The morning journal-courier., 1908-03-16

a man soul, take pOssessloh ol his l thoughts, strengthen his Will, purify | his heart, and thus minister to ms I whole nature, but He sets aside, Ill re- sponse to prayer, the ordinary laws of | healing. These are the people who i would set no limits to prayer; they would say, in interpreting the text, that the prayer of faith will cure all dis- eases, that we have no right 10 limit i its operations But It seems to me that Jesus set a limit to prayer, one very | sharply defined. Study that story of his passion in the garden of Geth- i semane. Observe how he begins with a 1 certain specific prayer, that God would let the cup pass from him. Then in the words, If it be possible he seems to suggest that some things are not pos soible, that even prayer has its limits; i and in those other words, nevertheless not as l will, but as thou wilt" he in | dicates those limits. It is the Will or God that defines the boundaries of i prayer. Jesus begins by praying that the cup of suffering may pass from iiiiii, SutS Oul Hun eiiS SoaN NNAAf HtS mind composed. his soul at peace-he goes out to put the cup to his lips. God did not answer his prayer" you say. No. he did not answer it as Jesus had hoped: nevertheless he answered it, not by changing his will to conform with Jesus desire, but by changing Jesus desire to conform with his will.
 Here we touch upon the true pur- pose of prayer, and are In a position to predicate its scope. Its true purpose is not to change God, but to change us. Its scope Is sharply defined by the will of God, That will expresses itself in
 what we call the laws of the universe. It is not for me Ito attempt any analy- sis of this will, to expain why God does one thing instead of something else, to show why he adopts this method of working instead of that. It is for me to take things exactly as I find them. It
 Is for me to face the facts of our worldly and physical existence. It is wholly beside the question to discuss amongst ourselves whether God could
 have made a world into which the ex- perience of death should not come. The
 world which VIC have Is one in which death is a very real experience. There comes time when a man falls ill and dies and is buried with his fathers. The physician makes out the certifi- cate, and we find that he died from a certain disease. Inquiry shows that
 this disease was brought on by vicious habits. Is 1t too much to say that prayer would have saved the man?
 Supposesh he had been taught to pray as boy; suppose he had lived clean, godly life. Or suppose, even after vice
 had laid hold upon him, that somebody had prayed for him. and by their prayers succeeded in bringing him
 back into the path of rectitude. Would
 1t not have been strictly true that
 that prayer saved or prolonged his life? And is it not true that God is all the time raising up men? When their lives are brought into accord with his will through prayer the result Is health of soul, and health of soul tends to produce health of body. Faith going forth as prayer and approprlating the spiritual forces of this universe tends
 to build up and prolong a mans life. This Is why Mir. Gladstone said that prayer had prolonged his life. It had kept him normal, it had liberated him
 from those many complaints that have their root In the mind rather than In the body Through all his life the Lord was raising him up. giving him strength. fortifying him for the days work
 If this approves itself to you as a
 reasonable position let us go back a little to that certificate of the physi- clan of which I speak. Suppose the dis ease from which the man died had been tuberculosis. He had come under the physicians care during the last stages of the disease, and his case from tho first had been pronounced hopeless It would seem that all must admit that q man cannot live without lungs; and un- less some way can be found to restore
 the tissue that has broken down the man must die Now come the advocates of faith cure. or mind cure, or cure by | suggestion. or cure by the demonstra-
 tion of divine truth. Or let us say that the elders of the church come in and offer prayer as James advises They annont the man with oil and pray
 that he shall be raised up. Is that a
 proper thing to do? Most certainly it
 is, and the test of the prayer is not the
 restoration to health of the one who is prayed for. The test of the prayer is in the attitude of mind and heart in
 duced, It is not a question whether God
 could work in some other way; 1t is
 onecerning the way in which he &C.,
 tually does work Suppose the prayer
 his feet and send him forth strong and
 well. Suppose the prayer of faith had
 power to ward off all kinds of diseases.
 What would become of the expedience of physical death? If the prayer of
 faith will raise man once. 1t will
 raise him repeatedly Indeed, those who claim absolute power by their spirit
 ual principle of healing should be con
 sistent and courageous enough to fol-
 low up their claim to its logical con-
 clusion. It means nothing less than the
 utter abolshment of death. If there is
 a spiritual principle of healing above
 physical law, then there must be a principle of healing above physical death. If man has some power within 1 him by which he can work with God
 to the end that all pain, all disease, all bodily decay can be banished from hu-
 man life, then how shall the experience
 that we call death ever come near him? This text. 1 maintain, must be taken, seasonably. It must be read Tn the light of that verse which follows;
 "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. To be