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

go out in the "NarroWs," swing out eight
or nine hundred miles 10 sea and then
heaye to and wait for a cyclone. And
after the cyclone comes and the vessel
has gone under ten times, when they dld
not expect it would rise again, and the
bulwarks have been knocked in and the
masts are gone-if they do not pray Will
surrender my theory. Do you tell me
that this instinct which God has put in US
He put there just to mock US for His own
cruel amusement? If God implanted that
instinct in the human heart it was be-
cause in His own heart there was some
thing responsive.
To prove that God does hear prayer,
put on the witness stand Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Micah, John,
Paul, Peter and King Hezekiah. Tell me,
we ancient battle-ields, ye Oriental
thrashing floors, We Judean corn-tields,
We Galilean fishing -smacks, is God deaf
and dumb and blind before all human
petition? That God answers prayer, l
bring ten million facts of Christendom to
prove. There has never paper enough
come out of the paper mills to write the
story, Has not many a mother prayed
back her bad boy from the ends of the
earth-from Canton, from Madras, from
Constantinople-unti he knelt beside her
in the old homestead? Have there not
been desperadoes and renegades who
have looked into the door of prayer
meeting to laugh and scott at it, who have
been drawn by the power of prayer until
they ran to the altar crying out for mercy?
Did not the blacksmith in Lyons New
York; pray to God until there came a
great awakening that shook the COM
munity?
In my parish in Philadelphia, one night,
at meeting, I asked young man to go
into a room at the side of the church and
talk upon the theme of religion. He grew
violently angry and shook his fists at me
We resolved to pray for that young man,
and we prayed that he might yield his soul
to God. And when, next night, at the meet
ing, the side door was flung open, hewas the
first to step in. Prayer had captured him.
/ had classmate in college whose uncle,
DR.. John Scudder, of India, wrote To him
saying: 81 will pray for you everF day
until such a day, and then l will give my
attention to some other subject" The
last day of these prayers, when they had
all gathered up before the throne of God,
my classmate surrendered his soul to
Jesus. This is no secondhand story. !
saw the letter, and knew the young man.
But why should go so far? I have had
in my own experience, and | have had in
the history of my own family the evidence
that God answers prayer. My mother,
with three Christian women, assembled
week after week, and prayed for their
children. They kept up that prayer meet
ing of four persons year after year. The
world knew nothing of it. God answered
all those prayers. All the group came in ;
the eleven sons and daughters of my
mother came in, myself the last.
Sickness came to my household-hope
less sickness, as it seemed to many. At
| three O'Clock on Saturday afternoon the
invalid was carried to the steamer for Sa-
vannah. AT eleven O'Clock the next day,
being Sunday, standing in this very place,
a man of God prayed for the recovery of
| the sick one. At that time, eleven O'Clock,
| she who had been Frustrated three weeks,
with some help, walked up on the deck.
| The occurrence was as near to being
miraculous as / can imagine. That she
was hopelessly sick, people who sat up
with her night after night, and are here,
can testify. That the prayer for her re-
covery was offered in this pulpit, thou
sands of people could testify. That at
eleven O'Clock on that Sunday morning
she walked up on deck, as by a miraculous
recovery, call the passengers on the San
Jacinto, commanded by Captain Atkins,
| December 16, to testify. This is no Sec
ond-hand story.
VIII you let the distractions and the
yagaries of a few skeptics, or good many
skeptics, stand beside the experience OF
| General Havelock, who came out in front
of the English army, lifted his hat and
called upon the Lord Almighty? Or OF
! George Washington, who at Valley Forge
was found upon his knees in prayer? On
of William Wilberforce, who went from
the British Parliament to the closet of de-
votion? Or of Latimer, who stood with
his hands on fire, in martyrdom, praying
for his prosecutors? Was Washington
weak? Was Havelock weak? Was Will
| berforce weak? Was Latimer weaki
Bring all the affairs of your store, of your
soul, of your body, of your friends, of
your church before Him, and the great
day of eternity will show you that the best
| investments you ever made were YOU
prayers, and though you may have broken
promises you made to God, God never
broke His promises to you. Let God be
true, though every man be found liar.
And now, in conclusion, I have to pre-
sent you with some checks, blank checks
on the bank of Heaven, written in blood
and signed by the hand wounded on the
cross. 1t is not safe for you to give 6
blank check with your name on it. Yor
do not know what might be written above
But here is blank check which God says
1 can give you; it is signed by the hand
writing of the Lord Jesus Christ, and yot
can fill it up with any thing you want to
''Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek
and We shall find.1 do not say that YOU
prayer will be answered in just the way
you expect, but 1 do say it will be an
swered in the best way. Obi Will yol
test Him? This is the outcome of all Thu
subject.
If 1 should ask the men and women il
this audience who have found God
prayer answering God, to rise up, yol
would nearly all rise up. In time o
darkness and trouble, as in time o
light and prosperity, He answered
you. commend you to that God to whom
| vau,. 11arap%s da5ioa+a1 1ro,, -, ;,,fov,o,,