The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-11-23

SQe unQeTtOOk 10 alleviate SUFFERING
that since b began that work
she had never seen an unhappy day.
To that work she consecrated her life
her classic attainments, her social DO
sition, her brilliant personality. Her
whole life for others, and her face
shows it 1 think so much OF heaven
Is to be found in no other human coun-
tenance. Tennyson's Charge of the
Light Brigade" is not more thrilling to
me than the womanly bravery and
sacrifice that took care of those who
were shot from the saddles of the i'm
mortal six hundred"
THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER.
My text enthrones prayer and gives
II a scepter to wave over our temporal
and eternal life. Under God il cured
Job and fixed up his finances and re-
stored his home and made him so ro-
u [ OF health that he lived II decades.
But" some n says, Il do not believe
In prayer for friends and foes, because
L do not think that God is going TO
change the laws OF nature because We
ask him SO to do" Neither do think
that God will change the law Of nature
at our request, but / am sure hat he
answers prayer through natural law.
Not a physician Of any skill, allopathic
or homeopathic or h~ydropathic or &C.
lectic, but has some time been sur
pr1Sed that what was thought to be
a fatal disease suddenly relaxes its
grasp of the patient, and he RECEIVERS.
Not one law of nature has been frac-
tured. Prayer may lave given
the sudden turn to that illness. a bus
mess mar may be in difficulty mex
acknowledgements against him fore
closing, goods to be sold for some rea-
son become unstable, new invention
In machinery making the old machin-
cry of his factory worthless. all kinds
of commercial troubles bouncing upon
him at once. Most business men have
at least, on e in their lives, been put in
such agoniZing crisis, but the harried
merchant or manufactures gets out of
IL. creditors become more lenienI. the
wheels that were made useless for
making one kind of fabric turn out to
be good for making another style OF
fabric, the stock of goods that could
not be sold comes into unexpected de-
manC, and whereas all things were
against him all things are now for
him. No law of nature is broken and
no law of trade. Prayer may have
given that ~extrication. God, by max
ing a law, does not tie his own hands
with it. If you are free to do what you
are asked to do, is not God just as free
or are you mightier han your Maker?
PRAYER ANSWERED.
What a scene IL was when that whal-
ing ship, after a cruise of three years,
approached New England harbor,
l. III SlloIS liz uIolIISI Knew lUdl
it was the ship in which her son was
sailing. But a hurricane struck the
ship and destroyed it on the rocks, and
the wreckage was strewn on the beach.
But the mother continued all night in
prayer for her sons safety and in the
morning a knock was heard at her
door, and the door opened, and in came
her long absent boy, exclaiming,
Mother, / knew you would pray me
home!" But you need not go so far
for illustration. 1 have in my own life
had answers to prayer S o pointed, so
direct, SO startling, that I dare not re-
cite them lest 1 be misunderstood. I
could pick many startling instances
right out of this audience. You dare
not doubt the integrity of those who
present such evidence. You woul be-
lieve them as witnesses in any court
of law standing before judge and jury,
and certainly you ought to believe
them when they give solemn testimony
as to what they have seen and felt
in answer to prayer-silent prayer, au-
dible prayer, ejaculatory prayer, inter-
cessory prayer, ex-temporaneous prayer
liturgical prayer; prayer in the morn
ing to start the day right, prayer in
the evening to correct the mistakes
of the day, prayer at the beginning Of
the year as we launch out upon it's
uncertainties and prayer at the close
of the year reviewing the vicissitudes
OF the IL months; rayer for ourselves,
prayer for others; not formal and
heartless prayer, which is of 40 more
use than the prayer of the heather
of Timbuktu, who writes his petition
on a board and then washes it of and
catches the water in a cup, giving il
to the sick to drink for his recovery;
or the prayer of the people of Tibet,
who put their petition in a cylinder
and turn the crank, and as many times
as the cylinder turns is the prayer Of
fered; or the prayer in India, which is
made in behalf Of the wealthy by the
people hired to read the Koran day and
night for the benefit Of the employer.
Many of the prayers offered in Chris
tian lands are as SenSeleSs as these
artificial prayers Of the pagans. What
Is needed is not only heartfelt prayer,
but direct prayer, such as David men
TONS, drawing his figure from archery,
with its bow and arrows. AS the notch
Of the arrow is put against the string
of the bow and then the archer takes
aim and in a flash the arrow strikes
the mark, so David resolves that his
prayers shall not be aimless. He aims
his praye at the heavens, ITO thee
will I direct my prayer" '"Have you
said your prayers?" is a misleading
question. You may say your prayers
q thousand times without praying.
The Bible speaks Of Elias, who pray
can seem to pray when nc prayer is
offered. Prayer is the soul on the
wing. 1t is the private doc into the
Kings palace. 1t is the barometer
showing what the spiritual weather
will be. 1t is stepping into the holy
Of holes. 1t is telegraphy with the
heavens. 1t is the winding up of the
clock of the immortal sould. 1t is in
accommodation between the. finite
and the infinite. Prayer suggested by
circumstances, as when the child went
outdoors in the snow to play and said
afterward to her mother, Mother, /
could not help making the snow pray
err" and when her mother asked her
what the snow prayer was she replied,
Wash me and 1 shall be whittier than
snow.
RESPIRATION OF THE SOUL.
Prayer is what some one has called
t n slender nerve that moveth the
muscles of omnipotence." Prayer is
healthful respiration of the soul. 1t
ia the whiSpfr of halp1cSSneSS into the