Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-09-28

Ea&A&SaV \ speaks with voice,
2a4 with eye. with
hand, with foot.
His silence often is loud as thunder,
and his life is dirge or doxology.
There is no such thing as negative in
fluence. We are all positive in the
place we occupy, making the world
better or making it worse, on the
Lords side or on the DEVILS, making
up reasons for our blessedness or ban
ishment; and We have already done
work in peopling heaven or hell. /
hear people tell Of what they are going
to do. A man who has burned down
city might as we'll talk of some evil
that he expects to do, or man who has
saved an empire might as we'll talk OF
some good that he expects to do. BY
the force of your evil influence you
have already consumed infinite values;
or you have by the power of right
influence, won whole kingdoms for
God.
1t would be absurd for me. by elab-
crate argument, to prove that the
world is off the track. You might as
well stand at the foot of an embank-
ment, amid the wreck of capsized
rail-train, proving by elaborate argu-
ment that something is out of order.
Adam tumbled over the embankment
sixty centuries ago, and the whole
race, in one long train has gone on
tunIbling in the same direction. Crash.
crash! The only question now Is, by
what leverage can the crushed thing
be lifted? BY what hammer may the
fragments be reconstructed? | want
10 show you how we may turn many
to righteousness, and what will be our
future pay for so doing.
First. We may turn them by the
charm of a right example. A child
coming from filthy home was taught
at school to wash its face. 1t went
home so much improved in appearance
that its mother washed her face. And
when the father of the household came
home and saw the improvement in
domestic appearance, he washed his
face. The neighbors, happening in,
saw the change, and tried the same en-
pertinent, until all that street was puri-
fed, and the next street copied its ex-
ample, and the whole city felt the re-
suit of one schoolboy washing his face.
That is fable, by which we set forth
that the best way to get the world
washed of it's sins and pollution is to
have our own heart and life cleansed
and purified. A man with grace in his
heart and Christian cheerfulness in his
face and holy consistency in his be-
havior is a perpetual sermon; and the
sermon differs from others in that it
has but one head, and the longer ii
runs the better.
Again: We may turn many to right
eousness by prayer There is no such
detective as prayer, for no one can
hide away from 1t. 1t puts its hand
on the shoulder of a man ten thousand
miles off. 1t alights on ship mid
Atlantic. The little child cannot I'M
derstand the law of electricity, or how
the telegraph operator, by touching the
instrument here, may dart a message
under the sea to another continent
nor can we, with our small intellect,
understand how the touch of a Chris
tian's prayer shall instantly strike a
soul on the other side of the earth You
take ship and go to some other country.
and get there at eleven o'clock in the
morning. You telegraph to America
and the message gets here at six
o'clock the same morning. In other
words it seems 10 arrive here five
hours before it started. Like that is
yof,
( will hear" To oyertake a loved one
On the road, you may spur up a lather-
ed steed until he shall OUTRAGE the one
that brought the news TO Client but
a prayer shall catch it at one gallon
A boy running away from home may
take the midnight train from the coun-
try village and reach the seaport in
time to gain the ship that sails on the
morrow: but a mothers prayer will
be on the deck to meet him, and in
the hammock before he swings into it,
and at the capstan before he winds the
rope around, and on the sea, against
the sky, as the vessel ploughs on
toward it. There is a mightiness in
prayer. George Muller prayed a com
pany of poor boys together, and then
he prayed up an asylum in which they
might be sheltered. He turned his face
toward Edinburgh and prayed and
there came a thousand pounds. He
turned his face toward Dublin and
prayed and there came a thousand
pounds. The breath of Elijah's prayer
blew all the clouds off the sky, and it
was dry weather. The breath of Eli
iah's prayer blew all the clouds to-
gether, and it was wet weather. Pray
err, in Daniels time, walked the cave
as a lion-tamer. 1t reached up, and
took the sun by its golden bit, and
stopped it, and the moon by it's silver
bit. and stopped II.
We have all yet TO try the full power
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 surrend-
er to God; and will pray with face
toward the sea. and all the islands
and ships will become Christian. Pa
rents who have hayward sons will get
down on their knees and say: Lord,
send nv how home" and the bow in