Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-11-30

wound, and then helped me over the
three miles under ground to the shaft,
where | was lifted to the top, and when
that newspaper was taken off my
wound I read on it something that
saved my soul, and it was one of your
sermons. Goodnight" he said, as he
passed on, leaving me transfXed with
grateful emotion.
Between the first and last sentences
of my text there was a paroxysm of
earnestness too mighty for words. 1t
viii 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-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 year is gone, l may
finish my task. In Jesus name | ask
it. Amen" When the dusky servant
looked into Livingstone's tent and
found him dead on his knees. he saw
that the prayer had been answered,
But Notwithstanding the earnestness
Of the prayer of Moses in the text
it was a defeated PRAYER. and
was not answered. I think the
two ifs in the prayer defea ted it, and
one if is enough to defeat any
prayer, whatever good characteristics
it may have. IF thou wilt forgive
their sins; and if not, blot me. !
pray thee, out of Thy book" God did
neither. As the following verses show,
He punished their sins, but | am sure
did not blot out one letter 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 bless
ings. Pray for riches and they may en-
gulf us. or for fame. and it may be-
witch us. or for worldly success of any
sort and it may destroy Us. Better
say: If it be best IF | can make
proper use of it." IF Thou seest
need it A wife pra wing
for the recovery of her hus-
band from illness, stamped her 5oot
and said with frightful emphasis: II
will not have hirn die: God shall not
take him" Her prayer was answered.
out few years after. the community
was shocked by the fact that he in a
moment of anger had slain her.
A mother. praying for Il sons
recovery from illness, told the
Lord He had no right to take
him. and the boy recovered. but
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renegade. Better in all such pra yers
pertaining to our temporal welfare.
put an If" saying: IF it be Thy will"'
But praying for spiritual good and the
salvation of our soul we need never in
sert an If" Our spiritual welfare is
sure to be for She best, and away with
the ifs
Abraham's prayer for the rescue of
Sodom was grand prayer in some re-
spects, but there were six Ifs in it:
IL 'peradventures." which mean the
same thing. "Peradventure there NAV
be fifty righteous in the city. peradven-
ture fortyfye, peradventure forty per
adventure thirty, peradventure TWEEN
ty, peradventure ten" Those six per
adventures. those six ''ifs'' killed the
prayer and S0dom 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 Hezel1Sah
from sick man to a we'll
man. The prayer that halted
sun and moon without shakEng
the universe to pieces Oh, rally your
soul for a prayer with no ifs in it.
Say ia substance: Lord, thou hast
promised pardon and / 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. / am fleeing
to the City of Refuge and I am sure
this is the right way. Thanks be to
God. ana free
Once, by the law, my hopes were slain
But now, in Christ. live again.
With the Mosaic earnestness of INV
text and without it's Mosaic ifs let
us cry out for God. Ave. if words fail
us, let US take the suggestion of that
printers dash of the text. and a with a
worthless 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 |
change it, and say: Lord God, for
give our sins, and write our names in
the Book of Thy loving Remem branee,
from which they shall never be blotted
out -