The Princeton union., 1897-04-22

authority is our only way Of being Of !
any practical service to them. Our
personal advice would be to them, for 4
the most part, an impertinence. They
have all the facts as we cannot have
them, and they see the subject in all
its bearings, and we can be Of no help
to them except through the supplica-
ton that our text advises. In that
way we may be infinite reinforcement.| 4
The mightiest thing you can 90 for
"a man is to pray for him. II the old
Bible be true and if it is not true it
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 a
letter. and through forgetfnlnesss or
lack of time not answer it, but God
never gets a genuine letter that he.
does not make reply. Every genuine
prayer is a child's letter to lis iieav-
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-
ceived ten letters from my daughter,
and will answer them all now and at
| cnce, and though not in just the way
she hopes for, I will do it il the best,
way, and though she asked me for a.
sheet of music. I will not give it to
her, for I do not like the music spoken
of; but will send her a deed to a:
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
house and lot are worth more than
a sheet Of music There is not a 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 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 world on
fire. Yea! God sometimes answers
prayers on large scale. In worse
predicament nation never was than
the Israelitish nation on the banks Of
the Red Sea, the rattling 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 te
Liverpool, as the Israelites could have
waded through the Red Sea. You neet
to sail on it's waters to realize how big
), it is. How was the crossing effected
; By prayer. Exodus IA, Is: "And tht
Z Lord said unto Moses, Wherefor'
i criest thou unto me? Speak unto th'
} children of Israel, that they go for
ward That is, Stop praying AM
5 take the answer" And then the wa
r ters began to be agitated and swun
. this way and that way, and the rippl
t became billow. and the billo,
: climbed other pillows, and now the
: 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 dome
, with crags of crystal, and God throw
: an invisible chain around the feet
, those mountains, SO that they al
J. obliged to stand still, and there, rig1
q before the Israelitish army, is tur1
pike road, with all the emerald gate
+ swung wide open. The passing ho
e did not even get their feet wet. The
n passed dry-shod, the bottom of the sc
if as hard as the pavement of Pennsy
e vania avenue, or New York's Broa,
d way or Londons Strand. Oh! VIII
i a God they had! or, I think wi
} change that and say, What a God '
= haye!"
S The prayer that the great expoun
4 er wrote to be put in the corner-stol
s. at the extension of the Capitol, I Ella
ulate as our own supplication: &c,
save the United States Of America
es ouly adding the words with whi,
Mt Robert South was apt to close his Sc
at mons, whether delivered before Il
10 court at Christ Church Chapel, or
at Westminster Abbey at anniversary
r. restoration of Charles the H., or.
at the death of Oliver Cromwell amid t
at worst tempest that ever swept ov
es England "To God be rendered and q
ad cribed, as is most due, all prai,
O. might, majesty and dominion, bo
Ut now and forever. Amen"
ot
he
Refused Without Proposing.