BV 205 .B377 1922 Bartholomew, E. F. The Psychology of prayer JAN 6 1545 ^ The Psychology of Prayer. A Study in the Philosophy of Religious-Experience. By E. F. Bartholomew, Ph. d., d. d.. l.h. d. Professor of English Literature and Philosophy in Augustana College, Rock Island, III. The Lutheran Literary Board Burlington, Iowa 1922 COPYRIGHT 1923 BY R. Neumann BURLINGTON. lA THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER Perhaps the most remarkable thing in human experience, and at the same time the most common, is the fact that men pray — not only some men, but all men. In some form or other, under certain circumstances all men pray — Jews, ^Mohammedans, Buddhists, Christians, Pagans, Athe- ists, Infidels, Agnostics, Heathens, all alike pray. Prayer is not a mat- ter of accident, or temperament, or sentiment, or habit; it is absolutely universal, co-extensive with the race of mankind. As far back as we have any knowledge men have had re- ligion, and in every form of religion praj^er is one of the most conspicu- ous facts. Some of the oldest prayers which have come down to us from the old Aryan world have been preserved and may be studied. As far back as ancient history goes men have worshipped the sun-god, and the worshipper has offered prayers for light and guidance. Even among savages prayer is found. Some of these prayers of barbarians have been written down, so that we may examine and study them. Tylor in his "Anthropology" mentions the following: "Among the Zulus, the sacrificer says, 'There is your bul- lock, ye spirits of our people. I pray for a healthy body that I may live comfortably and do thou treat me with mercj^' " Another is a prayer of the Khouds, when offer- ing a human sacrifice to the earth- goddess. The sacrificer says, "By our cattle, our flocks, our pigs, and our grain we procured a victim and oifered a sacrifice. Do you now en- rich us. Let our herds be so numer- ous that they cannot be housed; let children so abound that the care of them shall be too much for the par- ents; let our heads ever strike against brass pots innumerable hang- ing from our roofs; let all the kites in the country be seen in the trees of our village, from beasts being killed there every day. We are ig- norant of what it is good to ask for. You know what is good for us. Give it to us." These specimens of bar- baric prayer are illuminating and in- teresting for study, because they show the conception these savages have of the connection between sac- rifices and prayer, and because they rev^eal a certain mental attitude on the part of the worshipper. In the higher forms of religion these gross sacrificial rites assume a more spiritual character, and the act passes into the giving up of some- thing which is dear to the worship- per, and is a sign of the adoration acceptable to the god whom he wor- sliips. This is a significant step in the evolution of the prayer idea as an expression of the worshipper's mental or spiritual attitude, and has great value in the explanation of the psychology of prayer. We may ask, why should a human being, however ignorant he may be, prostrate him- self before a stake in the ground, or a pile of stones, or an image carved out of wood, and even talk to these objects, and ask a blessing of them? When the African or the South Sea Islander assures us that he believes this stock or pile of stones or carved image is for the time being an em- bodiment of a divine spirit, we see a new meaning of his act and realize that it is worthy of serious study. Wherever there is human life, there is religion, and wherever there is religion there is prayer. As a writer has said, "Everywhere, whether among the dark Papuan, or the yellow Malay, or the brown Polynesian, or the red North Amer- ican Indian, or the white Caucasian races of mankind, even among the lowest of the low in the scale of hu- manity, there are, if we will but listen, whisperings about divine be- ings, imaginings of a futiu-e life; there are prayers and sacrifices which, even in their most de- graded and degrading form, still bear witness to that old and inerad- icable faith that everj^where there is a God to hear our prayers, if we will but call on Him, and to accept our offerings, if they are offered as a ransom for sin or as a token of a grateful heart." But when we ask, Whi/ do men pray? the answer is not immediately apparent. That, in fact, is an exceedingly difficult question to an- swer. It is one of the deepest prob- lems we can ever undertake to solve. And j^et we feel assured that a fact so universal, so fundamental in hu- man experience as praj^er must have some rational ground of explana- tion in the nature of the human soul. Such a question cannot be decided by matters of historical statement, or by mere authority; it requires the most searching analysis and the best light