Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-12-01

transators in the modern copies OF inc P,ple
were obliged 10 put mark, slralght nv,
DASH for an omission that VIII never 10
filed up. Such an abrupt pause. sucn suu-
den swapping off of the sentence
You cannot parse my text. II is an OF.
tense of grammatical construction. put
that dash put in by the typesetters Is mlgntny
suggestive 'Tf thou wilt forgive tIeir SIN
(then comes the dash)-"and II not, piot
me. pray Thee. out of Thy book Some
OF the most earnest prayers ever uttered
could not be parsed and were poor specl-
mems OF language. They halted, they broke
down, they passed into sobs or groans or
sllences God cares nothing for the syntax
of prayers, nothing for the rhetoric OF
prayers. Oh, the worthless prayers II they
were piled up, they would reach to the rain
bow that arches the throne OF Goa. deep
sigh may mean more than whole llturSy'
Out OF the 10000 words OF tho Englisn
language there may not be word enough
expressive for tle SOUL
The most effective prayers 1 have heard
have been prayers that broke down with
emotion-the young man for the first time
rising in prayer meeting AMI saying, 'On,
Lord Jesus % and then sitting down, bury
ing his face in the handkerchief, the pen1-
tent in the inquiry room kneeling and say
ing. "God help me-" and getting no further !;
the broken prayer that started n great re-
vival in my church in Philadelphia.
prayer may have in style the gracefulness OF
an Addison. and the sublimity OF Milton
and the epigrammatic force of an Emerson,
and vet be a failure, having horizontal
power but no perpendicular power, hori-
zontal power reaching the ear OF man, put
no perpendicular power reaching the ear Oh
God.
Between the first and the last sentences OF
my text there was paroxysm OF earnestness
too mighty for words. 1t will take half OF an
eternity to tell of all the answers OF earnest
and faithful prayer. In his last journal
David Livingstone, in Africa, records the
prayer 80 soon to be answered zig March,
my birthday My Jesus, my God, my life,
my all, again dedicate my whole self to
Thee. Accept me, and grant. gracious
Father, that ere this year is gone may finish
my task. In Jesus name ask 1t. Amen.
When the dusky servant looked into Liv-
ingstone's tent and found him dead on his
knees. he saw that the prayer had been an
swered But notwithstanding the earnest
ness of the prayer of Moses In the text, it
was defeated prayer and was not an
swered l think thetwo "ifs" in the prayer
defeated it, and one ::if" is enough to defeat
any prayer, whatever other good character
istics it may have "If Thou wilt forgive
out of Thy book" God did neither. AS the
following verses show, He punished their
sins. but am sure did not blot out one let
ter OF the name of Moses from the Book OF
Life.
There is only one kind of prayer in which
you need to put the "if," and that is the
prayer for temporal blessings. Pray for
riches, and they may engulf us or for fame,
and it may bewitch us or for worldly sue
cess, and 1t may destroy us. Better say, III
| 1t be best" 'If can make proper use OF 1t,
of Thou seest need IT," A wife praying for
the recovery of her husband from illness,
stamped her foot and said with frightful
emphasis ~ will not have him die. God
shall not take him." Her prayer was an
swered, but in few years after the commu-
nifty was shocked by the fact that he had in q
moment of anger slain her.
A mother, praying for sons recover from
| illness, told the Lord he had no right to take
| him, and the boy recovered, but plunged in
to all denominations and died a renegade.
Better in all such prayers and all prayers
pertaining to our temporal welfare to put an
'If," saying, "If 1t be Thy will. But in pray
! ing for spiritual good and the salvation OF
our soul we need never insert an "if.' Jur
spiritual welfare Is sure to be for the best,
and away with the "ifs.'
Abraham's prayer for the rescue of Sodom
was grand prayer in some respects, Dut
there were six "ifs'' in it, or "peradven-
tures," which mean the same thing. "Per-
adventure there may be fifty righteous in the
city, peradventure forty-fve, peradventure
forty, peradventure thirty, peradveDture
twenty, peradventure ten" Those six per.
adventures, those six 'if's" killed the prayer.
and Sodum went down and went under.
Nearly all the prayers that were answered
had no ''ifs' in them--the prayer OF Elijah
that changed dry weather to wet weather
the prayer that changed Hezekiah from a
sick man to we'll man, the prayer that
halted sun and moon without shaking the
universe to pieces.
Oh, rally your soul for a prayer with no
offs" in it Say in substances "Lord, Thou
hast promised pardon, and / take it. Here
! are nv wounds; heal them. Here is my
| blindness irradiate ii. Here are my chains
OF bondage; by the gospel hammer strike
them of. l am fleeing to the City of Refuge,
and am sure this is the right way. Thanks
be to God, l am freeT
Once by the law my hopes were slain,
| But now, In Christ, l live again.
With the Mosaic earnestness OF my text
and without its Mosaic 'ifs," let us cry out
for God. Aye, If words fail US, let lis take
the suggestion OF that printers dash otthe
text, and with wordless silence lmplore
pardon and comfort and life and heaven
For this assemblage, all of whom snail
meet in the last judgment, dare not ohel
the prayer Of my text, and so change 1t anc
say, "Lord God, forgive our sins and write
our names in the book OF Thy loving remem
brance, from which they shall never be dol