Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-04-20

! authority is our only way Of being of
any practical service to them. Our
! personal advice would be to them, for
the most part, an impertinence. They
nave all the facts as we cannot have
thera, and they see the subject in all
It's bearings, and we can be of no help
TO them except through the supplica-
tion that our text advises. In that
way we may be infinite reinforcement.
The mightiest thing you can do for
a man is to pray for him. IL the old
Bible be true, and if it is not true 1t
has been the only imposition that ever
blessed the world, turning barbarism
into civilization and tyrannies into re-
| publics,-I say if the old Bible be true,
God answers prayer. You may get
letter, and through forgetf,ilness or
| lack of time not answer it, but God
never gets genuine letter that he
does not make reply. Every genuine
prayer is child's letter to his iteav-
emily Father, and he will answer it;
and though you may get many letters
from your child before you respond,
some day you say: There! ! have re-
ceiyed ten letters from my daughter,
and | will answer them all now and at
once, and though not in jus: the way
she hopes for, will do it in the best
way, and though she asked me for a
sheet of music. | will not give it to
her, for | do not like the music spoken
| of; but / will send her a deed to
house and lot, to be hers forever So
God does not in all cases answer in
the way those who sent the prayer
hoped for. but he in all cases gives
what is asked for or something better.
So prayers went up from the North
and the South at the time OF our civil
war and they were all answered at
Gettysburg. You cannot make me be-
lieve that God answered only the
Northern prayers, for there were just
as devout prayers answered south OF
Mason and Dixon's line as north of it,
and God gave what was asked for, or
something as much more valuable, as
a house and lot are worth more than
sheet of music. There Is not good
and intelligent man between the Gulf
of Mexico and the st. Lawrence river,
who does not believe that God did the
| best thing possible when he stood this
nation down in 1865 a glorious unity,
never to be rent until the waters OF
| the Ohio and the Savannah, the Hud-
son and the Alabama, are licked up by
the long, red tongues Of q world on
| fire. Yea! God sometimes answers
prayers on a large scale. In worse
predicament nation never was than
| the Israeltish nation on the banks of
the Red Sea, the rafting shields and
| the Gathering hoofs of an overwhelm-
! ing host close after them. An army
could just as easily wade through the
Atlantic Ocean. from New York to
| Liverpool, as the Israelites could have
waded through the Red Sea. You need
| to sail on its waters to realize how big
| it is How was the crossing effected?
BY prayer. Exodus IA, IS: And the
Lord said unto Moses. Wherefore
criest thou unto me? Speak unto the
children of Israel, that they 90 for
ward" That is, stop praying and
take the answer And then the wa
! tiers began to be agitated and swung
| this way and that way, and the ripple
became a billow, and the biilow
climbed other pillows, and now they
rise into walls of sapphire. and in
visible trowels mason them into firm
ness and the walls become like noun
| tains, topped and turreted and domed
with crags of crystal, and God throws
an invisible chain around the feet OF
those mountains, so that they are
obliged to stand still, and there, right
before the Israelitish army, is turn
pike road, with all the emerald gates
| swung wide open. The passing host
did not even get their feet Wet They
passed dry-shOd, the bottom of the sea
| as hard as the pavement OF Pennsyl-
yania avenue, or New YOrk's Broad
way. or Iondon's Strand. Oh! What
God they had! or, l think I will
change that and say, What God we
have!'
| The prayer that the great eXpound-
er wrote to be put in the cornerstone
at the extension of the Capitol, ejac-
ulate as our own supplication: God
save the United States of America!"
ouly adding the words with which
Robert South was apt to close his SER
mons, whether delivered before the
court at Christ Church Chapel, or in
Westminster Abbey, at anniversary of
restoration of Charles the H., or on
| the death of Oliver Cromwell amid the
worst tempest that ever swept over
England: ITO God be rendered and as
cribed, as is most due, all praise,
might, majesty and dominion, both
nov and forever. Amen"