The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-11-17

until you can do 1t as easily and -.
well as did Job pray for his era.
perators. You ought to pity them -.
defamers and d~etractors and the .n
vious and jealous are not happy. Thew
hurt themselves more than thew br,,
you. Better be the pursued than ~
pursuer. Better be the infant Christ
than Herod, the robber of the Beth.
lehem cradles. You want to be a bs,-
ter man. You want to be a beta,
oma Then scale this height of fri.
umphant prayer, and you will be fen
times more of q Christian than ror
wei have been. 1t will prolong Won,
life, as it prolonged Jobs life. You
will feel a glorious reaction that viii
last through all time and all eternity,
It will steady your nerves. 1t will re-.
duce your spleen. 1t will regulate IN.
p~ulsation of your heart.
Prayer is what some one has callea
"the slender nerve hat moveth Tho
muscles of omnipotence." Prayer is Tn.
healthful respiration of the soul It /.
the whisper of helplessness into the ear
of help. 1t is laying hold of almightI.
ness, omniscience and omnipresence at
one and the same time. Prayer enlist.
all Divine and angelic Reinforcement.
Prayer is laying hold of a pulley fas.
tened to the Heavenly throne. PRAYER
is the first breath of a newborn soul
and it is heard in the last gasp Of
earthly Christian experiences. PrayerI
In an instant it mounts the highest
heavens. Neither seraph nor arch.
angel " few swifter or higher than
the infants petition at her mothers
knee. What an opportunity is prayer!
Why not oftener use it praying for
ourselves? What better work would
we do, what better lives would we
live, what better hopes would we en-.
terrain, If we multiplied and intensi.
fed our prayersl
Some one asked a soldier of Stone.
wall Jackson the secret of the great
generals influence over his men. 'Does
your general abuse you, swear at you,
to make you march?" "Swear!" re-
piled the soldier. mol" Ewell does
the swearing. Stonewall does the
praying. When Stonewall wants us
to march, he looks at us soberly. Just
as if he were sorry for us, and says:
Men, we have got to make a long
march, W. always know when there
is going to be a long march and right
smart fighting, for Stonewall is pow
erful on prayer just before a big
fight"
In all the tossing of this life lay hold
Of the rope of prayer mentioned by
John Newton, who was converted on
shipboard from being a ~blasphemous
sailor to become a great preacher of
righteousness, and who said; when |
first amused myself with,going to sea,
when the winds rose and the waves be-
came rough, I tumbled and tossed
about like a porpoise in the water. At
last l caught hold of a rope that was
floating about, and then l was enabled
to stand upright. So when in prayer a
multitude of troublous thoughts in
wade your peace, or when the winds and
waves OF temptation arise, look out
for the rope and stay yourselves on the
faithfulness of God keeping His prom
ises."
My hearer, I will tell you the time
when you can afford to cease praying.
1t will be when you have no sins to De
!, pardoned, no sorrows to be comforted,
no nor friends or foes who need your
~intercessions. Queen Elizabeth said to
; Walter Raleigh: Raleigh, when will
you stop begging?" Raleigh replied:
!, when your majesty leaves off giving
|, And your time, my nearer, to stop
. prayer will be when God has no more
: pardon and mercy and strength to be-
, stow and the u of the Infinite
are exhausted. Havelock knew the
. value of prayer when he arose at four
, O'Clock in the morning for his devo'
tons. The soldiers of the Fourteenth
, Massachusetts, regiment showed tina,
they knew the joy of worship when
, they took a delegate of the Christian
commission to see what they called
1 their praying place"
Now, if God has during these re-
marks shown us the uses, the i'm
portance, the blessedness of prayer
suppose we try to do what Job die
when ne prayed for his exasperators
, Many Of us at the beginning of thi'
subject felt that, while we could pray
for ourselves and pray for those wht
y were kind to us, we never could reacl
the high point of religious experience
8 in which we could pray for those witt
I, annoy and make us feel worse instead
$ of feeling better. That was a Matter
horn, that was an Alp, to the top o
y which we feared we could never climb
q but we thank God that by his omnipo
tent grace we have reached that heigh
r at last. Let us pray! o Christ, wit
didst pray for thine assassins, we nov
pray for those who despitefully use u
q and say all manner of evil against u;
i For their eternal salvation we supph
cate. When time is no more, may the
reign on thrones and wear coronet
and sway scepters of Heavenly domln
n ion. Meanwhile take the bitterness
II from their soul and make them 500
think as we'll of us as now they thin
evil. Spare their bodies from pain an
their households from bereavement
: After all the misunderstanding an
! controversies of this life are over, ma
~ MA Laap NTH than afarnal luDllee /