The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-01-06

some one say, IL have reasons to ask IL that
steamer is trustworthy" and you would
not take passage on II.
Let some one suggest in regard to n prop
erty that you are about to purchase, II
have reason to ask IL they can give good
title" and you would not pay n dollar
down until you had some skillful real es-
tate lawyer examine the title, But ! al
lowed for years of my lifetime, and some
of you have allowed for years of your life
time. an "if' to stand tossing up and down
questions of eternal destiny. Oh, decided
Perhaps your arrival here today may de-
eide. Stranger things than that have put
to flight forever the "if' of uncertainty.
THE MIXERS MOVING STORY.
A few Sabbath nights ago in this church |
IA man passing at the foot Of the pulpit |
said to me, II am miner from England" |
and then he pushed back his coat sleeve !
and said, do you that scar on my armw
| said, YES; you must have had an awful
wound there some time" He said: YES;
it nearly cost me my life. | was in IA mine
in England 600 feet underground and three
miles from the shaft of the NINE and rock
fell on me, and my fellow laborer pried off
the rock, and | was bleeding to death, and
he took newspaper from around his lunch
con 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 the newspaper was taken
off my wound read on it something that
saved my soul, and it was one of your ser
mons Good night" he said IA he 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 soul? Settle this matter instant
/ ly, positively and forever. Stay the last
If Bury deep the last ''if." How to do
it? Fling body, mind and soul in prayer
| as earnest as that of Moses in the text. Can
! you doubt the eurnestness of this prayer of
/ the text? 1t is so heavy with emotion that
| it breaks down in the middle. 1t was so
earnest that the transators In the modern
copies of the Bible were obliged to put
mark, "A straight line, IA dash, for an omis-
sion 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 of.
Tense to grammatical construction. But
that dash put in by the typesetters is
nightly suggestive. "If thou wilt forgive
their sin then comes the dash)-"and if
not, blot me, pray thee, out OF thy book. :"
Some of the most earnest prayers ever ut
tered could not be parsed and were poor
specimens of language. They halted, they
broke down, they passed into sobs or groans
or siences. God cares nothing for the syn
tax of prayers, nothing for the rhetoric
of prayers. Oh, the wordless praycrs Ii
they were piled up they would reach to
the rainbow that arches the throne of God.
A deep sigh may mean more than Il whole
liturgy. Out of the 10000 words of the
English language there may not he word
enough expressive for the soul
The most effective prayers have heard
have been prayers that broke down with
emotion-the young man for the first time
rising in a prayer meeting and saying, "Oh,
Lord Jesusl' aud then sitting down, bury
ing the face in the handkerchief; the peni-
tent in the inquiry room kneeling and say
ing, God help me, and getting no further;
the broken prayer that started IA great re-
vival in my church in Philadelphia. A
prayer may have in style the gracefulness
of an Addison, and the sublmity of Mil
ton, and the epigrammatic force of an Elm
erson, and yet be a failure, having n hori
zontal power, but no perpendicular power,
horizontal power reaching the ear of Ila.t
but no perpendicular power reaching tie
ear of God.
A GREAT EXPLORERS PRAYER ANSWERED.
Between the first and the last sentences
of my text there was paroXysm of earnest
ness 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, re-
cords the prayer SO soon TO be answered:
"19 March-birthday My Jesus, my God
oil I .l.,lt, l,,l.
self to thee Accept me, and grant, o gra-
cious Father that ere this year is gone
may finish my task. In Jesus name ask
it. Amen"
When the dusky servant looked into Liv-
ingstone's tent and found him dead ON his
knees, he saw that the prayer had been an
swered. But notwithstanding the earnest
ness of the prayer of Moses in the text, il
, was defeated prayer and was not an
swered. / think the two Ifs" in the prayer
defeated it, and one ''if'' is enough to defeat
any prayer, whatever other good character
. isties 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
4 sins, but am sure did not blot out one let
ter of the name of Moses from the Book of
Life.
a There is only one kind of prayer in which
4 you need to put the "if," and that is the
r prayer for temporal blessings. Pray for
: riches, and they may engulf us; or for fame,
a and it may bewitch us; or for worldly sue
l cess, and it may destroy us. Better say, "If
r it be best, IF | can make proper use OF
e it," "If thou seest | need it." A wife,
praying for the recovery of her husband
| from Illness stamped her foot and said
,trttl fri al
him die. God shall not take him." Her
prayer was answered, but in few years
7 after the community was shocked by the
; fact that he had in moment of anger
l slain her.
A mother, praying for II sons recovery
t from illness, void the Lord he had no right
l to take him, and the boy recovered, but
+ plunged into all denominations and died d
renegade Better in all such prayers and
: all prayers pertaining to our temporal wei
i fare to put an III" saying, "If il he thy
i will" But in praying for spiritual good
4 and the salvation of our soul we need nevel
= insert an IF" Our spiritual welfare is sur,
l., to be for the best, and away with the ifs
THE SIX "IFs" ABOUT soDoM.
, Abraham Is prayer for the rescue of Sodon
| was grand prayer in some respects, hui
r there were six Ifs" in it, or "peradven
r lures" which mean the same thing. Per
r adventure there may be 80 righteous in tn,
= city, peradventure 10, peradventure 40, per
r adventure 30, peradventure 20, peradventur,
. TO-" Those six peradventures, those 81,
| IFS" killed the prayer, and SOdom went
r down and went under. Nearly all the pray
ers 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 t.
I a well man, the prayer that halted sur
and moon without shaking the universe t.
pieces.
, oh, rally your soul for prayer with n,
, Ifs" in it! Say in substances Lord, thou
, hast promised pardon, and take it. Her,
are my wounds; heal them. Here is my
, blindness; irradiate it. Here are my chaini
, of bondage; by the gospel hammer strik,