Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-11-13

material from which they made their
garments and the garments for their
families. The INCREASING population
demanded better methods of the manu-.
facture Of cloth and the making OF the
garments At last inventive genius
manufactured machines which could
turn out more cloth from the raw
material In day than all the grand
mothers of New England could turn
out in six months and Elias Howe
with his sewing machine came In the
| procession with his answer to the
prayers of the good housewives who
had been singing the ancient hymn,
J Stitch, stitch, stitch" while they grew
| weary with their labor. I used to use
the telegraph instrument as an illus
tration Of prayer, but have found con.
tinually broken connections, and the
analogy had to be thrown away I be-
gan to study the philosophy Of the
wireless telegraphy, and discovered
the best illustration of the text, to my
mind in all nature. There is around
this globe subtle fluid called ether;
the motion Of the earth seems to re.
solve the ether into stratas, at send
ing stations, is located at certain
altitude and receiving station Is like
wise located in the same altitude or
startihcation OF ether, while the send
ing apparatus and receiving apparatus
are tuned alike. The electricity re-
leased by the touch of the keys creates
| an explosion, the power Of the explo-
sion determines the distance the mes
sage will be carried by the ether, the
disturbance Is registered or received
| by the sensitive receiver, one hundred
one thousand, or five thousand miles
away. Be-.
II you are powerless in prayer, If
prayer to you is drudgery, it Is be-
cause you are out Of tune with God,
The sending station is out Of tune with
the receiving station. In tuning q
piano, the tuner finds that for a great
percentage OF the keys there are three
wires tuned together to produce one
note Two of them may be tuned per-
fect!y but with the third out of tune
there is discord, and it CRATES upon
the ears Of the hearers, You may be
all right in your outward life, you may
sit in church and look as pious as the
devil under holy water, but II your
private life is rotten, there Is dis
cord, when you are touched by the
great Master Musician. Heavenly
music never comes from the heart
strings until all have been tuned IN
harmony with heavens melodies.
There are three or four indications OF
defeat in the average life.
First-Indolence defeats multitudes.
Incidence means laziness. People are
great Juggling terms in this century.
r s<~ L. -, {1l1 h 10 a
If he steals 100000 he is an embezz-
Ter. Why not reverse the order? Call
the rascal who takes the chicken an
emhczzler and the scoundrel who takes
100000 of the savings of laboring men.
widows and orphans, thief, and be
fair in the proposition. say, this
word Incidence beans laziness and
nothing else. Martin Luther's secre-
tary said one morning. "This Is to
be very busy day, we surely can't
spend much time in prayer when to
his amazement Luther replied, This
is to be such busy day and fraught
with such terrific responsibility that I
cannot think OF entering into 1t without
spending three or four hours in pray
err" 'r.
Laziness in prayer will paralyze the
work Of the minister or the layman.
In the second place, impurity will
defeat any person In prayer. The
Psalmist David. after years Of exper'
fence assisted by the Holy Spirit. said
this, land it Is Gods guage OF power
If regard iniquity in my heart, the
Lord will not hear me. A look with
an impure motive harbored in the
heart, and the power Is gone. In one
Of our great tabernacles in western
city, we opened the services one night
as usual In the midst of the song
service, the fuse burned out and we
were In darkness in an instant. An
electrician came, replaced the fuse.
and In five minutes, with a fash, 1t
burned out and we were in darkness
again. The fuse between man and
God is righteousness; 1t is extremely
delicate and sensitive; sin burns 1t out
in second and you are left in dark
ness How few people there are In
the world whose hearts are so pure
and lives SO good that they can be
trusted by the world at large and by
the spirit of God in particular to go
into the haunts of vice and proclaim
the Gospel Of Jesus Christ. Charles
N. Crittenton spent twenty-five years
in preaching the gospel to fallen wom-
en- and no person of sanity or decency
ever questioned the purity Of his mo-
tive. the depth of his sincerity.
In the third place. selfishness de-
feats multitudes in prayer. They look
no farther than the narrow limits of
their self ACKNOWLEDGMENT. The mean
est life in this world is the life lived
for self. The hungry child. the strug-
Cling widow. the pale faced orphans.
or shuddering invalids, made no appeal
to such dead souls. Consider mo-
ment If you will, the breaking heart
of Jesus Of Nazareth. He was rich yet
for our sakes He became poor. that we
through his poverty might be rich. He
who said, Before Abraham was. I
am" He who spoke Of the joy he had
with the Father before the world was.
left the melodies Of the hierarchy Of
high heaven and came down to this
dark. sin-cursed earth and listened to
the dirge-like wall of weeping, soul-de-
graded humanity. Thank God. there
is no selfshness to be found In the life
~ at Yoo