The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1875-03-24
lTmmthO Illustrated chIiitiai Wsihiy, March sO.I
PROXIMITY N PRAYER,
BIZ RpWM D, RAHpENspInarp.

Was Montgomery cOrrecti in his famous
pOetical definition Of prsyor3 Is It the
4souls sincere dssire,p tho aburden Of a
sigh" "yital breath "watchwOrd y
May veregardit as IAN offering up Of our
desires unto GodF Yea, truly. Thus We
are taught to believe. This is according
to our faith, Our practice, alas, seems to
imply at times that prayer Is yarn that
must DO reelCd of from the spindle Of
prOlixity,
We DO illustrate some tbingsi in our re.
ligion by the loom. In the exposition Of
a passage from the Word we regard the
material with which wO work just as the
weaver regards his material, We weave
1t into discourse and 80 We call 1t q
text, But somehow there seems to be an
improperly in spindling out our prayers
until every body Is "tuckered out
A correspondent OF the Weakly served
tho cause OF humanity.a few weeks ago
when hO suggested tho acrostiO Of the
word ACTS Lot one Of the gettOrs up
Of illustrated texts and notices try his
skill on that suggestive word Of four
letters, Put them up in the best style.
Send them out TO tho churches 10 DO hung
in the prayer halls Of our land, They
will answer the same purpose that u
skeleton does In doctors Office, They
may scare some people, but perhaps those
are tho persons who nood soaring, Such
device Is better than the cruel one Of
tapping small bell to remind the person
who speaks or prays that "lhs time Is up"
The remedy for the evil Of spinning out
the prayer is by an appeal to the sense Of
Christian propiety, The prolix dis.
courses OF the last century, will
not do for this. Tho same may DO
said Of the prayers, II NO wonld
keep the church abreast Of, or bettor still,
ahead Of the ago VIC must keep out Of the
ruts, We cannot afford TO part with prin.
ciples, but we may dispense with pOrni.
ciOus practices, 1t ID the duty Of tho
church to train tho membora for the
prayer meeting,
Some persons can always sec evil, and
nothing but evil In all deviationa from the
old methods. In tho days Of my boyhood
| heard a Woodworking farmer In my no.
tive state express himself Us an enemy Of
the iron fences that he heard were coming
into vogue in tho neighborhood Of Phil.
alclphia. Tho idea was to him utterly
pFepOsterOus. Tho cost OF such fence he
was prepared to provo by Dabolps Arith.
mctiO would cat up the value Of any farm
In Adams county that tho owner would
attempt to enclose with iron, He con-
tended that rail Of ordinary sizo made
Of that material would cost at loast five
dollars,
JUST so some Of tho antiquated and fos'
siliierOus church practices cling to people
now. Oh for common sense IN religtOuA
AZ well as in worldly afEairsl Many, In
spite Of the Scripture warning, do expect
to be heard for much speaking,
1t was some years before Fulton Street
prayer.Ateeting was established that tho
late DR., Matthew Brown OF Jefferson Col,
lcgV was asked to address the Sabbath
Morning Prayer Meeting. lie made his
appearance in good time, The meeting
was to be Just one hour In length. The
leader opened by giving out hymn and
reading chapter. Then he called on a
student, who couldn't wind of quickly to
lead in prayer, lie prayed, and prayed,
and prayed, until tho minute hand on the
clock indicated that only Two minutes Of
the whole hour was left for the Doctor. .
As soon as the muCh-tleslred "AmCn"
was reached tho venerable President made
this short but suggestive remark, and then
pronounced the 6enedictlon;
ut Ia never necessary in one prayer 10
pray for every thing In the world"
"Tho suggestion u to tsO these four lettOrI as re-
nlndUrs Of The four parlJOf prayers;
A DoRATfON
| @ ONPR9slON,
| T ilANRsnIviNO,
y DUPLICATION