of science and philosophy. In the investigation of a subject like this we gladly welcome every item of information or suggestion that can come from any possible source. Can the science of psychology throw any light upon the phenomena of prayer? Is there such a thing, among the realities of scientific knowledge, as a psycholog}'^ of prayer? After examining our sub- ject in the best light we have, we must say that prayer, in its deepest ground, is a psychological problem, and can be explained, as far as any explanation is possible, on psycho- logical principles. There are so many different aspects of prayer and so many dif- ferent elements entering into it, that we cannot hope to arrive at any sat- isfactory results without resorting to methods of analysis and induction. The scientific method of dealing with the subject of prayer is to begin with the common facts of observation and experience, and work along the line of these facts as far as they will lead us. And when we arrive, in this way, at a point where empirical facts can no longer guide us, we must resort to the processes of ra- tional thought in following the sub- ject into the domain of the unseen and the unknown. Whether we re- gard prayer as a specific state of consciousness, as a form of focalized attention, as an emotion, as a mode of the will, as a native instinct, as a 10 particular activity of the spiritual ego, as the soul's orientation to its divine origin and destiny, as an un- conscious recognition », of human weakness and dependence, or as an auricular expression of the soul's sub-conscious life — in whatever way we choose to regard it, prayer is pri- marily a psychological fact that we have to deal with. In the very start we may ask, What is prayer? The Bible gives many examples of prayer, but no- where do we find any theoretical explanation of the mystery which attaches to prayer, nor does it give any definition of what prayer is or consists in. As the Bible nowhere gives any argument for the exist- ence of God but simply assumes such existence as the foundation of everything else, so it gives no defini- tion, no argument in regard to prayer but assumes it as a universal fact of human experience. The 11 Master taught His diciples His own beautiful prayer without telling them what prayer is, neither was it neces- sary that He should. In the writings of the theologians and the moralists, of poets and wise men there is found a bewildering number of definitions and statements about prayer, but none of them can be accepted as scientifically accurate or exhaustive. Many of them are simply rhetorical forms of expression, and have little value as material for study. For ex- ample, we hear it said that praj^er is the finite communicating with the Infinite; or prayer is the cry of the soul to its unseen Creator; or Baily's familiar expression, "Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth;" or Henry Vaughan's saying, "Prayer is the world in tune," and so on in- definitely. These utterances may all be true, but as definitions they have no value, they do not define. 12 We may gather i some information concerning the nature of prayer from a variety of phrases and words used in the Bible. Prayer is called an 'asking' (John 15:16); a 'seek- ing' and 'knocking' (Matt. i7:7); a 'hfting up of the soul,' and a 'pour- ing out of the heart' (Psa. 25: 1:62:8); a 'looking up to' and a 'talking with God' (Job. 15:4; Psa. 5:3) ; a 'wrestling with God' (Rom. 15:30) ; a 'taking hold of God' (Isa. 64:7); 'meditation' (Psa. 5:1); 'in- quiring' (Gen. 25:22) ; 'crying unto God' (Sam. 7:8) ; 'sighing,' 'mourn- ing,' 'groaning,' 'weeping' (Psa. 6:6; 12:5; 55:2; Joel 2:17) ; 'breath- ing' (Lam. 3:56); 'supplication,' 'entreaty' (Ex. 8:8; Zech. 12:10), etc. All these expressions are rich as material for psychological study, and show that prayer is an attitude of soul. The analysis of an act of prayer 13 reveals the following elements, which may be divided into primary and secondary. The primarj^ are those which are found in all prayers, while the secondary are present in some and not in others. Among the primary elements we may name, (1) a feeling -of need; (2) a sense of dependence on a higher power; (3) faith in the existence and good- ness of God; (4) a desire for some particular blessing; (5) hope or ex- pectation of receiving good; (6) an attitude of supplication. The sec- ondary elements include such as, ( 1 ) a sense of sinfulness; (2) idea of the divine wrath; (3) feeling of rev- erence; (4) obedience to the will of God— "Thy will be done;" (5) con- trition of heart; (6) confession of sins, etc. The last group of ele- ments is found in all Christian prayer, but not in the prayers of the heathen man, hence the distinction we make in the two groups. This analysis is not claimed to be exhaus- 14 tive or final, but