The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-02-14

ground. In any argument, II you Would
be successful, there must be some COM
mon 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 multi
plication table, or that two and two are
four, if he does not admit the addition
table.
My first address, therefore, is to those
who do believe in the Bible. want to
tell you that prayer is the mightiest of all
remedies, and that the allopathic and
homeopathic and eclectic schools will yet
acknowledge 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 re-
covers, and the other does not. Why?
God blesses one remedy, and does not
bless the other. Prayer mas helped many
laundering doctor through with case
that would have otherwise become COM
pletely unmanageable. There is such
thing as Gospel hygiene, as Christian
pharmacy, as Divine materia medica.
That is 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. Before you call the
doctor, while he is there, and after he
goes away, look up to Him who cured
Hezekiah. Let the apothecary send tn e
poultice, but God makes it draw. Oh,
am glad to have a doctor who knows how
to pray. God send salvation to all the
doctors! Sickness would be oftener
baked; death would be oftener hurled
back from the doorsill if medical men
came into the sick room, like Isaiah of the
text, with prescription in their hands
and the word of the Lord in their mouth.
John Abercrombie, the most celebrated
physician of Scotland, prayed when he
went into the sick-room, and he wrote no
more ably about diseases of the brain"
than about ''the philosophy of the moral
feelings" don't know how much of the
medical success of Sydenham, and
Cooper, and Harvey, and Rush, depend
ed upon the fact that they knew how to
pray as well as to prescribe. l don't
want physician who sees no God in hui
man anatomy to doctor my broken bones.
If God made us land l think He did,, and
| if the Bible is true land am rather dis
posed to think it is), then it is not strange
| that prayer does traverse natural cause,
| aye, that it introduces 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 them, and it is rea-
sonable 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 disordered, call in the Maker of
| it. 1t is not all, as these physicians tell
us, a matter of ventilation or poisoned
| air, of cleanliness or dirt, or nutritious
| diet or poor fare. have known people to
| get we'll in rooms where the windows had
| been six weeks down, tight shut, and 1
! have known them to die right under patent
| yentilators. have known children sick
| ly who every day had their bath, and |
have known children robust, the washing
of whose faces would make their features
unacceptable.
| 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 consist
| entity do it, He will do it. Go on with your
! pills, and plasters, and nostrums, and
| elixirs, and your catholicons but remem-
Der that the mightiest agency in your re-
| covery is prayer. Prayer to God wrought
the Kings cure, the lump of figs being the
God directed human instrumentality.
would have you also sector it is an
other lesson of the same subject-that our
prayer must be accompanied by means
It is an outrage to ask God to do a thing
while we sit INDECENT. The prayer, to be
acceptable, 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 Melancthon's
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 think of cleaning out the dead
dogs and cats that lay in the cutters
causing the sickness. We must use
means as well as supplications. II
a man has Governing prayers" asking
for health, and then sits down to full
supper of indigestibles at eleven 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 nc
cover on his cistern. The Christian man
reckless about his health, ought not tt
expect the same answer to his prayer as
the Christian man expects who retires
regularly at ten O'Clock at night and take.
his morning bath with the appendix of
Turkish towel. Paul said to the passen
gers of the Alexandrian corn ship that the
should get safe ashore, but he told then
that they must use means, and that was
''Stick to the old shipw God is not weak
needing our help, but God is strong, ant
asks US to cooperate with Him that W,
may be strong, too. Pray by all means
but don't forget the fig poultice.
That God answers prayers offered in tn
right spirit, seconded by our own efforts
is the first and the last lesson of this text
and it is a lesson that this age needs t.
learn. If all communication between
Heaven and earth is cut off, let US know it
If all the Christian prayers that are goiny
| up toward God never reach Him, then,
! say, let silence smite the lips of tn,
, afflicted world, and the nations smothe
their groans and die quietly. God doe
| answer prayer. The text shows it. Yo,
say: 81 don't believe the Bible: thin
| those things were merely condolences
. which are often brought as answers t,
| prayer Do you say that! Was it mer
happen-so that Elijah prayed for raj
1 OF