The Russellville Democrat., 1889-01-03
TALMAGEs SERMON.
Prayer as an Eficacicus Remedy
 for Human Ills.
oed win Hear and Answer Prayer When The sHppIieant fs Hacked rp ey UnafnchEnx Belief and
 Faith in HIm.


 Tabernacle His subject was the -EAcaey of Prayer; or, A Bsd Boil CEred-H His text was.
 have heard thy prayer. behegd. wEil nsal shee. And Isasah said. Take lamp c< nxs And they took and ixGa ft on fhe hos1 nnd he Eecuveresa---IE Kings xx z
 Luxurious living is not healthy. The second generation Of kings and queens and lords and princes Is ape to be brain less and fnvaiid The second crop Of grass is almost Afways short Royal blood is generally scr0fzi0as- You will not bS surprised then to hear that kinx Hexekiah had disorders which broke out Ia a carbuncIe. vfruleut s1d sieAfhfui. The Lord told him he mEzE die. he dia not want to die. He turned his face 10 the wall SO that his prayer wo1ld not be ia- terrupked. and cried to God for his hses God heard the prayer and answered is. saying Behold I viii heal thees" Rus there was human inatruueHs2ltTy e ee employed The czrhuncle needed ~eas- aplasm-v That Is a tor-A word ws nsc to show how much VT know. 1T in the pal- pit we always used words the people understood re neTer sAoai have any reputation for learning. We'll this carbancle needed a cstaplasrs, which l. poalsirs- Norr old mother Eho doctored her own children in the time when physicians were not as plenty as they are now, will tell voE that tas very best poGltice fs fig. and that was what was used upon the carb1ncle 0t King Hezskiah- The power ot God ac. conparied by this hE-nan instrumental ity, cured the King.
 fu this age O. discovery, when men l~er N se els zrsA write So wisely is almost kills us, 1t has been found out that prayer to God is a dead failure. All things are arranged according to memorable law. There Is no use i1 praying 10 God for rain in the time Of drought The weather probabiliEles" !" in the morning papers will decsds the question rain CT no rain, and the whole Nation in prayer before God wozld not bring down single crop. I an nos now speaking Of 2n imaginary theory. bur Of that which is believed by ten thousand times fen thousand men
 T. sickness comes tO your household, il will depend entirely upon ventilation good diet and the skill Of the doctors as to whether TOUT child gets well. The father might pray all day, and the mother might pray all night-i. would not have any et- feet upon the case IT S9nIlls, beiladonas- pareg0ric aEd gTrel do the work, your child will get well: f not not There is a cas<-iFor God seated at the head Of the universe, holding in The cold grasp q Ills metal fingers z band of Law from which nothing can break away.
 Men and women of God. st this point the srea: battle ot Christianity Is to De fought The great foe of Christianity to- day is rati0GaAiSEa- that comes out from schools. and universities, and magazines and newspapers. 10 sco1 at Bible truth and caricaiure the old religion es Jesus. l. says Jesus is not God for 1t is ir1p0ssi- ble 10 explain how He can he Diyine and human al the same time. The Bible is no. inspired for there are things in II that they don't like. Regeneration is farce; there is good enough in usr and the only thing is 10 bring is o1t. Development Is the w0r3-devel0pEsent The Garden Of Eden is 8 fairy story. and 10 more to be believed than the Arabian Nights. or Gul- EweT's Travels, or Robinson Crus0e. We sL started as babooEs- and are blood re- lss5ars t0 that monkey sguIruling about on the top of that haad-oEsan- Lazarus was not dead when Christ preterisd ID raise him: he sas onlying playing dead. The water was not changed into wine at N@- ~ine that He had found elsewhere to make the deficiency. Christ did not walk on the sea, but on the shore, so near that t seemed as fl He really were on the water.
 What Is still more alarming is that Christian men dare not meet this Ti6icule- There fs not one Christian man in five that can. UnblAnched- stand in the presence of Au this railIsry, saying: ~I bsheye in the whole Bible, and in every single state neut that il makes" Christian men try to soften the Bible down to suit the skeptics- The skeptics sheer st the divid izg O. the Red Sea, and the Christian goes 90 explaining that the wind blew hEr- ricaze from one direction 8 good while, until all the water piled ID. and besides, that is was low water. anyhow, and so the Israelites went through witaear any trouble. Why not be frank and say; Il believe the Lord God Almighty came to the brink of the Red Sea, and with His right arm swung back the pillows oE the right side, and with His left arm swung back the pillows on the left side, and the sbashed water stood up hundreds Of feet high while through their glassy wall the sea monsters gzxed with A1rightsd eyes on the passing IsraeIi.est's The rational ist comes 10 yOu, saying: How about Jonah and the whaies Do you really believe that hsh storys'' There were never so many Nantucket fishermen after one whale as there have been rstionAlisss finging harpoors at the Mediterranean sea monster, and from that one whale they have got enough oil t0 light ten thousand souls to psrdition- A skeptic tells y01 that Jonah would have been killed in the process of sEal- loEing. and that he could not anyhow. have lived three days In such close quar- ters, but Eoald have been sm0thered by the poor ventilation How the good Christians immediately go to work and try to explain the whole thing by natural lays, 80 as EO please the rationalists- and say that whale is an air breathing fish: that every little while # comes 10 the sur face, and that the whale that sEal- lowed Jonah did the same thing, and thus So. supply for itself and for the prophet. Why nor rather say that God ca. do any thing, and He could take Jonah through the whales throat, although The throat would not have been half large enough ordinarily to Ief him pass, and eould have kept him alive in the whale five years without any sir. fl He had chosen tor Who made the whales God. Who made Jonahs God Then He could do any thing He pleased with either Of them.
 The moment you begin to explain away the miraculous and supernatural, you sur render the Bibis- Tzks the supernatural ont of the Bible. and you make + 3 eollec- ton Of lies and humbugs, tn preference 10 which choose Esop's Fables. They are what they pTetendei t0 be-ta5les. But fl, after all that. the Bible declares Jesus Is not God. and LaEaFus vas not raised from the dead. and the water was not turned into wine, and the Red Sea was not divided, and in answer 10 praySr Here kiah's h0tl did not get well then the Bible is the worst fraud ever rerpesrate1 in Gods universe.
 An, my friends, have Se been mistaken Does God hear and answer prayer, or does Ll----.--a- -..-.- -a..-..h A.