National Republican., 1888-02-25
THE MEGHTlNESS OF PRAYER
REV. DIR. TALYAGE's REGULAR FRIDAY
NIGHT TALK.
The Advancement OF Religious Ex-
periepce Due Immeasurabiy More to
secret Prayer Than when Stimulated
by - Public Assembiage.

called from the outside world TO the i'm
yor,ant work of inlIoycrsion. The Church in
Centicles says: They have made me the
keeper OF vineyards but my own vineyard
have not kept" SO there are great many
Christians now who spond, their chief time in
looking after others while their own Vine
yard goes to waste. They are raising very fine
grapes on the other side of the fence but the
property does not belong to them, nor the
grapes. We know Christians who are lean MS
skeletons In religious experience, who are run
ming hither and thither looking after Sunday
schools. calling conventions, attending meet.
other people, bi have no anxiety about them.
selves. They cut the wool off somebody else's
theep, and spin 1t on somebody else's wheel,
and weave IL IN somebody else's loom, for
somebody else's back. Meanwhile their own
souls are shivering to death.
SO there ore women busy collecting money
for benevolent institutions and managing pub.
lie aiairs, while their own children go with
faces unwashed, and stockings undarned, and
minds ,uneducated, and souls unsaved. Busy
everywhere but IN their own vineyard.
Now, the first thing for one to do Is 10 take
care Of his or her own heat How was II that
the old saints. with less opportunity than we
have, were better men? They had more time
down to think. II is drive, and push and pull.
Their only quiet time is when they are
on en- express train, going at hhy miles
an hour, watch iu hand, wondering why they
feel called upon for especial telf examination,
end so take the ten minutes IN which they are
yllg walking 70 church to thing what miserable
hight 70 give SO mnch time 70 your ncighbors
crops that you let your own suffer. BESIDES. If
orr own piety be thin, our work will be in
efficient. If we have been much with Christ,
aud have deep personal exnerlences, we
Will do more good IN one month than win
q shnllow experience we could do IN ten years.
One half the Christian effort of to day Is mere
gab--the world sees straight through II; whi,e
soT men " ho says but little yet feels much gets
hold Of the heart of an audience, AMI rolises.
AMI melts aud subdues, aud agonizes It AT
will. Rickcty snd unsafe machinery always
makes great racket. Christians seeking no
advancement in personal piety are often very
femonstintive, as steamboats, az the wharf
blowing oil steam are so noisy you cannot hear
yourtrIt speak.
A man Of deep religious experience is al
NeiS effective. We care not how poor his
voice is, or how unCome)y his Goun,enance. or
how awkward his gestures or how shabby his
clothes, or how lame his grammar. BY taking
good care OF our vineyard, we learn how 70
help Others IN the care OF their vineyard. If
you cannot raise grapes in your garden, you
cannot raise them In mine.
Friends, the Lord of the vineyard will after
awhile appear at the gate. The day of vintage
were gathered there was sporting through all
the land. and the sound OF musical instru-
ments. What kind of clusters shall we he
able TO show, at least in our vineyard Will
they be stnnted and sour, or rpe and large?
ii faithful In the planting, and the trimming
and the watching, the vintage will be glorl-
clusters into the wine press, and then. with
all the hBnquetors OF heaven, the instruments
chorded TO the right pitch, we will drink new
wine in our Fathers kingdom. God forbid
that ours should be the lamentation. "They
made me keeper of vineyards. but my own
vineyard have ] not kept" How much prl-
yate talk have you every day with God? That
There IS an art in everything IT. when the
haIvests are ripe. we should go into the fields.
we wonld find that while one hnsbandman
nvn n hn Ia
with great exhaustion, halting at the end of
the first twath before he has strength again TO
strike into the grain, another man goes for
two or three. hours without halting. save to
sharpen his instrument-goes from one side of
the field 10 the other without any special ia
tigue. What IL the difference In the one
and in the other he does net. One man will
go cu. with-a fishing appurSIiis that has cost
him tifiy dollars, and catchnbsolutely nothing
the iivelong day, while another man. with an
apparatus prepared with his own iack.knife,
Will catch so many of the spo.ls of the water
that his basket will scarcely hold them. What
is the difference? ? In the one case the man
knows how to fish, in the other no does not.
