Ezekiel 1

Ezekiel 1:4

Children Of The North Wind A stormy wind came out of the north.—Ezekiel 1:4. I have been thinking lately that different people are rather like different winds. Some are North-wind people, some South-wind, some East-wind, and some West-wind. So I am going to speak to you about each of these winds and the people who are like them, and I hope you will be able to recognize yourself among them.First of all, we shall have a talk about the North- wind people. I think you will find most of them among the boys, though you may find a few among the girls too.Mr. North Wind is rather a blustering old fellow. He bursts open our doors and howls down our chimneys. He brings blizzards which chill us to the bone, and hard frosts which burst our water-pipes and crack our jugs if we are not careful. When he blows in real earnest he allows nothing to stand in his way.

He snaps the bare branches off the trees, he tears the slates off our roofs, and dashes the hail against our windows. In fact, he makes a great amount of noise, and does a good deal of destruction.So much for Mr. North Wind himself; but what about the North-wind people? Well, they are the sort of folk you hear all over the house. You always know when they are in, because they immediately signal their entrance by slamming the front door. Then they dash upstairs two steps at a time, and slam another door at the top. Their boots seemed to be more “tackety” than anybody else’s; at all events, they have the gift of clattering to a marvelous extent.These people are destructive. They seem to have little regard for mother’s good carpets or for any of her treasured possessions.

It is not that they really want to destroy them; they just don’t think. Their manners are a little rough, and they have rather a bad habit of speaking before they think, so that sometimes they damage other people’s feelings as they damage the carpets—just for want of thought. Their tempers are somewhat breezy, but usually it is the case with them of a good storm and then all is over. The worst of it is that they sometimes do a good deal of destruction with these storms, and the effects are felt by others after the storms are forgotten by themselves.But we are not going to say that Mr. North Wind has nothing but defects. Oh dear, no!

He is really a decent sort of chap, and, to tell the truth, we are rather fond of him.First of all, he is very bracing to strong people. He blows away a lot of microbes and makes our blood tingle with health.

And then, if he does frighten the plants so that they hide underground, he at least gives compensation, for he brings a thick blanket of snow to cover them up and keep them cozy so that they shoot up again stronger than ever in the spring.And then he is an out-and-out fellow. There is no deceit about him. He doesn’t pretend to be anything else but what he is. As he comes rushing along he shouts, “Here I am now; look out for squalls! Build up your fires, and put on your overcoats and your thickest boots, for when I begin to blow in good earnest you know what that means.”And he is a happy fellow. He provides us with a lot of fun in the way of skating and sledging and snowballing.

In fact, we should miss him terribly if he deserted us altogether.And neither could we get on without our North-wind people. They do a lot to cheer us up.

They are a little rough in their way of doing it, but they are so happy and good-hearted that we are ready to make allowances for that. They are very straight and above-board, and are often so anxious not to appear better than they are that they succeed in making people think they are a great deal worse than they are. You would be surprised to know how tender they can be to little weak things, just as Mr. North Wind is tender to the little weak plants and covers them up with snow. It is only by chance you may discover this, because they are awfully ashamed to let other people know they have a soft spot in their hearts.Just one word, in closing, to the North-wind people! Don’t be proud of your roughness.

It is nothing to be proud of. In fact if you persist in it, it will spoil and disfigure you in the end.

The North Wind cannot help its roughness and harshness, because it is made that way and it comes to us over fields of ice and snow in the Polar regions. But you can help your roughness. It is something you wear on the outside. It is a habit which can be got rid of. But remember you will have to fight it, and you will have to want to fight it.Boys and girls of the North Wind, let your good hearts tell. Don’t keep them hidden away inside that hard exterior. Give yourselves into the keeping of Jesus, and He will help you to get rid of all your defects. He will make the hard places in your nature gentle, and the rough places smooth. (The texts of the other sermons in this series are Exodus 10:19; Exodus 14:21; Acts 27:13.)

