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.
