The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1907-03-05
MANY HEAR
HIS WORDS

rs a man intellectually justified in
praying?' was DIR. Bosworth's subject
In Central Union church yesterday
morning. The building was crowded
with n notable audience. The speaker
began and continued in the quiet con-
versational tone, so attractive to his
hearers OF the past few days, while
the people listened with the intense
eagerness characteristic of all the
Deans audiences wherever he goes.
He spoke just thirty minutes and left
scores asking why didn't he go on %
The line of thought may be summa-
rized as follows:
Matthew 7:11-"If We then, being
evil, know how to give good gifts into
you children, how much more shall
your Father who is in heaven give
good things to them that ask him?
These are the words of great spe-
cialist in the spiritual realm spoken
out of his own experience. A woman
on the Syrian hills once looked into
His face and said, "Sir, / know that,
whatsoever Thou shalt ask of God, God
will give 1t Thee This man who could
make this impression voiced His life
experience in these words, and, how
ever startling they may be, they are
worthy of consideration.
If young man should say to you
In New York city, Speak into this
tube and someone in London standing
just inside st. Paul's cathedral will hear
what you say you would hesitate to
credit the statement because such a
thing has as yet never been done. But
IL he should add, Edison has SO per-
fected the telephone as to make it pos
sible to talk through the cable across
the ocean," you would listen because
of the authority of the great special
list
These words of Jesus are built upon
the theory that God is a Heavenly
Father always present with us. They
are voice, 20 heart, speak to the
heart that made thee" Prayer is an
appeal of the heart made to the Great
Heart that made it. Prayer Is far
more than mere asking for definite
things. Prayer is the intercourse of
the human spirit with the Great Spirit
that made it. We do violence to
Jesus when we view prayer as an ap-
peal to God for specific things, for
then we reduce God to a mere conve-
nience. No man can overestimate the
great value to the Individual of reach
Ing out to the Father Sometimes your
boy comes to your room and you ask
What do you want, my boy?" Moth
Ing, l only want to be with you" The
best prayer is wanting nothing but to
be with God.
Yet in the teaching of Jesus prayer
includes asking for good things. Here
we come upon the great question. do
things ever happen in answer to pray
er that otherwise would never hap
penn" To many men prayer is esthet-
ically beautiful in children, an orna-
mental bit Of ritual at the opening of
religious service or in some sharp
crisis a cry of the heart for which
apology must thereafter be made to
the intellect. If this be all, prayer will
cease or degenerate into mere solil-
oquy. Hence we must look fairly in
the face this second view of prayer,
that it includes asking for good things.
What troubles US is the increasing
appreciation of the relation of cause
and effect in this universe of change
less law. We have the greatest rea-
son for gratitude that there is a fixed
order of nature. 1t is essentially good
that no man in keen distress is able
by prayer to shorten the duration of
this day by two hours so that he may
abridge his suffering. If it We're alb
solutely uncertain whether the tenn
perature in this island six months from
now would be 40 deg. below zero or 100
deg. above, civilization would be i'm
possible. There are certain things
which children know they cannot get
by asking.
But the more man learns about the
forces of nature the more he Is able
to do not in spite of them but because
1 have no doubt they will be good
of them. A hundred years ago a few
cred boy in the tropics might have
asked his father for ice to cool his
brow, but the answer would have been,
No, it cannot be-" Now, able to
make use of natural forces In his ice
machine. he says Yes" Let me
speak with MOTHER a sick child said
to his father with mother 500 miles
away. Fifty years ago it would have
been an impossible request, but today
the telephone connection is made and
the little one comforted by the tones
of mothers voice falls into a healing
sleep. If you with the forces of ma
ture can do this how much more your
Heavenly Father can do by means of
these laws.
But nine out of ten of specific re-
quests can be granted without involv-
ing physical laws If 1t be conceded
that God can put thought into the
mind of a man through physical laws. |
The summer before his death heard |
Mr.. Moody tell how in the summer of |
1893 his Chicago Institute must close |
Its year in debt unless a certain sum |
Of money should come that day. He |
prayed over 1t in the morning and let |
1t slip from his mind. In the after |
noon young woman came and hand |
ed him an envelope with a check in |
II for almost exactly the amount need |
ed. 1t was signed by lady of wealth |
who had occasionally aided his work. |
The next morning he called and in |
quired how she came to make the gift |
She said that the morning before she |
was deeply impressed that Mr.. Moody |
needed money. She sat down, made |
out the check and sent 1t by her maid. |
Is this an answer to prayer? Granted |
that a man can convey an impression |
Of this kind to another mind. Yet |
here there is room for Gods activity |
in directing whose mind should re-
ceive the impression. If God can put |
a thought into a mans mind acting |