Cheraw gazette. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1835-1838, 1836-12-20


God, and is herself in most forlorn sltua-
ton. In that situation men help in vain,
her own arm cannot save her. But when
she is overwhelmed she pourelh out her
complaint before the Lord when she is
destitute, she calls upon God in the time OF
trouble. Churches and individuals, when
they trust in an arm of flesh, when they
think that they are rich and increased with
goods, and have need Of nothing, they sell
dom pray, their prayers are very formal,
and far from being importunate. The
wicked through The pride Of his counten-
ancc calleth not upon God, for God is not
in all his thoughts. When men arc tull
of themselves, the throne of grace is not
their refuge nor their sanctuary; if they
come to it at all, it is with the insolence OF
the Pharisec, and not with the selEabasc-
ment and humility of the publican. But
God, while he despiscs the prayers of the
self.confdent, he hears the poor, regards
the destitute, he saves and comforts the at.
hicted.
Those who are destitute are the persons
most welcome to the throne of grace
They have a sense Of their necessities, all
refuge laileth them, no man carcth for
them; then they cry to the Lord, and he
saveh them from their distresses. A sense
ofneed makes them earnest and importunate
with God. They do not only pour out
words before him, but they pour out their
heart anu complaint to him. Persons
who are at ease in Zion pour out words,
but the destitute pray with all their heart.
They who feel themselves to be desti-
tute, cry to God night and day their eyes
fail in looking for Gods salvation; their
throat Is dried in arguing at the throne Of
grace, and they long for an answer to their
prayers. Like starving beggar, they look
to the eye and the hand of their heavenly
Benefactor Ii he send h:lp. The desire
after God himself as their portion, which
is the common privilege of all the spiritually
destitute, is a work of the Holy Ghost, the
mercics they want are near in the divine
promises, and they are restless and un-
happy till God hear and answer their pray
ers ; they, as it were, wrcst them from him
by faith and gracious expectation. They
cannot live without these merces, and they
are vehement in seeking them. God, who
puts bowels into earthly parents towards
their children, especially the sick and the
weak among them, will not desPse his des-
tll:e ones. He who commands us 10 deal
out our bread to the hungry, in real com.
passion, or drawing out our soul to them,
to clo,he the naked, and to defend the faith.
erless, will no. neglect his own poor and
needy. "He will not break the bruised
reed. nor qucnch the smoking flax"
When God builds up Zion, then he re.
CARDS the prayer of the destitute; he arises
and hath mercy upon Zion, the set time to
favor her arrives. He appears in his glory
to men, and hears those prayers which the
destitute have presented to him for the re.
vival of his work. He sits as the God Of
Zion on his throne, judging right. He
stands in his court Of requests. Hestretch-
es out his golden sceptre to the poor and
needy. Their prayers formerly presented
TO him, their present wants and cries, come
into his mind. A book of remembrance is
written before him, and the prayers of his
church are recorded on high. Then he
remembers the particular wants of his des-
titute, and in the general distribution of his
favors, he has his eve upon the generation
of them that seek his face; their prayers
may have been forgotten by themselves,
and despised by the world, but they are not
forgotten by him who heareth prayer.
They come up as memorial before God.
When the Lord builds up Zion, he regards
the prayer of the destitute, because the sum
of their prayers is about his Zion. See
Psal. cxxxvii. 81. Neh. i. IL, IA. Psal.
lxxiy. %. "a. The church is dear to
Christ, and dear to his saints. IF the
church be we'll, the destitute rejoice even
in their personal Affections, as in the case
of David when he composed this and 9TH
er psalms. Roma salra omnt salDa. When
Rome prospered, her friends forgot their
distance from her, and the perils of their
situation. That Zion may prosper, is the
sum ftheir wishes, the scope of their pray.
ers, and the issue of all their exertions
they are poor and destitute indeed, ,& cannot
give to Zion what their wishes suggest;
but they cannot refrain from helping her
with their prayers. These prayers are of
mean estimation in the eyes Of lions ene-
mics, and contribute little, as they appre-
hend, towards their own destruction, or to.
wards the prosperity of the church but in
this they are greatly mistaken. The pray
ers fthe destitute are powerful before God,
and become mighty auxiliaries to the inter-
est of religion. The prayers of Knox shall
inspire more terror into the mind of a
Queen than the presence of ten thousand
armed foes. The prayers Of Luther, and
of few mere destitute Protestants, shall
tend to dissolve powerful confederacy
Il. o., tho l.aaos