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SONDAV ifWjnllßA W- HENDERSON,,'
SERMON iijULIUUi'l THE: EAMOOS DMN&
Subject: Prayer.
Brooklyn, N. Y.—Preaching at the Irving Square Presbyterian Church,
Hamburg avenue and Weirfield street, the Rev. I. W. Henderson, pastor,
•aid:
We shall take as our theme for the morning, “Prayer.” We shall
take as our text that which is found in the Both Psalm and the 17th
Terse, “Evening and morning and at noon, will I pray.”
The most distinctive spiritual faculty that w 6 have, is the ability to
pray. For prayer is that which brings us into relationship with God, con
sciously. Upon the wings of prayer we mount into the very presence of
the Most High. By the exercise of our capacity for prayer, we are carried
into the sacred place of deity, and abide, without question, within the
•hadow of the Almighty.
For prayer is communion with God. To pray is to talk to God. To
pray is to converse with God. Humanity can conceive of nothing which is
so transcendant and so eternally spiritual, as that which we call prayer.
For prayer lifts a man off the earth and takes him into the presence of
that which is eternal and heavenly. Prayer takes a man out of himself,
into the presence of God. For when a man prays as he ought to pray, he
forgets the land about him and enters into a new atmosphere and sees sueh
visions and experiences such enthusiasms, as in the ordinary run of human
things, lie dormant. Prayer is a confidential unburdening of the soul in
the presence of Almighty God. Prayer is the pouring out to God of our
wants. Prayer is proclaiming to God our thanks. Prayer is acknowledg
ing to our Heavenly Father our indebtedness. Prayer is getting face to
face with the Almighty. It is the utmost necessity of the soul.
No man can he a religious man, certainly no man can be a Christian
man, who does not pray.
Now mind you. I am not speaking of seeing your prayers. I am not
•peaking of formality. ] am not speaking of talking with God by rule
or by rote. Prayer needs no rules. It needs no morning and it needs no
evening. It needs no set of specified regulations. It is not the repetition
of a rigmarole. It is the outpouring of the soul of a needy man and a
thankful man, in the presence of his Father and his God.
So many of us say our prayers. So few of us ever pray. If you would
pray with a will, you can not pray by the clock. You can not pray exactly
at evening, morning and at noon, you can not pray the way other men
think you ought to pray and when. The church can lay down no rule and
regulation for prayer. For "prayer is the heart’s sincere desire, uttered
or unexpressed." And you cannot tell a man in immediate need or under
the pressure of immediate want, when to pray. No man can demand that
a man make prayers, for prayer is something more than that.
Prayer is such a spiritual necessity and faculty that it must have its
awn time and own way, and it must be allowed to follow its own rules.
For prayer is the method of spiritual communion with God. Prayer ex
presses and emphasizes our relationship with the Almighty. No man can
9)0 made a Christian man without it. And the more you are conscious of
it, the more your sense of unity with God is intensified. The more you are
conscious of your nearness to Him, the more you will understand what the
spiritualities are and the less will you Ire able to pray slavishly at 7.30 iu
the morning or at B or at any hour by the clock. For that is saying
prayers. It is all right for children, but God forbid that a grown man or
woman who breathes the air of eternity, should offer prayer by no other
than such a mechanical method as that.
Prayer has value, as well as being a necessity to man. For nowhere
can we get such comfort as we gel in prayer. When a man feels that he is
overburdened with grief, or is being carried away by the temptations of
adversity or of prosperity, when he feels his moorings slipping away from
him and knows that the ground is shifting and sinking underneath him,
and that he has no place on which he may stand with security and safety,
then prayer must comfort him. That man can pray and get comfort and
peace. The darkest shadows of life may be dark about you, but fervent
prayers will bring rejoicing. Prayer brings an eternal peace which the
world can never give: nor can worldly things take it away.
Prayer ought to be instant. The time to pray is when you want to
pray. The time to commune with God is when you need His presence.
