Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-01-02

CHo IdtioudlletS, duu Say tudb d WUdio Is d.
air. -brea thing fish; that while it comes t.
the surface, and that the whale that swal
lowed Jonah did the same thing, and thu
got sup ly for itself and for the prophet
Why not rather say that God can do an!
thing; and He could take Jonah through ths
whales throat, although the throat would
not have been half large enough ordinarily
to let him pass, and could have kept hin
alive in the whale five years without any
air, if He had chosen to? Who made the
whale God. Who made Jonah God
Then he could do any thing be pleased with
either of them.
The moment you begin to explain away
i the miraculous and supernatural, you sur
render the Bible. Take the supernatural
cut of the Bible, and you make it collec-
ton of lies and humbugs. in preference to
which choose Esop's Fables. They are
what they pretend to be-fables. But if,
after all that the Bible declares, Jesus is
not God, and Lazarus was not raised from
the dead, and the water was not turned in
to wine, and the Red Sea was not divided,
and in answer to prayer Hezekiah's boil did
not get well, then the Bible is the worst
fraud ever perpetrated in Gods universe.
Ahl my friends, have we been mistaken
Does God hear and answer prayer, or does
he not? Hezekiah was sick into death; he
prayed for his life; God heard him, and ad-
ded fifteen years to that lifetime. The
prayer saved him-the lump of figs applied
being merely the God-appointed human in
strumentality. "But," says some one, II
don't believe the Bible.' All! then we vii
have to part company for four or five minutes,
for it is useless to try to argue with any
man with whom you cannot stand upon
common ground. In any argument, if yoa
would be successful. there must be some
common data to start from. 1t is foolish to
try TO prove to man that twice three are
six, provided he did not admit the multi
plication table, or that two and two are four,
if he does not admit the addition table.
Ny first address, therefore, is to those
who do believe 10 the.Bible. want to tell
you that prayer is the mIghtiest of all rene
dies, and that the alopathic and homeo-
pathie, and the eclectic schools will yet ac-
knowie3geit. Here are two cases of sick
neas precisely alike; the same kind of
medicine is given to both of them, and in
the same quantities. The one patient re-
| covers and The other does not. Why? God
blesses the cns remedy and does not bless
the other. Prayer has helped many blum
aering doctor through with a case that
would have otherwise become completely
unmanageabie. There Is such q thing as
Gospel hygiene, as Christian pharmacy, as
divine nateria medica. That is a foolish
man who, in case of sickness, goes only to
hnUan resources, when we have these in
stances CT the Lords help in the sick-room.
Befors you call the doctor, while he is there
and after he goes away, look up to Him
who cured Hezekiah. Let the apothecary
send the poultice, but God makes it draw.
Oh! I am glad to have doctor who knows
how to pray. God send salvation to all the
dociorsl Sickness would be oftener balk-
ed, death would be oftener hurled back
from the door sill, if medical men came into
the sick-room, like Isaiah of the text, with
a prescription in their hands and the word
of the Lord in their mouths.
John Abercrombie, the most celebrated
physician of Scotland, prayed when he went
into the sick room, and he wrote no more
ably about diseases of the BRAIN than
about ''the philosophy Of the moral feel
ings." 1 don't know how much of the |
rlediGai success of Sydenham, and Cooper, |
and Harvey. and Rush, depended upon the
fact that they knew how to pray as we'll as
to prescribe. don't want physician |
who sees no God in human anatomy to |
doctGr my broken bones. If God made US
(aud think he did), aud if the Bible is |
true (and AN rather disposed to think it |
is), then it is not strange that prayer does
traverse natural cause; aye, that it intro.
duces new causs. When God made the |
law, be did not make it so strong lie could |
not break it. If God made cur bodies. !
when they are broken, he is the one to |
mend them; and it is reasonable that we |
should call him in to do it. If my furnace
in the cellar breaks down, there Is DO one so
competent to repair it as the manufacturer.
If my watch stops, there is no one so COM
petent to set it going as the one who made |
it. If the body is disordered, call in the |
Maker of it. 1t is not all, as these physi-
clans tell US, a matter of ventilation or
poisoned air, of cleanliness or dlrt, of nutri |
tious diet or poor fare. have known peo-
pie to get we'll in rooms where the windows
had been six weeks down, tight shut, and |
I have known them to die right under |
patent ventilators. l have known children
sickly who every dly had their bath, and l |
have known children robust, the washing |
of whose faces would make their features
unrecognizable.
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 consistently do it, |
he will do it. Go on with your pills, and
plasters, and nostYums, aud elixirs, and
your catholicon, but remember that the
mightiest agency in your recovery is prayer.
Prayer to God brought the Kings cure, the
lump of figs being the God-directed human
instrumentality.
I would have you also see-for it is an
other lesson of the subject-that our prayer
must also be accompanied by means. 1t is
an outrage to ask God to do thing while
i no
able, must come not only from the heart,
but from the bands. We must work while
we pray, devotion anu work going together.
Luther came to Melancthon's bedside and
prayed for his recovery. and insisted, at the
same time, that he should take some warm
soup, tne soup being just as important as
the prayer. In the time ofthe great plague,
that came to York, of England, the priests
prayed all night aud all day for the remov-
al Of the plague, but did not think of clear
ing out the dead dogs and cats that lay in
the cutters, causing the sickness. We
must use means as we'll as supplcation. If
O. man has ''evening prayers" asking for
health, aud then sits down to full supper
of iudisestibles at II O'Clock at night, his
prayer is mockery. A farmer has no
right to pray for the safety of his family
when he knows there is no cover on the cis-
tern. The Christian man, reckless about
his health, ought not to expect the same
answer to bis prayer as the Christian man
expects who retires regularly at 10 o'clock
at night, and takes his morning bath with
the appendix of Turkish towel. Paul
said to the passengers of the Alexandrian
corn ship that they should got safe ashore,
but he told them they must use means, aud
that was: "Stick to the old shipn God is
not weak, needing our help, but God is
strong, and asks Us to co operate with Him
that we may be strong, too. Pray by all
means, bnt don't forget the fig poultice.
That God answers prayers offered in the
right spirit, seconded by our own effort, is
the first and the last lesson of this text,a
it is a lesson that this age needs to learn.
If all communication. Desween heaven and
earth is cut of, les Us know it2 If all the
Christian prayers that are going up toward
God never reach him, then, say, let silence
smits the lips of the afflicted world, and the
nations smother their groans and die quiet
LIZ Z. ID does ansHer nrayer The text