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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1881)
HESPERIAN STUDENT. UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. Voi,.X. LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, DECEMBER 1, 1881. No. V. (gfliacclhttw. PRAYER. once try prayer. Ho who has truly be lieved in and enjoyed prayer, never dis. cauls it from pure reason alone. Prayer is the cry from the weak to the strong. Prayer is the result of the struggle be- It strengthens the feeble, makes more steadfast the strong. Is an innate principle in human ity. Y. M. 0. A. THE SOARED PROFESSOR. V frequently happens that when a voting person is asked to embnic lwcen darkness nml light Christianity, they hold buck, for the ieaon that they do not believe prayer to he directly answered. It is a principle in human nature to depend upon some highi'i' power. In times of need and dis tii'is to seek aid outside of themselves. One thing is assuredly true, even though the prajer were never answered, it would sin ngthen the one praying. It could at 1 asi do him no possible harm. The idea ii piajing to God to remove a scourge or plague, such as that of the grasshoppers, ! Irequontly ridiculed. Scoffers ask, "Why does He not answer your prayer? " The relation of humanity to God is the s:mio as that of the child to the father. When the father punishes the child for Minx- misdeed, this is the samo as a m mirge, from God, upon JI Is children. Notwithstanding the protestations and pujers of the child, the father does not remove the punishment until he believes tin- child fully penitent. One of the most remarkable examples on jeeord of faith in prayer and God was of the man in London, at the head of the Orphan's Home. He relied entirely upon tin- goodness of God for feeding his little ones God never forsook them. One rcuion why no more prayers are visibly HiiMcrcd, is either because the demand is not made in the right spirit, or that it is a wi-.li which they do not expect to be ful- filled. This is a point in which too many ministers give cause for such remarks. They make demands of God which no ne expects to be answered. In fact, would bo surprised if they were answered. Kven the scoller, when he listens to for vent, heai (.foil prayer, must acknowledge "a wonderful power over the one praying. In great distress and need a piayer is ever loiuud on lips of scoffer, sinner, all alike. Although hard to pray at first, it soon not only becomes easy, but thu Christian's gi cutest pleasure and solace. Are the prayers of the Christians for the young men unavailing? The Y. M. C. A. is be coming a power in the land. Directly thiough prayer and earnest work is all this being accomplished. Let the scoffer fUEHE is no use of disguising the Tact that the boys who attend our colleges are pretty tough cases on genoral principles. Not that they would commit crimes, or do things that are particularly dishonorable, but they are as full of the old Nick as they can hold. You take the best boy you can find in the public schools, one who has had u religious training, and seems to have a pious turn of mind, and who is so good that all the other boys think he is hooked for heaven, and send him oil' to college, and you want to watch him. The chances are that he will come back witli a knowledge of draw poker that will paralyze an old gambler, and he will bo sure to be leader in all the devil try that is going on. An illustration of this was furnished a short time ago in one of our state colleges devoted to turning out pious young men. The class in elo cution was furnished with a professor from a distant city, who was very thorugh in his methods, but didn't amount to any thing at handling boys. He seemed to look at them appealingly, as much as to bog them not to play any monkey work on him. The boys saw he was afraid of them, and they laid for him. They got into a discussion over the proper way to render a passage from the poem, "Tho Boy Stood on the Burning Deck," when one of the students called the other a liar. The professor hold up his hands In horror, and begged tlnm to bo sealed, when the young man who had been called a liar drew a revolver and shot at the ether btudent, who fell to tho floor an alleged corpse. Tho professor was wild and at this point the lights went out and every student drew a revolver and began firing blank cartridges In tho air. Some were armed with putty balls and eggs, and at each discharge something would strike the professor, and ho thought ho was full of holes. A window was raised, and by the light made by tho exploding cartridges a pair of coat tails and feet could be seen going out, and the professor landed head first on some lilac bushes. They rushed to the window and the poor man, bruised and bleeding, and as scared as it was possible for a man to bo, was running for dear life. The next morning he took tho train for home, with a black eye, and clothes that looked as though something had been scraped off of them, and the faculty of the college will not know what has become of their professor of elocution till they read this. The boys go about their studies as though nothing had happened, bi t the arc trying to think up some new deviltry. Boys will bo boys, and there is no way you can pre. vent it unless you break their backs. Peck's Sun. QUOTATIONS. Josh Billings: Truth is mighty mighty scarce. Pyrus: Wine has drowned more than tho sea. Fred Douglass: One and God make a majority. A fan is indispensable to a woman who can no longer blush. If you would make a good pair of shoes, take for tho sole the tongue of a woman : it never wears out. Sidney Smith: Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It wasn't reas oned into him, and it can not be reasoned out of him. Society is composed of two great classes; those who have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appe tite than dinners. George Eliot: If we had lost our own chief good, other people's good would remain, and that is worth trying for. Some can bo happy. Lowell: Among all animals man is the only one who tries to pass tor more than he is, and so involves himself in tho con demnaiioii of seeming less. Many a man thinks it is principle that keeps him from turning rascal, when It is only a full stomach. Bo grateful, and do not mistake potatoes for principle.