Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1893-11-20

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 ho
passed on, leaving me transfxed with
grateful emotion.
And who knows but the words 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 stanching of the
wound and the eternal life Of the souli
Settle this matter instantly, positively
and forever. Slay the last eff" Bury
Geep tho last III" How to do it9 Fling
boGy, mind aud soul in prayer as ear
nest as that of Moses in the text. Can
you doabt the earnestness of this prayer
Of the text2 1t is 80 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
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 typesetters
is nightly suggestive. "If thou wilt
forgive their sin" (then comes the dash)-
land 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 II they
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 10000 words of the
English language there may not be
word enough expressive 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, 30 Lord Jesusr' and then
sitting down, burying the face in the
handkerchief; the penitent in the in
quiry room kneeling 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 sublimity Of
Milton, and the epigrammatic force of
an Emerson, and yet be a failure, hav-
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 sem
tences of my text there was a paroxysm
of earnestness too mighty for words. 1t
will take half Of an eternity to tell of all
the answers of earnest and faithful pray
er. In his last journal David Living
stone, in Africa, records the prayer so
soon to be answered. "19 March-Birth-
day. 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 may
finish my task. In Jesus name i ask 1t.
Amen"
When the dusky servant looked into
Livingstons 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 defeated prayer and
was not answered. ] think tho two 'ifs''
in the prayer defeated it, and one ''if' Ia
enough to defeat any prayer, whatever
other good characteristics it may have.
"If thou wilt forgive their sins-and II
not, blot me, pray thee, out of thy
book" God did neither. AS the follow
ing verses show, he punished their sins,
but ana 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 blessings.
Pray for riches and they may engulf us
or for fame and it may bewitch us, or for
worldly success Of any sort and 1t may
destroy us. Better say, "If 1t be best,
'if can make proper use Of it, ""if Thou
seest need it," A wife, praying for the
recovery of her husband from illness
stamped her foot and said with frightful
emphasis: ~ will not have him die, God
shall not take him." Her prayer wal
answered, but few years after the com
munity was shocked by the fact that h'
had in a moment OF anger slain her.
A mother, praying for a sons recov
erv from illness, told the Lord he had nj
right 10 take him, and the boy recovered
but plunged into all denominations an(
died a renegade. Better in all such
prayers and all prayers pertaining 70 oui
temporal welfare put an 'if," saying
..If it be thy will" But praying fol
spiritual good and the salvation Of oul
soul we need never insert an 'if." On
spiritual welfare Is sure to be for thu
hest and away with the ifs"
Abraham's prayer for the rescue o
sodom was grand prayer IN some re
snects. but there were six ''ifs" In II, o.
..neradyentures," which mean the sam
thing. "Peradventure there may be o
righteous in the city, peradventure 40
peradyenture 40. peradventure 30, per
adventure 20, peradventure 10" Thos
dr neradyentures. those SIX 'ffs," kille'
the PRAYER, and SOdon went down am
vent under. Nearly all the prayer
that were answered had no ''ifs" In then
the prayer Of Elijah that changed DR.
weather 10 wet weather. the praye