News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-09-25

thunderbolts strikes it, saying, THE
crooked shall be made straight.
PROVIDENCE NEVER ERRs.
In your business concerns there are
influences perplexing. Your affairs may
seem all right to outsiders, for business
firms do not advertise their private
troubles: but where one firm has every
thing Just as it wants it there are
hundred firms at their wits end what
to do with that partner who draws
more than his share of the profits, or
with that stakeholder who comes in just
often enough to upset things, or with
that disappearance of funds which you
cannot account for, although you have
suspicious you cannot mention; or with
that investment which was made con-
trary to your judgment because there
was determination to push it through,
or because you are going behind month
by month, without any prospect of ex-
trication. The trouble is putting a
wrinkle on your forehead that ought
not to appear there for ten years yet,
and you viii be forty years old when
you ought to be only thirty, or sixty
when you ought to be only fifty, or
seventy when you ought to bee only
sixty. Stop worrying; either by the
dissolution of that firm or by readjust
ing matters you will be brought safely
through if you put your trust in God.
When commercial houses fail the sus
pension is advertised, but of the tens
of thousands of men who are every day
extricated no public mention is made.
Yesterday was Saturday, and | warrant
| that at the windows of banks, and in
counting rooms of stores, and on every
street of every city God appeared for
the deliverance of good men as GER
tainly as when with his right foot he
trod Lake Galilee into placidity, and
made Daniel as safe among the lions az
though they had been house dogs asleep
on a rug before winters fire. Throw
yourself on the text, or hundred other
texts meaning about the same thing.
A PRAYER-ANSwERING GOD.
never yet asked God to do anything
but he did it, if it were best, and in all
the cases where my prayer has not been
answered / have found out afterward
that it was best not to have been an
swered in my way. But none of us
has tested the full power of prayer.
1t is force very like some of the forces
of nature that were in existence but
not employed. For ages electricity was
thought good for nothing but to burn
barns and kill people with one fell
stroke. The lightning rod on the top
of houses was the spear with which the
world charged on the thunderstorm, as
much as to say, eff you dare to come
this way | will hurl you into the
ground" But now electricity lightens
homes and churches and cities and
Christendom, and moves rail cars, and
he is rash man who mentions any
thing as impossible to this natural
energy.
So the power of prayer was to the
world rather a frightful power, if it
was any power at all. But that has
been changed. and men begin to use it
in some things, and the time will come
when it will be used In all things, and
there will be Bible in every counting
room and supplication will ascend from
every commercial establishment, and
when business firms are formed the
question will not only be asked as to
how much this one and that one put in
of capital, but the question will be
asked, DO you know how to prayf
Mightier agent than any natural force
yet developed will be this Gospel cleo
tricity flashing heavenward for help,
flashing earthward with divine re-
Spouse. God in business life God in
agricultural life. God in mechanical
life. God in artistic life. God in every
kind of life.
Your religion for the most part is
hung up SO high you cannot reach it,
1t is hung up on the cloudy rafters of
the sky, where you expect to snatch it
up as you finally go through for heav-
emily residence Oh have your religion
within easy reach nowl Religion is
not for heaven, but for this world.
Once in heaven we will need no prayer,
for we shall have everything we want.
We will need no repentance, for we
shall have forever got rid of our sins.
We shall have no need of comfort, for
there will be no trouble. The Chris
tan religion is not for heaven, where
everything is all right, but for this
world, where SO many things are all
wrong.
Washington Allston, whose name you
recognize as that of a great American
painter, was reduced to extreme pov-
erty, and one day got on his knees and
asked for loaf of bread for himself
and his starving family. While he was
bowed in that prayer there was a knock
at the door, and a man came in and
said: 'How about your painting, the
Angel Uriel.' that received the prize at
the royal academy9 Has it been sold2"
NO" said Allston. "How much do
you want for itF Allston replied, Il
am done fixing price, for cannot get
it." xviii four hundred pounds be
enough?" asked the stranger. "Why,
that is more than l asked, said All
ston. The four hundred pounds two
thousand dollars were paid. and the
purchaser introduced himself as the
Marquis of Stafford, who thereafter was
one of the most liberal patrons of the
rescued artist. ooh, that all just hap
pened sop Did it? Tell that to some
ignorant man, some benighted woman,
who has never read the promise, Call
upon me in the day of trouble, / will
deliver thee" or that other promise,
''The crooked shall be made straight"
PRAYER FOR RAIN OR GOOD WEATHER.
''Well, says one, ''you don't apply
this in every direction. Yes, l do.
Take the most uncertain thing on
earth-the weather The Bible dis
tinctly says that prayer controls the
weather. James V, II, IS: ELIAS was
a man subject to like passions as we are,
and he prayed earnestly that it might
not rain, and it rained not on the earth
for the space of three years and six
months; and he prayed again and the
heavens gave rain" Do you say that
was the weather of olden time2 There
have been instances in modern times
Just as marvellous. There's not Chris
tian ship captain but could give you
instances of divine interference with
the weather in answer to prayer 1t
has been my good fortune to know
many ship captains. They are all in
our services. They leave their vessels
on Sunday mornings and join us in