The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-02-20
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
UPPER AND NEITHER SPRINGS"


osive From Our Heavenly Father.
NEW York CIrY.-The following ser.
mon ls one Of a series prepared some time
since Dy the Rev. DR.. j. Wilbur Chapman,
ttng1e, distinguished evangelist IL is entitled
Inc Upper and the Neither Springs" and
was preached from the text And he gave
hef the. upper springs and the neither
springs" Joshua XIV: 10.
Hail way between Hebron and Beershe.
pa there once stood the ancient city OF
De6lr. 1t was the city of brains and books
ana the centre of intellectual culture of the
9luen days. AT the same point now may
DC seen rude assemblage of stone novels,
many OF which are half standing. but the
others are entirely broken down
Ohe OF the names given TO this city,
Delng translated, means the City Of Brooks,
OF OF learning-what Athens was to Greece
the CITY OF Debir was to Southern Pales-
tine IL was supposed that all the records
OF antiquity Of the nation were stored
there. 1t was, indeed, a famous place
Caleb, the son of Heron, of the tribe OF
JUDAH was very anxious to secure posses
SION OF the city. 10 is this fact which gives
rise TO the text. His name is very familiar
TO US. lie was one of the twelve spies
sent by Moses over into Canaan, and he
and Joshua were the only two born in
Egypt who were given the privilege Of en-
terlng Canaan, with the possible exception
OF the Leyites, and that, not only because
they had brought a truthful report Of the
land they had explored, but were also will
ing to take God at His word, and put all
their trust in Him,
Forty-hve years after, when the wander
llngs were over, Caleb applied to Joshua
Tor the share of the land which had been
promised him, and among other portions
there was granted to MIN Debir the city of
learning. 1t was still, however the strong
hold of the giants of Canaan, and must be
captured to be possessed.
Caleb then made the proposition that he
would give his daughter Achsah in mar
rage to any one who was able to take the
city, and one Othniel, who had been much
of a warrior, for he had delivered the chill
dren of Israel from the King of Mesopota-
mia, marched against Debir. After great
struggle the gates were broken down, the
giants were captured or driven away, and
the City of Books lay at the feet of the
conquerOr. When the victory was won
Caleb was as good as his word, and his
daughter was given in marriage to the sol
der. With her he also gave as an inherit.
ance, peculiar piece Of property known
as THE South Land" valuable for some
reasons, but it was mountainous and slopedE
IINeAA " "a "a bgNuA4 Vic hEhEILb VI LIdDlds
the hot winds of which again and again
swept across it. Before Achsah left her
fathers house she besought him for his
blessing. The south land was not enough,
she would also have springs of water, and
Caleb responded at once, and gave her
more than she had asked, for we read in
the text: "He gave her the upper springs
and the neither springs" From an exceed
lrnlgy fertile, territory the land was chosen.
1t contained no less than fourteen springs.
The valley was beautiful, for look which
way. you would you could see them gushing
forth. Their presence In the field meant
not only blessing for the field in which
they were found, but for all the country
around them.
I find in this beautiful story a gooI5,illus-
tTation of all that we receive fro44 our
Father.
All that has been bestowed upon us is as
ISOLATED with victory, and that was won by
Him whose name was called in the pro-
phets the Conqueror. 1t was for Him
fierce struggle, but He came off more than
conqueror Then, after that, He was called
the bridegroom of the church, which is to
be His bride, and with Him we have re-
cetved not only the gift of salvation, but in
Him we are also blessed with all spiritual
blessings. Paul gives us this when he
writes to the Ephesians, BLESSED be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ
l. God starts His children in this world
IS Caleb started his daughter, with an in
nerltance. No one is so poor but God has
given him something.
Some have taken the inheritance and
treated it as the man with the five talents,
I'd al IL
like the man with one talent have wrapped
1t In napkin, and so they leave the world
as poor as when they entered it. God has
been very good to us. He has given us this
world with all its beauty, its green pas
lures, its still waters, its rivers and its seas,
ITS starry canopy stretching out above.
The world is filled with forces of all kinds.
but man has seemed to gain control over
them, until to-day he stands himself like
a conquerer in the midst of them all
But the inheritance is better than that.
He. has given us all the faculties of mind
and all the powers of body. The mind, the
heart the hands, the feet-no one is sent
into the world a pauper God has thus
placed a fortune in the grasp of every
child of His 1t is such a great thing to
have mind, for with it man is able to
search the deep things OF God and really
take hold of the thought of the Eternal.
The science of geometry was worked out
from a few simple principles by Euclid
and Archimedes, by pure reasoning out of
their minds, and on the sands of the floor
OF the room where they were studying
Archimedes traced the curves in which, ac-
cording to science, the heavenly bodies
must move. And long after, when the tele-
scope was invented, the Galileos and the
Newtons beheld with reverent wonder that
the heavenly bodies were sweeping along
IN the same curves described so long ago by
the great Mathematician. 1t is, indeed, a
wonderful thing to have a mind.
But if these things which l have men
toned as our natural inheritance are all
what we possess, then, with the success
that may be gained by means of them we
may still be of all men the most mi,erable.
For they are like the south land of Ach-
cah thar rErntnh Ct Anrr.,,..l IL. l.