The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-12-12

prayer be not answered in the way we
wish IL is because God has something
better for the child than earthly recovery
and there are thousands of men and
women now alive in answer to fathers
and mothers prayers. myself one Of the
multitude.
The mightiest agency in the universe
is prayer, and it turns even the Al
mighty. 1t decides the destinies of in
dividuals, families and nations. During
our sad civil war gentleman was q
guest at the White House in Washing
ton and he gives this incident. He
sayss 81 had been spending three weeks
in the White House with Mr.. Lincoln.
as his guest One night-it was just
after the battle of Bull Rum was rest
less and could not sleep was repeat
ing the part which was to take in a
public performance. The hour was past
midnight Indeed, it was coming near
to the dawn when / heard low tones
proceeding from private room where
the President slept The door was
partly open. instinctively walked in
and there 1 saw sight which ! shall
never forget 1t was the President
kneeling before an open Bible.
The light was turned low in
the room. His back was turned
toward me; for moment was silent
as 1 stood looking in amazement
and wonder. Then he cried out in
tones so pitiful and sorrowful: OThou
God that heard Solomon in the night
when he prayed for wisdom. hear me!
1 can not lead this people, 1 can not
guide the affairs of this Nation without
Thy help. l am poor and weak and
sinful o God, who didst hear Solomon
when he cried for wisdom. hear me and
save the Nationp" You see we don't
need to go back to Bible times for evil
dence that prayer is heard and an
swered.
But some one may say that Christ at
Capernaum healed that courtier's child,
yet He would not have done it for one
in humble life. Why, in that very
Capernaum He did the same thing for a
dying slave. This was the cure of a
Roman soldiers slave, whose only &C
his owner And none are so now en-
shaved or so humble or sick or SO sinful.
but the all-sympathetic Christ is ready
to help them, ready to cure them. ready
to emancipate them.
But" says some one, why was it
that Christ coming to save the world
should spend so much Of his time on
and around so solitary pace as Lake
Galilee? There is only one city of any
size on its beach and both the western
and eastern shores are a solitude,
broken only by the sounds coming from
the mud novels of the degraded. Why
did not Christ begin at Babylon the
mighty, at Athens the learned, at Cairo
the historic at Thebes the hundred
gated, at Rome the triumphant? II
Christ was going to save the world, why
not go where the worlds people dwell?"
My friends, Galilee was the hub of the
wheel of civilization, and art, and the
center of population that staggers
realization. On the shore of the lake
we sail to-day. stood nine great cities,
Scythopolis, Tariche, Hippos, Canada,
Ohorazin, Capernaum, Bethsaida, Mag
dala Tiberias-and many villages, the
smallest of which had $1,000 in
habitants, according to Josephus,
and reaching from the beach back
into the country in all directions.
Four thousand ships, history says
were at one time upon these waters
Battles were fought there, which
shocked all nations with their conse-
quences
Upon those sea fights looked Ves-
pasian and Titus, and Trajan, and
whole empires From one of these
naval encounters so many of the dead
floated to the beach they could not soon
enough be entombed, and plague was
threatened. Twelve hundred soldiers
escaping from these vessels of war were
one day massacred in the amphitheater
at Tiberias For 800 years that almost
continuous city encircling Lake Galilee
was the metropolis Of our planet 1t
was to the very heart of the world that
Jesus came to soothe its sorrows, and
pardon its sins, and heal its sick, and
emancipate its enslaved, and reanimate
its dead.
And let the church and the world take
the suggestion. While the solitary
places are not to be neglected, we must
strike for the great cities II this world
is ever to be taken for Christ Lvangel-
ize all the earth except the cities and in
one year the cities would corrupt the
earth. But bring the cities and all the
word will come. Bring Paris and
France will come. Bring Berlin and
Germany will come. Bring St Peters
burg and Russia will come. Bring vi
er \ and Austria will come. Bring
Caro- and Egypt will come Bring the
near 3. 600. 900 people in this cluster of
cities on the Atlantic coast and all
America will soon see the salvation of
God
OThou blessed Christ who didst come
to the mighty cities encircling Lake
Galileel come in mercy to all our great
cities Of to-day. Thou who didst put
Thy hand on the white name of the
foaming bills Of Gennesaret and make
them lie down at Thy feet hush all the
raging passions of the world! o Thou
blessed Christ who on the night when
the disciples were trying to cross this
lake and ''the wind was contrary" after
nine hours Of rowing had made only
three miles, didst come stepping on
water that at the touch Of Thy foot
hardened into crystal, meet all our
shipping whether on placid or stormy
seas and say to all Thy people now by
whatever style of tempest tossed or
driven as Thou didst to the drenched
disciples in the cyclone, BE of good
cheer. 1t is Be not afraidr'
Thank God that / have seen this lake
of Christly memories, and I can say
with Robert McChavna the ascended