The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1890-10-02

arm is too weak and the hammer We
WELD too small, but the most defiant
difficulty will flatten and disappear whom
God, with n hammer made of summer
thunderbolts, strikes it saying: Tho
crooked shall be made straight"
In your business concerns there are
influences perplexing. Your affairs
may seem all right to outsiders, for bus
mess firms do not advertise their
private troubles, but whore one firm
has every thing Just as they want it,
there are a 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 upse t
things, or with that disappearance Of
funds which you can not account for,
although you have suspicious you can
not mention, or with that investment
which was made contrary to your judg-
ment because there was deter
mination to push 1t through, or
because you are going behind
month by month without any pros
pect of extrication. The trouble is pu t.
ting a wrinkle on your forehead that
ought not to appear there for years yet,
and you will be forty years old when
you ought to be only thirty, or sixty
when you ought be fifty, or seventy
when you ought to be only sixty. Stop
worrying. Either by the dissolution of
that firm, or by readjusting matters,
you will be brought safely through If
you put your trust in God. When com.
mercial houses fail the suspension is
advertised, but Of the tens of thousands
OF men who are every day extricated
no public mention is made. Yester-
day was Saturday, and l warrant
that at the windows OF banks, and in
counting room 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 So
though they had been house dogs
asleep on a rug before winters fire.
Throw yourself on the promise of the
text, or a hundred other texts meaning
about the same thing.
never yet asked God to do any thing
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
have 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 fell stroke.
The lightning rods on the tops OF houses
was tho speer with which the world
charged on the thunderstorm, as much
as to say: IF you dare come this way
will hurl you into the ground" But
now electricity lightens houses, and
churches, and cities, and Christendom.
and moves rail cars, and he is rash
m an who mentions any thing as impos-
sibls to this natural energy.
So the power of prayer was to the
world rather 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 pray"
Mightier agent than any natural force
yet developed will be this Gospel
electricity, flashing heavenward for
help, flashing earthward with Di-
vine response. God in bust
ness 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 can not reach it
Il is hung up on the cloudy rafters of
the sky, where you expect to snach it
up as you finally go through for heav-
leny residence. Oh, have your religion
within easy reach now! Religion is not
for Heaven, but for this world. Once in
Heaven, we will need no prayer for we
shall have every thing we want We
will need no repentance, for we shall
forever got rid of our sins. We shall
have no need of comfort, for there will
be no trouble. The Christian religion
is not for Heaven where every thing is
all right, but for this world whore SO
many things are all wrong.
Washington Aliston, whose name you
recognize as that of a great American
painter, was reduced to extreme power
ty, and one day got on his knees and
asked for loaf of bread for himself
and starving family. While he was
bowed down in that prayer there was a
knock at the door and a man came in
and said: How about your painting,
the Angel Uriei,' that received the
prize at tho Royal Academy? Has it
been sold?" NO." said Allston.
''How much do you want for
it?" Allston replied 81 am done
fixing price, for 1 can not get it"
Will four hundred ptunds be enough?"
asked the stranger. 'Why, that is
more than asked" said Allston. The
four hundred pounds 1.-TWO thousand dol
lars) were paid and tho purchaser in
troduced himself as Mr.. Marquis, of
Stafford, who thereafter was one of the
most liberal patrons of the rescued
artist. "Oh, that all just happened sol"
Did it? Tell that to some ignorant man,
some benighted woman, who has never
read tho promise: Call upon Me in
the day of trouble. l will deliver thee"
or that other promise: ''The crooked
shall he mazda STRAIGHT"