The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-01-04

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 has helped many
a blundering 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 a 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 the
| pOultice, but God makes it draw. Oh,
am glad to have a 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 doorsill if medical men
text with a 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 iuto the sick-room, and he wrote no
more ably about diseases of the brain"
than about F'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. 1 don't
want a physician who sees no God in hu-
man anatomy to doctor my broken bones.
IF God made us (and [ think He did), and
if the Bible is true (and l am rather dis
posed to think it isl, 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-
sUnable 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. It is not ali, as these physicians tell
US, matter of ventilation or poisoned
air, of cleanliness or dirt, or nutritious
diet or poor fare. / have known people to
get well in rooms where the windows had
been six weeks down, tight shut, and 1
have known them to die right under patent
ventilators. / 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
| unrecognizable.
God did not make the law and then run
away from it. What is a law of nature?
| 1t is only Gods usual way of doing things.
| But He has said that if His children ask
| Him to do a thing, and He can consist"
| emily do it, He will do il. Go on with your
| pills, and plasters, and nOstrums, and
| elixirs, and your catholicon, but remem-
| Der that the mightiest agency in your re-
cdvery is prayer. Prayer to God wrought
the Kings dUre; the lump of figs being the
GOd-directed human instrumentality.
would have you also see-for 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 indOlent 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 Ne1ancthOn's
! bedside and prayed for his recovery, md
/ insisted, at the same time, that he should
] take some warm soup, IlG soup BeluB JuSb
/ as important as the prayer. In the time
of the great plague that came t9 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. If
! d man has "svening prayers" asking
! for health and then sits down to full
/ . 9v,Tf 90 al
| at night, his prayer is a nfOCkerY. A
| farmer has no right to pray for the safety
! Of his family when he knows there is no
| cover on his 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 ten O'Clock at night and takes
his morning bath with the appendix Of a
| Turkish towel Paul said to the passen-
gers of the Alexandrian corn ship that they
| should get safe ashore, but he told them
| that they must use means, and that was:
! "Stick to the old ship" God is not weak,
needing our help, but God is strong, and
asks us to corporate with Him that we
may be strong, too. Pray by all means,
but don't forget the fig poultice.
That God answers prayers offered in the
| right spirit, seconded by our own efforts,
is the first and the last lesson Of this text
and Il is @ lesson that this age needs 20
| learn. II all communication between
| Heaven and earth IS cut off, let US know IL. .
If all the Christian prayers that are going
| M toward God never reach Him, then, l
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
sayi 81 don't believe the Bible; / think
those things were merely condolences,
which are often brought as answers TO
prayer" Do you say that Was 1t mere
happen-so that Elijah prayed for rain
Just as the rain was going TO come any
how? Did Daniel pray in the wild beasts
den just at the time when al the lions
happened to have theIockiaw? 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 q
| mistake when He said: "Ask, and il shall
be given you; seek, and ye shall find
| knock, and it shall be opened unto your
And, lest some were SO stupid they coult
not understand it, He goes on: "For ever!
one that asketh receiyeth; and he tina
seeketh findeth; and TO him that knocketl
it shall be opened"
But some one persists in saying: 50
don't believe any thing Of the Bible.
Then l appeal to your own instinct
Prayer in certain circumstances is as nat
ural 70 man as the throbbing in the pulse
as the respiration Of the lungs. Put
company OF men-I don't care how ba'
I they are-in some imminent peril, an
l they viii cry out: God have mercy o
= - ] challenge that these men wh
u don't believe prayer charter steamer
90 out in the "Narrows,v swing out eign
2 or nine hundred miles to sea and the
heave to and wait for a cyclone. An
after the r.voIone comes and the vesse
2 has gone under ten times, when they a.
$ not expect it would rise again, and i th
e bulwarks have been knocked Ia ana ~, Lil
q rnasts are goue-if they do not pray WI