it will serve to bring to our notice certain states of con- sciousness which are fundamental in prayer. There is doubtless a psy- chological sequence in these states, though we cannot always determine this with accuracy, neither is there an unalterable sequence in all cases, but it varies with changing condi- tions. The feeling of need, it seems, lies very deep in the consciousness of the one who truly prays, and per- haps to it we may ascribe the pri- macy. By need we mean here not simply or chiefly the sense of priva- tion of some material thing such as food or raiment or bodily health, but more particularly the sense of the soul's personal relation to the Author of all good. Our deepest need is to be in a right relation to God. The hymn "I need Thee every hour" ex- presses the idea we wish to convey, and the stress is on 'Thee.' The soul's deepest need is God. Out of this feeling of need grows the sense 15 of dependence on a higher being. Tliis feeling has something of abso- luteness connected with it. How- ever much a mortal being may mag- nify his independence and his self- sufficiencj'', in his inmost soul he knows that he is absolutely depend- ent on God not only for his exist- ence, his life, but also for ever}i;hing that can make life agreeable and successful. In the case of the heathen man this feeling of depend- ence is no less distinct and absolute than in the enlightened Christian. He who prays, believes that there is a God who can hear and answer prayer, or else he would not pray. He believes, moreover, that God, though unseen, is interested in his welfare and is good to give him such things as he needs and desires. The agnostic's doctrine certainly is in opposition to the deepest instincts of the human soul. In the specimen prayer of the Khoud, quoted above, he says to his god, "We are ignorant 16 of what is good to ask for. You know what is good for us. Give it to us." This implies that he believes in a prayer-hearing and prayer- answering God and that this God is good and will give him such things as are good for him. The heathen man believes that there are spirits who hear his prayers. Herbert Spencer's explanation that the heathen man acquires this belief from fear of a dead ancestor, does not go deep enough. Belief in a prayer-hearing God or divine spirit is one of the soul's instincts and cannot be accounted for on any theory of custom. As a distinct state of consciousness, we can analyze out of every prayer the element of desire for some particular thing which we believe to be good for us. Desire is an antecedent state of mind which lies back of all petitions, and condi- tions both the will and the form of utterance in the prayer we offer; if we desired nothing we would not 17 pray. There is also implied the hope and the expectation of receiving what we ask for. Hope and expec- tation are inseparably connected with prayer. The sixth and last pri- mary element is an attitude of sup- plication, literally a bowing, or a bending of the knee before God. Prayer is not primarily a petition ; in its deepest nature it is something much more than petition. There is an attitude of soul which lies far back of petition. The essential thing in prayer is a certain attitude of the soul in which it realizes its relation to the Divine Spirit. ^Irs. Brown- ing once said that in the deepest agony the soul's only prayer is "O God!" because we want God Him- self rather than anything He can do for us or give us. The principle in- volved in this utterance some one has illustrated thus: If a child is far away from home and has fallen ill or is otherwise in distress, his deep- 18 est longing is for mother herself rather than anything she might do for him — just her simple presence will satisfy the child's longing and in that every other blessing is com- prehended. So if we eliminate every secondary and accidental considera- tion, and view prayer in its essential nature, we may say that it is the soul's longing for a consciousness of the Divine Presence. The deepest of all prayers is "Thy will be done!" and the; really essential thing in that prayer is a particular attitude of soul. That is what the Savior prayed in Gethsemane. All other things fade from His consciousness. "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt" — "not my will, but thine be done!" Here, as one has observed, is no objective petition for any temporal good; all is subjective, all has to do with His attitude of soul. When His con- sciousness of His relation to the 19 Father was in any way disturbed or beclouded, it caused Him unspeak- able agony. It was this that wrung from His heart those awful words on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" In prayer the soul seeks to relate its conscious- ness to the eternal consciousness. Human aspiration can go no far- ther. As Carlyle has said, "Prayer is the aspiration of our poor, strug- gling, heavj^-laden soul towards its eternal Father." The human spirit has a vague, yet unerring consciousness of its kinship with the Divine Spirit. In its vari- ous experiences it realizes the bibli- cal truth that God made man in His own image and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Because of this kinship the soul's longing for communion with the Divine is quite natural to it. "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. My ^.. 