and the New
| Testaments were wrought by natural
causes. When those infdes graduate
| from the theological seminary and take
| the pulpits Of America as expoundc-s o.
the Holy Scriptures, what advocates they
will be of that gospel for the truth OF
which the martyrs died
Hail the Polycarps and Hugh Latmer'
and John KnoXes of the twentieth cen
t6ry, believing the Bible is true in spotsl
would 10 GOd That some great revival OF
religion might sweep through all the thco.
/ logical semiuarics OF TINS land, confirming
the faith Of the coming cxpounders of an
entire Bible
Furthermore, i'm that scene Of the text
| God sanctions borrowing and sets forth
the importance of returning. i do not
think there would have been any miracle
performed II the Young man had owned
the axe that slipped the hcive. The young
man cried out IN the hearing of the pro
phct Alas, master for 10 was borrowed"
lie bad right to borrow. There arc
times when We have not only % right to
borrow, but 10 is n duty TO- borrow There
lrc times when we ought Co lend for Christ
N His sermon ON the mount declared
From him that would borrow OF thee turn
not thou away"
il IS right that one borrow the means
Of getting an education. as the young stu
dent of my text borrowed the axe. IL is
right TO borrow means for the forwarding
Of commercial ends Most of thc vast for.
tunes that now ovtrshadow the land were
Matched out of n borrowed dollar
Those students iu the valley of palms
| by the Jordan had % physical strength
and bardhood that would help them in
their mental and spiritual achievements
We who nre t0iliug for the worlds better
mcnt need Drawn as well as brain strong
bodies as wei as illumiued minds and COM
Becrated souls Many of those who are