The Penn's Grove record., 1913-10-31
MOTIVES TO PRAYER
Fellowship With God, Trust in
Him and a Comfort in His
Presence.

"A mdn Oh COLOSSAL fortune, ABOUT 10
sail from New York to the foreign
country where he has his summer
home, was interviewed as to his own
life. He was asked what he thought
Of religion, and with perfect candor
replied: Il have never felt the need
of prayer"
Another man of no great fortune,
but of exalted reputation for learn
ing and fine character, lay sick when
a friend anne to him and asked him
how he felt. He answered, 81 am
very weak and in great pain. but l can
still pray, and that is much"
These two men represent two atti.
tudes Of mind with reference to pray
er. On9 has never felt the need of
prayer. The other has, and prays, and
thanks God that the power to pray is
still his.
Not long ago Doctor Hyslop, an emf
lent physician and psychologist. de-
clared to his brethren in a medical
congress: CAS- an alienist and one
whose whole life has been confined
to the study of the sufferings of the
mind, l would state that of all the
hygienic measures to counterfeit dis
turbed sleep, depression of spirits and
ali the miserable ~sequelae of a dis
tressed mind, l would undoubtedly
give the first place to the simple habit
of prayer"
Old Objections Dlssipated.
Certain old objections to prayer
have been dissipated, or at least
diminished, by the conclusions of
modern science. The objections based
upon the apparent absurdity of a mind
on earth communicating with the
mind above the earth has less weight
now than it had before we flashed
messages through space across a con-
tinent and across the sea without the
use of clumsy wires.
The objections to prayer based up
on the uniformity Of natures laws
has not the weight it once had. We
are daily discovering apparent contra
dictions of fixed laws, anomalies, dis
~crepancies, and it is dawning upon US
that it may be one of natures au-
gust laws, that the mind of mar shall
go out in manifold mysterious ways to-
ward its maker, and that he shall min
lister in manifold mysterious ways to
US.
The late Chancellor Sims used to
mention n of the commonest objec-
tions to prayer. He reminded US that
here is n man praying for rain-he
wants good crops; and there is an
other man praying for dry weather.
he is building a house.
The objector stands off and says:
What kind of weather are we going
to have in answer to these prayers?"
The chancellor says: 1T is as if the
children of a family should ask their
father, n for one thing and the
others for totally different things"
The father, if he is wise, may deny
some requests and grant others, but
he will do what he thinks is best
for each of them, and the requests
they make are a part of the pleasing
heart-uniting intercourse of the fam
lily.
Find God Through Prayer.
Columbus, seeking a western pas
sage to India, found a new hemisphere.
Marshall, digging a mill race, found
gold In California. Alexander Bell,
trying to help the hard of hearing,
stumbled upon the telephone. And
we, praying for a smooth sea or a
prosperous journey or a recovery from
Illness. find God.
What if the sea be rough and the
journey adverse or the recovery be
delayed or denied, if we find God, find
a nearness to him, a trust in him, a
comfort in his presence we had not
known before? Fellowship with God
is our greatest need.
Prayer is a means of that fellow
ship. Our minor needs are motives to
prayer. If hunger and thirst and heat
and cold and poverty and sickness and
floods and fires and tornadoes and old
age and death impel us to prayer,
blessed are these, for they are the
rude couriers that show is the way
to the audience chamber Of the king.
God is the souls eternal home. By
prayer we have felt the weight of the
worlds WEAKNESS, we who know the
bitterness of it's worst and the vanity
of its best gifts. find our way home.