The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1893-11-24

it not time that we take our eternal
future off that swine? Is it not time
that we extirpate that If that miser-
able if that hazardous ''if?" We
would not allow the uncertain IF to
stay long in anything else of inn
portance.
Who knows but the words l now
speak. blessed of God. NAV reach some
wounded soul deep down in the black
mine of sin. and that these words may
be blessed to the staunching of the
wound and the eternal life of the soul?
Settle this matter instantly, positively
and forever Stay the last III Bury
deep the last If. How to doit Fling
body, mind and soul in prayer as
that of Moses in the text. Can you
doubt earnestness of this prayer of the
text? 1t is so heavy with emotion that
it breaks down in the middle. 1t vas
SO earnest that the trans,ators in the
modern copies of the Bible were obliged
to put a mark. a Strai rht line. dash.
for an omission that will never be filed
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 type-setters
is mighty suggestive. If thou wilt
forgive their sin then comes the DASH
-: and if not. blot me-. l pray Thee,
o,o 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 sobs or groans or silences-
God cares nothing for the syntaX OF
prayers, nothing for the rhetoric of
prayers Oh. the wordless prayers. IT
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 The most eff
fective prayers l have ever heard
have been prayers that troke
down with emotion: the young
man for the first time arising in a
prayer meeting and saying: 20. Lord
Jesus" and then sitting down, burying
the face in the handkerchief: the pa
tient in the inquiry room kneeling and
saying: ''God help me- ard getting
no further: the broken prayer that
started great revival in my church in
Philadelphia A prayer may have in
style the gracefulness of an Addison,
and the sublimity of a Milton. and the
epigrammatic force of an Emerson. nd
yet be failure. having a horizontal
power, but no perpendicular power.
horizontal power reaching the ear OF
man. but no perpendicular power
reaching the ear of God
Between the first and last sentences
of my text there was 4 paroxysm OF
earnestuesS 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 Liv-
ings.one. 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 U
gracious Father that ere this year is
gone may finish my task. In Jesus
name. l ask it. Amen" When the
dusky servant looked into Livings-
tones 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 i. 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 good characteristics it may
have. s:If Thou wilt forgive their sin:
II 7 Of
Thy book" God did neither. As the fol-
lowing 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 IT and
that is the prayer for temporal bless
ings. Pray for riches and they may en-
gulf US. or for fame and it may bewitch
| us. or for worldly success OF any sort
| and it may destroy US. Better say: III
it be best If can make proper use
kOf it, If thou seest need it.
Another. praying for SON recovery
from illness. told the Lord he had nc
right to take him. and the boy recov-
cred. but plunged into all abomina-
! tions and died a renegade. Better in
all such prayers pertaining to our tenn
poral welfare, put an IF, saying: If
| it be thy will" But praying for spirit
ual good and the salvation of our soul
we need never insert an If. 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 re-
| spects. but there were six ifs in it,
or ''peradventures," which mean the
same thing. ''Peradventure there may
be fifty righteous in the city. perad'
venture forty-five, peradventure forty.
peradventure thirty, peradventure
twenty. peradxenture ten" Those six
peradventures. those six Ifs" killed
the prayer and Sodom went down and
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 Hezekiah from a
sick man to a we'll man. The prayer
that halted sun and moon without
| shaLinO the universe to DieceS Oh.