Milford chronicle., 1906-03-16
An Hour Of Anxiety.


honored Elijah the Tishblte.
An Hour of Anxiety.
But as l come to the outskirts OF
Zarephath and feel the hot winds
strike NV cheek and look off at the
bleak hills and the grassless valleys
and see the bones of beast and bird
/ bleaching on the dry sands | see that
| this eastern drought" had a famine
within a famine No sooner did Elijah
appear and give TO the Zarephath
widow her daily supply Of meal and
oil than l think | can hear her heavc
great sigh of relief. All" she says.
NOW / know my boy is not going to
dier She felt just as you felt when
dear friend was put upon the operat-
ing table The dreaded morning came.
You were down bright and early to the
hospital. She lay in bed little flushed
and her eye bright. Neither you nor
she made any reference to the danger
but Just as the doctors and nurses
came into the room, dressed in white
aprons. to give the anaesthetic she
flung her arms about your neck and
whispered: "Goodby. dear friend. If
don't wake up, goodby, goodby!" Oh,
yes; YOU remember that day! They
carried her out on the stretcher. The
door of that awful operating room was
shut. You could not see; you dare not
90 in. You walked up and down the
hall. up and down. You convulsively
clasped your hands You kept saying;
20 God, save her! o God, give me
back my darling! o God, save her,
save her! Give her back to me"
Then you remember the thankful
prayer you uttered when the doctor
opened the door and put his head out
of the room and said: "She is all right.
Everything is all right"
This was the feeling Of relief and
gratitude Of yonder mother Of Zare-
phath when she knew that her boy was
not going to starve to death. The dan
ger Of starvation was past We can
see the boy growing fat and plump.
The mothers step has become strong
and elastic As the lad plays before
her door we can see her smile as she
hears his happy laugh. Methinks, per
haps, she has been growing a little
careless and forgetful Of late toward
God, as some of US do when we are
surrounded by many apparently per
manent blessings. Suddenly the long
arm of death reaches through the open
ed window of this woman's hut. The
arm may be covered with flesh. The
arm may not be skeleton from starva-
zion, but it is the arm Of death With
in a few hours the child is dead. At
once the widow goes to Elijah and begs
Of him, by the power Of God, to re
store unto her the life of her boy. Eli
jah. by Gods power, does so. What is
the practical observation? Cannot you
grasp it? In every drought of Zere-
phath there is a famine within famine,
there is always a death within death,
a temptation within Il temptation. If
you and are ever going to be spiritual
ly safe we must always keep living near
to God, else the second death will be as
bad as the first death.
When the first moral or spiritual
dangers of life are past it is easy to
blind our eyes to the second and the
third and the fourth and the tenth and
the twentieth peril. Let him that
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he
fall" Here, for instance, is a man
who for years has been addicted to in
tOXicating drink. He has fought it and
fought it until at last by the grace OF
God he has triumphed. But though for
years he has never tasted a glass Of
liquor he has become so absorbed in
making money that he has gradually
drlfted away from walking with God.
One day he has an awful awaken
ing. He finds that his faith in Jesus
Christ is gone or that his only boy, who
is now more to him than his life, Is
drunkard, a libertine or a thief. This
is danger he never dreamed about
or guarded against. Famine within
famine death within death. And so,
my friends, no matter how many dan
gers God has rescued us from in the
past, that is no reason why we should
turn our backs upon God now. Like
the poor widow Of Zarephath, we must
live and continue to live close to God,
for there are moral and spiritual dan
gers everywhere we turn and every
where we look
Lasted as Long as Needed.
But did you ever stop to consider
how long this supply Of meal and oil
lasted? Just as long as the famine
lasted. No more. no less. No sooner
did the rain descend upon the earth
and the orchards began to give forth
their fruits and the gardens their vege-
tables and the fields their harvests
than this miraculous supply Of food
stopped as suddenly as the mamma Of
the wilderness ceased when the chill
dren Of Israel passed over the Jofdan
into the promised land. When imam
can help himself God always EXPECTS
him so to do. Cod never takes carh OF