The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-11-06

shows them they can do nothing at all.
/ We lay our great plans and we like to ex-
/ ecute them. II looks big. God comes and
/ takes us down. AS Prometheus was as
saulted by his enemy-when the lance
struck him it opened great swelling that
had threatened his death, and he got we'll
so 1t is the arrow of trouble that lets out
great swellings OF pride. We never feel
dependence upon God until we get
trouble. l was riding with my little child
along the road and she asked if she might
drive. 1 said, Certainly"
! ] handed over the reins to her, and /
had to admire the glee with which she
drove. But after a while we met team
and we had to turn out. The road was
narrow, and twas sheer down on both
sides. She handed the reins over to me
and said: 81 think you had better take
charge of the horse" So we are all child
ren; and on this road OF life we like to
| drive. 1t gives one such an appearance of
/ superiority and power. 1t looks big. But
alter awhile we meet some obstacle, and
we have to turn out, and the road is mar
row, and it is sheer down on both sides;
and then we are willing that God should
take the reins and drive. ALI my friends,
we get upset so often because we do not
hand over the reins soon enough.
Can you not tell when you hear a man
pray whether he has ever had any
trouble? can. The cadence, the phrase
ology indicate it, Why do women pray
better than men? Because they have had
more trouble. Before man has had any
trouble his PRAYERS are poetic, and he be-
| gins away up among the sun, moon, and
stars and gives the Lord great deal of
astronomical information that must be
| highly gratifying He then comes on down
gradually over beautiful table-lands to
forever and ever, amen" But after
man has had trouble prayer is With him
taking hold of the arm of God and crying
out for help. have heard earnest prayers
on two of three occasions that | remember.
Once, on the Cincinnati express train,
/ going at forty miles the hour, the train
/ jumped the track, and we were near
chasm eighty feet deep, and the men who,
a few minutes before had been swearing
and disappearing God, began to pull and
/ jerk at the bell-rope, and got up on the
/ backs of the seats and cried out go God,
save us" There was another time. about
eight hundred miles out at sea on a foun-
dering steamer, after the last life-boat had
! been split finer than kindling-wood. They
prayed then. Why is it you so often hear
! people, in reciting the last experience of
] some friend, say: "He made the most
| beautiful prayer l ever heardw What
makes it beautiful? 1t is the earnestness
OF II. Oh, | tell you a man is in earnest
when his stripped and naked soul wades
out in the soundless, shoreless, bottomless
ocean of eternity.
1t Is trouble, my friends that makes us
feel our dependence upon God. We do
not know our own weakness of Gods
strength until the last plank breaks. 1t is
contemplate in us when there is nothing
else to take hold of that we catch hold of
! God only. \ man is unfortunate in bust
ness. He has to raise a great deal of
money, and raise it quickly. He borrows
on word and note all he can borrow. After
awhile he puts a second mortgage on his
house. Then he puts a lien on his furni-
| ture. Then he makes over his life insur-
ance. Then he assigns all his property
| Then be goes to his father-in-law for help
Well, having failed everywhere, COM
pletely failed he gets down on his knees
| and saws: 80 Lord / have tried every
body and everything, now help me out of
! this financial trouble" He makes God
/ the last resort instead of the first resort.
] There are men who have paid 10 cents on
a dollar who could have paid 100 cents on
a dollar if they had gone TO God in time.
| Why, you do not know who the Lord is.
! He is not an autocrat seated far up in a
! palace, from which he emerges once year,
preceded by heralds swinging swords to
| clear the way. No. But Father willing
at our call to stand by us in every crisis
and predicament of life.
] tell you what some of you business
men make me think OF. A young man
! goes off from home to earn his fortune.
! He goes with his mothers consent and
/ benediction. She has large wealth but he
wants to make his own fortune. He goes
far away, falls sick, gets out of money. He
! sends for the hotel-keeper where he is
staying, asking for lenience, and the ans
wer he gets is: "If you don't pay up sat
urday night, you'll be removed 10 the hos
! pital" The young man sends to a COM
rade in the same building. No help. He
writes TO banker who is a friend OF his
! deceased father No relief He writes
TO an old school-mate, but gets no help.
! Saturday night comes, and he is moved
to the hospital.
Getting there, he is frenzied with grief,
/ and he borrows a sheet of paper and
postage stamp, and he sits down, and he
writes home, saying: "Dear mother, |
am sick unto death. Come" 1t is $3.50
o'clock when she gets the letter. At 10
| o'clock the train starts. She is five min
utes from the depot. She gets there in
! time 10 have minutes to spare. She Won
| ders why a train that can 90 thirty miles
an hour cannot go sixty miles an hour.
She rushes into the hospital. She says:
| any son, what does all this mean? Why
! didn't you send for me? You sent to
everybody hut me. You knew / could
and would help you. Is this the reward
| get for my kindness to you always" She
bundles him up, takes him home, and gets
him well very soon.
Now, some of you treat God just as that
young man treated his mother. When
| you get into financial perplexity you call
on the banker, you call on the brokers,
you call on your creditors, you call on
! your lawyer for legal counsel; you call
upon everybody, and when you cannot
get any help, then you go to God. You
| say: 40 Lord, | come to Thee. Help me
now out of my perplexity." And the
! Lord comes, though it Is the eleventh
hour. He says: "Why did you not send
! for me before? AS one whom his mother
! comforteth, so will comfort you" 1t is
| 20 throw us back upon an all-comforting
! God that we have this ministry of tears.
Again. it is the use of trouble TO capaci-
/ tate us for the office of sympathy. The
priests, under the old dispensation, were
| set apart by having water sprinkled on
/ their hands, feet and head, and by the
| sprinkling of tears people are now
| set apart to the Office of sympathy.