The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1894-01-13

Sa1e, ana you WOuiu hot cross It, Leu
some one say: II have reasons to ask
If that steamer is trustworthy" and
you would not take passage on it. Let
someone suggest in regard to a prop
erty that you are about to purchase:
II have reason to ask If they can
give good title" and you would
not pay a dollar down until you had
some skillful real-estate lawyer ex-
anime the title. But / allow for years
of my lifetime and some of you have
allowed for years of your lifetime an
''if' to stand tossing up and down
questions of eternal destiny. Oh, de-
eide. Perhaps your arrival here to-
day may decide. Stranger things than
that have put to fight forever the 'if''
of uncertainty.
A few Sabbath nights ago in this
church, man. passing at the foot OF
the pulpit. said to me: 81 am miner
from England and then he pushed
back his coat sleeve and said: DO
you see that scar on my arm?" said:
.'Yes; you must have had an awful
wound there some time" He said:
Eyes; it nearly cost me my life.
was in 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 fellow-la borer pried off the
rock and was bleeding to death, and
he took newspaper from around his
luncheon and bound it around my
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 ] read on it something that
saved my soul, and it was one of your
sermons. Goodnight" he said, as he
passed on. leaving me transfixed with
grateful emotion.
Between the first and last sentences
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
prayer In his last journal. David
Livingstone, in Africa, records the
prayer so soon to be answered.:
s19 March-Birthday My Jesus,
my God. my life. my All.
again dedicate my whole self to Thee.
Accept me, and grant gracious
Father that ere this year is gone, may
finish my task. In Jesus name | ask
| it. Amen" When the duslxy servant
| looked into Livingstone's tent and
| found him dead on his knees, he saw
that the prayer had been answered,
But Notwithstanding the esxnestness
1 e = l,a fov 4
it was a defeated prayer, and
was not answered. think the
two s.ifs' in the prayer defeated 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, I
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
III need it." A wife, praying
for the recovery of her hus-
band from illness, stamped her foot
and said with frightful emphasis: 81
will not have him die; God shall not
take him." Her prayer was answered,
but a few years after, the community
was shocked by the fact that The in a
moment of anger had slain her.
A mother. praying for a sons
recovery from illness, told the
Lord He had no right to take
him., and the boy recovered, but
plunged into all denominations and died
a renegade. Better in all such prayers
pertaining to our temporal welfare,
put an eff" saying: ''If it be Thy will!'
But praying for spiritual good and the
salvation of our soul we need never in
sert an s'if" Our spiritual welfare is
sure to be for the best, and away with
the 'ifs. y
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. 'sPeradventure there may
be fifty righteous in the city, peradven
ture forty-five, peradventure forty, per
adventure thirty, per'adventure TWEEN
ty, peradventure ten" Those six per
adventures, those six ''ifs" killed the
prayer and Sodom went down and wen
under. Nearly all the prayers tha'
were answered had no ifs" in them
The prayer of Elijah that changed
dry weather to wet weather. TIL,
prayer that changed Hezekial
, from sick man to wei
man. The prayer that haltet
sun and moon without shaking
the universe to pieces Oh, rally you
soul for y prayer with no ifs in it
Say in substance: Lord. thou has
promised pardon and take it Her
are my wounds, heal them. Here /
: my blindness, irradiate it. Here ar
my chains of bondage, by the Gospe
hammer strike them of. | am fleeing
I; to the City of Refuge, and I am sur
J this is the right way. Thanks be t
God. am free.
!, Once, by the law. my hopes were slain.
But now. in Christ, live again.
With the Mosaic earnestncss Of m,