Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-01-11


under patent ventilators. l have known
children sickly who every day had their bath,
and i have known children robust, the wash
ing OF whose faces would make their features
unrecOgnizable.
would have YOU also see-for IL is another
lesson of the subiect-that our prayer must
also be accompanied by means. II is an out
rage to ask God to do a thing while we sit
incident. The prayer, TO be acceptable, must
come not only from the heart, hut from
the hands. We must work while We pray,
devotion and work going together. Luther
came to Melancthon's bedside and prayed for
his recovery, aud insisted, at the same time,
that he should take some warm soup, the
soup being just as important as the prayer.
In the time of the great plague that came to
York, of England, the priests prayed all night
and all day for the removal of the plague,
but did not think of clearing out the dead
dogs and cats that lay in the cutters, causing
the sickness. We must use means as well
as supplications. If a man has 'evening
prayers, asking for health, and then sits
down to a full supper of indigestibles
at IL O'Clock at night, his prayer
is a mockery. A farmer has no right to
pray for the safety of his family when he
knows there is no cover on the cistern. The
Christian man, reckless about his health,
ought not TO expect the same answer to his
prayer as the Christian man expects who re-
tires regularly at ten o'clock at night, and
takes his morning bath with the appendix OF
a Turkish towel.
That God answers prayers offered in the
right spirit, seconded by our own effort, is
the first and the last lesson of this text, and
it is a lesson that this age needs to learn. Ii
all communication between earth and heaven
is cut off, let us know it. If all the Chris
tian prayers that are going up toward God
never reach Him, then, | say, let silence smite
the lips of the afflicted world, and the nations
smother THAR and die nniatlV God
does answer prayer. The text shows it.
You say: 81 don't believe the Bible; | think
that those things were merely condolences,
which are often brought as answers to
prayer" Do you say that! Was it mere
happen so that Elijah prayed for rain just
as the rain was going to come anyhow' Did
Daniel pray in the wild beasts den just at the
time when all the lions happened to have
loCkiaw! Did Jesus pray at the grave OF
Lazarus just at the time when Lazarus was
gong to dress himself and come out anyhow
Did Jesus lose His place in His sermon, and
make mistake, when He said: "Ask, and it
shall be given YOU seek, and we shall find !;
knock, and it shall OPP ned unto you"
And, lest some were so stupid they could not
understand it, He goes on: 'For every one
that asketh receiVeth; and he that seeketh
findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be
opened
To prove that God does hear prayer, put
Ou bub NlbllbSS SIduu AUI lsddC, UdCOD
Ezekiel jeremiah Micah, John, Paul, Peter
and King Hezekiah. Tell ME, ye ancient
battle fields, We Oriental threshing floors, We
Judean corn fields, We Galiean fishing
smacks is God deaf and dumb and blind
before all human petition! That God answers
prayer, | bring the ten millions 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-until he knelt beside her in
the old homestead? Have there not been
desperadoes and renegades who have looked
into the door of a 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 black
smith in Lyons, N. Y, pray to God until
there came a great awakening that shook
the community
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, as
sembled week after week and prayed for
their children; they kept up that prayer
meeting of four persons year after year.
The world knew nothing of it. God an
swered 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-hopeless
sickness, as it seemed to many. At o'clock
on Saturday afternoon the invalid was car
ried to the steamer for Savannah. At II
o'clock the next day. being Sunday, standing
in this very place, man of God prayed for
the recovery of the sicl; one. At that time
| II o'clock, she who had been Frustrated three
weeks, with some help walked up on deck
| The occurrence was as near to being miracu-
lous as [ can imagine. That she was hope
lessly sick, people who sat up with her night
| after night, and are here, can testify. That
| the PRAYER for her recovery was offered in
this pulpit, thousands of people could testify.
| That at II 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 IL, to testify. This is no second
hand story.
Prayer impotent! If I dared to think
! there was no force in prayer, methinks God,
after all He has done for me and mine would
strike me dead Prayer impotentl Why it
is the mightest force in the universe. Light
ming has no speed, the Alpine avalanche has
no power, compared with it.
And now, in conclusion, | have to present
YOU 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 blank check with your
name to it. You do not know what might
be written above. But here is a blank check
which God says can give you; it is signed
by the hand writing Of the Lord Jesus Christ
and you can fill it up with anything you want
to. ASK, and it shall be given to you
seek, and we shall find" l do not say thai
your prayer will be answered in lust the way
you expect but l do say it will be answered
in the best way. Oh! will you trust Him
This is the outcome of all this subject
If / should ask the men and women in this
audience who have found God a prayer
answering God to rise up, you would nearly
all rise up. In time of darkness and trouble
as in time of light and prosperity, He an
swered you. commend you to that God K
whom your parents dedicated you i'll in
fancy. They believed SO much in prayer tina
their last word was supplication for you
Having heard you in days of prosperity, H
will not reject your last petition, when il
the darkened room, after they have wpet
the dew of death from your brow, and tn
whole group of loved ones have kissed YOU
good-by, you have only strength enough lef
to pray: Lord Jesus, receive my spiritl"
Temnepance News and Notes.