The Banner-Democrat., 1901-01-05

when he prayed for his friends. but NOR
like job when he cursed the day OF M
nativity.
You people who weigh over 200 pounds
avoirdupois had better never lose youl
temper, for at such times apopIexy Is no'
far of. Get the euuipose OF job IN tnt
text. and it will help You in business di
rections. Praying for all offenders. you
will have more nerve for large undertak
inps; you will have q better balanced
judgment; 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 It to
morrow: Keen on u.til vop accomplish !.is 81,
to the moral and religious strength it
| rives YOU. It should add q hundred per
Sent. to your worldly prosperity. Job xiii.
10, "The Lord gave Job twice as much as
he had before"
What we all need is to get ont Of our
selves and 90 to helping others, whether
! friends or foes. As beautiful an instance
| of how this can be done I found last
summer in London in the person OF Flor
ence Nightingale. the heroine of hospitals
and of battle6elds when there were ne
hospitals. The lounge on which she hes
prostrate is throne of power. and,
1
she trains nurses for sickbeds. and her in
| fiuence is now felt among the wounded
| in South Africa. while her memory IL full
| of the story of Balaklava. Sevastopol and
| Inkerman. where England and France
| and Russia rrappled. She told me that
| she had not been happy until she unuer-
| took to alleviate suffering and that since
she began that work she had never seen
an unhappy dav. To that work she con.
secrated her life. her classic attainments.
| her social position. her brilliant person
| 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.
dre6."
Ny text enthrones prayer and gives il
q 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 80 robust of health
| that he lived fourteen decades. But,
some one says. II do not believe in
prayer for friends and foes, because I Dc
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 a physician of any skill, allopathic,
or homeopathic, or hydropathic, or eclec-
tic, but has some time been surprised that
what was thought to be a fatal disease
suddenly relaxes its craps of the patient,
and he RECEIVERS. Not one law of nature
has been fractured. Prayer may have
given the sudden turn to that illness.
A business man may be in difficulty in
extricable-mortgages against him fore
closing, goods to be sold for some reason
become unsalable, new invention in ma
chinery making the old machinery of HE
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 agonizing
crisis, but the harried merchant or manu-
facturer gets out of it. Creditors become
lenient, the wheels that were made usep
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 for him
What an opportunity is prayerl Why
not oftener use it praying for ourselves
and, like Job, praying for others? What
better work would we do, what better
lives would we live, what better hopes
would we entertain, if we multiplied and
intensified our prayers!
Some one asked soldier of Etonewall
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.
mo! Ewell does the swearing; Stone.
wall does the praying. When Etonewall
wants us to march he looks at us soberly,
just as if he were sorry for us, and says,
Men, we have get 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 q big fight" When Stonewall
Jackson was asked the meaning of the
passage instant in prayer" he said: III
ting myself up as an example, which /
am not, / win give an illustration from
my own habit. have SO fixed the habit
of prayer in my mind that never raise .
glass of water to my lips without o mo-
ment's asking of Gods blessing; / never
seal a letter without q brief sending OF
my thoughts heavenward; never change
my classes in the section room without
. minutes petition for the cadets who 60
out and those who come in"
Now, if God has during these remarks
shown us the uses, the Importance, the
blessedness of prayer, suppose we try to
do what Job did when he prayed for his
Many of us at the begin
ming. Of this subject felt that while we
could pray for ourselves and pray for
those who were kind to us we never could |
reach the high point of religious expe-
rience in which we could pray for those
who arroy us and make us feel worse in |
'tead :. feeling better. That was Mat |
,erhorn, tt.e was an Alp, to the top of |
which we feared we could never climb, |
)ut we thank God that by His omnipo- |
ent grace we have reached that height |
It last. Let US pray! Oh. Christ, who |
iidst pray for Thine assassins. we now |
,ray for those who despitefully use us and |
ay all manner of evil against us. For |
heir eternal salvation we supplicate. |
When time is no more, may they reign on |
hrones and wear coronets and sway |
ceptres of heavenly dominion. Mean |
While take the bitterness from their soul |
md make them soon think as well of us /
8 now they think evil. Spare their bodies |
rom pain and their households from be- |
eavement. After all the misunderstand- |
ngs and controversies of this life are over |
nay we keep with them eternal jubilee /
n the mansions on the hill, and as Thou |
lidst turn the captivity of Job when he |
lad prayed for those who badly used him. |
nd health came to his body and prosper
ty to his estate, now that we have BY |
Thy grace been able to make supplica- |
ion for our antagonists, cure cur dir |
ases, if we are i'll, and restore our estate. |
it has been scattered; and awaken glad |
less in our homesteads, if they have been |
'ereft; and turn the captivity Of our phys
cal pain or financial misfortune or mem |
al distress, and Thine stall be the king.
lom and the power and glory forever and |