20 soul thirsteth for God, for the living God." This inspired utterance of the psalmist is the best possible an- swer that can be given to the ques- tion why man prays. The mystery of prayer finds its best explanation in the psychology of the sub-con- scious self. If we could read clearly what goes on in the great deep of the sub-conscious soul we should un- derstand why the human soul pants after the living God and why prayer is the truest expression of the soul's innermost experience. Our true per- sonal life is vastly wider, deeper, larger than we know; our conscious life is only a very small part of our true life which, in Bible phrase, is eternal life. The luminous peak of our consciousness rises out of a deeper sub-realm of life, which, though below the threshold, plays a momentous part in our experience. There are mental phenomena beyond our conscious horizon as within this horizon, and we may say that with- 21 out the beyond we should not have the within. There are blank regions of consciousness just as there are blank si)aces in sense experience of which none of the senses can give us any information. Of these blank regions of consciousness we have faint intimations, but not clear knowledge; at best they appear only in the fringe of consciousness No man in mortal body has ever seen to the bottom of his psychic being nor explored its mystic contents. As we cannot see to the depths of the great ocean, so we cannot see clearly the wonderful things, contained in the abysmal depths of our spiritual be- ing. At some moments most favor- able for introspection, when the sur- face is unruffled and the powers of thought are at their best, we may peer into the sliadowy depths, but we are not able clearly to distinguish the wonders that lie below the sur- face; we can see mirrored only faint images of our Divine prototype. 22 Truly we know not what manner of beings we are, and from this we can understand what St. John meant when he said "It doth not yet ap- pear what we shall be." How does God come into the con- scious soul, and how does the soul commune with God in prayer? The answer is, by way of the sub-con- scious, where the human touches upon the Divine and goes out into the Divine. Through the sub- conscious soul the Infinite finds an inlet into the finite, and the finite re- lates itself to the Infinite as an estu- ary or, tidal river relates itself to the great ocean beyond. What does the Apostle mean when, in his great speech at the Areopagus, he says, "Though he be not far from every one of ^us ; for in him we live and move and have our being"? This is the utterance of a mystic philoso- pher who, in a rare moment of inspi- 23 ration and insight, has caught a glimpse of the myster}^ of incarnate being and of the relation of finite souls to their infinite First Cause. It does not seem ,probable that this wonderful language is meant to be merely metaphorical; it is no figure of speech, no mere comparison, no allegorical picture of the intimate re- lation of the believing soul to its glorious Creator. We must take his language to be a strictly literal state- ment of fact, setting forth a sublime truth of psychology far deeper than the average thinker suspects. What the Apostle here intimates is, that in the great deep of our incarnate be- ing we touch bottom on the Infinite and discover our essential oneness with the Deity. Downward through our sub-conscious being we go out, as it were, into the Abyss of infinite and eternal being in so realistic a way that we may be said to "live and move and have our being in Him." 24 In the last analysis of personality we discover the fact that God and man are inherently bound up to- gether in a mystic union which no finite mind can fidly comprehend. Perhaps tliis is the thought that Wordsworth had in mind when he wrote : "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The Soul that rises with us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And Cometh from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God who is our home." There is a hidden glory in man which is the image of his glorious Creator, and this in moments of ecstasy may shine forth in a kind of transfiguration like that of our Lord. If we probe deep enough into self we come upon the Divine in every personality. By some deeper prin- ciple of perception