Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-12-01

said as he passed on, leaFife aas transtixed
with grateful emotion.
And who knows but the words now speak,
blessed of God, may reach some wounded
soul deep down in the black mine of sin, and
that these N5tds may be blessed to the stanch-
ing OF the wound and the eternal life of the
soul? Settle this matter instantly. positively
and forever. Slay the last ''if." Bury deep
the last ''if." How TO do it? Fling body,
mind aid soulin prayer ss earnest as that
of Moses in the text: Can you doubt the
earnestness of this prayer OF the teFt7 1t Is
go heavy with emotion that it breaks down
in the middle. /: was so earnest that the
translators in the modern copies OF the Bible
were obliged TO put mark, straight line,
dash; for an omission that will never be
filled up: Such All abrupt pause. such sud-
den swapping of II the sentence
You cannot parse my text. It is an OF"
fense of grammatical construction. But
that dash put in by the typesetters is nightly
suggestive. 'If thou wilt forgive their sin
(then comes the dash)-"and If not, blot
me- pray fhee; out of Thy book Some
of the most eafnest prayers ever uttered
could not be parsed and Wete poor spect-
mems of language. they halted; they broke
down, they passed into sobs or groans or
siIences God cares nothing for the syntax
of prayers, nothing for the rhetoric of
prayers. Oh, the worldless prayers If they
were piled up, they would reach to the rain
bow that arches the throne of God. A deeD
sign may mean more than whole liturgy.
Out of the 116.0 900 words of the English
language there may not be word enough
expressive fer the soul
The most effectiv6 prayers l have heard
have been prayers that bfoke down with
emotion-the young man for the first time
rising in prayer meeting and saying, "Oh,
Lord Jesus y and then sitting down, bury
ing his face in the handkerchief, the peni-
tent in the inquiry room kneeling and say
ing, ''God hslr me-" and getting no further !;
the broken prayer that started a great re-
vival in my church in Philadelphia. A
prayer may have in style the gracefulness of
an Addison, and the sublmity of Milton
and the epigrammatic force of an Emerson,
and yet be failure; having horizontal
power but no perpendicular power, hori-
zontal power reaching the cor of man. but
no perpendicular power reaching the ear or
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 SO soon to be answered "19 March
my birthday. My Jesus, my God, my life,
my all, again dedicate my whole self to
Thee. Accept me. and grant. o gracious
Father, that ere this wear is gone | may finish
my task. In Jesus name l ask it. 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. think the two ''ifs'' in the prayer
defeated it, and one ''if'' is enough to defeat
any prayer, whatever other good character
istcs it may have. eff Thou wilt forgive
their sins-and If not, blot me- | pray Thee,
out of Thy book" God did neither. AS tho
following verses show, He punished their
sins. but am sure did not blot out one let
Of of fro fha 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 it may destroy us. Better say, "If
it be best" "If can make proper use of it,
"If Thou seest I need it A wife praying for
the recovery of her husband from illness,
stamped her foot and said with frightful
emphasis: II will not have him die. God
shall not take him." Her prayer was an
swered, but in few years after the comruu-
nifty was shocked By the fact that he had in q
moment of anger slain her.
A mother, praying for a 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, eff it be Thy will. :" But in pray
ing for spiritual good and. the salvation of
our soul we need never insert an eff" Our
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. but
there were six ''ifs'' in it. or "peradven-
lures, which mean the same thing ''Per-
adventure there may be fifty righteous in the
city, peradventure forty-1ve, peradventure
forty, peradventure thirty, peradventure
twenty peradventure ten" Those six per-
adventures those six '.if's' killed the nre1~r.
Nearly all the prayers that were answered
had no 'ifs" in them-the prayer o. Elijah
that changed dry weather to wet weather,
the prayer that changed Hezekiah from
sick man to well man, the prayer that
halted sun and moon without shaking the
universe to pieces.
Oh, rally your soul for prayer with no
"ifs" in it Say in substance: ''Lord, Thou
hast promised pardon, and I take it. Here
are my wounds; heal them. Here is my
blindness irradiate it. Here are my chains
of bondage; by the gospel hammer strike
them off. 1 am fleeing to the City of Refuge,
and [ am sure this is the right way. Thanks
be to God, l am free!'
Once, by the law, my hopes were slain,
But now, in Christ, L live again.
With the Mos5Ii; earnestness of my text
and without its Mosaic Ifs" let us cry out
for God. Aye, if words fail US. let us take
the suggestion of that printers dash ofthe
text, and with Il wordess silence implore
pardon and comfort and life and heaven.
FOR this asSemblage, all of whom [ shall
meet in the last judgment, I dare not offer
the prayer of my text. and SO l change it and
say, "LOrd God, forgive our sins and write
brance, from which they shall never be blot.
ted ont d"