Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-11-22

| OD, WnaC friends JoD nau: IeaNeh
deliver from having one such friend,
to say nothing of having three of them.
1t was for such friends that job prayed,
and was it not religious triumph Tor
him so to do? Would you, the very best
of you, be in very devout mood and
capable of making intercession for people
who had come to you in day OF trouble
and said: Good for you. You ought to
be chastised. You. are being taken in
hand by eternal justice. If you had be-
haved yourself Alright, you would not
have been sick or prosecuted or impover-
ished or made childless." Oh. no, my
friend. you would not have felt like Job
when he prayed for his friends, but more
| like Job when he cursed the day OF his
nativity.
You people who weigh over 200 pounds
avoirdupois had better never lose your
temper, for at such times apoplexy IS not
| far off. Get the equipose of job in the
text. and it will help you in business dl-
rections. Praying for all offenders, you
will have more nerve for large undertake
ings; you will have a better balanced
| judgments you will waste no valuable time
in trying to get even with your enemies.
Try this height of prayer for your an
tagonist to-day, and if you fail try 1t to-
morrow. Keep on until you accomplish
| it, and I should not wonder II, IN addition
to the moral and religious strength 1t
gives you, it should add hundred per
cent to your worldly prosperity. JOB Kill
| TO- sThe Lord gave Job twice as much as
| he had before"
What we all need is to get out OF our
selves and go to helping others, whether
| friends or foes. As beautiful an instance
| of how this can be done | found last
summer in London in the person OF Flor
ence Nightingale the heroine of hospitals
and of battlefelds when there were no
hospitals. The lounge on which she lies
PROSTATE is a throne of power. and,
| though she has passed into the eighties,
| she trains nurses for sickbeds. and her in
| fuence is now felt among the wounded
of the story OF Balaklava, Sevastopol and
Inkerman. where England and France
and Russia grappled She told me that
she had not been happy until she under
took to alleviate suffering and that since
she began that work she had never seen
an unhappy day. To that work she con-
| secrated her life her classic attainments,
her social position. her brllliant person
ality Her whole life for others, and her
face shows it. / 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 Immortal six hun
dred.'
My text enthrones prayer and gives it
a scepter to wave over our temporal and
! eternal life Under God it cured Job and
| fixed up his finances and restored his
home and made him SO robust of health
| that he uved fourteen decades But,
some one says, Il do not believe in
PRAYER for friends and foes, because | do
! not think that God is going to change the
laws of nature because we ask Him so to
| do Neither do l think that God will
change the law of nature at our request,
but | am sure that He answers prayer
! through natural law.
! Not physician of any skill, allopathic,
or homeopathic, or hydropathic, or eclec-
| tc but has some time been surprised that
| what was thought to be fatal disease
| suddenly relaxes its craps of the patient.
| and he recovers. Not one law of nature
| has been fractured. Prayer may have
| given the sudden turn to that illness.
| 4 business man may be i'll difficulty in
| eXtricable-mortgages against nm lore
| closing, goods to be sold for some reason
| become unstable, new invention IN ma
| chinery making the old machinery of his
! factory worthless, all kinds of CONNER
| cial troubles pouncing upon him at once.
Most business men have at least once
| in their lives been put in such agonizlng
| crisis, but the harried merchant or manu-
| facturer gets out OF it. Creditors become
| lenient, the wheels that We're made use
| less 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-
mand and whereas all things were against
| him all things are now Tor him.
What an opportunity is prayer! Why
not oftener use it praying tor ourselves
and, like job, praying for others! What
| better work would we do, what better
| live w homes
would we entertain, if we multiplied and
| intensified our prayers!
Some one asked soldier of Stonewall
| Jackson the secret OF the great generals
| influence over his men. Does your gen
eral abuse you, swear at you, to make You
march:" Swear" replied the soldier.
| mol Ewell does the swearing; Stone
wall does the praying. When Stonewall
| wants us to march he looks at us soberly,
| Just as if he We're sorry for us, and says,
| Men, we have got to make long march.
| We always know when there is going to
| be long march and right smart fighting,
for Stonewall is powerful on prayer Just
before a big fight" When Stonewail
| jackson was asked the meaning of the
passage "instant in prayer" he said: ''lf
you will not mistake and think l am set
ting myself up as an example, which
| am not, | will give an illustration from
my own habit. | have so fixed the habit
| OF prayer in my mind that l never raise
glass of water to my lips without mo-
ment's asking of Gods blessing; | never
seal letter without a brief sending OF
my thoughts heavenward; | never change
my classes in the section room without
a minutes petition for the cadets who go
out and those who come in.
Now, ii God has during these remarks
| shown US the uses the Importance, the
bessedness OF prayer, suppose we try to
do what job did when he prayed for his
ex0spcrators. Many of VS. at the begin
n2g OF this subject felt that while we
eoAll pray for ourselves aud pray for
those who were kind 10 us we never could
reach the high point OF religious expe-
rience in which we could pray for those
who annoy us and make Us feel worse in
stead OF feeling better. That was Mat
terhorn. that was an Alp. to the top OF
which we feared We could never climb
but we thank God that by His omnipo
tent grace we have reached that height
at last. Let US pray! Oh, Christ, who
didst pray for Thine assassins, We now
pray for those who desptefuliy use us aud
say all manner OF evil against us. For