ANSWERING OUR OWN PRAYERS.
By Uriah Smith
Bro. Smith: The article headed, "Answering our own Prayers," on page 83 of No. 11, current Vol. of Review and Herald, contains some pointed admonitions of truth, backed up by illustrations or examples in practice, too clear and definite to be misapprehended. There is, however, an important point in which it is common for christians to pray for blessings which they not only neglect to strive for in practice, but persistently repudiate by that practice, and brother Cuyler has failed to call attention to this point. If I tell you I am a "health reformer," you will comprehend the whole idea alluded to. Is there any calamity, any affliction, any curse under which our race suffers, more universally, more constantly, and more crushingly felt, than the bereavements of untimely death? the prostration, and suffering, and anxiety of severe and lingering disease? Is there anything against which men pray with more fervor and sincerity, than against these calamities? Is there anything they pray for with more agonizing solicitude, than for the restoration to health of some loved parent or child who is just stepping upon the confines of the dark valley? Is there any misfortune that more constantly disappoints all classes, more effectually blasts the life-purposes of the good as well as the bad, more inevitably dooms the children of our generation to all the woes and hazards of orphanage, and the aged to the loss of that support and of those sympathies which are indispensable to the enjoyment, and also to the usefulness, of those who are on life's western slope? And yet, when God's professed children are praying against these dreaded calamities, do they set themselves determinedly to eradicate, to pluck up by the roots those "seed-scattering thistles" of conformity to the customs of the world, to the dictates of badly-trained appetites and propensities? Nay, verily. I have been told by some of these, that they "would rather not live so long, and enjoy life [in gratifying the appetites] while they did live, than to have long life destitute of good living." And I have no doubt many act on the same principle, who are too prudent to give expression to their principles. Also incomparably greater numbers act on the same principle through ignorance—sometimes necessary; but oftener a willing ignorance, that prefers darkness to self-denial. I remember that I was grown up to the stature of manhood before I ever heard it suggested that moral responsibility stood in close relationship to our afflictions from sickness and death; and then I did not believe it. But that inexorable teacher, experience, through the blessing of God has long since convinced me, but at what an expense! I would fain warn my brethren in the love of present truth, to seek this wisdom while they may acquire it from a less expensive teacher. Permit me to illustrate the general idea I wish to enforce. We will suppose that Dr. Hayes returns from his Arctic expedition, and brings with him a small colony of native Esquimaux, who have determined to avail themselves of the blessings of christian society, become christians, and live by agriculture. We watch them with interest. Instead of seeing them take the New Testament and studying the character of Christ, instead of taking the Bible and nobly searching to acquaint themselves with God's will, they assiduously copy from those religionists most honorable in the world's estimate. We weep over their fatal mistake and despair of their christianity. No amount of fervor and sincerity in their prayers could convince us that they were cultivating the Spirit of Christ. In their agricultural essays they were equally inconsistent, following their own crude notions, and wholly neglecting or despising all common sense methods, and reliable instructions. At the end of a year we find them on the verge of starvation, praying indeed, earnestly, for God to avert the horrors of famine; but still deaf to the admonitions of experience, and of those friends who would gladly educate them in a safer system of providence. We commiserate their sufferings, but we have no faith that their prayers will remove the difficulty. The Esquimaux in this supposed case could not be more ignorant of the first principles of Christianity and of agriculture, than a large proportion of professing christians in this country are of the laws of life and126health; nor more inconsistent in despising the most reliable sources of instruction on those most vital topics, than are their proud, white brethren in this enlightened land. Are Seventh-day Adventists an exception? Are none of them included in the filling up of this picture of inconsistency? Would to God such were the facts. What proportion of these (Adventists) have given as much time, thought and money, to provide themselves with a knowledge of those organic laws on which life and efficiency for good depend, as they have to provide the means to gratify unhealthy appetites, and to sustain a demoralizing conformity to popular customs and worldly display? What proportion have compared their dietary provisions and arrangements with the simplicity and economy that Christ approved by his example and his precept, and have sought to cultivate his Spirit by a nearer approach to his practice in these matters? What proportion have determined to incur as much self-denial (to keep under the body) for the incorruptible crown, as worldlings do to obtain a corruptible crown? Conscience may answer. But those who have failed to struggle and fight manfully, earnestly, for this standard of consistency, should beware how they implore the blessing of health for themselves and their loved ones, for God is not mocked [deceived]. If it is God's will that we should obey those organic laws by which he gives us life and health (which few will deny), then the knowledge of those laws, and adherence to them, is of the utmost interest to us. Prevention is better than cure. The man to whom Christ said, "Go and sin no more lest a worse thing come upon thee," might have been saved a whole lifetime of uselessness and suffering, had he been seasonably taught to avoid the sin which Christ cautioned him against. But volumes are needed on this subject, where syllables can scarce gain a hearing, and reasonable limits are already exceeded. Yours in devotion to the truth. E.