The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-11-20

I more that might recall. put Jne WnOlc
! responsibility Of orr salvation on our
/ selves. Christ's willingness TO pardon
/ No IF" about that. Christs willingness
/ to help: No If about that. Realms Of
| glory awaiting the righteous; No If
/ about that. The only If in all the cases
/ worth a moments consideration, Is the
/ ''If'' that attaches itself to the question
| as to whether we will accept, whether we
/ will repent. whether we will believe,
whether we will rise forever. Is
| it not time that we take our
| eternal future of that swivel Is
/ il not time that we eXtlrpate
| that If. that miserable If" that haZ-
! ardOus "If?' We would not allow this
| uncertain IF" to stay long in anything
| else of Importance. Let some one say IN
regard to a railroad bridge: Il have
| reasons for asking if that bridge is safe, -
and you would not cross it. Let some one
say: 4 have reason to ask if that steamer
| is trustworthy and you would not take
| passage on it. Let some one suggest in
regard to a property that you are about
to purchase: Il have reason to ask II
they can give a good title, " and you would
not pay a dollar down until you had some
skillful real estate lawyer examine the
title. But l allowed for years of my life
| time and some Of you have allowed for
years of your lifetime an "If'' to stand
tossing up and down questions of eternal
destiny. Oh, decide. Perhaps your arrival
here to-day may decide. Stranger things
than that nave put to flight forever the
If of uncertainty.
A few Sabbath nights ago in this
church, man, passing at the foot of the
pulpit, said to me: Il am a miner from
England" and then he pushed back his
coat sleeve and said: do you see that
scar on my arm2'' I said, Yes. You
must have had an awful wound there
some time" He said: Yes, it nearly
cost me my life | was in a mine in
England six hundred feet under ground
and three miles from the shaft of the
mine, and a rock fell on me, and my fel-
low-la bOrer pried of the rock, and | was
bleeding to death, and he took a news
paper from around his luncheon and
bound it around my wound and then helped
me over the three miles underground
to the shaft, where | was lifted TO the
top, and when that newspaper was taken
off my wound. | read in il something that
saved my soul and it was one of your
sermons. Goodnight" he said as he
passed on, leaving me traushXed with
grateful emotion.
And who knows but the words 1 now
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 staunChiug of the wound
and the eternal life Of the soul3 Settle
this matter instantly, positively and for
ever. Stay the last If Bury deep
the last If" How to do it? Fling body,
mind and soul in prayer as earnest as
that of. Moses in the text. Can you
doubt the earnes tness 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
70 e,1rf IL ct fgrl,F inc A..eI,
for an omission that will never be filled
up. Such an abrupt pause, such sud
den swapping off of the sentence. You
cannot parse my text. 1t is an OffenSe to
grammatical construction. But that dash
put in by the type-setters is nightly sug-
gestive. If thou wilt forgive their sin
then comes the dash)-; and if not, blot
me, me, pray thee, out of thy book" -
Some OF the most earnest prayers ever
uttered could not be parsed, and they
We're poor specimens of language. They
! halted, they broke down, they passed into
sObs or groans or silences. God cares
nothing for the syntax of prayers,
nothing for the rhetoric of prayers. Oh
| the wordless prayers If they were piled
| up they would reach to the rainbow that
arches the throne of God. A deep sigh
may mean more than a whole liturgy
| Out of the one hundred and sixteen
| thousand words of the English language
| there may not be a word enough express
| sive for the soul. The most effective
| prayers | have ever heard have been
! prayers that broke down with emotion {;
! the young man for the first time rising in
| prayer-meeting and saying, 20 Lord
| Jesus!N and then sitting down, burying
the face in the handkerchief; the peni-
tent in the inquiry room kneeling and
| saying, God help me- and getting no
! further; the broken prayer that started a
| great revival in my church in Philadel-
| phia. A prayer may have in style the
! graCefulness of an Addison, and the sub
| Unity of a Milton, and the epigrammatic
force of an Emerson, and yet be a failure,
! having horizontal power but no perpen-
| dicular power, horizontal power reaching
the car Of man, but no perpendicular pow
er reaching the ear of Cod
Between the first and last sentences of
| my text there was parOXysm of earnest
ness 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: 10 March-birthday. MY
Jesus. my God, my life my all, again
dedicate my whole self to Thee. Accept
me, and grant 0, gracious Father that ere
this year is gone, may finish my task
In Jesus name, | ask it. Amen" When
| the duSky servant looked into LiVingS-
tons tent and found him dead on his
dnees, he saw that the prayer had been
answered. But Notwithstanding the
earnestness of the prayer of Moses in the
text it was defeated prayer and was not
answered. | think the two ifs" in the
prayer defeated it, and one "if'' is enough
to defeat any prayer, whatever other
good characteristics it may have III
thou wilt forgive their sins: and if not
blot me, pray Thee, out of Thy book =
God did neither AS the following verse.
show, he punished their sins, but | an
sure did not blot out one letter of the
name of Moses from the book of life.
There is only one kind of prayer il
which you need to put the IT, and tina
is the prayer for temporal blessings. Pra,
for riches, and they may engulf us, or foI
fame, and it may bewitch us, or fo
worldly success of any sort, and it ma,
destroy us. Better say IF it be best''
If l can make proper use Of it," Il
thou seest [ need it" A wife
praying for the recovery of her HUSBAND
/ from illness, stamped her foot and sal,
; with frightful emphasis, Il will not hav
him die; God shall not take him" He
; prayer was answered. but a few wear
} after, the community was shocked by tn
: fact that he had, in moment of anger
slain her. A mother, praying for a sou
, recovery from illness, told the Lord tina
He had no right to take him, and the DO
recovered, but plunged into all abomina