than that which gives us our sense-world we discover that our lives are hidden in God and 26 that "in Him we live and move and have our being." Our souls are but inlets vv^hich open on the infinite sea whose shoreless tides we feel beating in ujjon us. In each one of us there is a vast range of latent faculty whose possibilities we but poorly realize. If we could draw upon these hidden resources we might do M'onders. Our higher soul-powers are already in touch with the spirit- ual world. In the submerged life of the soul is found the explanation of the mystery of prayer. Prayer is the normal life of the sub-conscious soul ; it is the normal mode by which the mighty sub-conscious activities express themselves in our conscious life. The foregoing remarks have led up to the idea which is central in this discussion, namely, that prayer is a particular attitude of soul. It does not consist in any form of words; 26 there may be prayer without spoken words and, on the other hand, not all spoken words are true prayer. This is illustrated in the prayer of the Phar- isee who "stood and prayed thus with himself — God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are, extortion- ers, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican", etc. The publican, on the other hand, "standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner." — Note his mental attitude. — I tell you this man went down to his home justified rather than the other." Why was not the Pharisee justified? Why was not his prayer heard? It was a form of words and not true prayer. His mental attitude was not right. He could not be blessed in his act, because his men- tal attitude was not such as could make an answer to his prayer possi- ble. Prayer denotes an asking atti- tude. "Ask and ye shall receive". 27 Asking implies an open, receptive state of mind, a state in which the ego puts itself in such relation to God that it reaches out its hand, so to speak, to the Giver of all good, earn- estly desiring, expecting, imploring the benefits craved, an attitude of spiritual communion with the source of all good, the finite face to face with the Infinite. We get further light on our sub- ject by considering when men pray. ]Most men pray only when the}" are in distress of body, mind, or estate; when things go against them, when the sky is dark, when the soul is sorely tried, when perplexity and doubt, adversity and tribulations, calamities and afflictions, sickness, misfortune, bereavement and death, come upon them, then the soul turns to God in prayer. In times of pros- perity, when all things go well with us, when the sun shines, when nature and providence smile upon us and 28 we are happy, then we forget to pray ; having all things, there is noth- ing to ask for. All this means that prayer arises from a particular men- tal attitude, in which the soul's thoughts and emotions and volitions, its powers and its susceptibilities, are concentrated upon one object which occupies the focus of consciousness. This idea is further suj^ported by the fact that our Savior not only taught his disciples to pray, but He himself prayed. Why did He pray? Was He, who had all things at his command, in need of anything? We cannot think that His prayers were ordinary petitions for some material blessing in the human sense of pe- titions. We are told that He often retired to the mountain solitudes for communion with His Heavenly Father. If we examine particular ones of His prayers, such, for ex- ample, as the sacerdotal prayer re- corded by St. John, or His praj^er in Gethsemane, or His prayer on the 29 cross, we conclude that they were not prayers prompted by need in the hu- man sense. They were prayers of mental attitude ; they denote how He felt His spiritual relation to His Father; they show in outward form the inner experience of His soul. In His agony in the garden the burden of Plis thought was "Not my will, but Thine be done — " the attitude of His will to the Father's will. In the high priestly prayer, "That they may be one, even as we are one" — the attitude of spiritual harmony and unity. On the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" — In all of these we cannot fail to see reflected His inward state of mind. Everj'where the idea upper- most in His prayers was that He might be in the right attitude toward His Heavenly Father. So like- wise the deepest thing in human prayer is the longing of the soul for an attitude of harmony with the Divine will, that it may be one with Him and in tune with spiritual things. The soul realizes that com- munion with God is essential for development of spiritual life; hence where such a yearning exists, there prayer is the normal mode of soul- life. The soul prays that the sense of its relation to God and the spirit- ual world may be kept alive. Men pray because they