Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 106, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1904 — A Curious Prayer. [ARTICLE]

A Curious Prayer.

In the State of Ohio there resided \a family consisting of an old man by the name of Bearer and his three sons, all of whom were hard "pets, ’ who had often laughed to scorn the advice and/'entreaties of a pious though very eccentric minister who resided in the same tSwn. It happened one of the boys was bitten by a rattlesnake and was expected to die, when the minister was sent for in great haste. On his arlval he found the young man very penitent and anxious to be prayed with. The minister, calling on the family, kneeled down and prayed in this wise: “Oh, Lord, we thank thee for rattlesnakes; we thank thee because a rattlesnake has bitten Jim. We pray thee send a rattlesnake to bite John; send one to bite Bill; and, oh, Lord, send the biggest kind of a rattlesnake to bite the old man, for nothing but rattlesnakes will ever bring the Beaver family to repentance!’’