The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-10-28

the sky, as the vessel plows on toward
it. There is mightiness in prayer.
| George Muller prayed a company OF
! poor boys together, and then he prayed
up an asylum in which they might be
sheltered. lie turned his face toward
edinburgh and prayed, and there came
1000. He turned his face toward
| London and prayed, and there came
G1000 He turned his face toward
Dublin and prayed, and there came
$1,000. The breath of Elijah's prayer
| blew all the clouds off the sky. and it
was dry weather. The breath of Eli
jah's prayer blew all the clouds to-
| gether and it was wet weather.
Prayer, in Daniels time, walked the
cave as a lion-tamer. 1t reached up
and took the sun by it's golden bit, and
stopped it, and the moon by its silver
bit, and stopped it.
We have all yet to try the full pow
err of prayer. The time will come
when the American church will pray
with its face toward the west and all
the prairies and inland cities will sur
render to God; and will pray with face
toward the sea, and al. the islands and
and ships will become Christian. Parents
who have hayward sons will get down
on their knees and say, Lord send
my boy home" and the boy in Canton
shall get right up from the gaming
table and go down to find out which
| ship starts first for America.
| Not one of us yet knows how to pray.
All we have done as yet has only been
pottering. A boy gets hold of his
fathers saw and hammer, and tries to
make something, but it is a poor af-
fair he makes. The father comes and
| takes the same saw and hammer and
builds the house Or the ship. In the
childhood of our Christian faith we
make but poor work with these weap-
oDs of prayer, but when we come to
| the stature of men in Christ Jesus,
| then, under these implements, the
temple of God will rise, and the
worlds redemption will be launched
God cares not for the length
/ of our prayers, or the num-
| Der of our prayers, or the beauty of
| our prayers, but it is the faith in them
that tells. Believing prayers scars
higher than the lark ever sang;
plunges deeper than diving bell ever
sank; darts quicker than lightning ever
| flashed. Though we have used only
the back of this weapon instead of the
, edge, what marvels have been wrought,
If saved, we are all the captives of
| some earnest prayer. Would God that,
in desire for the rescue of souls, we
might in prayer lay hold of the re-
sources of the Lord omnipotent.
We may turn many to righteousness
by Christian admonition. Do not wait
until you can make formal speech.
Address the one next to you. You
| will not go home alone to-day. Be
tween this and your place of stopping
you may decide the eternal destiny of
an immortal spirit. just one sentence
may do the work. Just one question.
just one look. The formal talk that
| begins with a sigh and ends with
canting shuttle, is not what is
| wanted, but the heart throb of a
man in dead earnest. There is not
soul on earth that you may not bring
to God if you rightly go at it. They
said Gibraltar could not be taken 1t
is rock 1,G00 feet high and three
miles long. But the English and
Dutch did take it. Artillery, and sap
pers and miners. and fleets pouring
| out volleys of death, and thousands of
men reckless of danger can do any
thing. The stoutest heart of SIN,
lD, h.,
an ocean of transgression, under Chris
tan bombardment may hoist the flag
of redemption.
But is all this admonition and PRAYER
and Christian work for nothing? NV
text promises to all the faithful eternal
luster. They that turned many to
righteousness shall shine as the stars
forever" As stars the redeemed have
a borrowed light. What makes Mars
and Venus and Jupiter so luminous?
When the sun throws down his torch
in the heavens, the stars pick up the
scattered brands, and hold them in
procession as the queen of the night
advances; SO all Christian workers,
standing around the throne, will shine
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. in their faces,
Jesus in their songs, Jesus in their tri-
umph.
Christ left Heaven once for tour of
redemption on earth, yet the glorifed
ones knew He would come back again.
But let Him abdicate His throne, and
go away to stay forever, the music
would stop, the congregation would
disperse, the temples of God be dark
ened, the rivers of life stagnate; and
every chariot would become a hearse,
and every bell would toll, and there
would not be room on the hillsides to
bury the dead of the great metropolis,
for there would be pestilence in
Heaven. But Jesus lives. and so
all the redeemed live with Him.
He shall recognize them as His COM
rades in earthly toll, and remem Der
what they did for the honor of His
name, and for the spread of His king
dom. All their prayers and tears and
work will rise before Him as He looks
into their faces and He will divide His
kingdom with them; His peace; His