cannot help pray- ing, and they will continue to pray as long as their psychic nature re- mains the same as it is now. In prayer men seek instinctively to realize their ideal spiritual selfhood, a self that in some degree shall be worthy of the Absolute Being whose image they bear. Prayer being essentially a mental attitude, how can we account for the language of prayer, the particular postures of the body, and the various muscular movements connected with prayer? Prayer as a form of speech falls into the list of muscular reac- 81 lions. In its simplest form the pro- cess may be thought of in terms of nervous energy overflowing into vari- ous motor centers and thus produc- ing tlie muscular movements implied in speech and other movements of the body. It is a well known fact of psycholog}^ that every idea and emo- tion, however remote and obscure it may be, tends to express itself in some form of movement, even though .we are not conscious of such movement. This motor character of ideas renders our muscular sys- tem a faithful mirror of our secret thoughts. There is employed in the psychological laboratory a delicate piece of (.apparatus which makes visi- ble and measures these slight move- ments with wonderful accuracy. It consists of a recording device which is fastened to the top of a person's head, so, that his slightest movements will be recorded. Then we ask him, while standing perfectly still, to think of some object at his right side. 32 After several moments the record- ing instrmnent shows that he invol- untarily leans in the direction of the object about which he is thinking. The same principle is illustrated in the fact that when people read they unconsciously accompany the read- ing with movements of the muscles of the throat, the tongue and the lips. Every subjective mental state seeks its appropriate mode of expression in some muscular movement. So the particular thought or emotion which occupies the mind at any moment in an act of prayer or devotion tends to set certain muscles into action. These resulting muscular reactions account for the form of speech, or the posture of the body such as kneeling, standing, prostration, etc., or particular gestures with the hands, or the facial expression, which accom- pany prayer. From the psychologi- cal viewpoint prayer is thus a mode of expression in which an outgoing nerv^e cm-rent from an inward idea- 33 tional center pours itself into motor activity of some sort or other. In the case of the Pharisee's prayer, his haughty bearing, his boastful words, his scornful glance at the poor pub- lican were only the outward expres- sion of his mental attitude, and this explains why he did not go down to his home justified. We come novr to the most diffi- cult part of our subject, namety, The E/ficac/j of Prayer Several questions are here in- volved. , Are prayers really an- swered? How are they ansvvered? Does it do any good to pray? How is it possible for God who is immut- able in nature to answer prayer? Is the answering of prayer congnious with the established order of nature? As a reply to the first of these ques- tions we have the testimony of ex- perience. 34 As Tennyson says: "More things are wrought b}'- prayer Than this .world dreams of." The argument of experience is unanswerable. There are tens of thousands of men who will testify without qualification that their prayers have been answered. This faith is so deeply rooted in the hu- man heart that it would be impossi- ble to eradicate it. Then, too, since prayer is and remains always a na- tive and the deepest impulse of the human soul, absolutely universal, it seems altogether unreasonable to suppose that this impulse is nothing but a delusion. Yet the agnostic voluntarily commits himself to the doctrine that there is no reality in prayer, and that even if God could hear the prayers of His people and would wish to answer them, it is not possible for Him to do so. We may ignore the cold and fatalistic philos- ophy of agnosticism as contradic- 36 tory to human experience, and turn our attention to the constructive side of our subject. How is the hearing and answering of prayer to be reconciled with the changeless nature of God? St. James tells us that "Every good and perfect gift is from above, and Com- eth down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." If the nature of the Divine Being is thus un- changeable, "without variableness or shadow of turning", and if His pur- poses move on eternally to their ac- complishment like the heavenly - bodies in their orbits, like the univer- sal order of nature, how can these purposes be modified, or the events of history and the course of human life be affected in the least degree by prayer? The sceptic argues that to answer prayer would necessarily imply inconsistency or fickleness in God who has already