The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-06-27

syrian, Let not thy God in whom
thou trustest deceive thee saying, Je-
ruSalam shall not be given unto the
hand Of the king Of Assyria.' was a
challenge to combat between
and the idols of Assyria. 1t was as
truly a test Of strength as the con-
test Jehovah and Baai on
Carmel. SO Hezehiah put the whole
matter up to the Lord.
Watching the Lord Fight.
Some matters are properly and pri-
MARTY the Lords business. There
are occasions when the man can
step aside. as did Hezekiah and say.
Now. Lord, it is all up to YOU. 1t
is your affair: your name and glory
! are at stake. This work is your work;
| am in your hands: but yours must
be the victory" Such is the case
whenever a man incarnates some
truth or holy cause in himself. He
simply cannot fail because Gods hon-
or is involved. This sublime con-
~sciousnees is what gives the old
prophets their power. They merely
represented jehovah. Their faith was
simple and absolute. because they
realized that the majesty Of the Most
High was involved. This strain runs
through the many wonderful passages
concerning the ultimate downfall of
these two great oppresSors OF the
jews, Assyria and Babylon.
For right i right. since God IS God
And Right thu DAY must win,
TO doubt would be ~disIoyalty,
To faIter would be sin
No open-minded student Of history
can escape. the sense of some Pow
er which has been consistently at
--A, Il Z n -, out tho n ri3c Ono
is awed by this realization as he
stands amid the ruins Of old civili-
cations far more than when he reads
in books of their downfall. Nations
have been raised up. used as a fail
in a Hand which they knew not. and
then cast aside, even as was ASSy-
ria. There has been a greater king
don than that of Babylon or Assyria
or Persia or Greece or Rome at
work in the world; and its Ruler
must be He whose kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom To observe the
Of that kingdom is one of the
most absorbing and elevating studies
possible to the human mind. It is
watching God work.
The Minor Interests OF. the Great.
That the mlumsy scrawl Of a grand
child should be of more interest to a
prime minister than a document OF
state is perfectly Understandable. And
the great King Of Kings has a are
for his personal relationships as Well
as for his royal affairs: he is as in
terested in individual as in nations.
The personal problem and sorrow Of
Hezekiah kneeling before him had
as close attention as the fate Of the
Jewish people. The great God is not
above the smallest interests Of those
whom he calls his children. He who
marks the sparrow's fall notes the
- Ii = ~ f h,,rJoDo C@xoa
times men make Jehovah out a little
God: but there is equal LANCER that
in the sense Of his majestic great
ness his personality and tender, SYM
pathetic pity will be overlooked. I
traced the ways of Jehovah in MeSO-
fact that the Christian orphan whom
! took with me down the Iigris to
Bagdad there found his own brOther
whom he had mourned as dead.
For the individual Jews, as well as
for the nation. roc showed his solicit
tnde when he mysteriously smote the
Assyrian host that threatened them.
Byron's poem tells the story:
The Asyyrian came down like the
wolf on the fold.
And his hohorts were cleaning in pur-
pie and gold.
Like the leaves Of the forest when
summer is green
That host with their banners at sun
set we're seen.
Like the leaves OF the forest when
autumn hath blown
That host on the morrow lay wither-
ed and StrOWn.
For the angel of death spread his
wings on the blast.
And breathed in the face of the foe
as he passed.
And the tents were all silent, the ban
nerS alone.
The lanCes uplifted, the trumpet un-
blown,
And the might Of the Gentle, nsmot
by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance