Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1893-09-18

of Genesis ana let fne know IL, ana
can tell You what is OIL the next page
namely, the first chapter of Exodus; or
while thus blindfolded put my finger on
the last chapter Of Matthew and let me
know it, and 1 will tell you what is on
the next page-namely, the first chapter
of Mark. In the pile Of 500, 100000
Bibles there win be no exception. In
other words, the book gives me conf
dence by its supernatural adhesion of
writing to writing,
Eveatho stoatcst shipsometimes shifts
its cargo. and that is what made our
peril the greater in the ship Greece Of
the Na.ional line when the cyclone
struck us off the coast of Newfoundland,
and the cargo of iron had shifted as the
ship swung from larboard to starboard,
and from starboard to larboard. But,
thanks be to God, this old Bible ship,
though it has been in thousands of years
of tempest, has kept its cargo of gold
and precious stones compact and sure,
and in all the centuries nothing about
IL mas shifted. There they stand,
shouiaer - shoulder, David and Solo
mon and Isaiah and Jeremiah arS
Ezekiel and DaniOi -.-.., KrOsea and Joel
and Amos and Obadiah and Jonah and
Micah and Nahum and Habakkuk and
Zephaniah and Haggai and Zechariah
and Malachi and Matthew and Mark
and Luke and John and Paul and Peter,
all there, and with q certainty of being
there until The heavens and the earth,
the creation of which is described in the
first book Of the Bible, shall have Col
lapsed, and the white horse OF the con-
queror, described in the last book of the
Bible, shall paw the dust in universal de-
molition. BY that tremendous fact my
faith is re-enforced.
The discussion is abroad as to who
wrote those books Of the Bible called
the Pentateuch, whether Moses or
Hill1iah or Ezra OF Samuel or jeremiah
or another group of ancients. None Of
them wrote it. God wrote the Penta-
teuch, and in this day Of stenography
and typewriting that ought not to be a
difficnlt thing to understand. The great
merchants and lawyers and editors and
business men of our towns and cities
dictate nearly all their letters; they only
sign them after they are dictated. The
prophet and evangelist and apostle were
Jehovah's stenographers or typewriters.
They put down only what God dictated;
he signed it afterward. To has been
writing his name upon it all through the
vicissitudes of centuries.
THE PRAYER OF FAITH.
But / come to the height of my sub
ject when say the way to re-enforce
our faith is to pray for it. So the disci-
Piles in my text got their abounding
faith, Lord, increase our faith" Some
one suggests, "Do you really think that
prayer amounts to anythingT might
as well ask you, is there line of tele-
graphic poles from New York to Wash
ington, is there line Of teleTaphic
wires from Manchester to London, from
Cologne to BerlinS All the people who
l..-r,gsvIEt y tsIId- d-4ssuviVvu messages on those
lines know Of their existence. So there
are millions of souls who have been In
constant communication with the cap
ital of the universe, with the throne of
the Almighty, with the great God him
self, for years and years and years.
There has not been a day when sup
plications did not flash up and blessings
did not fash down. Will some igno-
ramus, who has never received tele-
gram OF sent one, come and tell us that
there Is no such thing as telegraphic
communication Will some one who
has never offered "a prayer that was
heard and answered come and tell us
that there is nothing in prayer 1t may
not come as we expect it, but as sure as
an honest prayer goes up a merciful
answer will come down.
During the blizzard of four or FIVE
years ago, you know that many of the
telegraph wires were prostrated, and
telegraphed TO Chicago by the way Of
Liverpool and the answer after awhile
came round by another wide circuit
and SO the prayer we offer may come
back In a way We never imagined, and
If we ask to have our faith increased,
although IL maycome by q widely diff
ferent process than that which we ex-
pected, our confidence will surely be
augmented.
Oh, put it in every prayer you ever
make between your next breath and
your last gasp, Lord, increase our
faith"-faitA in Christ as our personal
ransom from prelent guilt and eternal
catastrophe; faitl in the omnipotent
Holy Ghost; faith In the Bible, the
truest volume eva dictated OF written
or printed or read faith in adverse
providences, harhonized for our best
welfare; faith in a judgment day that
will set all things right which have for
ages been wrong.
Increase our faih, not by fragile ad-
dition, but by an tlfnitude Of recupera-
tion Let MS do as we ~-.-- ~ done in the
lioh' 1Ios "a - were yet IN Cs1o :" 'le
country ~a Vi farmhouse after a I1hk
AZ Yit, and the well had been dried,
and the cattle moaned with thirst at the
bars, and the meadow brook had ceased
10 run, and the grass withered, and
the corn was shriveled up, and one day
there was growl OF thunder, and
then a congregation Of clouds ON the
sky, and then a startling fash. and then
a drenching rain, and father and mother
put barrels under every spout at the cor
nsrs Of the house and set pals and buck
cts and tubs and pans and pitchers 10
catch as much as they could Of the show
er. For in many Of our souls there has