The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-03-07
HOW PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED

direct answer to prayer, If to be an
swered Gods laws must be contra
vened, but, nevertheless, we religious
" believe that prayers are answered.
We believe that God holds the earth
in ''the hollow Of his hand" but we
do not believe that he personally
guides, controls and directs it's affairs
in the same way that an engineer
guides, controls and directs his loco
motive, or a pilot at sea guides and
controls the direction of his ship.
If we SO believed we would be com
PEELED TO hold God responsible for too
many heart-rending catastrophes. We
would be compelled to hold him re-
sp0nsible for all the calamities and
accidents on land and on sea.
In his wonderful creation God fixed
certain immutable laws, the trans
gression Of which, either by accident
or design, is accompanied by certain
results and penalties.
If a ship at sea encounters a storm
or runs against projecting rock or
a floating iceberg it must expect to be
dashed to pieces, for in a time like
that prayers and supplications are I'M
availing, for, to answer which, the fix
ed and immutable laws would have
to be CONFERENCE.-The thing imDOssi-
BILE.
If these fixed and immutable laws
We're changed for an instant, chaos
would result.
Gravitation is one of these laws. It
regulates the movements of the plan
cts in their orderly courses, and if il
were violated or contravened, even
for an instant Of time, there would be
wreck of matter and a crash of
worlds. This law holds the planets
in their places, and if it were violat-
ed men, instead OF standing perpen-
dicular on their feet, would be hurled
into the air and would crash against
all other combustible and moving mat
ter; all planets would be thrown out
OF gear and life would become ex,
tincI
When men so to sea, or fly the air,
or cross the plains, or go down into
the bowels Of the earth, or explore
the polar regions, they must do so
with the full knowledge that if they
run counter to these fixed and immu-
table laws they must suffer the conse-
quences.
There is oneness running through
the whole universe. and in his mar
velous creation man alone was made
in the image of God, and the more he
makes himself like God the more he
partakes of his infinity.
God is love, and when man behaves
himself in loyable way, when he
performs good deeds, when he gives
10 the needy, when he holds out a cup
of cold water to the furnishing, when
he soOthes a sorrow, when he gives
consolation to those in bereavement
and trouble, then he becomes more
like God, and partakes more of his
personality.
When he hears the thunders roll
and the lightnings flash, and con
ceives the idea that God is manifest
ing His anger, and he makes sacrifc-
es to appease His wrath, he entirely
misconceiyes and misunderstands the
nature and character of God
Not being wrathful, God does not
demand sacrifices of our loved and
best.
When a woman stood before the fig
ure of Moloch and, tearing her very
heart-strings from her, put her pre-
ciOus babe into his white-hot arms,
she imagined, as the child's screams
were drowned by the beating of the
drums, and his little life was burned
out, that some cleansing had come to
her because she had given the best
o4II AlCINAs OGCotuoC vi mel StlSC Vi Sill
and desire to be clean, but more be-
cause she was afraid, but this fear
was caused by the traditions and en-
vironments which surrounded her
We have reached a degree of knowl-
edge that tells us that God does not
demand these sacrifices, but we do
not believe that the mother will be
condemned OF God because she sacri-
feed her babe in her innocence and
ignorance, believing that it was the
way to put herself in oneness with
Him.
When a man wakes up to the con
.sciousness that he is not living his
best, and is out of adjustment with
his better nature, determines to live
his best and makes an inward ac-
acknowledgement, or confession, and de-
termines to live higher and 2 better