The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-12-24

prayed Tor MS lie; God heard MIN, and
added fifteen years TO that lifetime. The
prayer saved him-the lump of figs applied
being merely the God-appointed human in
strumentality. But" says some one, II
don't believe the Bible" Ali then we will
have to part company for four or FIVE
minutes, for it is useless to try TO argue
with any man with whom yCu can not
stand upon common ground. In any argu-
ment, If you would be successful, there
must be some common data to start from.
1t Is foolish to try to prove to a man that
twice three are six, provided he does not
admit the multiplication table, or that two
and two are four. If be does not admit the
addition table
My first address, therefore, is TO thos
who believe in the Bible. | want to tell
you that. prayer is the mightiest of all
remedieF and that the allopathic. and
homeopathic, and eclectic schools will vet
acknowledge 1T. Here are two cases Of sick.
ness precisely alike: tho same kid # medi-
cine is given 70 both OF them, and in the
same quantities. The one patient RECEIVERS,
the other does not Whyi God besses the
one remedy and does not bless the other
Prayer has helped many a laundering doc
tor through with case that would have
otherwise become completely unmau age
able. There is such a thing as gospel
hygiene, as christian pharmacy, as divine
materia medlca. That is foolish man
who, in cases of sickness, goes only to human
resources when we have these instances Of
the Lords help in the sick-room. Before
you call ths doctor, while he is there, and
after he goes away, look up to him who
cured Hezekiah. Let the apothecary send
the poultlce, but God makes it draw. OH
am glad to have doctor who knows how
to pray. God send salvation to all the doc
tors Sickness would be oftener baked,
death would be oftener hurled back from
the doorsill, if medical men came into the
-s<,lr lin oh Of he 80
prescription in their hands and the word of
the Lord in their mouths.
John Abercrombie, the most celebrated
physician of Scotland, prayed when he ent
into the sick-room, and he wrote no more
ably about "disease of tine BRAIN than
about ''the philosophy of the moral feel
tngs." l don't know now much OF the med
zeal success of Sydenham. and Cooper and
Harvey, and Rush depended upon the fact
that they knew how to pray as well as to
prescribe. l don't want a physician who
secs no God In human anatomy to doctor
my broken bones. If God made us, land
think he did,, and if the Bible is true land
am rather disposed to think it is), then it
is not strange that prayer does not traverse
natural cause, ay, that introduces a new
cause. When God made the law be
did not make it SO strong he could not
break it. LII God made our bodies when
they are broken he is the one to mend them;
anu IL - IcttSoudDit Judb We bHOul1 call
him in to do it. If my furnace in the
cellar breaks down, there is no one so com
petent to repair it as the manufacturer. If
my watch stops, there is no one so compe-
tent to set it going as the one who made it.
II the body is disordered, call in the maker
OF 1t. 1t is not all, as these physicists tell
us, matter of ventilation or poisoned air
of cleanliness or dirt, of nutritious diet or
poor fare have known people to get well
in rooms where the windows had been six
weeks down, tight shut, and l have known
them 70 die right under patent ventilators.
have known children sickly who every day
had their BATH and ] have known children
robust the washing of whose faces would
make their features unrecognizable.
God did not make the law and then run
away from it. What is law of nature? 1t
is only Gods usual way of doing things
But he has said that if his children ask him
to do thing, and he can consistently do
IL, he will do it. Go on with your pills. and
plasters, and nostrums, and elixrs, and
your catholicon, but remember that the
mightiest agency in your recovery is prayer.
Prayer to God brought the kings cure, the
lump Of figs being the God-directed human
instrumentality.
/ would have you also see--for it is an
other lesson of the subject-that our prayer
must also be accompanied by means. 1t is
an outrage to ask God TO do thing while
we sit indolent. The prayer, TO be accept
able, must come not only from the heart,
but from the hands. We must work while
we pray, devotion and work going together
Luther came to Meancthons bedside and
prayed for his recovery, and insisted, at the
sams time, that he should take some warm
soup, the soup being Just as important as
the prayer. In the time of the great
plague that came TO York, of England, the
priests prayed all night and all day for the
removal Of the plague, but did not think of
a.
lay in the cutters, causing the sickness. We
must use means as well as applications. If
a man has evening prayers" asking
for health, and then sits down to a full sup
per of indigestibles at IL o'clock at night,
his prayer is a mockery. A farmer has no
right to pray for the safety of his family
when he knows there is no cover on the
cistern. The christian man, reckless about
his health, ought not to expect the same
answer to his prayer as the christian man
expects who retires regularly at 10 o'clock
at night, and takes his morning bath with
the appendix of Turkish towel. Paul
said to the passengers of the Alexandrian
corn ship that they should get safe ashore,
but he told them they must use means, and
that was: "Stick to the old shlpm God is
not weak, needing our help, but God is
strong, and asks us to cooperate with him
that we may be strong, too. Pray by all
means, but don't forget the fig-poultice.
4 nat Oou answers prayers ouersu III bno
right spirit, seconded by our own effort, is
the first and last lesson of this text, aud it
is lesson that this age needs to learn. IL
all communication between heaven and
earth is cut off, let us know it, II all the
christian prayers that are going no toward
God never reach him, then, / say, let silence
smite the lips of the afflicted world, and
the nations smother their groans and die
quietly God does answer PRAYER. The
text shows it. You say: II don't believe
the Bible; / think that those things were
merely coinc denoes, which are often
brought as answers to prayer" Do you
say that! Was it mere happen-so that
Elijah prayed for rain just as the rain was
going 10 come anyhow Did Daniel pray in
the wild baasts' den jus at the time when all
the lions happened to have lock jaw. Did
Jeuss pray at the grave of Lazarus Just at the
time when Lazarus was going TO dress him
self and come out anyhowl Did Jesus lose
his place in his sermon, and make mistake,
when he said: ASK and it shall be given
you; seek, and we snail find: knock. and II
shall be opened unto you" And, les, some
were so stupid they could not understand 1t,
he goes on: "For everyone that asketh re-
ceiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and
to him that knocketh il shall be opened
But some one persists In saying; ~ don't
believe anything Of the Bible" Then APP