We acknowledge that there is an art In every
thing. lsthere any art IN religion Why Is
II that one man starts our in tho Christian
seems TO walk across the field, going from one
dcgree,cf grace TO another, getting stronger
snd niirhtier in the Christian life, with no es.
pecial draw back, his mlsfortrncs and his trials
tecoming his coGdlntors. so that at the end of
thirty years he can look back and see that he
has made one long, complete triumph; while
another man Will be thirty years in tile church
Of Gcd and achieve nothing, standing where
he was at the start, or having retreaIed, not
really having so much faith or uteinlness a
in the fret year. Why is II that the one man
goes ahead ard the other goes back? Is there
any art IN rellpion? There is NO man gets
on IN the Christian lie by accident. There Is
10 such thing as hapha2a'd. II man ~
vance in the Christian life rapid y and misln-
ily IL is because he employees certain plr.tns
and does certain things in order to gain .hHsC
achievements.
The one great secret OF advancemenS ia re
ligioIs experience is secret prayer, II IL vuN
easy to come into public assent Age NNi
stimulated by the hearty singing snG by the
cheerful faces of scores and hun grGs o. GodI
people, TO bow our heads and lift ,lr hearts il
payer: but to have some secret p. 80 where,
day 10y day, either at morning or at ho,h or NJ
the whole world listening. and do nat thing
day after day and month after 9th aud
year aiter year and fOr scores Of y aIs'-thai 10
severance, sew @ some high "a ap1ri oio ViV Of arty hy,
Almighty help. .NooI irtray Eiigl!c bis
wofia s Rrdieitt and ict him &; ' letore @ q GOD i' IL
lions and sorrows ID annoy nces anl
grievances ,,,, and ID a. &; ~, ard ne wo4t
say. I'VE didn't com. ITO the house o prsy-r
iSnight TO have omre' ana hearts i'a',!;Ga
we knew all cSCGllCE' tlttlan mD1 WAC Il 10
the habit In PRAYER N II got telling ihe ms
astounding thingsof " "A, ~ EsCd to 10 aad
where he used to go. NHoil br;ierIi in him
as useful man; but we II Wished he wonld
not go SO much into par!i ;ilarS. |, edited NJ
Christian ear, 1t advanced no .hri'ti'r hear
Andyet there is place where nlau ougn. 10
be able to tell everything to his God, TO review
delyerances, and take all the annoyapces and
the grievances of the present moment before
God; but II he has no closet OF secret prayer,
where shall he do that? There is no such
thing at a stalwart Christian character except
that which grows in private. and which starts
from secret communion with God-an outand-
out unlimited utterance such as man cannot
give In public religious assemblage.
There is ,mightiness in prayer. George
Muller prayed company OF poor boys to-
gether, and then he prayed up an asylum in
which they might be sheltered. He turned
his face toward Edinburgh and prayed, aud
there came thousand pounds. He turned
his face toward London and prayed, and there
toward Dublin and prayed, and there came a
thousand pounds. The breath of Eijah's
prayer blew all the clouds of the sky. and u
was dry weather The breath OF Eliiah's
prayer blew all the clouds together, and IL
raihed. Prayer, III Daniels time, walked the
cave as n lion tanner.
prayer. The time will come when the Ameri-
can church ana the English church, and all
the chnrthes will pray with their faces toward
the west, and all the pIairos ana inland cities
win surrender to God, and will pray with their
faces toward the sea, ana all the Islands and
ships will become Christian. Parents who
have wRyward sons will get down on their
bnCts and say, lord send my boy home"
ard the boy In Canton shall get right NJ from
h gamir table ard SO down u the docks to
ipd out which ship stGrts first tor America or
Britain.
HNot one Of us knows yet fully how to pray.
Al we have done as yet has been po,tering,
al guessing. and experimenting boy gels
hoe OF his fathers saw AMI hammer and
tTiCs 10 make something, bnt II II poor affair
that he makes. The father comes and takes
the same saw and hammer and builds the
house or the thip. In tue childhood OF our
Christian faith we make but poor work with
to the stature Of men In Christ, then, under
these implements, the temple of God VIII
rise, and the worlds redemption will be
launched.