Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-04-30
PRAYER i'm Gen. Grants Case.

Now that Gen. Grant is so greatly
improved, and his entire recovery is
not improh hable, it is believed by great
numbers of pious people that he has
been snatched from death by the pow
er af PRAYER,
Ever since his prostration, they say.
prayers in his behalf have continually
ascended to heaven throughout the
Union. The petitions have gone up in
churches, at prayer meetings, at do
mcStic devotions, and at religious con-
ventions, and many thousands of
Christians have daily retired to their
closets to plead for his life.
Therefore it is, say these unquestion-
ing believers in the efficacy of prayer,
that even after the physicians had con-
fessed that medical science was unable
to save him from speedy death, Gen.
Ora nt's case suddenly took a favorable
turn, and lie was at once on the high
road to recovery. When man gave
him up, God stretched out His hand to
save him, in answer to the numberless
prayers with which the faithful had
stofmcd the gates of heaven.
That is, they Will regard his recov-
cry as miracle worked in answer to
prayer and to prove to all the world
the efficacy Of prayer. 1t is almost as
if the dead had been raised to life, they
will say, for Gen. Grant was cured of
an incurable disease, an impossibility
to man and according to human logic;
aud hence God alone could restore him
as Lazarus was brought forth from the
tomb.
"It is God who has done it in an
swer to the earnest prayers of His peo-
ple," says the Rev. DR.. Talmage; ait it
u, 4 h,
Rev. DR.. Newman expresses the same
opinion; while at Il meeting of Baptist
ministers on Monday Gen Grants
restoration was referred to as niracu-
lous.
On tn assumption that his disease
was incurable and his speedy death
certain under the operation of human
laws, his recovery would, of course, be
miracle which could not be gainsaid.
1t may be true that Garfield died
though a great part of the Christian
world was on its knees pleading for his
life, and that thousands of Christians
pass away daily despite earnest pray
ers for their restoration to health: but
the one case of Gen. Grant would be
enough to prove that even i'm these
days a miracle may be worked by pray
er. Professor Tyndale's prayer test
would be satisfied, and the whole world
would be compelled to believe in the
efficacy of the faith cure. Famous as
Gen. Grant may have been before, he
would become far more fam )us fOvev-
er as man who had been rescued from
death by a verita BILE miracle scarcely
less astonishing than the raising OF
Lazarus after he had been three days
buried.
But suppose that al! the praying was
done on a mistaken assumption; that
God was asked to save Gen Grant
from danger which did not exist
that the physicians were wrong in
tlieir diagnosis of his disease; that his
trouble was not cancer, but something
which was durable and really never
eEdangering lis life, provided it was
properly treated? The prayers which
have ascendef for him were occasion.
ioned by reports sent out from his sick
chamher by his physicians. and they
would not have gone up if the people
had generally understood that he was
suffering from disease which did not
imperil his life, but from which he
might recover in the ordinary course OF
things.
1t seems probable now that there
was no real justification for alarm AT
any time, that the physicians meItiy
advertised their own mistaken dlag-
| nosis, and that therefore the case Oh
Gen. Geant proves nothing In reg ara
to prayer either one way or the other.
| 1t has afforded no chance for the pray
er test. If he gets well, it will be be-
causp he was bound to recover from a
aurabIe disease as soon as the physl-
clans recognized it for what it was.
But perhaps it may be said that their
| eyes were opened In answer to prayer
" Y. Sur.