Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-22


every direction" Yes. l do. Take the most
uncertain thing on earth-the weather. The
Bible distinctly says that prayer controls the
man subject to like passions as we are and he
prayed earnestly that it might rot 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 timer There have been
instances Iii modern times just as marvellous.
There's not Christian 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 in all our services. They
leave their vessels on Sunday mornings and
JOIN us IN worship. l warrant there are enough
oil them present this morning to take whole
Heet in safety across the Atlantic. Whenever
have heard them testify, it has nightly con-
nrmed me in what knew before, that God an
swers 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 resumlng their original path
OF destruction. The weather probabilities again
and again have announced tempest and we
were already for it, but to the surprise OF most
people. the next day we saw the announcement
that the atmospheric fury had changed its
course The probability is it struck prayer
and glanced off. If Eiijah's prayer affected the
weather OF Palestine for 42 months should
think somebody now might have prayer that
would affect it for a couple of days.
John Easter was many years ago an evangel-
ist in Virginia A large outdoor meeting was
being held in the State. Many thousands had
assembled in the open air and heavy Storm
clouds began to gather. There was no shelter
to which the multitude could retreat The rain
had already reached the adjoining fields when
John Easter cried out. Brethren be still while
call upon God to stay the storm till the gos-
pei is preached to this multitude Then he
Enplt an0lnnca might
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 before
omitted Do you say it only happened so?
cannot see what you keep your Bibles for. and
the God you worship is not my God. Your God
is an autocrat and H. is so far off and so far up
that the world cannot touch Him, and his
throne is an eternal iceberg. My God is
father, here and now, and father will give his
child what be asks for, if it is best for him to
have it. Prav about everything that concerns
you. secularitles as well as spritualities. Take
to God all your annoyances and perpleGities.
The crooked shall be made straight Some peo.
general. but not in particular; that he started
everything 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 off. What would happen to such a
locomotive is what would long ago have hap
pened to our world if God had started it and
afterward allowed il to look out for itself.
There is no such thing as general provi-
dence. 1t is a particular providence God has
no general care for forest 1t is a care of
n
God has no general care of the ocean. 1t is
care Of every drop of water In the liquid mag
nitude. God has no general care for the
human race. 1t is a care of every individual of
that race, and of every item of individual his
tory preach Him, a God in infnitesimals. an
everyday God, God responsive. and one
breath of earnest prayer, though that breath
should not be strong enough to make candle
flicker. will absorb more of the divine atten-
ton than if the archaugel standing at the foot
of the throne should flap both wings.
1t is remarkable how many crooked things
are in the providence of God being made |
straight About 30 wears ago our national af- |
fairs were as crooked as depraved American |
politics and bad men and Satan could make |
them. From the top of Maine to the foot of |
Florida the nation was red with wrath. 1t was
wrangle and fight all the way through, and one
of the mildest things that the North and South
promised each other was assassination.
ENOUGH OF STRIFE.
During this summer have travelled through
New York. and Ohio, and Illinois, and Indiana
and Minnesota, and Kansas, and Nebraska, and
Missouri, and Texas, and Louisiana, and
Georgia, and North and South Carolina. and
Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and have shaken
hands with tens of thousands of people, and
talked with men of all sections and degrees,
and have to tell you it is all peace and in all
the States of the Union you could not now |
marshal military company of 100 soldiers to |
fight against the United States Government,
unless you got your men out of the peniten- |
tiary. Did the corrupt and gangrened political |
parties DO this work of rectification and pacifi-
cation? mol 1t was by Divine interposition |
that the crooked has been made straight |
On the I'd of December, 1851. Louis Napoleon |
Bonaparte rode down the Champs Elysee of |
Paris, and under the hoofs of his horse Re- |
public was trampled, as the rider went TO take |
a throne. 1t was the outrage of the century. |
For l9 long years the wrong triumphed. The |
will of one man who wanted to remain En- |
peror kept down a nation VINO wanted Repub- |
lie. But September, 1870 arrived. and Sedan |
unrolled its crimson scroll, The Emperor sur. |
renders with $1,000 troops. 4l9 field guns, 5000 |
horses and 60,0O0 muskets. From that day the |
ballot box was up and the throne was down. |
Free institutions have been substituted for an |
infamous monarchy. Thank God! The crooked
has been made straight.
But why go SO far to find fulfillment of nv
text? In all our lives there are crooked things |
that need to be made straight, and each hearer
or reader will enumerate for himself or herself |
With one 1t is dilap1tated physical health and |
you are saying: why cannot be in good
health when have such opportunities and
such responsibilities" Alas for the sick lead
aches aud the rheumatic joints, and the neu.
ralgIc thrusts and the lame foot! But you will
be well soon. Life at the longest is an abbre-
waited durance There is black doctor that
will cure you. Some people call him Death
No disease was ever able TO stand before his
touch. Use all the means afforded for physical
butif they fail
THE HOUR OF RELEASE
s not far away. There need be no incurables.
There is no sorrow that heaven cannot cure,
Those who in this world have always been we'll
will not get the best part of heaven. They will
lot have the advantage of contrast. They were
we'll before they left this world. and why should
hey be so graduated at being well in the next
world? But to those who on earth were hin.
Tered or broken down in health what contrast
is they step into that domain where there has |
never been an aching brow or lame foot or in
lamed muscle or disordered nervei For 40
1ears there may have been a stopping in the |
pack, or a twisted muscle, or curved spine, or
! crooked limb, but the promise has been full
illed, The crooked shall be made straight"
In many domestic life are difficulties to be
'emoved. There are thousands of matches
hat were not made in heaven. Some of the
oveliest women have been united to some of
he meanest men, and some of the grandest
men to the most worthless women. There may
De no sufficient cause of enforcement, but
here has never been any accord For them the
olayed. The twain divergent in sentiment, the
lorth pole and the south pole might just as
veil have been married. A twist of nettles
would have been more appropriate than gar |
and of orange blossoms The unutterable mis-
AXE was made to please parents or for the
.cQuisition of estate, for heightening of |
ocial position, or thorough thoughtlessness.
all the attention of such to the rapid dissolu-
ion of families. This thought. which is sad |
less to happy marital state might be consola-
Ory to those unequally yoked. A very short
h Sa
i've quick emancipation. Everybody, for dis
ipline, must have some kind of trouble, and