The time to offer your thanksgiving is when you are thankful: not or
dinarily thankful, but when God has laid His hand upon you with such
a blessing that you are actually conscious of your indebtedness to Him
There are times when you are in the midst of the busy grind when
you ought to pray just as sincerely, just as fervently, just as confidently
and with just as much wholeheartedness to your God and King, as you
would in the solitude of your own house and within the quiet of your own
room. *
If prayer needs.to be instant, it needs also to be continuous. When a
man feels the powers of tomptationasailinghim.it will not do for him to hold
the prayer over until he gets home at night. The soul must go to God at
«.nce. It is not necessary to talk in order to pray, or to wait and stand up
In a prayer meeting. It is not necessary to get down on your knees to
pray. For a man’s life may be a continuous prayer, as it should be, when
ho sees God and His handiwork in everything, and learns lessons out of
the running brooks, and sermons in stones, and sees the presence of Al
mighty God controlling and thrilling through all the human life which is
round about him.
Prayer should not only be continuous, but also comprehensive. The
one bad feature of the prayer which we teach our children is pronominal.
“Now I lay ME down to sleep. I pray the Lord MY soul to keep; and if I
die before I wake, I pray the Lord MY soul to take!” No wonder we are
•elf-centered when we begin to pray to God w T ith that kind of a prayer
We might better teach our children, "God take care of the world and me.”
For the child would have some inspiration and impulse to imagination.
The child’s mind would be taken away from itself. I am not minimizing
the prayer which the most of us learned at our mothers’ knees, but God
forgive us, it ought to be changed, it needs a few additions, it needs to be
come comprehensive.
Prayer should be fervent. There is nothing more congelative than a
cold prayer. Nothing can so chill ihe soul as a heartless petition. Nothing
Is so repellant as fervor less adoration. For it violates our sense of the
fitness of things. It weights rather than elevates. It contracts rather
than expands. It deadens rather than enlivens. And prayer cannot pos
sess fervor tinless we are spiritually warmed. A man without spiritual
experiences cannot pray with enthusiasm. It is only the man who is con
scious of the depth of his own need, of the everlasting and boundless grace
©f God, of the self-sacrificing affection of Jesus Christ, who has a realiza
tion of the consummate work that God has effected in him or of the need for
a thorough transformation of his life by the impulses of divine truth, who
can pray with intensity and fire. The trouble with much of our public
prayer is that we are self-conscious, we have nothing to pray about, we are
devoid of those essential spiritual experiences that are prerequisite to any
enlarging and enlivening prayer. Many men seem to think that prayer
offers an opportunity to exhort the congregation via the mercy seat. Others
seem to think that it is a valid medium through which counsel and advics
may he given to the Most High God. Prayer is not a sermon. It is not ft
lecture. It is uot, in the limited sense of the term, an address. Prayer is
the heartfelt communion of the soul of the people with Jehovah. It de
pends for power upon careful understanding and investigation of the ex
tensive experiences which flood in upon the souls of men and with which
human life is affluent. The richer the experience the more fervent the
prayer.
Prayer should be faithful. It should believe. Without trust in God
it is a mere mechanical operation. We must believe that it reaches, that
it is heard, that it is something more than a reflex action. And it is. As
it is the holiest and most spiritual of human faculties, it is also, under
proper and definite conditions, the surest. The prayer of a good man
availeth. The sincere prayer of a penitent and contrite heart is heard.
The cry of the afflicted has a ready access to the heart of God. He that
keepeth guard over us neither slumbers nor sleeps.
Such prayer should be the practice of the church. For a prayerless
church is a church disabled and discredited. It is no fiction that the
prayer meeting is the spiritual thermometer of the church. When the
church has prayed with fervency and trust the church has prevailed.
When she has communed with Jehovah with earnestness and fidelity she
has had power with men. The trouble with us is that we lack the spirit
of prayer. Judging from the average prayer meeting the people have
little for which they are thankful, little need of the sustaining of God.
little praise to offer, small request to make. The art of prayer is not a
conspicuous characteristic of the church of our times. W e are weak in
this department. Therefore we are limited in our operations and in our
influence.
