The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1872-11-23
Praying for Things.

No prayers can be expected to extract
another wish or thought or expression
of feeling from a Being who is beyond
all these lines, and who has put these
thrilling worlds between Himself and
His creatures, piled these Ossas on these
PeliOns of intention, and fairly eXhaus-
ted the possibilities Of care in what is
already provided. He who begins to
see how much he has, can not in ON
science ask for more. To have the
smallest appreciation of the wealth of
the supply is to see reason sufficient for
being dumb. And so we find what
| prayer with an increase of knowledge.
As people understand the meteOrolOgy
and climatOlogy they perceive the use
lessness Of prayer for rain. As they
understand the strict connection be-
tween the harvest and the seasons, they
| cease to pray for good crops. As they
| understand the intimate dependence Of
human health on sanitary precautions,
they abate their precautions, they abate
the fervency of their petitions for long
and wholesome life. As they under
stand the necessary. utilization of the
physiological and the psychological
laws, their prayers for an amiable tenn
per and a kind heart become weak and
mfrequent.A visit to the office in
| Washington, where the clerk of the
weather sits with his s~ubordinates
about him, catching the whispers ofsthe
wind from the four quarters of heaven,
counting the rain drops that fall on a
continent, weighing the atmosphere
from sea to sea and from lakes to gulf,
and making these flying. Elusive wit
nesses tell whether it viii be wise for
! Ar -o-~a1n - M Vail ~, Con E.a4N
cisco to take umbrellas down town with
them the next day, will satisfy the most
.devout mind that s~uppication for a
sudden supply or cessation of showers
will be Intellectual. A visit to the bU-
.reau of Vital Statistics, where the cur
rents of disease are traced in their
flow over large reaches of territory,
and the private correspondence between
sanity and sewerage, death and dirt,
fever and fetor, cholera and %uncleanli-
ness, is established with the nicely of
mathematics. will convince the saint
that the death-rate is not likely to be
modified considerably by the most fer
vent desire GodWard. The prayer fol
fresh ~accessiOns of temperance, honesty,
peacefulness, sinks into silence before
the fact that vices and crimes too obey
their laws ! that outbreaks OF personal
distempeP accompany changes in the
money market; that social morality
follows the line of national prosperity
which rises and falls with the ffuctu,
ations of the seasons; that social dis
orders have their method that sins
can be reduced to an average: that
skllfnl aGtuary will, FROM given dHta
compute with much accuracy the .pT9b-
able number of murders and suicides
/ Enr. %Isn 1NaZy4 rarpIvranAnnfh &Yy7an and win,
ture not being gifts dependent on the
favor of Il benefactor, but qualitie;
wrought into the texture of the world
to be had by fulfilling the conditions
not otherwise. The Bible encourage
prayer for faith. But we all know tina
!, infidelity, like vice, has it's causes, which
must be removed eforeitW win disappear
The Gage of Reason in France, with it
appalling excuses, was 10 inspiration o
the devil, but an ineyitahle RESULT of tht
J denominations of the Church, Whicl
were again an inevitable result Of tn,
denominations of the State, which agaii
were an inevitable result OF an ancien
but outwoTn theory of the rights o
| kings. Prayer is thus seen to be out ,
plaee, because every possible et4epf z
J prayer is Guaranteed without 1t. PPaye
/ is i~HobefafiyG because it is unnecessary
For every prayer that reasonable MOI
tails can make an answer is alread.
provided, answers To prayer Deinl
worked into the substance of life TIL
/ compact universe, ln fact IL an 6rgap1
led response TO the sunplieatiQns q
men AT inaxhaustible storehouase 0
| adaptations, the key whereof is place,
in' AYeEy creatures hand, Tho Ierfse
being. could! not reply To human be
! seeefing more sufficiently than He ha
/ done already, He has even anticipate.
Attn'a knowing what thinga!His Glhl
dren had need o. ocs'.'. the aske'
!, Him, and furnishing them %centurle
: long in advance, with every imaginabl
2 means Of satisfaction. They FANG
, their petitions are answered airectl
by Him when they draw on some hlth
!, efto undiscovered treasury, that had NJ
, ways lain hidden ut their feet the
: fancy that He has just begun to spea
7 because they have just begun to lister
[Sermon by @. B. rockingham.