Milford chronicle., 1888-12-28


/ It, Here are two cases Of sickness precisely
alike; the same kind Of medicine is given to
both Of them, and in the same quantities.
The one patient receivers, and the other does
not Whyl God blesses the one remedy.
and does not bless the other Prayer has
I helped many a laundering doctor through
with a case that would have otherwise become
completely unmauageable. There is such a
thing as Gospel hygiene, as Christian phar-
macy, as divine materia medica. That
/ is a foolish man vino, in case Of sick
ness, goes only to human resources, when
NO have these instances Of the Lords
/ help in the sick room Before YOU call
I the doctor while he is there, and after he
/ goes away look up to him who cured Hcze-
/ kiah. Let the apothecary send the poutice,
/ but God makes it draw. Ohl ! am glad to
/ have doctor who knows how to pray. God
send salvation to all the doctorsl Sickness
would be oftener baked, death would be
| oftener hurled back from the door sill if med
/ ical men came into the sick room like Isaiah
Of the text, with prescription in their hands
and the word Of the Lord in their mouths.
soHE MEN WHO BELIEVED IN PRAYER
/ John Abercrombie, the most celebrated
/ physician Of Scotland, prayed when he went
| into the sick room, and he wrote 10 more
/ ably about diseases oS the brain than about
/ ''the philosophy Of the moral feelincsn
| don't know how much Of the medical success
Of Sydenham, and Cooper, and Harvey, and
/ Rush depended upon the fact that they knew
/ how to pray as well as to prescribe. don't
want a physician who sees no God in human
anatomy to doctor my broken bones. If God
made US and think he did, and if the
Bible is true land | am rather disposed to
think it Isl, then it is not strange that prayer
does traverse natural cause; ay, that it in
PRODUCES a new cause. When God made the
law, he did not make it so strong he could
not break it. If God made our bodies, when
they are broken he is the one to mend thaml
and II is reasonable that we should call him In
TO do it. If my furnace in the cellar breaks
down, there is no one so competent to
repair it as the manufacturer. If my watch
stops, there is no one so competent to set it
going as the one who made it If the body
is disoFdered, call in the Maker Of it. It 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 have known them to die
right under patent ventilators / have
D
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 naturel It
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 it,
he will do it. Go on with your pills, and
plasters, and nostrums, and elixirs, and your
catholicon, but remember that the mighticst
agency in your recovery is prayer. Prayer
to God brought the kings cure, the lump Of
figs being the God directed human instIu-
mentality.
would have you also see-for it is another
lesson Of the subject-that our prayer must
also be accompanied by means. It is an out
rage to ask God to do a thing while wo sit
indolent The prayer, to be acceptable,
must come not only from tho heart, but from
the hands. We must work while we pray,
devotion and work going together. Luther
came to Melancthons bedside and prayed for
his recovery, and insisted, at the same 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 thin; Of clearing out the
dead dogs and cats that lay in the cutters,
causing the sickness. 30 must use means as
we'll as supplications. Il man has "eyeu-
ing prayers" asking for health, and then sits
down to a full supper OF indigestibles
at IL o'clock at night, his prayer
is q mockery. A farmer has no right to
pray for the safety of his family when he
knows there is no cover on the cisteru. The
Christian man, reckless about his health,
ought not to expect the same answer to his
prayer as the Christian man expects who re-
tires regularly at 10 o'clock at night, and
takes his morning bath with the appendix Of
a 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
shipl" God is not weak, needing our help,
but God is strong, and asks US to cooperate
with him that we may DO strong, too. Pray
by all means, but don't forget the fig poul-
tice.
THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER ILLUSTRATED.
That God answers prayers offered in the
right spirit, seconded by our own effort, is
the first and the last lesson of this text, and
/ it is a lesson that this age needs to learn. If
all communication between earth and heaven
tian prayers that are going up 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: Il don't believe the Bibles think
that those things were merely condolences,
which arc often brought as answers to
prayer" Do you say thati Was it mere
happen so that Elijah prayed for rain just
as the rain was going to come anyhowi Did
Daniel pray in the wild beasts den just at the
time when all the lions happened to have
lockiawl 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 In his sermon, and
make mistake, when he said; ASK, and it
shall he given you; seelS, and 70 shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto your
And, lest some were so stupid they could not
understand It, he goes on; "For every one
that asketh receiveth; Rnd he that seeketh
flndeth and to him that knocketh it shall be
opened
But some one persists in saying; 81 don't
believe anything Of tho Bible.n Then l ap-
peal to your own instincts. Prayer in GER
tain circumstances is a. natural to man as
the throbbing In ths pulse, as the respiration
Of the lungs. Puta company OF men-l donN
care how bad they are-in some imminenS
peril, and they will cry out: "God have
mercy on usfn / challenge that these men
who don't believe in prayer charter steamer,
90 out in the Narrows, swing out 800 or
900 miles to sea, and then heave to and wait
FOR cyclone. And after the cyclone comes
and the vessel has gone under ten times. when
they did not expect it would rise again, and
the bulwarks have been knocked in and the
masts are gone--if they do not pray | will
surrender my theory. Do you tell me that
this instinct which God has put in us, he put
there Just to mock US for his own cruel
amussmentl II God implanted 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
and King Hezekiah. Tell me, ye ancient
battle fields, We Oriental uhreshing floors, ye
Judean corn fields, ye Galilean fishing
smacks, is God deaf and dumb and blind dzbe-
~ TL.,I