The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-11-24

shaft, where was lifted to the top, and
when that newspaper was taken off my
wound l read on it something that
saved my soul, and it was one of your
sermons. Good night" he said as he
passed on, leaving me transfixed with
grateful emotion.
And who knows but the words Inow
speak, blessed Of God, may reach some
wounded soul deep down in the black
mine of sin, and that these words may
be blessed to the stanching of the
wound and the eternal life Of the soul?
Settle this matter instantly, positively
and forever. Stay the last eff" Bury
deep the last eff" How to do it? Fling
body, mind and soul in prayer as ear
nest as that of Moses in the text. Can
you doubt the earnestness Of this prayer
of the text? 1t is so heavy with emotion
that it breaks down in the middle. 1t
was so earnest that the translators in
the modern copies Of the Bible were
obliged to put mark, straight line, a
dash, for an omission that will never be
filled up. Such an abrupt pause; such
sudden swapping off of the sentence.
You cannot parse my text. 1t is an
offense to grammatical construction.
But that dash put in by the typesetters
is nightly suggestive. eff thou wilt
forgive their sin" (then comes the dash)-
"and if not, blot me, pray thee, out Of
thy book" Some of the most earnest
prayers ever uttered could not be parsed
and were poor specimens of language.
They halted; they broke down; they
passed into groans or sobs or silences.
God cares nothing for the syntax Of
prayers; nothing for the rhetoric of pray
ers. Oh, the wordless prayersl If the7
were piled up, they would reach to the
rainbow that arches the throne Of God.
A deep sigh may mean more than whole
liturgy. Out of the lie, 900 words of the
English language there may not be q
word enough expressive for the soul.
The most effective prayers have ever
heard have been prayers that broke
down with emotion-the young man fol
the first time rising in a prayer meeting
and saying. 80 Lord Jesus!' and Their
sitting down, burying the face in the
handkerchief; the penitent in the in
quiry room llneeling and saying, GOD
help me" and getting no further; the
broken prayer that started great re
vival in my church in Philadelphia. A
prayer may have in style the graceful
ness of an Addison, and the sublmity Of
a Milton, and the epigrammatic force Of
an Emerson, and yet be a failure, hay
ing horizontal power, but no perpen
dicular power; horizontal power reach
ing the ear of man, but no perpendicular
power reaching the ear of God.
USE OF ''IF" IN PRAYER.
Between the first and the last sen
fences of my text there was paroxysn
of earnestness too mighty for words. L
will take half of an eternity to tell of al
the answers of earnest and faithful pray
er. In his last journal David Living
stone, in Africa, records the prayer S,
soon to be answered: 10 March-Birth
day. My Jesus, my God, my Life, m,
All, l again dedicate my whole self t.
thee. Accept me and grant, o gracious
Father, that ere this year is gone ma,
finish my task. In Jesus name / ask it
Amen"
When the dusky servant looked int,
Livingston's tent and found him dead Oh
his knees, he saw that the prayer ha,
been answered. But notwithstanding
the earnestness of the prayer of Moses il
the text it was defeated prayer an'