Ezekiel 1:26

The Sapphire A sapphire stone.—Ezekiel 1:26. Our September gem is the Sapphire.You will remember that two months ago we said the sapphire was a cousin of the ruby. So it is—for both are corundum—only the ruby is red and the sapphire blue.“Sapphire” is one of the oldest words in the world. It is found in most of the ancient languages, but clever men who have studied such things tell us that the name “sapphire” was not always given to the same stone. The sapphire of the ancients, they say, was more probably a stone which we now call the lapis lazuli, a blue stone with little gold flecks in it, which looks very like the sky on a starry night. These same clever men tell us that the stone we now call the sapphire was, in the days when the Book of Revelation was written, known as the jacinth or hyacinth. Well, we are not going to worry about that.

We know that the sapphire is mentioned in the Bible, and whether it is called the sapphire or the jacinth does not matter very much for our purpose.The sapphire is, next to the diamond, the hardest stone known. In proof of this there is an old tale that a certain man once went to Rome to sell a sapphire.

The purchaser said he would buy it on one condition— that he might first test it. He placed it on an anvil and struck it a mighty blow with a hammer. The hammer flew in pieces and the anvil split, but the stone remained whole. We may have to take that story with a large grain of salt, but it shows what a hard stone the sapphire was supposed to be.Ceylon has, for ages, been noted for its sapphires. They are found there as crystals in water-borne deposits of sand and gravel. But Ceylon is not their only home.

They come also from Siam, Upper Burma, Kashmir, Madagascar, Australia, Tasmania, and the United States. When they come from so many places you can understand that they are not so rare as rubies; still a sapphire is one of the most valuable and lovely of gems.The shade for a sapphire is cornflower blue, but there are sapphires of every other shade of blue you can mention, beginning at dark indigo and ending with palest sky.

There is even a white or colorless variety which is so like a diamond that it takes an expert to tell the difference. There is also a wonderful kind known as the star-sapphire. In its blue depths there shines a star. With the slightest movement of the gem the star seems to move and twinkle also. This star-sapphire has been called the gem for Christmas because its shining star reminds us of the star which shone in the sky two thousand years ago, and led the Wise Men to Bethlehem.The sapphire has always been such a favorite that virtues of all kinds have been attributed to it. In olden days it was supposed to check fevers, calm the temper, mend manners, heal quarrels, and drive away melancholy.

Funny, isn’t it, that a blue stone should be supposed to frighten away “the blues”? It was said also to bring happiness and good fortune to its possessor.

Last, but not least, it was the emblem of truth, of constancy, and of heavenly-mindedness. No wonder, then, that it has always been a favorite with the Church, and that in the cardinal’s ring of office is set a sapphire gem.Now, the diamond has already told us to be happy, the amethyst has told us to be true and loyal, so we are left with the last meaning of the sapphire as our message for today—“Be heavenly-minded.” The ruby said, “Love”; the sapphire says, “Love what is good” Love the best. Seek what is beautiful and true. Have noble aims and high ideals. That sounds a little difficult; perhaps this story will help to explain it.A friend was visiting the studio of the great American artist, William Merritt Chase. He admired one by one all the many beautiful paintings in the room.

Then he turned to the artist and said, “Which of all these paintings do you consider your best?” The artist walked over to a large empty canvas stretched in a frame, and said, “That is my best work. I am sorry I cannot show you that picture.

I am always trying to paint it, but it still creeps ahead of me. I have painted it there in my mind a thousand times, and some day, perhaps, I shall be able to paint it as I see it.”I want you to be like that famous artist. I want you to have beautiful thoughts that you want to make real, and noble dreams that you try to make true. For, boys and girls, you are the children of today, but you are the men and women of tomorrow. You have to make the world of tomorrow, and what your thoughts and dreams are, that—and exactly that—the world is going to be. For you are not going to stop at mere thoughts and dreams. You are going to turn these thoughts and dreams into deeds. I tell you solemnly that you can, if you will, make this world very nearly heaven upon earth.

Yes, you can. High and pure and noble thoughts mean pure and noble deeds, and each pure and noble deed is just a little bit of heaven on earth.See, then, that your sapphire is a star-sapphire. The star of Bethlehem led the three Wise Men to Heaven Itself come down to earth. Let your star- sapphire lead you too on and up to Christ.