The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1902-01-24
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject God Does the Impossibie-sone
Wonders OF Divine Power-superior TO
Every Law OF Nature which He Hos
Made For Mankind.

logical seminary Having raised tn
money, will they send for cedars OF Leb
anon and marble from the quarries wher,
! Ahab got the stone for the pillars anC
walls OF his palace; No; the students
| propose 20 build IL themselves. Thej
were rugged boys, who had been brought
up in the country and who had never
been weakened by the luxures OF city life
All they ask Il that Elisha, their professor
and prophet, go along with them 10 tn,
woods and boss the job They start foI
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 / had seen in Palestine any
sycamore tree more beautiful than the one
we stood under at Hawarden. / told him
had not.
The sycamOres rear the Jordan are
now attacked by Elisha's students, for
they must have lumber for the new theo
logical seminary. / suppose some OF the
students made an awkward stroke, and
they were extemporized aycmen. Stand
from underl Crash goes one of the trees
and another and another. Bu. s9mething
renee win tax the credulity Of the ages, so
wonderful that many still think it never
happened at all. One of the students, not
able 20 own an axe, had borrowed one.
You must remember that while the axe Of
oden time was much like our modern axe,
it differed in the fact that instead OF the
heve or handle being thrust into a socket
in the iron head the head Of the axe was
fastened on the handle by leathern
thong, and 80 IL might slip the helve. a
student of the seminary was swinging his
axe against one of those trees, and whether
IL was at the moment he made his first
stroke and the chips flew or was after he
had cut the tree from all sides 20 deep
that IL 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 dlsmay
II 1t had been his own axe, it would have
been bad enough, but the axe did not be-
long 10 him. He had no means to buy an
other for the kind man who had loaned u
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 of a branch
Of tree and threw it into the water, and
the axe head rose from the depths of the
river and Aoatcd TO the bank 40 that the
student had just 10 stoop down and take
up the restored property. Now YOU SEQ
the meaning of my text, The iron did
swim"
Suppose 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 aad Pacific
iron ships from New York 10 Southamp
ton, 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 incom'
petcnt to 60 alone. We have all in our
day seen iron swim. Now, II man can
make hundreds of tons of metal float, 1
am disposed to think tha" the Almighty
could make an axe head float.
What" says some one. would be the
use of such miracle" OF vast, of inf
mite. of eternal importance. Those stu.
dents were preparing tor 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 every
thing; they needed 10 learn that God
takes notice of little things, that there IL
no emergency of life whore He IL 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 c-tI~Arccd, 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.
hear from different sources that there
is great deal of lnhdcllty IN some of the
theological scmluariCs of our day. They
think that the Garden of Eden Is an ale.
CORY, and that Moses did not write the
Pentateuch. and that the book OF Job Is
only drama. and that the book of Jonah
is an unreliable fish story. and that water
,,,VN ttsvh Nhs,
bartender now Ivy large dllution turns
wine into water, and that most of the 50
called miracles of the Old and the New
Icstamcnts were wrought 10y natural
causes. When those inhdcls graduate
from the theological seminary and take
The pulpits of America as eXpounders ot
he Holy Scriptures, what advocates they
will be of that gospel for the truth OF
which the martyrs died.
Hail the Polycarps and Hugh Latimera
md John kuoNcs OF the twentieth cen.
furry. believing the Bible y true IN spots
Would to God that some great revival ot
religion might sweep through all the thCo.
logical scminarlcs ot this land, confirming
The faith OF the coming cXpouuders OF an
entire Bblcl
Furthermore, in that scene Of tho text
God sanctions borrowing and sets forth
the importance OF returning. | do not
performed It the Young man had owned
the axe that slipped the hclvc. The young
man cried out in the hearing ot the pro.
phct. ALIAS, master, for it was borrowed
lie had right TO borrow. There are
times when we have not only n right 10
borrow. but il is duty to borrow. There
IRE times when we ought 20 lend. for Christ
in His sermon on thc mount declared,
From 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 exc. lt Is
right TO borrow means for the forward'ng
OF commercial ends. Most of the vast for
tunes that now ovcrshadow the land were
hatchcd ont oi a borrowed dollar.
Those students IN the valley of palms
hy the Jordan had a physical strength
aud hardihood that would help them in
their mental and spiritual achievements.
We who are tolliug for the worlds better
meut need Drawn "a well as brain, strong
bodies as well as illumiucd minds and con-
secrated souls. Many OF those who are
now doing the best work IN church and
state got muscle and power OF endurance
from the fact that m cary lie they were
compelled 60 use axe or piow or Hail or
hammer. while many who were BROUGHT
up IN the luXuriCs of htc give out before
the battle Is won They are keen and
sharp OF mind. but have no physical en-.
durauce. They have the axe head. but no
handle. The body Is the handle ot the
soul
There Christ stood hv His disciples on
the Mount of Olives alter His coming out
of the scpulcher No ladders let down for
His ascension. but His feet hit from the
hill and lie goes mp until the curtain of
.f,.N fr,ra ruA Ita Ia tnxfsfh'a aW ~