Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-28
IN THE WILD BEASTS DEN

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Daniel pray
IN THE WILD BEASTS DEN
Just at the time when all the lions hap
pened to have the lOckjaw? Did Jesus
pray at the grave of Lazarus just at the
time when Lazarus was going to dress
himself and come out anyhow? Did Jesus
lose His place III His sermon and make Il
mistake when He said: "Ask and it
shall be given you; seek and We shall
find; knock and it shall be opened unto
yOu?' And, lest some were so stupid
they could not understand it, He goes
on: "For every one that asketh re-
ceiveth; and he that seeketh findeth;
and to him that knOcketh if shall be
opened. -
But some one persists in saying: 81
don It believe anything of the Bible. -
Then | appeal to your own instincts.
Prayer in ceftain circumstances is rs ma
tural to man as the thrObDing i'll the
pulse, us the respiration of the lungs.
Put a company of men-I don t care how
bad they are-in some imminent peril,
and they will cry out, ''God have mercy
on us!'' 1 challenge that these men who
don t believe in prayer chartera steamer,
go out III the "narrows, - swing out 500
or 900 miles to sea, and then heave-to
and wait for cyclone And after the
cyclone comes and the vessel has gone I'M
der ten times, when they did not expect
at would rise again, and the hulwarks
have been knocked in, and the nasts are
gone-if they do not pray l Will surrender
my theory. Do you tell me that this in
stinct which God has put in us, He put
there Just to mock us forH is own cruel
cd MT a1 that
INSTINCT IN THE HUMAN HEART,
it was because in His own heart there was
something responsive.
To prove that God does hear prayer,
put on the witness stand Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, Ezekiel, jeremiah, Micah, John,
Paul, Peter land King HeZekiah. Tell me,
We ancient battle fields, We oriental
threshing floors, ye Judian corn fields,
We Galilean fishing smacks, is God deaf,
and dumb, and blind before all human
petition? That God answers prayer, l
bring the ten million facts of Christen
dom to prove. There has never paper
enough come out of the paper mills to
write the story. Has not many mother
prayed back her bad boy from the ends
of the earth-from Canton, from Mad
ras, from COnstantinOple-until he knelt
beside her in the old homestead? Have
there not been desperadoes and renegades
who have looked into the door of Il
prayer-meeting to laugh and scott at it =,
who have been drawn by the pow
er of prayer, until they ran
to the altar crying out for
mercy? Did not the blacksmith in
Lyons, New York, pray to God until
there came a great awakening that shook
the community.
In my parish in Philadelphia one night
at meeting asked young man to go
into room at the side of the church and
talk upon the theme of religion. He
grew violently angry and shook his fists
at me. We resolved to pray for that
young man, and we prayed that he might
yield his soul to God. And when, next
night, at the meeting the side door was
flung open he was the first to step in.
Prayer had captured him. had class
mate in collegeA whose UNCLE, DR.. John
Scudder of InlH& wrote tsfhm, saying:
al will pray oE you eveE3day until such
a day, and then RSll gf8e my attention
to some othsr subjea Y The last gs5>of
these prayers, when thE had all gathered
up before gnS throne sod, Icy PISS
II 10 ssc6 NE HaND STORY. s
1 saw the letter and 1 knew the young
man.
But why should go so far? 1 have ha$
i@Ay own experience, and have hadsN
6e history of my own family the evla36eS
bat God answers prayeE.. My metheff,,
9Th three Christian wofflsn, assemhEd
%eelsz after week and prayed forsaeir
s6hsldfen; they kept up that prayeEe heet-
ing q fopppersons year after year. The
RhiIafe.1cry faF