Wlien the church begins to have a consciousness of her responsibility
2nd obligation to the world for which Jesus lived and died, when she has
a clear conception of her eternal indebtedness to the gracious God who
hath called her into being and who hath preserved her till this day, when
she hears the penetrating voice of the Lord who sitteth between the
cherubim erving to her soul, "Who shall 1 send and who will go for us,”
then the church will learn to pray. Wherever there is a congregation that
has experienced these things there will you find a praying people, a people
of power with men and with God. For when Christians possess the knowl
edge of these things then they feel the need for divine guidance. Then they
commune with God. Then they pray.
The future of the church rests upon her capacity and power to pray.
We cannot too much emphasize the need of a proper mystical and spiritual
union between the Lord and His people. The danger is that Jn the midst
of and under the compulsions of the engrossing cares of the modern world
we shall deal little or lightly with these spiritual and mystical realities
that are meat and drink and life eternal to the church of the living God.
It is necessary that we shall have a clear conception of the reality as of the
value of the prayer life. For prayer will panoply the church with power.
Tt will make her perdurable. It will inspire and enthuse her. It will make
her mighty against principalities and powers and against the machinations
of wicked men. It will make her steadfast In the hot fight against the
iniquities of life and loyal in the service of the Christ her King.
The urayer of the church should be, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
TAX COLLECTOR'S NOTICE.
I will be at the different precincts on the days mentioned for the
purpose of collecting the State and County Taxes for the year 1907.
OCT. NOV. DEC.
Hampton 2 4 and 22 13
Sixth 3 6 “ 25
Flippen 4 7 “ 26
Stockbridge 7 8 “ 27 16
Shake Rag 8 11 “ 28
Brushy Knob 9 12 “ 29
Loves 10 13 2
McMullins 10 14 4
Beersheeba 14 15 5
Sandy Ridge 15 .....18 9
Tussaliaw 16 19 10
Locust Grove 17 20 11 and 17
Lowes 18 21 12
Snapping Shoals IO o’clock A. M 6
Island Shoals 1 o’clock P. M.- ..--% 6
Woodstown 2 “ P. M 6-
... >
FO UR T H f ROUND.
Hampton Friday December 13
Stockbridge Monday ‘ ‘ 16
Locust Grove Tuesday 17
McDonough, Court Week, First Tuesdays and Satur
da}s until books are closed, Dec. 20th.
SEAB HARKNESS, T. C.
Henry Co., Ga,
VERY LOW RATES
TO %
NORFOLK, VA., AND RETURN
Account Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition
. VIA
Southern Railway
Season, 60 day and 15 day tickets on sale daily commen
cing April 19th, to and including November 30th, 1907.
Stop Overs will be allowed on Season, Sixty-day and
fifteen-day tickets, same as on Summer Tourist Tickets.
For full and complete information call on Ticket Agents Southern
Railway, or write :
For rates, routes and schedulesor any infor
mation, address,
G. R. PETIT, Trav. Pass. Agent
Macon. Ga.
JOHN B. WATKINSr
VETERNARY SURGEON,
Office at flack Goodwin’s stables below county jail.
Olhce hours: 1.30 to 2.30 p. m., Friday, Saturday and
Sunday. All calls promptly attended to. Office Phone 44;
Residence Phone 131, Jackson, Ga.
1 FIRST AND LAST Jj|
f SHOD HUNI SB® V
r Mean $ $ made to all who 1
buy or wear them. In style,!
ease and durability, “Shield Brand Shoes”]
toe the mark of perfection.
SOLD B\ R&I.IABLE MERCHANTS ONLY i
M. C. KiSER CO., Manufacturers. J
ATLANTA, CA.
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
INTERNATIONAL . LESSON COM
MENTS FOR NOV. 3 BY THE
REV. I. W. HENDERSON.
Subject: The Cities of Refuge, Joshua
20:1-9—Golden Text, Ps. <12:7
—Memory Verses, 2, 3 Com
mentary on the Day's Lesson.
The cities of refuge illustrate and
enforce upon our minds the sanctity
of human life. That is their largest
open meaning. By analogy there
may be found in them a type of the
safety that is to be found in the
Lord Jesus Christ for the soul of the
sinner. The first lesson is quite ob
vious. The second is so only as we
are cognizant of the part that Jesus
plays in the life of the man whose
soul is released from the bondage of
sin unto death and vitalized by that
Spirit to possess whom is eternal life.
