The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-01-22
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
UPPER AND NEITHER SPRINGS"
Tho Rev. DE-. j. Wilbur Chapman Uses
an Old Testament Story ms u Parallel to
illustrate tho Great Blessings We Re-
Colvo From Our Heavenly Father

illustrate tho Great Blessings We Re
colve From Our Heavenly Father.
NEW YORK CITY.-The following ser
mon is one of series prepared some time
since by the Rev. DIR. j. Wilbur Chapman
the distinguished evangelist. 1t is entitled
1.-THE Upper and the Neither Sprines.n and
was preached from the text And he gave
her the upper springs and the neither
springs" Joshua XIV: 49,
Half way between Hebron and Beershe
ba there once stood the ancient CITY o.
Debir. 1t was the city of brains and books
and the centre of intellectual culture of the
olden days. AT the same point now may
be seen rude assemblage of stone novels
many of which are half standing. but the
others are entirely broken down.
One OF the names given to this city
being translated, meaps the@Cityof Brooks
or of learning-what Athens was to Greece
tine. 1t 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 o1
Judah, was very anxious to secure posses
sion of the city. It is this fact which gives
rise co the text. His name is very familiar
to us. He was one Of the twelve spies
sent, by Moses over into Canaan, and he
and Joshua were the only two born in
tering Canaan, with the possible exception
of the Levites, and that, not only because
they had brought truthful report of the
land they had explored, but were also will
ing to take God at His word, and put al
their trust in Him.
Forty-ive years after, when the wander
ings were over, Caleb applied to Joshua
for the share of the land which had beer
promised him, and among other portions
there was granted to him Debir, the city o.
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 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.
as ''The South Land" valuable for some
reasons, but it was mountainous and sloped
southwark toward the deserts of Arabia
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
ingly 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.
find in this beautiful story a good illus
tration of all that we receive from 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. It was for Him a
fierce struggle, but He came off more than
conqueror. Then, after that, He was called
the bridegroom of the church, which is to
celved 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
Jesus"
l. God starts His children in this world
as Caleb started his daughter, with an in
given him something.
Some have taken the inheritance and
treated it as the man with the five talents,
they have gained other five also; Others
like the man with one talent, have wrapped
it 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 it's seas,
The world is filed 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
il 70 the world pauper. God has thus
PLACED fortune in the grasp of every
child Of His. It is such 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 few simple principles by Euclid
and Archimedes. by pure reasoning out Of
CnelI mlndS, ana 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. It is, indeed, a
wonderful thing to have mind.
But if these things which I 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 mot miserable.
For they are like the south land of Ach-
sab, they stretch off toward the deserts of
sorrow and care and darkness, and the hot
winds of despair come sweeping past us
again and again. The most miserable peo-
pie in the world. sooner or later, are those
who have just the world and nothing else.
Men are born unto trouble as the sparks
fly upward, and this south land of the
world is poor portion. Tt is beautiful: it
is the handiwork ofsGod. But we must
have more than that il the soul be salts
fed. "The stars are beautiful, but they
pour no light into the midnight of q
troubled soul. The flowers are sweet, but
they pour. no balm into the wounded
heart" There are times when the hungry,
thirsty. fevered soul must have what the
natural inheritance can not give, and God
he's made nrovision for that