Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-06-13

prescription that I give to man wher
find him full Of doubts and fears abou
his eternal Interest il TO go tc work fol
God. Ten thousand voices are lifted nI
asking for your help. Go and help.
Here is a wood full of summer in
sects. An axman goes into the wood tC
cut firewood. The insects do not bother
him very much, and every stroke of the
ak makes them fly away. Bullet afnar
20 and lie down there, aud he is bitten
and mauled. and thinks il is horrible
thing to stay in the wood. Why does
he not take an ak and go to work? SC
there are thousands of Christians now
in the church vino 20 ont amid great
annoyances in life-they are not per.
picked, they are all the time busy; while
there are others who do nothing, and
they are stung and stung and stung
and covered from head to foot with the
spiritual death.
The first thing, then, you have to do,
o Christian young man. Christian young
woman, is to go to work in the service
| Of the Lord, if you want to be happy
| Christian. When an army goes out,
there are always stragglers falling off
| here and there, some because they are
faint and sick. but a great many because
| they are afraid to fight and too lazy to
march. After while the lazy men on
the road hear the booming of the guns
| for hours, and they hear the shout of
victory, and man on horseback comes
UP and SAYS, 1--WE have won the day!"
Then they hasten up. How brave they
are after the battle is over. Poor at
! fighting. but grand at "huzza" So
there are stragglers going after the
Lords host. There come days of dark
ness and battle. Where are they? We
call the roll of the host. They make no
answer, but after while there comes a
day Of triumph in the church, and they
are all about. "Huzza, huzza! Didn't
we give it to them"
PRAYER A GREAT STRENGTHENED,
| have another word of counsel to give
those who have just entered Christian
life, and that is, Be faithful in prayer.
You might as well, business man. start
out in the morning without food and ex-
pect to be strohg all that day-you might
as well abstain from food all the week
and expect to be strong physically, as to
be strong without prayer. The only way
to get any strength into the soul is by
prayer, and the only difference between
that Christian that is worth everything
and that who is worth nothing is the
fact that the last does not pray and the
other does.
And the only difference between this
Christian, who is getting along very fast
in the holy life, and this, who is only
getting along tolerably, is that the
| first prays more than the last. You can
graduate mans progress in religion by
the amount of prayer: not by the num-
Der of hours, perhaps, but by the earnest
supplication that he puts up to God.
There is no exception to the rule. Show
me Christian man who neglects this
kind of duty, and | will show you one
who is inconsistent. Show me man
who prays, and his strength and his
power cannot be exaggerated. Why,
just give to a man this power of prayer
and you give him almost omnipotence.
lib dl yOu LII ccc lWO OdD-
bath school teachers. That one does not
gain the attention of her class. This one
does. What is the difference between
them, their intellects being about equal:
The first thought only OF her own ap-
parel. The other came from great pros
tration before God in earnest supphca-
ton, asking that Gods mercy might
come upon the school and that in the
afternoon she might gain the attention
of those five or six immortals that would
be around her. The one teacher has no
| control over her class. The other sits
as with the strength of the Lord God
Almighty.
A minister comes into the pulpit. He
has magnificent sermon, all the SEN
tences rounded according to the laws Of
rhetoric and fine serAlonizing, and the
truth makes no impression on the hearts
of men. People go away and say, Every
| beautiful, wasn't itF" A plain man comes
| into the pulpit. He has been on his knees
before God asking for an especial mes
sage that day, and the hearts of men
open to the plain truth, the broken SEN
tences strike into their consciences, and
though the people may disperse at the
close of the services seemingly without
| having received any impression, that
night voices will be lifted in some house
hold, "Men and brethren, what shall we
do to be saved" Oh, this power of
prayer! Pray! Pray.
DRINK OF THE WATER OF KNOWLEDGE.
Another word of counsel have to give.
Be faithful in Bible research. A great
many good books are now coming out.
We cannot read half of them. At every
revolution of the printing press they are
coming. They cover our parlor tables,
and are in our sitting rooms and libra
ries. Glorious books they are. We
thank God every day for the work of the
Christian printing press. But l have
thought that perhaps the followers of
Christ sometimes allow this religious lit
erature to take their attention from
Gods Word, and that there may not be
as much Bible reading as there ought
to be.
How is that with your own expert
ence? Just calculate in your minds how
much religious literature you have read
during the year and then how large a
portion of the Word of God You have
read, and then contrast the two and an
swer within your own soul whether you
are giving more attention TO the books
that were written by the hand Of man or
that written by the hand of God. Now,
You go to the drug store and you get the
mineral waters, but you have noticed