Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-09-26

disappointed in the result, because our
arm is too weak and the hammer we
WELD too small; but the most defiant
difficulty will flatten and disappear when
God with hammer made of summer
thunderbolts strikes it, saying, "The
crooked shall be made straight"
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 hun
bred 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 dis
appearance of funds which you cannot
account for, although you have sus-
picions You cannot mention; or with that
investment which was made contrary to
your judgment because there was a de-
termination to push it through. or be-
cause you are going behind month by
month. without any prospect OF eXtrlca-
ton. The trouble is putting wrinkle
OH your forehead that ought not to APP
pear there for ten years yet, and you
will 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 be only sixty. Stop worry
ing: 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 commercial houses fail the sus-
pension is advertised, but of the tens OF
thousands of men who are every day en-
treated no public mention is made. Yes
terday was Saturday. and warrant that
at the windows of banks, and in count
ing rooms of stores, and on every street
of every city God appeared for the de-
liverance of good men as certainly as
when with His right foot He trod Lake
Galilee into placidity, and made Daniel
as safe among the lions as though they
had been house dogs asleep on rug be-
fore winters fire. Throw yourself on
the text or a hundred other texts mean
ing about the same thing.
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 l have found out afterward
that it was best not to have been an
swercd i'm my way. But none of us has
tested the full power of prayer. 1t is q
force very like some of the forces of ma
turc that were in existence but not em-
ployed. For ages electricity was thought
good for nothing but to burn barns and
kill people with one fell stroke. The
lightning rod on top of houses was the
spear with which the world charged on
the Thunderstorm, as much as to say,
elf you dare to come this way l will
hurl you into the ground" But now
electricity lightcns homes and churches
and cities and Christendom, and moves
rail cars. and he is a rash man who mem
tions anything 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 COM
mercial establishments, and when bust
ness 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: 'sDo you
know how to pray?" Mightieragent than
any natural force yet developed will be
this Gospel electricity flashing heaven
ward for help, flashing earthward with
divine response. God in business life.
God in agricultural life. God in mechani-
cal 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 raftcrs of the sky,
where you expect to snatch it up as you
finally go through for heavenly resi-
dencc. 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 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 Christian re-
ligion is not for heaven, where every
thing 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 poverty,
and one day got Oh his knees and asked
| for a loaf of bread for himself and his
starving family. While he was bowed in
! that prayer there was knock at the
door, and aman came in and said: GLOW
about your painting, the angel Uriel,
that received the prize at the royal
academy? Has it been sold?'' ssNo.'
said Allston. elbow much do you wan,
for it?' Allston replied. 81 am done fix.
| ing price, for cannot get it, CIVIL
four hundred pounds be enough?" asked
the stranger. "Why, that is more thar
] asked" said Allston. The four hun
dred pounds 1.-TWO thousand dollars) were
paid, and the purchaser introduced him
self as the Marquis of Stafford, who
thereafter was one of the most liberia
patrons of the rescued artist. "Oh, thai
all just happened 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
! "rhe crooked shall be straight
! 1t is remarkable how many crooked
things are in the providence of God being
made straight. About thirty years age
Our national affairs were as crooked a.
depraved American politics and bad mer
! and Satan could make them. From tho
top of Maine to the foot of Florida tn,
nation was rod with wrath II ,,,,s