established the 36 course of nature: that the course of nature being fixed and uniform, no means are open for answering sup- plications of any sort. In dealing with this objection we must consider it from the standpoint of theism, be- cause on the pantheistic or atheistic or materialistic or agnostic assump- tion there is no room whatsoever for any discussion of the possibility of answering prayer. Theism assumes that God is a Person, capable of en- tering into communion with men, of hearing and answering their pray- ers, that He is mercifully disposed towards His creatures, that He is immediately concerned in them, and is actively engaged in making pro- vision for their needs. The difficulties that disturb the Christian believer are largely of his own making; they come from mis- conception of the .character of God and of the order of the world. The prevailing idea of prayer has been, 37 in a large degree, derived from hu- man analogies which are often mis- leading. To represent God as moved by prayer does not necessarily im- ply that He is mutable in character; we infer such mutability on a false analog\\ It does not follow, be- cause there is an appointed order of things, that there is no place left for the hearing and answering of prayer. There are channels open between God and the human soul through which the Divine power may operate to bring about changes in the phys- ical order without impairing or in any way interfering with that order. We know that mind can communicate with mind, that spirit can influence spirit, that agencies can operate to change an individual's will so as to modify his whole course of life with- out in the least interfering with the integrity and freedom of his person- ality. There is no better established truth in psychology than this. And so, assuming that God is a Person 38 with the same kind of psychic nature as that of man, the Divine Spirit can communicate with the human spirit, can influence the human mind and will, can impart light, guidance, courage, faith, hope, love, strength to resist temptation, comfort in dis- tress, and in any other way minister to human necessities by operating through the ordinary laws of mind. This does not involve any contradic- tion of the Divine attributes. The Christian believer, no less that the confirmed scientist, posits the existence of laws of nature and a natural order of things in the world. He believes that order is Heaven's first law; his world is a world of order, a cosmos and not a chaos; he holds that all the opera- tions of nature, the events of history, the whole course of human life, pro- ceed under the reign of law. Now, are such laws to be considered a bar- rier in the way of answering prayer? 39 We believe that the efficacy of prayer is grounded in conformity to the laws of nature and the universal order of things. Browning is right when he says, "All is love, yet all is law." This is a very great utterance that states a profound truth "vvith wonderful accuracy and conciseness. In the kingdom of grace, as in the kingdom of nature, not anarchy but law reigns. Prayer is answered ac- cording to law; like the working of miracles, the answering of prayer proceeds under the law of cause and effect, even though we are not able in all cases to, trace clearly the mode of operating. If God can work miracles under the reign of law, so also can He answer prayer without violating or suspending the estab- lished laws of the universe. A mira- cle is not a causeless effect ; there are no effects or phenomena in the world without causes. A causeless effect is unthinkable. When any kind of effect either in the physical 40 or spiritual world is produced, it means that such an effect comes from a definite cause. It is a serious error to conceive of a miracle as an effect without a cause, or as a viola- tion or suspension of the laws of nature. We may assume that when our Savior worked miracles He did not set aside or suspend or in any v/ay whatsoever interfere with the existing laws of causation. To Him who knew perfectly the hidden forces and principles and elements contained in the innermost constitu- tion of nature, the v/onderful works He performed vv^ere not miracles as we conceive of them; they are miraculous only to finite men who do not know the innermost nature of things. Miracles are such only to finite minds. To the Master the turning of water into wine, the still- ing of the tempest, the healing of the sick, the opening of the blind eyes and deaf ears, the raising of the dead were not miracles in the sense 41 that they were causeless effects; they were natural effects in the hands of Him who knew the inner- most constitution of things and who could guide the powers of nature according to His will. So if we could understand perfectly ever>^- thing that is contained in the order of nature all difficulties in the way of answering prayer would vanish, and we would plainly see that though 'all is love,' yet 'all is law.' What is a natural law? We must have right conceptions of the terms we employ in our discussion. Law is not a being, nor a force, nor an effi- ciency in the right sense of the word; law is a particular mode in which an efficiency operates. The efficienc)' is one thing, the law of its operation is something else. Behind the law is an efficiency, a power that can work, an agent that can guide and control and uphold the forces of nature. 