Milford chronicle., 1909-07-02
PEOPLES
Sermon by
CHARLES 7.
RUSSELL,
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.

preached to large audiences here to
day on two occasions. We report his
discourse on prayer from the text
Behold he prayeth," as follows:
The thoughtless utterance Of formal
istic petition is not prayer, even though
It be so called. The poet expresses the
truth on the subject in the words
Prayer is the souls sincere desire.
Uttered or unexpressed."
Some Of our Lords most severe crit
icisms of the formalistic piety of his
day condemned those prayers which
were offered in public places to be
seen or heard of men, to be considered
pious. His curt criticism of such pray
ers was. Verify. ] say unto you, they
have their reward" They were in
reality praying to men, seeking for
human appreciation. They got the re-
ward they sought, In that many were
deceived and thought them holy, pious.
But while men might be deceived with
such outward pretensions, God loOketh
upon the heart, and accepteth only the
souls sincere desires. The Father
seeketh such to worship him as wor-
ship him in spirit and in truth" John
iv, "a.
Our text is a part Of the Lords mes
sage TO Ananias when directing him to
Saul Of Tarsus. The latter had been
a prosecutor Of the Church, an injuri-
GUS person, honest at heart, but mis-
guided and prejudiced. Saul had
sought to do God service by opposing
the Church of Christ Following the
lead of his elders, the Scribes and Phar-
fsees of Judaism, he had allowed preju-
dice to make of him a foe to Christ. and
an opponent Of all those who sought to
walk In hisways The Lord had allowed
him to proceed to a considerable ex-
tent in his prosecutions Of the Church
The Lord wished certain amount of
persecution to come against his cause,
and permitted an honest-hearted man
to go to considerable length in his op-
position. The intention of this was
to accomplish the scattering of the
Church, that the believers, going every |
where, might proclaim the Gospel:
that Saul himself might feel humiliat-
ed and forever afterward be on guard /
against a prosecuting spirit and against /
the danger Of being deceived respect /
ing the Lords will. When the due
time came he was smitten with what
he describes TO have been a glance Of /
the Redeemer's face. while on his way /
TO further persecute the Church at /
Damascus.
The fash. above the brightness Of the I
sun at MONDAY worked serious injury .
to Sauls eyesight, completely binding
him. Led by the hand, he was enter
tained in Damascus at the house of
one called Judas He recognized the
source Of his atlliction The Lord haC
reproved him for his persecution. say
ing, Why persecutest thou me: Saul
inquired. Who art thou. Lord: And
the response was. 81 am Jesus whom
thou persecutest because prosecuting
a member Of the Body Of Christ is per
scouting the Head of the Church Aft
er reaching Damascus. saul evidently
continued his praying He accepted
the fact that his experiences were mi
raculous, and proved that he had been
serving God. but not according to
knowledge; that he had been a perse-
cutor and an injurious person as re
spected the cause Of his Creator. In
his blindness of natural sight the eyes
OF his understanding began to open
He was 50 deeply affected with the
thought of how wrong his course had
been. and how he had been lighting
against God. that he could neither eat
nor sleep but was continually in pray
er for forgiveness and for some mani
festation of divine favor which would
indicate this He had finally come to
the proper attitude Of heart, and as
the Lord received his pc
tition and answered it by sending a
faithful believer to restore his phys
Ical sight in a measure, and to further
enlighten his understanding The ex-
planation given by the Lord to Ana
Mas in sending him to Saul was,
"5ehold, He Prayeth."
How much meaning there was in
these few words! They meant, Saul
Of Tarsus is a changed man; he is no
longer the self-conhdent one, bOastful
of his phariseeism. his holiness, his
ithes, and his service Of persecution;
put, humbled to the dust, he has come =.
% realize that while he thought he did
service to the King Of kings. he was
n reality a servant Of the Evil One,
IN injurious person.
While it is true that good men have b
prayed. and in spite Of their prayers o
rave made mistakes, it has doubtless Ii
been true that the mistakes d
made by religious people have been e
long the lines Of too great confidence S
d themselves-too much self-assur- c
nee in respect to the teachings of the (;
Bible, too much self-confdence as re- "
poets their service Of the truth. And II
ghen good men have made mistakes n
fter praying for Divine wisdom, 1t is ii
ot only possible but probable that a
heir prayers we're only partially sin Il
ere; that when they prayed to the ii
.erd, "Thy will be done on earth as in W
eaven," they sometimes meant, Ap- n
rove my will on earth as I approve a
- ...f1r a., hoarrou aHaoos,-fyer than