Daily Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1882-1893, 1888-12-30

eyes on tic passing Israelitcs,' The
nationalist comes 10 you saying: 'Ilow
about Jonah and the whalei Do you
really believe that llsh story!" There
Were never so many Nantucket fisher
men after one whale as there have
been rationalists ilinging harpoous at
the Mediterranean sea monster, and
from that one whale they lave got
enough oil TO light ten thousand souls
TO perdition. A skeptic tells you that
Jonah would have been killed in the
process of swallowing, and that he
could not, anyhow, have lived three
days in such close quarters, but
would have been smothercd by the
poor ventilation. How the good Chris
tans Immediately 60 to work, and
try TO explain the whole thing by nat
ural laws, so as TO please the rational
lists, and say that the whale is an air
breathing fish; that every little while
II comes 10 the surface. and that the
whale that swallowed Jonah did the
same thing, and thus got a supply for
itself and for the prophet. Why not
rather say that God can do anything;
and he could take Jonah through the
whales throat although the throat
would not have been half large enough
ordinarily TO let him pass, and could
have kept him alive in the whale five
years without any air. if he had chosen
to' Who made the whalct God.
Who made Jonah! God. Then hC
could do anything he pleased will
either Of them.
WHAT REMAINS OF THE BIgLE WITH
OUT MYsTEEYi
The moment you begin To explain
away the miraculous and supcruat
urol, you surrender the Bible. Take
the supernatural out Of the Bible and
you make il a collection Of lies and
humbugS, in preference TO which
choose ".Esops Fables" They are
what they pretend To be-fables. But
if, after all that the Bible declares, Jesus
is not God. and Lazarus was not raised
from the dead, and the water was not
turned into wine, and the Red Sea was
not divided. and in answer TO prayer
Hezekiah's boil did not get well, then
the Bible is the worst fraud ever per-
petrlted in Gods universe.
Ali my friends, have We been mis-
takenl Does God hear and answ er
prayer, or does he not Hezekiah was
sick unto death; he Eayed for his
life; God heard him, and added if'
teen years to that lifetime. The prayer
saved him-the lump Of figs applied
being merely the God appointed hu.
man instrumentality. But" says
some one, Il don't believe the Bible.
Ali then we will have to part com
pany for four OF FIVE minutes, for il j.
useless TO try TO argue with any mar
with whom you cannot stand upoI
common ground. In any argument
if you would be successful, there mus
be some common data to start from
II is foolish TO try to prove 10 a mar
that twice three are six, provided h'
does not admit the multiplication
table, or that two and two are four, i
he does not admit the addition table.
My first address. therefore, is tC
those who do believe in the Bible.
want TO tell you that prayer is tn,
mightiest of all remedies, and that th,
allopathic and homeopathic and tho
eclectic schools will yet acknowledge
IT, Here are two cases Of sickness pre-,
cisely alike: the same kind of medi
cine is given to both of them, and in
the same quantities. The one patient
recovers and the other does not.
Whyl God blesses the one remedy
and does not bless the other. Prayer
has helped many a blundering doctor
through with a case that would have
otherwise become completely unman-
ageable. There is such thing as
Gospel hygiene, as Christian phar-
macy, as divine materia medica. That
is q foolish man who, in case Of sick
ness, goes only TO human resources
when We have these instances OF
the Lords help in the sick room. Be.
fore you call the doctor, while he i.
there, and after he goes away, look VI
TO him who cured Hezekiah. Lei tho
apothecary send the poultice, but Goo
makes il draw. Oh am glad TO hav,
a doctor who knows how 70 pray. Coz
send salvation TO all the doctorsl Sick
ness would be oftener balked, dealt
would be oftener hurled back from
the door sill, if medical men cam,
into the sick room, like Isaiah Of tn,
text, with prescription in their hands
and the word of the Lord in thei
mouths.
SOME MEN WHO BELIEVED IN PRAYER
John Abercrombie, the most cele
brated physician of Scotland, prayeC
when he went into the sick room, anC
he wrote no more ably about dis
eases of the brain" than about "thI
philosophy Of the moral feelings
don't know how much OF the medical
success of Sydenham, and Cooper, anc
Harvey, and Rush, depended upon tho
fact that they knew how 10 pray a
we'll as TO prescribe. l don't want Q
physician who sees no God in human
anatomy To doctor my broken bones
II God made us (and | think he did,
and if the Bible is true land ! an
rather disposed TO think il isl, then il
is not strange that prayer does trs
verse natural cause; ay, that il intro
duces a new cause. When God made
the law, he did not make il so strong
he could not break IL. II God made
our bodies, when they are broken, he
is the one 10 mend themj and il is rea-
sonable that we should call him in
20 do il. II my furnace n tho
cellar breaks down, ther. is no one 80
competent TO repair il as the manu-.
fncilIror Ii my wnich rInna fhnrn is