The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-09-15
miscellaneous.
Rev, 7. Dewitt TALMAGE,
THE NATION UPON ITS KNEES IN
SUPpLICATION FOR THE LIFE
OF THE PRESIDENT.
A Sublime Spectacle Presented to the Christian
WOrld-The Lessons That God ia Teaching
the Nations
"RECOVERY."

0IOus
From this chapter, which l read in full
at the opening Of last Sabbath's service,
now take my text. In one week it
seems coming true in regard to our aiCfh
ted President. Good King Hezekiah was
by the surgeons and clergy given up to
die. His recovery was pronounced an
impossibility. Then God comes in and
prescribes, and marked change takes
place. A lump of grapes is applied as a
cooling and strong poultiCe, and Heze'
kiah gets up for fifteen more years of
earthly existence. For two months our
suffering President has been the anxiety
of all Christendom. Recently the atten-
ton was diverted from the wound by the
assassin to a Virulent swelling in the face,
which had resisted the poultiCe, and was
declared by the doctors to be the chief
source of danger. ConvalescenCe after
oonvalesCence, relapse after relapse, until
last Saturday week all hope was surren'
dered. The six surgeons unanimously
declared that death was only few hours
off. Medical men all the land over de.
clared the same thing. All the newsps'
papers despaired of restoration. Them
in answer to prayers going up day and
night from church and storehouse, rail-
train and steamer, and from all the civil
lied earth, a change took place, and in
some respects the patients case is more
promising than at any time since the
murderer's revolver attempted it's work.
President Garfield, verify believe, is
going to get well.
There has never been time within
my memory when God has in such an
indisputable and conspicuous manner
honored prayer. People who have not
bent the knee in twenty years have
bowed in suppliCation. Others who did
not suspect they were praying, said with
great earnestness at the time of the at.
tempted assassination: "God help us"
and week ago, after the bulletins of re-
lief came, said, "Thank God" You may
call it what you will, call it prayer; and
God waited until everybody had given
up, then he appeared. The impossible
has taken place, In that corps of six
surgeons there is as eminent medical tai.
ent as is to be found in America or in the
world. In my opinion they have done
magnifCently. Some Of them have more
talent, some have less, but you must all
admit they have done their very best.
When think Of them standing up un.
der this nervous strain for two months,
all nations seeming to hold them respon.
sible for the life Of their illustrious pa
tient, and toiling day and nightamid the |
most depressing circumstances, my sym
pathies are reused in their behalf, and
my daily prayer is, God help and cheer
and inspire and reward the doctors. If
the next Congress does not vote them
handsome subsidy, it will be an migrate.
full Congress. But this combined skill
had been defeated at the time the Lord
took the case, and God shall have the
glory, whether Of the present improve
ment or of the entire restoration. An
unbeliever might say the change took
place through natural causes, namely,
the decrease of the parotid gland, Wise
sirs,who made the parotid gland go down.
1t was because the Divine Physician
came to the bedside that the obsequies
of our President are not already conclu-
ded. God gave the same lesson Of pray.
er to England. The Prince of Wales,
down with typhoid fever, the physicians
bulletins announced that he could not
live more tnan three hours. But his
Queenly mother was in prayer, and all
England was in prayer cath edrals, coal
shaft, Lords and factory operatives, the
mighty and the low in prayer, and the
tides of health that had been going out
began to rise, and the Prince of Wales
got well. In this way God is teaching
the nations. Had it not been for the
prayers Of the nation, the leaden bullet
would have completed it's work seven
weeks ago. AS sure as there is a GOD in
heaven he heard the supplications Of the
first Sabbath after the calamity, and the
second Sabbath, and the third Sabbath,
and the fourth Sabbath, ard the fifth
Sabbath, and the sixth, and the seventh
and the eighth. On Saturday the case
had dipped to the lowest points, as if
God on each Sabbath morning was de-
manding prayer, and saying: "Call upon
me in the day Of trouble, and will de-
liver you" And the Monday bulletins, 1
think without any exceptions, have been
encouraging. .
I demand that prayer be acknowledged
as the most important factor in National
prosperity. We have had four great con.
secutive hsrVests in this country, and we
have been expecting that the natural
causes would keep on producing the nat.
ural result, and that this year we should
have larger crops than ever before, be.
cause more corn was planted, and more
wheat sown, and more fruit grated. I
have not heard from snybody's lips this
year g prayer for great harvest. What
~
and fruit q failure in Michigan, in Ohio,
in Pennsylvania, in Canada, The Asso-
Ciated Press reports say no rain in Gin
Cinnah for four weeks, none in Iowa for |
six weeks, none in Toronto for five weeks
What is the mstter2 We want a few |
Eliiahs to 60 up on Mount Carmel and
reach up their hands Of faith, and
squeeze out the sponge Of the clouds on