The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-01-16
TUESDAY AFTERNOON.
Mr.. MoOdy's Talk on January o on
the Elements Of Prayer.

Mr.. MoOdy's Talk on January o on
the Elements Of Prayer.
You that were here yesterday afternoon
remember that i was speaking about the
true elements Of prayer. / was trying to
show that there were ten elements to all
true prayer. The first was contrition, the
second confession, the third restitution
and the fourth forgiveness; the fifth is
unity. You do not know unless you have
been in the old country, in England, what
wall is built up between the church and
what they call I" dissenters." You men
who have travelled there know what am
talking about. They do not call mon
ministers unless they belong to the
Episcopal church. Spurgeon was not
looked upon as q clergyman because he
did not belong to the Church OF England.
There was one OF those wealthy cleryg-
men who told me himself that IL he saw
dissenting minister coming down the
same sidewalk, il 1T was convenient, he
would happen on the other side. He had
been taught that they were enemies of the
church of God. Well, he went up to
meeting in the north OF England where
the brethren met to pray, and he got such
blessing that he came down to his own
parish, and the first thing he did was to
(Which was large one)
and pray with all the
leading dissenters. / got an invitation
to go down to this place to preach. j
found a tent that would hold as many
people as there are here, and found that
this clergyman and all the dissenting
ministers were, working harmoniously
together, and since this had begun there
had been more conversions than there had
been for years. This clergyman told me
that the man that was nearest TO him and
whom he loved most in that whole parish
was an independent preacher.
He found out that that dissen-
ting man could be just as
Cody and good as any preachers in his
own denomination. / do wish that we
could get these miserable sectarien walls
down. tell you, you get the Christians
all united and Christianity is like great
blood. 1t says that on the day of Penta-
cost there was unity. We are making
progress. / thank God for that. These
walls are tumbling down. Twenty-Five
years ago you could not have had a meet
ing like this in Providence. You could
not have had lall these ministers up on
this platform. There would have been
condescension enough to ruin the whole
thing. You might have, got them
on the same platform, but Baptist
would have got up and said
81 am a Baptist, and / want you to under
stand that have condescended to come
up here and speak. And then up would
get an Episcopalian and say that he had
condescended to speak with the other
brethren" But that has gone by. Since
have been in Providence we have been
getting all mixed up here, and believe
that it is the way it will be in
heaven. You won't know a Meth
odist when you get there. All "out
and out Christians," you know. The
nearer we get to the Lord, the less we
will talk about these differences. We have
got to climb the ladder. Every true child
OF God ought to pray for unity, brotherly
love. 1t is beautiful sight to see all
these ministers here representing the
different churches.
Another element to true prayer is thanks
giving. "With thanksgiving let your re-
quests be made known" / think we
would get hundred times more from the
Lord than we do IL we would only be
thankful. There is more said in the Bible
about praise than prayer. There was
man who got up in one OF our meetings
and said he had lived on Grumble
street for long while, but
finally he moved on 10 Thanksgiving
street. / do dread these men who are al
ways grumbling.
Spurgeon said he hoped the grass would
grow over their graves, but IL it did il
would be the first thing that had ever
grown near them. We want to be thank
full. There was a man in our church i'm
Chicago whom j never saw when he did
not have a smile on his face. He was al
xrffh NRloaa ha Lord ~
and il was not a hollow
sham. IL came from the
bottom of his soul. One day he cut his
thumb off and that very night we had
weekly prayer meeting. He was there
with his lame hand and he got up and
said, "Bless the Lord. / cut my thumb
today but didn't cut il clear off," III IL
had been most of us Ii would have been a
mournful story. BE thankful for what
you have. Let us look out that we are
not one of the class who cone TO the Lord
constantly for favors and never thank
Him.
Then another element Is perseverance.
Now l don't like TO be teased; 1 suppose
you don't. don't know why, but some
how or other the Lord seems TO like II.
He likes TO have US press our cause and
what we want Is to pray on and never
faint. There Is no gauge to Gods prom
ises. You may pray for weeks, or months,
or years, you may go down to your grave,
and your prayers may not all be answered,
but perhaps around your coffin that way
ward boy may be converted. We are i'm
structed to pray and never cease. Pray
right on. And II we get discouraged we are
disobeying God and are not doing what the
Lord would like 10 have us do. Iheard In
England about a wife who said she would
give up one hour Of the day and go TO her
room and pray for her hus band who was