Connecticut western news., 1890-09-24

at the door, and man came in and said: .How about your painting, the Angel Uriel, that received the prize at the royal academy9 Has it been soldq 'sNo," said Allston. "How much do you want for it9' Allston replied, 'T am done fixing price, for cannot get it." "Win four hundred pounds be enoughT' asked the stranger. ''Why, that is more than I 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. "Oh, that all just hap pened so!' Did it2 Tell that to some ignorant man, some benighted woman, who has never read the promise, "Cau 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.
 'sWen," says one, ''you don't apply this in every direction" Yes, 1 do. Take the most uncertain thing on earth-the weather. The Bible dis tinctly says that prayer controls the weather. James V, 17, IS: "Elias was man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and 1t 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 tp prayer. It 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 worship.
 warrant there ace enough of them present this morning to take a whole fleet in safety across the Atlantic. Whenever I have heard them testify it has nightly confirmed me in what knew before, that God answers prayer concerning the weather. And there have been cyclones that started up from the Caribbean sea, sweeping down every sail, and every smokestack, and every mast in their course, which in answer to specific petition have been diverted and made to curve around some particular ship, leaving that in calm waters, and then resuming their original path of destruction. The weather probabilities again and again have announced tempest, and we were all ready for it, but to the sur prise of most people the next day we saw the announcement that the atmos- pheric fury had changed its course. The probability is it struck a prayer and glanced of. If Elias prayer affected the weather of Palestine for forty-two months, I should think some body now. might have prayer that would affect 1t for a couple of days.
 John Easter was many years ago an evangelist in Virginia. A large out door meeting was being held in that state. Many thousands had assembled in the open air, and heavy storm clouds began to gather. There was no shelter to which the multitudes could retreat The rain had already reached the ad- joining fields when John Easter cried out, Brethren, be still while I call Npon God to stay the storm till the Gospel is preached to this multitude. /" Then he knelt and prayed that the audience might be spared from the rain, and that after they had gone to their homes there might come refresh ing,showers. Behold the clouds parted as they came near and passed to either side of the crowd and then closed again, leaving the place dry where the audience had assembled, and the next day the postponed showers came upon the ground that had been the day be- fore omitted.
 Do you say it only happened so2 I cannot see what you keep your Bibles for, and the God you worship is not my God. Your God is an autocrat, and he is SO far off and so far up that the world cannot touch him, and his throne is an eternal iceberg. My God is a father, here and now, and father will give his child what he asks for if it is best for him to have it. Pray about everything that concerns you, seculari- ties as well as spiritualities. Take to God all your annoyances and perplexi- ties. The crooked shall be made straight. Some people talk as though God controlled things in general but not in particular; that he started every thing under certain laws and then let it take care of itself, as an engineer might start his locomotive on an iron railroad track and then jump of. What | would happen to such a locomotive is what would long ago have happened to l our world if God had started it and afterward allowed 1t to look out for itself.
 There is no such. thing as Q general providence. It is particular provi- dence. God has no general care for 1 forest. It is 8 care of every cell of every leaf and root in that forest. God has no general care of the ocean. It is 8 care of every drop of water in the | liquid magnitude. God has no general 1 care for the human race. It is a care of every individual of that race, and of every item of individual history I preach him, God in infinitesimals, an every day God, God responsive, and one breath of earnest prayer, though that breath should not be strong enough to make a candle flicker, will absorb more of the divine attention than if the ! oroborpo1 o&op1;,-. o% tho foo+ of 4l,o