Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-01-03
EFFICACY OF PRAYER.
Dr.. Telmage Talks for the Benefit
OF the Sick.

skepticism RoundIy Rebuked-The Ration
aiism of To-Day-The Value of Prayer
in the Sick Room-The Lord
Ready to Help.
n a recent sermon at Brooklyn DIR.
Talmage took as the subject of his sermon,
"a Bad Boil Cured" The text was: II
have heard thy prayer; behold, will heal
thee. And Isaiah said: Take lump of
figs. And they took and laid it on the
boil and he recovered."-2 Kings Xxx.
81. He said: Luxurious living is not
healthy. The second generation of kings
and queens and lords and princes is apt
to be brainless and invalid. The second crop
Of grass is almost always short Roya!
blood is generally scrofulous. You will
not be surprised, then, that King Hezekiah
had disorders which broke out in a car
buncle, virulent and beautiful. The Lord
told him he must die; he did not want to
die. He turned his face TO the wall. so
that his prayer would not be interrupted,
and cried to God for his life. God heard
the prayer and answered it, saying: "Be-
hold, l will heal thee" Bat there was hu-
man instrumen;ality to be employed.
| This carbuncle needed a "cataplasm."
That is a tough word we use to show how
much we know. If in the pulpit we al
ways used words the people understood
we never should have any reputation for
| learning.
Well, this carbuncle needed a cataplasm,
which is a poultice. Your old mother,
| who doctored her own children in the time
| when physicians were not as plenty as
| they are now, will tell you that the very
| best poultice is fig, and that was what
! was used upon the carbuncle of King
Hezekiah. The power of God, accompanied
| by this human instrumentality, cured the
King.
In this age of discovery, when men
know so much it almost kills them, and
write so wisely it almost kills US, it has
been found out that prayer to God is a
dead failure. All things are arranged &C
cording to memorable law. There is no use
in praying to God for rain in time OF
drought The weather probabilities in the
morning papers will decide the question.
rain or no rain, and the whole nation in
prayer before God would not bring down
single drop. l am not now speaking OF
an imaginary theory, but of that whic is
believed by 10000 times 10000 men.
If sickness comes 10 your household, il
will depend entirely upon ventilation, good
diet and the skill of the doctors as tc
whether your child gets well. The father
might pray ak day and the mother might
pray all night-it would not have any eff
feet upon the case. If squills, belladonna
paregoric end cruel do the work, your
child will get we'll; if not. not. There is q
cast-iron God seated at the head of the
universe, holding in the cold grasp of His
metal fingers a band of law from which
nothing can break away.
Men and women of God, at this point the
great battle of Christianity is to be fought
The great foe of Christianity to-day is
rationalism, that comes out from oul
schools, and universities, and magazines
and newspapers to scof at Bible truth and
caricature the old religion of Jesus. Il
says Jesus is not God, for it is impossible
to explain how he can be divine and human
at the same time. The Bible is not inspired
for there are things in it that they DOM
like. Regeneration is farce; there is good
enough in US, and the only thing is to bring
it out. Development is the word-de.
velopment. The Garden of Eden is fairy
story, and no more to be believed than the
"Arabian Nights, or "Gulliver's Travels, y
or Robinson Crusoe." We all started as
babboons, and are blood relations to thai
monkey squirming about on the top OF
that hand-organ. Lazarus was not dead
when Christ pretended to raise him: he
was only playing dead. The water was
not changed into wine at the wedding
but Christ brought in some wine that he
had found elsewhere to make up the def
cheney. Christ did not walk on the sea-
but on the shore, so near that it seemed as
if he really were on the water.
What is still more alarming is that
Christian men dare not meet this ridicule
There is not one Christian man in five that
can, unblanched, stand in the presence OF
all this raillery, saying: 81 believe in the
whole Bible, and in every single statement
that it makes" Christian men try to
soften the B. bic down to suit the skeptics.
The skeptics sheer at the dividing of the
Red sea, and the Christian goes to ex-
planning that the wind blew q hurricane
from one direction a good while. until all
the water piled up, and besides that ii
was low water anyhow, and SO the Israel
ties went through without any trouble.
Why not be frank and say: II believe
the Lord God Almighty came to the brink
of the Red sea and with his right arm
swung back the pillows on the right side,
and with his left arm swung back the bill
lows on the left side and the abashed
water stood up hundreds of feet high,
while through their CLASSY wall the sea
monsters gazed with affriohted eyes on
the passing Israelites." The nationalist
comes to you saying: "How about Jonah
and the whale? Do you really believe that
fish story?" There were never so many
Nantucket fishermen after one whale as
there have been rationalists flinging har-
poems at the Mediterranean sea monster,
and from that one whale they have got
enough oil to light 10000 souls to perdi-
ton. A skeptic tells you that Jonah would
have been killed in the process of swallow
ing and that he could not anyhow, have
lived three days IN such close quarters,
but would have been smothered by the
poor ventilation. How the good Chris
tians Immediately go to work and try to
explain the whole thing by natural laws,
so as to please the rationalists, and say
that whale is an air breathing fish; that
every little while it comes to the surface
and that the whale that swallowed Jonah
did the same thing and thus got supply
for itself and the prophet. Why not rather
say that God could do any thing, 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 whale i?
God. Who made Jonah? God. Then He
could do any thing He pleased with either
of them.