The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1889-01-03

four, IL 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 il. Here are two cases 4
sickness precisely alike; the same kind of
medicine is giveSSo 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 laundering doctor through with case
that would have otherwise become com
pletely manageable. There is such a
thing as ospel hygiene, as Christian
| pharmacy, as Divine m1teria medica
That is foolish man who, in case of sick
ness, goes only to human resources, when
we have these instances Of the Lord S
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 doctor who knows how
to pray. God send salvation to oil 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 n prescription i'll their hands
and the word of the Lord in their mouth.
John Abercrombie, the most celebrated
| physician of Scotland, prayed when h Q
went into the sick-room, and he wrote no
| more ably about diseases of the brain"
than about 1.-THE philoSoph y of the moral
| feelings" | don't know how much of the
medical success of Sydenham, and
Cooper, and Harvey, and II ush, depend
ed upon the fact that they knew how to
pray as well as to prescribe. l don't
want a physician who sees no God in hui
man anatomy to doctor my broken bones.
| If God made us land | think He did, and
| if the Bible is true (and | am rather dis
| posed to think it isl, thea il j. not strange
that prayer does traverse natural cause,
aye, that it introduces 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
| ii 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
| rs, matter of ventilation or poisoned
air, of cleanliness or dirt, or nutritious
diet or poor fare. l 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 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
emily do it, He will do it. Go on with your
pills, and plasters, and nOstrums, and
elixirs, and your cathOlicon, but rcmem-
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 satiic subject-that our
prayer must be accompanied by means.
1t Is an outrage to ask God to DO 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 Melancthon's
| bedside and prayed for his recovery, aud
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
| Epr rlut1 ,a1 4
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 we'll as supplications. If
man has Governing prayers" asking
for health, and then sits down to a full
supper of indigestibles at eleven O'Clock
at night, Lis prayer is mockery A
farmer has no right to pray for the safety
of his family when he knows there is no
| cover on his oistern. 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 mast uSe means, and that was.
'SticG 10 the old ship" God is not weak +,
needing our help, but God Is stroug, and
asks us to cooperate 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 it is a lesson that this age needs to
learn. If all communication between
Heaven and earth Is cut off, let US know it i.
II all the Christian 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: 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 it 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 all the lions
| happened to have the lOckjaw? 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 a
mistake, when He said: "Ask, and it shall
be given you; seek, and We shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you:"
And, lest some were so stupid they could
not understand the goes on: 'For every
one that asketh receiveth; and he that
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