I Chronicles 11:21 ‘How be it He attain not.’
This is one of the sad things which strikes a man in mid-life.
How many there are, who disappoint their promise. Where are the
brilliant-medal men of school days? Too often you never hear of
them again. They have not ‘attained’. Only .3 out of 100
mercantile men are successful. The 97 are not failures-just never
reached the goal. They were ‘men who disappointed their
promise’.
Our text illustrates this in a very striking way. It is a report
of mighty deeds. One killed a lion, on a snowy day, after killing
her two cubs. Not a useful deed, but certainly a brave one.
My friend told me this incident–A young man saw an advt., in a
magazine, of a saw that would cut 20 cord of wood per day. He went
to the hardware and bought the saw. Of course, it was a power saw
and he did not know it. He used it as a crosscut saw, but could
only cut about 1 cord a day. The third day he went to the dealer
and complained. The dealer went to the woods with him and when he
started the- saw engine, the man said, ‘What’s that?’
He then watched the agent work the saw a while and he said he
understood. He then cut the 20 cords per day.
God has given all of us a great power in our hands. It is a gift
God gives us at birth. He never takes it back. The sad comment is
that so many of us are cutting only a cord a day when we should be
doing 20.
What kept these men from attaining? Why were they not among the
mighty mighties of David’s army? We do not know. Perhaps
unreliable men. Good enough to do a piece of reckless daring but
not to be trusted in the common-place drizzle. Good enough to make
a show on a parade. But not to be trusted on a long campaign or
tedious march.
Sawing leftover logs from the 1966 Rollag Reunion. The 30-60
Aultman-Taylor owned by Tony Falk of Wolverton, Minnesota suppling
power for the mill. This is a nice looking and nice running old
tractor.
Wesley Hammond of Leicester, N. Y. is shown with his Olds no. 10
burr mill, (made by Saeger engine works), and driven by a 1915
Galloway 6 H. P. gas engine. The Sears and Roebuck corn sheller is
driven by a 1939 John Deere 1? H.P. Model E gas engine. This
display was at the 1967 Reunion of the Pioneer Gas Engine
Association, Inc.
We are thinking now only of those who do not attain because of
moral reasons. Of course many fail because of physical reasons. One
unconquered sin is often the secret of mans non-attainment. Perhaps
it was true of these men. Slew a lion in a snowy pit but a tiger
lust, which they could not or would not conquer, hindered them.
Jim Everest with his 25 horse Y type Fairbanks oil engine. He
ran the engine 35 years ago at a stamp mill on the Tom Kelly Gold
mine.
Jim Everest of Weaverville, California and his 7 Hp. Sattley.
His collection of gas engines now numbers approximately 35.
