Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1902-01-22

OAAehl Nlitu has SSAAoAA aAtAaNANN
particular attention; text, III. Kings vi,
6, ''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
prophet, that more accommodations We're
needed for the students. The class rooms
and the dormitories 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: Will they send out
agents TO raise the money for new the
illogical seminary? Having raised the
money, viii 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 luxuries of city
life. All they ask is that Elisha, their
professor and prophet, go along with
them to the woods and boss the job. They
start for the work, Elisha and his stu
dents. Plenty of lumber in those regions
along the Jordan. The sycamore is 4
stout, strong tree and good for timber.
Mr.. Gladstone asked me if | had seen
in Palestine any sycamore tree more
beautiful than the one we stood under
at Hawarden. / told him | had not.
The sycamores near the Jordan are
now attacked by Elisha's students, for
they must have lumber for the new the
illogical seminary. 1 suppose some of the
students made an awkward stroke, and
fbatr W.
from under. Crash goes one of the trees
and another and another. But something
now happens so wonderful that tie oc-
currence will tax the credulity Ga the
ages, so wonderful that many still think
it never happened at all. One of the stu
dents, not able to own an ak, had bor-
rowed one. You must remember that
while the ak of olden time was much like
our modern ak, it differed in the fact
that instead of the helve or handle being
thrust into a socket in the iron head
the head of the AK was fastened on the
handle by a leathern thong, and so it
might slip the helve. A student of the
seminary was swinging his ak against
one of those trees, and whether it was
at the moment he made his first stroke
and the chips few 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 AK head and the handle parted. Be
ing near the riverside, the ak head drop
ped into the river and sank to the mud
dy bottom. Great was the students dis
may. If it had been his own ak, it would
have been bad enough, but the ak did
not belong to him. He had no means
to buy another for the kind man who
had loaned it to him, but God helps the
helpless, and he generally 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 AK head fly off, and
so he asked the student where it drop
ped. He was shown the place where it
went down into the river. Then Elisha
broke off a branch of a tree and threw
it into the water and the ax 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 re-
stored property. Now you see the mean
ing of my text, 1.-The iron did SWIM"
The Iron Did Swim.
Suppose hundred years ago some one
had told people that the time would
of iron would float on the Atlantic and
Pacifc-iron ships from New York to
Southampton, from London to Calcutta,
from San Francisco to Canton. The
man making such a prophecy would have
been sent to an asylum or carefully
watched as incompetent to go alone. We
have all in our day seen iron swim. Now,
if man can make hundreds of tons of
metal float, l am disposed to think that
the Almighty could make an ak head
float.
What says some one, would be
the use of such miracle?" OF vast, Of
infinite, of eternal Importance Those
students were preparing for the ministry.
They had joined the theological seminary
TO get all its advantages. They needed
to have their faith strengthened; they
needed to be persuaded that God can do
everything; they needed to learn that God
takes notice of little things; that there
is no emergency of life where he is not
willing to help. Standing on the banks
of that Jordan, those students of that
day of the recalled ak head had their
faith REINFORCED, and nothing that they
had found out in the class rooms of that
learned institution had ever done more
in the way of fitting them for their
coming profession.
The Right to Borrow.
Furthermore in that scene of the text
God sane 'cns borrowing and sets forth
the Importance of returning. l do not
think there would have been any miracle
performed if the young man had owned
the ak that slipped the heIye. The young
in, h. h. ~,
prophet, Alas, master, for it was bor-
rowedr' He had a right to borrow.
There are times when we have not only
a right to borrow, but it is a duty to
borrow There are times when we ought
to lend, for Christ in his sermon on the
mount declared, "FpDm him that would
borrow Of thee turn not thou away" 1t
is right that one borrow the means of
getting an education, as the young stu
dent of my text borrowed the ak. Ii is
right to borrow means for the forward
ing of commercial ends. Most of the vast
fortunes that now oyershadow the land
were Matched oit Of a borrowed dollar
If in any assembly it were requested
that those who had never borrowed hold
up their hands none would be lifted, or
If here and there hand were lifted we
would know that it was a case Of in
veracity. Borrow Why, we are borrow
ing al the time. We borrow from the
Lord he sunlight that shows Us our
way. the water that Stakes Our thirst,
the food that refreshes Us three times
day, the pillow on which we slumbeT.
We borrow gladness from orr friends; we
borrow all elevated surroundings. The
church borrows all its beauty from the
Christ who founded it. In aur songs