The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-10-13
Although Masked In the Deep
est Disguise.
We're the Prayers for President
Garfield Failure {!
These National Petitions Cry to
Heaven For Mercy.
EXhaled by the Glorious Sun of
Righteousness,
They viii Descend Upon Us Again in
Gracious DistillatiOn.
Sermon Preached in Brooklyn Tabernacle
on Sunday, October 2, 1881, by
Rev. T. Dewitt TaImage.

SUBJECT: ''wERE THE NATIONS PRAYERS
FOR THE LATE PRESIDENT A FAILURE?"
TExT-H. Corinthians, xii, 8: 81 be-
sought the Lord thrice that it might
depart from me, and He said unto me,
My grace is sufficient for thee.'"
Something was the matter with Paul
of the text He spoke of something
that tried him, or mortified him,-,Or
hurt him, under the figure of "thorn
in the flesh" Some say it was a,crook-
ed back; some. say it was suffering
tongue, but more, among them the
learned KittO and DR.. John Brown, the
Scotch essayist, think that it was dis
eased eyes, amounting to almost total
blindness. Phey think this because he
almost always employed amanuenses,
in one case mentioning it as rare Oc-
currenee that he had writer so large
a Aletter with my own hand" and be-
cause he was almost always accom-
panied from place to place by attend
ants, and also because he seems to refer
to the trouble with his eyes when in
describing the enthusiastic love of the
Galatians toward him he, said: "Ye
would have plucked out your own eyes
,andEhaye given them to me-" Inz0thaF
words, 81 think you would have been
willing to trade your good eyes for my
poor eyes. ButiWhatever might have
been the trouble he prayed God to cure
it, and he prayed again, and he prayed
again. He no doubt had prayed hund-
reds of times, but there were times in
which he agOnized in prayer. Did God
answer these three prayersp Yes, but
in better way than Paul expected
not by curing his eyes, or Strengthening
the back, or curing the stammering of
the tongue, but by giving him grace to
make the trouble a glorious advantage
instead of an irritating detriment.
Better than to cure his eyes he made
him the greatest apostle of The ages.
81 besOught the Lord thrice that it
might DEPART from me, and He said un-
tome: "My grace is sufficient for thee.' "
So then, so now. In the six thousand
years of the worlds existence there have
not been hundred right-hearted pray
ers unanswered, nor ten prayers, nor
five, nor has there been one. If in all
these years there had been Just one
right-hearted prayer unanswered, it
would have impeached the character of
God and have dethrOned the Almighty.
If God does not give you just what is
asked for, He gives something better.
For eleven weeks all Christendom was
praying for President Garfield g recovery.
All the Sabbaths were full of supplica-
tiOn. Days of fasting were proclaimed.
Never so much prayer for one object in
any eleven weeks since the world was
by the wings of the Almighty broOded
out of chaos. Yet the body of our late
President is in Lake View Cemetery,
Ohio. "YOur prayers are dead failure, /"
said many skeptics. ga dead failure"
thought many more. "YOu might as
well have spared your breath. The laws
of nature triumph. Do not hereafter
mix theology and medicine"
shall show you that all the right
hearted prayers on this subject are
divided into two classes-thOse which
have been answered and those which
will be answered. There were two
thoughts in every right-hearted prayer
on this subject-the invalid's best inter-
est and the nations best interest. The
autopsy shows that if the illustriOus in
valid had been continued in life he would
have been paralytic, unable to walk
and unable to attend to the work of
his high Office. But suppose that a
miracle had been performed, and he had
walked fOrrh entirely restored, could he
ever fulfill the unbounded expectations
awakened in regard to him? Not if he
had been an angel from God and with
the power of hundred Garfields. Could
he in an Administration where thou
sand questions come up, have pleased
everyb0dyp No. In all questions as
between the two political parties how
could he have satisfied both, although
both have been equally attentive and
equally eulogistic during his sickness?
He must have eventually offended one
or the other, and the one he offended in
consequence of what it had done for
him during this sickness would have
denounced him as an migrate with a We
hemence never seen in American poll
tics. Suppose question should come
up between monopoly and anti-mOnOp-
oily, how could President Garfield have
acted without illimitable affrOnt? The
leading anti-monOpOlists have been
showing their warm interest in him
through all these weeks; while among
the monOpolists was the Pennsylvania
Railroad, that gave him free rail train
to Long Branch, and built an extra
track where it was needed, while the
leading mOnOpolists of New York and of
the country had subscribed from one to
five thousand dollars each for Mrs. Gar
field; and if you think Mrs. Garfield did
not tell him all about it in his better
moments you have never been married.