The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-06-23

.IlFT3 2
Ionly II that way can we come to The
full force Of this exercise. Twenty
thousand years will not wear out the
hymns Of VIM. Cowper, Charles Wes-
LEY and Isaac Watts. Suppose now
each each person in in an audience has brought
all the annoyances of the last three
hundred and sixty-five days. Fill the
room to the ceiling with sacred sons
and you would drown out ali those
annoyances of the last three hundred
and sixty-f1ve days, and you would
crown them out forever. Organ and
ccrnet are only to marshal the voice.
Let the voice fall into line, and in
companies, and in battalions, by storm
take the obduracy and sin of the world.
II you can not sing for yourself, sing
for others. By trying to give others
good cheer, you will bring good cheer
to your own heart. fa
When Londonderry, Ireland, was be-
sleged many years ago, the people in
SIDE the city were furnishing, and a
vessel came up with provisions, but
the vessel ran on the river bank and
STUCK last. The enemy went down with
laughter and derision to board the
vessel, when the vessel gave a broad
side ire against the enemy, and by the
shock was turned back into the stream
and all was well. Oh, We who are high
and dry on the rocks of melancholy,
give a broadside fire of song against
your spiritual enemies, and by holy
rebound you will come out into the
calm waters.
tarried many nights in London,
and used to hear the bells, the small
bells OF the city, strike the hour of
nlght-one, two, three, four, and among
them the great St. Paul's cathedral
would come in to mark the hours, max
ing all the other sounds seem utterly
insignificant, as with mighty tongue
1t announced the hour of the night,
every stroke an overmastering boom.
MY friends, it was intended that all the
lesser sounds of the world should be
drowned out in the mighty tongue Of
congregational song beating against
the gates of heaven. Do you know
how they mark the hours in heaven?
They have no clocks, as they have no
candles, but great pendulum of halle
luJah swinging across heaven from
eternity to eternity.
Let those refuse to sing
Who never knew our God;
But children Of the Heavenly King
Should speak their joys abroad.
What is the use of our going away
off to find an illustration in past age,
when during the great forest fires in
Michigan mail carrier on horseback,
riding on, pursued by those flames
which had swept over a hundred miles,
saw an old man by the roadside, dis
mounted, helped the old man on the
horse, saying: Nov whip up and get
away" The old man got away, but
the mail-carrier perished Just like
Christ dismounting from the glories of
heaven to put us on the way~of deliv-
erance, then falling back into the
flames of sacrifice for others. Pang for
others. Woe for others. Death for
others. Vicarious suffering.
Again I remark, that sanctuary help
ought to come through the prayers of
all the people. The door of the eternal
store-house is hung on one hinge, a
gold hinge, the hinge of prayer, and
when the whole audience lay hold of
that door, it must come open. There
are many people spending their first
Sabbath after some great bereavement
What will your prayer do for them?
How will it help the tomb in that mans
heart? Here are people who have not
been i'm church before for ten years;
what will your prayer do for them by
rolling over their soul holy memories?
Here are people in crises of awful temp
tation~ They are on the verge Of de-
spair, or wild laundering, or theft, or
suicide What will your prayer do for
them in the way of giving them
strength to resist? Will you be chiefly
anxious about the fit of the glove that
vou put to your forehead while you
prayed? Will you be chiefly critical of
the rhetoric of the pastors petition?
No.. No. A thousand people will feel,
"that prayer is for me- and at every
step of the prayer chains ought to drop,
off, and temples of sin ought to crash
into dust, and jubilees of deliverance
ought to brandish their trumpets. In.
most of our churches we have three
prayers-the opening prayer, what is.
called the 'long prayer" and the clos
ing prayer. There are many people,
who spend their first prayer in arrang-
ing their apparel after entrance, and:
spend the second prayer, the: ''long
prayer" in wishing it were through,
and spend the last prayer in preparing
to start for home. The most insignifi-
cant part of every religious: service is
the sermon. The more important parts
are the Scripture lesson and, the pray
er. The sermon is only man, talking,
to man. The Scripture lesson is God
talking to man. Prayer is man talking
to God. Oh, if we understood the
grandeur and the pathos OF. this exer-.
else of prayer, instead of being a dull.
exercise, we would imagine that the,
room was full of divine and angelic ap-
Doa RANGES s,t'E es5tr .r.SsEz}-rts- +.