Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1905-04-14
Prayer That IL Explicit.

everything In general and for the uni
verse in particular" In order TO be
more explicit we would divide the
psalmist's prayer under three or four
distinct headings. In the first place. /
would have you make the prayer: ere
turn unto me, o Lord, the Joy which 1
experienced when first began to re-
alize the heights and the depths and
the lengths and the breadths of thy
sacrifices for me. Restore unto me the
Joy which came to my soul when years
sgo L first approached the communion
table and said, Lord, believe; help
thou mine rinbelief'" Then the tidal
wave OF happiness rolled over US in
surges- Then we said to ourselves:
Saved by graceI Saved by gracel
o God, thank thee that j have been
saved by gracew
Was II a marvellous fact that Mt that
time we should have been happy and
have thanked God that we were saved
by grace2 Surely we would not treat
God less gratefully than we would
have treated any human being who had
rescued rs from threatening danger.
When at the battle OF Brienne General
Gourgsud dung himself before his
chief and Killed the Cossack who was
about to bury HIS lance In the heart OF
his emperor Napoleon's gratitude knew
no bounds. Thus we feel grateful to-
ward our human rescuers We look
with loving eyes toward the skilled sur
geon who drove the knife within a
hairs breadth OF the fatal artery and
say: HE saved me! He saved me-
We throw our arms with a grateful,
convulsive clasp about the neck OF the
strong swimmer who breasted the
waves ana SWAN out to brig us TO
shore when we were sinking in the
surf. We sound forth the praises OF
the man who leaps forward at the risk
or his life and clutches the, bride Of
our runaway horse aud hangs on until
the maddened brute stops his wild ca
reer even though his own body is
bruised by the plunging hoofs. Shall
ws not be thankful. sincerely and
rranscendsntly thankful, to God for
saving us from the results Of our evil
deeds and sins? But strange to say,
after the divine rescue has been accom-.
plished our gratitude may cool. II
may after awhile change into indiffer.
ence or even into positive repulsion.
= Once our souls were afiame with
gratitude for what God had done for
US. No sooner Were we converted than.
like the psalmist, we cried out, Even
ing and morning and at noon will
pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear
my voice." But after awhile our ioy-
full enthusiasm began to cool. We
grew Indifferent. We turned our backs
upon God. We now find reading the
Bible a bore and praying n drudgery
and talking to Christ and waiting for
Christ to talk to us a task instead of
an endless pleasure. Oh, my friends.
do you want to feel again the exhilara-
ton which came over you on the day of
your conversi0nf Then make the pray
er OF my text. Make it day in and day
out. Make tt and continue to make it
as you rehearse all God has done for
you by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Oh. that today we could have the thrill
which surged through us when we first
felt that God had purged us with hys-
sop until We were clean, that he had
washed us until we were whittier than
-snowi
Not the Only Joy.
But gratitude to God for what Christ
has done for us is not the only
JOY OF salvation that is buried and
needs to be renewed. One OF these lows
that need to be resurrected is the one
we used to find In Christian service.
No sooner were we converted than i'm
mediately we went forth to try to
save some one else. Then when we
brought brother or sister to the cross
there came over us another joy which
we had not hitherto conceived, the Joy
OF saving men and women for Christ.