Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-12-14
.'EFFECTUAL PRAYER
SUBJECT Of SERMON
BY THE EVANGELIST
''Does 1t Pay to Pray?" He
Asks Hearers, and Then
Gives Them Examples of
How 1t Does

"Enectual Prayer" was the subjec;
of Billy Sundays sermon Wednesday
afternoon. The evangelist asked his
hearers. Does it pay to pray?" and
then went about showing them how il
did pay.
The sermon in full. copyrighted by
William Ashley sunday, follows:
James 5:16-"The offectual fervent
prayer of righteous man availeth
much"
Does it pay to pray? Wen find out.
Mrs. Browning asked Charles Kings
icy one time the secret of his beautiful
ard attractive life. He replied by say
ling, Il have a friend"
That man or woman who can look
INTO the face of all people on earth and
say everyone is my friend" and then
look up into the face of God and say
He is not my friend" you are TO be
pitied.
But if you can look into the face of
God and say HE is my friend" every
decent man or woman on this earth is
your friend. So it is a great thing 10
be able to say that the devil has moth
ing to do with you, no use for you.
But God has. He has lots OF use for
you.
There are two benefits derived from
prayer. First upon yourself 1t reflects
4 blessing. Second, in the direct an
swers 10 prayer and the blessings which
come from them.
| Henry Drummond tells of a young
lady the beauty of whose life was an
attraction, and everybody that came in
contact with her was astonished, and
one OF them asked her for the secret
But she refused to reveal it; she con-
stantly replied, Wait until I die and
then open the locket which hangs
around my neck"
And when at last she died they pried
open the locket and found this verse Of
scripture. Whom having not seen, l
love"
| And there is such Transforming power
in meditating on God and prayer that
| il will make your life like a magnet
is TO steel it will draw and you will
be power for Jesus Christ in the
world.
One of the old guard at Waterloo,
when the English surgeons operated on
him. said. You can cut one inch deeper
and you will find the image of my en-
peror engraved upon my heart"
Queen Mary, when entering foolish
war with France, said, when / am
dead. if you will look into my breast
you will find Calais written on my
heart
Now first there is the reflected bless
ling. / am going to speak to you largely
this afternoon from experience. First,
prayer helps us realize the presence OF
God Not that you should realize it all
the time. but think il there is a time
2 a
/ il is when you pray.
Il will be with thee whittier thou
goest and 1 will go unto the land of
your father"
/ read the other day a beautiful legend
of St Bridget. One time she was ap-
preached by blind nun who besought
her to open her eyes. and the legend
said that st. Bridget prayed that her
eyes should be opened, and the eyes Of
the blind nun were opened. and she
looked upon the bubbling springs and
the rushing streams, and the shaded
| groves and the flowers and as the sun
went down, she turned to st. Bridget
and said:
Half the People When
They Pray Don't Mean It
pray God will shut my eyes quick
and keep them closed as long as 1 am
alive for when they were shut l had
TO thought about anybody but God. but
since they have been open, L have
thought of everybody but God and |
have had no thought of God since L
could look upon the beauties of the
world Pray quick that my eyes will
be closed again"
Prayer seems to shut out the world
and the thoughts of the world and
gives God a chance to move through
your heart and mind. So l take for
granted that we want experience of that
kind, and so prayer helps US realize the
presence of God.
{ PRAYER helps US realize our depend
ency upon God. L pity anybody that
thinks he can get along without God
You can't take one breath without God
/ You are in debt to God for the breath
you draw for the food you eat, for
the water you drink. Yet lot of peo-
pie reach out their hands and take
/ these things and all they do is to turn
around and damn God.
! wonder at Gods patience with peo-
pie. You can't even draw a breath
I without the will of Cod Prayer helps
us to realize our dependency upon God.
/ Jesus spent the night in prayer and
the next day three very important
! things in His ministry occurred. The
first. He chose twelve disciples which
/ formed the neucleus of the church of
I today. Whether or not he talked with
/ God about those men and their char
acter / do not know. But the very next
day he asked twelve men to be asso-
ciated with Him as His disciples.
Second. the people pressed upon Him
for the healing virtue that went out
from Him.
Third, He sat on the mountainside
and taught His disciples the sermon
I the Sermon on the Mount" or the
I -'Beautitudes." those matchless things
you find in the NTH, sixth and sew
I enth chapters Of Matthew.
/ All right. you let the church of God
spend a day in prayer and fasting,
spend a night in prayer and see what
will happen for the cause of God AL
mighty upon the hearts of the unsaved
people. You let God have a chance to
work through your hearts and minds
for one day.
/ We have drives on war. We have
drives on the Liberty Loan. Why not
have a drive on winning men for
/ Christ? But you couldn't get the
I church to do il if you wanted to- You
I can get some of them to do it. 1t is
! because everybody gets up and goes to
I talking about a thing that makes it
{ uOnular