Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-09-29

| of Newfoundland, and the ergo OF iron had
shifted as the ship swung from larboard to
star5oard, and from starboard to lar0oard.
But, thanks be 10 God, this old Bible ship,
though it has been in thousands of years OF
tempest, has kept its cargo of gold and pre-
| cious stones compact and sure, and in all the
centuries nothing about it has shifted. There
they stand, shoulder to shoulder, David and
| Solomon and Isaiah and jeremiah and Eze-
kiel and Daniel and Hosea and Joel and
| Amos and Obadiah and Jonah and Micah and
| Nahum and Habbakkuk and Zephaniah and
| Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi and Mat
thew and Mark and Luke and John and Paul
and Peter, all there. and with certainty OF
being there until the heavens and the eartn,
| the creation of which is described in the first
book of the Bible, shall have collapsed, and
the white horse of the conqueror. described
in the last book ofthe Bible, shall paw the
dust in universal demolition. By that tre-
mendous fact my faith is REINFORCED.
The discussion is abroad as to who wrote
those books of the Bible called the Penta-
touch, whether Moses or Hlkiah, or Ezra or
| Samuel, or jeremiah, or another group Of
ancients None OF them wrote it. God
wrote the Pentateuch, and in this day OF
stenography and typewriting that ought not
to be a difficult 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 typewrlters.
They put down only what God dictated he
signed it afterward. He has been writing his
name upon it all through the vicissitudes OF
centuries.
But I come to the height of my subject
when say the way to re-enforce our faith is
to pray for it. SO the disciples in my text
got their Astounding faith. "Lori, increase
our faith" Some one suggests, "Do you
really think that prayer amounts to any
thing?" might as we'll ask you, is there a
line Of Geographic poles from New York to
Washington, is there line OF Geographic
wires from Manchester to London, IRON
Cologne to Berlin2 All the people who have
sent and received messages on those lines
know of their existence So there are mill
ions of souls who have been in constant COM
munication with the capital of the universe,
with the throne Of the Almighty, with the
great God Himself, for years and years and
years
There has not been a day when supplica-
tions did not flash up and blessings
did not flash down. Will some igno-
ramus, who has never received telegram or
sent one, come and tell us that there is no
such thing as telegraphIc communications
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 merciful answer will
| come down.
During the blizzard of four or five years
ago, you know that many Of the telegraph
wires were Frustrated, and telegraphed to
Chicago by way of Liverpool, andthe answer
after awhile came round by another wide
| IL -tt-a off mn
back in a way we never imagined, and II we
ask to have our faith increased, although it
may come by a widely different process than
that which we expected, 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"-fath in Christ
as our personal ransom from present guilt
and eternal catastrophe faith in the onnipo-
tent Holy Ghost faith in the Bible, the truest
volume ever dictated or written or printed
or read faith in adverse providences, har-
monized for our best welfare; faith In a
Judgment day that will set all things right
which have for ages been wrong.
Increase our faith, not by a fragile ad-
| dition. but by an infinitude Of recuperation.
Let US do as we saw it done in the country
while we were yet in our teens, at the old
farmhouse after a long drought, and the
well had been dried, and the cattle moaned
with thirst at the bars, and the meadow
brook had ceased to run, and the grass
withered, and the corn was shrlvele1 up,
and one day there was a growl of thunder,
and then a congregation Of clouds on thd
SKY. and then q startling flash, and then a
drenching rain, and father and mother put
barrels under every spout at the corners OF
the house and set pals and buckets and
tubs AMI pans AMI pitchers to catch as
much az they could OF the shower. For in
many OF our souls there has been long
drought Of confidence and in many no faith
at all. Let US set out all our affections, all
our hopes, all our contemplations, all our
prayers, TO catch mighty shower. Lord,
increase our faith.
like the way that the minister's widow
did in Elisha time, when, after the iamuy
being very un fortunate, her two sons were
about to be sold for debt, and she had noth-
ing in the house but u pot OF OIL and at
Elisha's direction she borrowed from me-
neighbors all the vessels she could borrow,
and then began to pour out the oil ln.9 those
vessels and Kept on pouring until they wero
all full and she became an oil merchant VITA
more assets than liabilities, and when she
cried. "Bring me yet a vessel, the answer
came, "There is not a vessel more. so let
us take what oil OF faith we have and use it
until the supply shall be miraculous!y mutt
piled. Bring on your empty vessels, AMI by
the power Of the Lord Col OF Elisha they
| shall be filled until they can hold no more Oh
| iubilant all inspiring and triumphant falth
What frightful time we had Lew DAYS
ago down on the coast of Long Island, wnero
1 have been stopping. That archangel OF
tempest which, with its awful wings, swept
the Atlantic coast from Florida to Newlound-
land did not spare Our region. few miles
away, at Southampton, saw the BODIES or
four men whom the storm had slain and the
sea had cast up, AS j stood there among the
dead bodies said to myself, and said aloud
I "These men represent homes. What will
mother and father and wife and children say
when they know this?"
Some of the victims were unknown. Only
: the first name of two of them was found out
Charley and William. Wondered then and
J I wonder now if they will remain unknown
and if some kindred far away may be waiting
! for their coming and never hear OF the rough
way of their going. l saw also one OF the
three who had come in alive, but more dead
than alive The ship had become helpless
six miles out, and as one wave swept the
deck and went down on the furnaces till
| thew Missed and went out the cry was, "Oh,
my God we are lost!' Then the crew put
! on life preservers, one of the sailors saying
10 the other. "We will meet again on the
shore, and, if not, we'll we must all go some
time"
OF the twenty-three men who put on the
life rreservers, only three lived to reach tho
beach. But what scene it was as the good
and kind people Of Southampton, led on by
DIR. Thomas. the great and good surgeon OF
New York, stood Watching the sailors strug-
Cling in the breakers. "Are you still alive?"
shouted DR.. Thomas to one of them out in
Ill kIna,