The lesson illustrates the value
and the importance of human life.
It shows us that innocent blood
should not be spilt, that even a mur
derer is entitled to other considera
tion than that given him by a blood
avenger. It emphasizes the truth
that even the life of a murderer is
precious in the eyes of God.
There was need of the cities of
refuge in the days of which the les
son treats. The blood-avenger, the
nearest of kin to a slain man, went
hot on the trail of any man who,
however unwittingly, had taken the
life of his relative. A man who had
been unfortunate enough to become
embroiled in an unpremeditated at
tack upon another and had done him
fatal injury could always count upon
the immediate revenge of the blood
avenger. Vengeance was the first
thing which he might expect. Avenge
and then investigate. But avenge
first.
The cities of refuge afforded a
proper and necessary opportunity to
escape ill-advised vengeance. They
gave a man who was not really bad
at heart a chance for his life. They
impressed upon the mind of the mur
derer that he had taken life and
thereby had forfeited to some extent
his full rights in society. They im
pressed upon the murderer the im
portance of his own life to society.
They made the blood-avenger to un
derstand that even a murderer has
rights.
We are enlarging the rights of men
in our time. We no longer have the
blood-avenger except in isolated in
stances. We are denying to individ
uals the right to execute the laws
that properly belongs to the province
of society as a whole. We are insist
ent that a man shall have a trial for
his life whether he be guilty or not.
And we are gradually beginning to
question the good sense of taking the
life of any man as an act of social
vengeance. Some day we shall un
derstand that national vengeance is
as senseless, in the last analysis, as
private vengeance. And war will
cease.
The lesson also affords us an ana
logy of the refuge we may find in our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is
to Him that we may flee for comfort
and for a chance to live nobler itnd
more beautiful lives when we have
fallen into sin. Of course we know
that we do not have to flee to Him to
escape the unholy wrath of- a capri
cious God. For God is not anxious
to engage in the role of a blood aven
ger. But sin when w r e have fallen
into its dominion will utterly con
found and destroy us if it have its
way. The escape from that death is
to be found in Jesus Christ. He is
our city of refuge. God’s providence
gives us the benefit of every doubt
and counsels us to flee to Him.
Within Him we may find safety and
security.
Even as the cities of refuge were
conveniently situated so that the
manslayer might easily find them, so
Jesus is within easy reach of every
soul who needs the consolation of
abiding within Him. He is not far
off from every one of us. Any man,
regardless of his previous condition
of servitude to sin, may enter into
Him and find in Him salvation. Like
wise even as the murderer had to
stay in the city of refuge in order to
receive the benefits of the deliverance
that the city offered, so must we abide
in Christ. To go out of His dominion
is to re-enter the dominion of sin.
Likewise as the manslayer was cer
tain of the reality of his deliverance
and his safety while he was in the
city so should we be sure of our safe
ty while we are in Christ. To doubt
Him is ungracious. It is treasonable.
To have fears while under His pro
tection is to doubt the goodness and
the word of God.
Every man needs Christ as his ref
uge. The greatest consciousness that
man possesses next to his conscious
ness of his divine lineage is the con
sciousness of his sin. If sin had its
way we should be annihilated. It
could not be otherwise. Whatsoever
a man soweth that shall he also reap.
That is law. It is justice. It is the
law of God. The fruit of sin is death.
And the ultimate way for a man to
secure release from the dominion of
the death that is the result of sin is
to flee to Christ and to abide within
Him.
For when a man is in Christ Jesus
he is a saved man. There can be no
question about it. The fact is abso
lute. It is the will of God. There is
no experience so satisfying as the ex
perience of abiding within Christ.
And Christ not only affords us ref
uge. He also ministers comfort and
grants us the peace that is he&venly.
He is not only a guard hut a guide.
He is not only a refuge, He is a rock.
_
Spy Out Your Heart.
Take the candle of God s word and
search the corners of your heart.
John Mason.
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