Jeremiah 6:29

A Pair Of Bellows

The bellows. Jeremiah 6:29.

Our text today is a word used only once in the Bible, yet we all know it well, and many of us have in our homes the thing it stands for. Turn up the Book of Jeremiah, and in the sixth chapter at the very beginning of the twenty-ninth verse you will find our text “ the bellows.”

Most of us, both little and grown-up, are fond of using bellows. There is a charm in turning the tiny peep of flame that flickers among the dead coal into a blaze that roars up the chimney. If the bellows have a squeak or a wheeze, as lots of them have, why, it's all the more sport! Then which of us has not longed to be a blacksmith when we stood in a smithy and watched the smith blow his fire? How the sparks flew! And how the black metal in the heart of the flames turned first red and then white under the blast of his mighty bellows!

Though bellows are mentioned only once in the Bible they are as old as the oldest part of the Bible itself, for we know that the Egyptians in the days of Moses used them. On the monuments of Egypt there are pictures showing the bellows of Moses' time. They are not the least like our bellows; indeed, they seem very strange to our eyes, but there they are, and the men who blew them also! You see the fire in the middle of the picture, and on either side is a man busy at work. He seems to be standing on two fat leather air-cushions, a foot on each. In his right hand he has a string from the cushion under his right foot, and in his left hand he has a string from the cushion under his left foot; and he is pressing down the leather bag when it is full of air, and pulling it up by the string when it is empty; and both he and his friend on the other side of the fire look as if they had a stiff job. From the leather bags there are long pipes to carry the air to the fire, and in the picture you see a third man holding something like a bent iron rod in the flames. Perhaps he is just poking the fire to help his two friends, or perhaps he is working on the rod. Poor fellows! you feel sorry they lived in the days when blowing bellows seemed such hard work.

Now, a pair of bellows is a thing we may use only once a week or so when a fire refuses to burn; but the smith we were speaking of a moment ago will tell you that he could not do his work at all without the aid of bellows. The bellows make his fire sufficiently hot to soften the metal and prepare it for the anvil. They are an absolute necessity if he is to do his work properly.

And I think, boys and girls, that we, too, need bellows if we are to do successfully our work in the world. If we are to make the best of our lives we need something to urge us on. Our life is like the smith's fire if we want it to be more than just a dull, useless smolder we shall have to use some sort of bellows.

There are many bellows which we may use to make our fire of life burn brightly, but I want to speak of the three greatest today, and we shall take them in the order of good, better, best. If you go to history and study the lives of the men who have left their mark on the world, you will find that they used one or more of the three.

1. The first bellows is called ambition. It is a grand ornamental article with a fine brass nozzle. Its wood is highly polished, its leather is a gorgeous crimson, and its edges are studded with glittering brass nails. Everybody should use the bellows of ambition. We don't give much for the boy or girl who is content to sit at the foot of the class, and to have twelve errors in dictation every other day. No, the boy or girl we admire is the one who aims to sit at the top of the class even though he or she may not be brilliant. Aim at the top! If you don't reach it you will get to the middle at least. Ambition will help you to do what without it would be impossible. It will make the fire of your life glow bright, and shine far.

But remember, please remember, that ambition, though it looks so fine, is a dangerous instrument if you use it too much. The blaze you make may prove so hot and fierce that it will burn up and destroy other people's property. Remember that others too have a right to the first place. Don't let the ambition to be great make you hard and selfish and cruel. Don't be so busy blowing your bellows and working for success that you have neither time nor wish to help those about you. Ambition was the bellows of Napoleon, as it has been that of many another conqueror. But we know where it brought Napoleon in the end of the day so beware!

2. Our second bellows is called duty. Its wooden sides are unpolished, and its drab-colored leather is nailed on with iron nails. It is large and powerful, but it is very stiff to blow and it creaks a good deal at times. Although it looks so uninteresting it makes a better fire than the bellows of ambition. It blows not for itself but for other people. The fire it stirs up may not shine so far, but it is hotter at the heart and warms those around it.

The bellows of duty has one remarkable thing about it. It is always at hand. No matter where you turn, it is always at your elbow. You don't need to go looking for it. It seems rather to be always looking for you, and trying to say, “Here am I! Use me, use me!” And, boys and girls, we are wise if we do use that uninteresting-looking bellows, for we shall not lack our reward.

Duty was the grim bellows of grand old Oliver Cromwell. It has been the bellows of most reformers, and it has done noble work. But I can tell you of a more powerful instrument still; and that brings us to the third bellows the finest of all.

3. What is the third bellows? Well, it calls itself love. It is made of wood exquisitely carved, its leather is delicate cream, and its nails are pure gold. It does not look so showy as the bellows of ambition, nor so strong as the bellows of duty, but try it! It blows so gently that it does not extinguish even the tiniest spark, and yet it blows so strongly that the fire is soon at white heat.

But the marvelous thing about it is that it is so easy to blow. It takes only half or quarter as much labor as is needed with the other two; it does its work twice as quickly. Why is this? It gives away the secret in its very name. It does its work easily because it loves it, and it does its work well for the same reason. If we use the bellows of love we shall do life's tasks not because we want to be first, nor yet because we ought, but because we love them. That makes work easy, and duty light, and life truly happy and successful.

Love has been the bellows of men greater than Napoleon or Oliver Cromwell. Love inspired the greatest Man of all, the Man who was not only man but God. It was love that sent Christ into the world. It was love that led Him to die for us. It is only love that will make us live such lives as He would have us live.

So, boys and girls, choose your bellows. Use them each in turn, use them well and often, but don't forget to use oftenest of all the wonderful bellows of love.