The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-07
VISITORS IN TWO PULPITS.
Rev. John A. BrOadus, Of Louisville, in
the First Baptist Pulpit.
Gods Way and Mans Way, as Exemplifed in
the Lives of Abel and Cain-JUdge
loves Discourse.
THE POWER OF PRAYER.


First Baptist Church.
The pulpit of the First Baptist Church was
filed yesterday morning and evening by Rev
John A. Broadus, D. D., of Louisville, KY, one
of the most eminent divines of that church. The
Doctor took as his text for the morning service
the seventh verse of the seventh chapter of Mat
thew: ASK and it shall be given unto you; seek
and We shall find; knock and it shall be opened
unto you, but employed the first twelve verses
of the same chapter in treating of his subject
the necessity of prayer He thought the words
OF the text are about as simple as can be found
in the Bible, so simple that children can readily
understand them. One thing is very certain,
that the Lord Jesus Christ beliyed in prayer
Some people do not believe in it; others do not
know whether they do or not He believed in
prayer and taught people how to pray, taking
the greatest possible care to do so taught it by
precept and by parable and with various illus
trations. Another proof of His belief in prayer
is that He prayed very much himself If there
ever was any one that walked this earth who
could do without praying at all He was that one.
And yet He prayed, and on many occasions and
at last prayed upon the cross. 1t is
perfectly certain that He believed in
praying, and that prayer a power II He
believed it, shall believe it because He is the
source of all know of what is good, of what is
1
fine prayer-to tell how it is good and helpful;
what it is. You cannot define space. neither
can you define time Yet you believe both exist,
and would be very unwise if you did not act in
accordance with that belief. ASK and is shall
be given to you; seek and we shall find; knock
and it shall be opened unto YOU Not content
with this, repeats it three times. He says it so
often because he considers it fundamental and
vitality important. No one knew better than He
how hard it is for human beings to recognize
what they should do and then do it properly.
We speak words as prayers, and they seem to
come from nowhere and be going nowhere. L
remember once seeing some deaf and dumb peo-
pie called together to pray, and the silent
prayer was offered up, spelled in their sign
manual watched their great gazing eyes which
grew beautiful, expanding as they watched the
slowmoving, reverend gestures that mean so
much to them. | said to myself this is praying.
Here are human hearts and minds trying to
enter into communion with the great mind of
God Jesus knew how much we need to perse-
we're in praying. That we are tempted to give it
over in despair, but that we must keep on-lSe
the chemist who sees no result from his expert
ments and is tempted to abandon them as fail
ures. Jesus stirs us to keep on praying-to put
our minds and our hearts into it and make it a
reality. Jesus appeals to the most tender of all
tender relationship paternal relation. The
father alone is mentioned, but the deep feeling
of the mother is included COR what man is
there of you who, if his son ask bread, will
give him stone, or if he ask q fish will he give
him a serpent" The round, fiat stones of Pales-
tine resembled much the loaveS of that day.
Would man be so unnatural as to give to son
asking bread stone, and for fish serpentE
How much less, then, your heavenly Father!
Our knowing is imperfect. We may intend to
give what is good and yet give what is evil Not
so with God who will give good things to those
who ask Him. He is free from all our faults of
judgment and of feeling One Sunday afternoon
in a small, close, upper darkened room, coffin
Ivy, and in it the body Of a child. A little boy
was there. We are often surprised by questions
asked nv these little OOeS--ut1pStlODe that reach
after the deep. hidden things of life. This boy
said Doesn't the Bible say that what we ask
God to do He will 90! All day yesterday asked
God to spare my little cousin. Why did he not
do it," He had touched bottom Many of US
have felt just the same difficulty and we get no
further than this boy. Yet the Father would
not give you anything did He not know it was
for the hest.
If He would give us, without limit and with
out condition, everything we asked for, the best
and the wisest would be afraid to pray. And as
the years went on they would find that the things
asked for were not the best for them, and would
have done them great injury had they been
granted. Blessed be His holy name, that He
knows what to give and what to withhold.
So we may come to Him without hesitation,
because if He sees it is best He will give and if
He sees tits not best He will not give it. What
we ask in our best judgment He in his betterju
ment will determine whether we shall have or
not 1t seems to me that here we find the great
est comfort in praying. Because He knows how
to give as well as how to refuse
The poet Coleridge wrote in one of his earlier
poems that prayer is foolish On his death-bed
he called his nephew to him and said, with deep
contrition that he was sorry he had written that
poem, and said that prayer is the noblest gift to
man, as it enables him to lift up his soul in COM
munon with his God. Oh, weak man, tossed on
the pillows of the uncertain ocean of life, how
can you say you have need to prayl And
yet even our prayers are so mingled with sin
that it is well we have Christ as an advocate to
plead for with the father Shall we not all prayl
Those of us who once prayed and are not now in
the habit of praying, will they not take it up
again to-day9
'0h let my hand forget her skill,
My tongue be silent, cold and still,
This throbbng heart forget to beat
.