42 Material law is a term that is used to express the uniformity of the sequences of nature. Law signifies God's plan and method of acting and bringing about His ends in the creation and government ofi the world. The act of God in answering prayer need not produce any vari- ation in the ordinary sequence of phenomena so far as these are cog- nizable by man. The modification of efficient causes in operation may take the place of all proximate forces and in a way i which we cannot perceive. There are mysteries in the world of science as well as in re- ligion. The scientist who has his eye closely fixed upon law frequently finds that the mode of operation es- capes his ken, yet he knows that be- hind all phenomena the reign of law is unbroken. That is, there are mys- teries in regions which his eye cannot penetrate, but this does not distm-b his faith in law. 43 What is meant b}^ the uniformity of nature? Tliis is another scientific expression which gives frequent cause of stumbling to Christian faith. But why sliould it? Because it is not understood. The uniformity of na- ture cannot mean that present phe- nomena have always existed or will always exist as we now see them. The sun has not always, that is, from eternity, risen in the east and set in the west, nor will it continue forever so to rise or set. There was a time when there was no sun, and the time is coming when there will be no sun. The theorj' that the natural world as it now exists and as we know it, has existed from all eternity is not scien- tific, and, as a matter of fact, is not held by the greatest scientists who know their subject. Science demands beginnings and likewise endings. Science, as well as the Bible, has its Genesis and Book of Revelation. On this the teachings of science and of the Bible are entirely in accord. The 44 history of nature is a record of con- tinuous changes. At certain critical or epochal moments new forces have been introduced into the evolving world; from time to time new beings, new genera and species of animals and plants, new phenomena, new groups of phenomena have appeared on the scene. Nature is not uniform in the sense that it is a closed circuit so that nothing which was not eter- nally in the circuit, can come in. Pro- fessor Tyndall has conclusively shown that life, for example, could not always have existed on the earth in the evolving cosmic mass, but must have been introduced from without at a time later than the period when the igneous rocks were formed; and also that life at any time is not spon- taneously generated, but can come only from previous life. The latest biology still holds the old doctrine of omne vivum ex ovo. Nature is uni- form in the sense that the same laws work in the same way and that the 45 same causes tend to produce the same effects, but these laws and causes may be modified by superior power. The laws of nature may be modified in their action and in the effect they produce even by human agency. When I lay hold of a stone lying here on the earth and by mus- cular power lift it up and hold it in the air I modify the action of the law of gravity. I do not destroy or sus- pend or in any way violate that law; I only modify its customary effect by the higher power of my will. I modify a law of nature every time I lift my arm or foot. The laws of na- ture are modified whenever a man pimips water out of a well or con- structs a dam to change the course of a stream or guides an aeroplane through the air. Electricity, by a law of nature, destroys life and prop- erty, but by superior intelligence it is made to minister to the comfort and necessities of mankind. In ten thou- sand ways man's intelligence and in- 46 ventive ingenuity is a modifying agency in the natural world. ISIr. Burbank and the cattle breeder exert an almost creative power in bringing about new forms of vegetable and animal life, not by counteracting the laws of nature, but by using and di- recting them by their superior intelli- gence and power. If nature is thus plastic in the hands of the creature, how much more so in the hands of the Creator! If man can modify the action of nature's laws in working out his designs, cannot God also do so? "What we call the course of nature is nothing else than the will of God acting systematically, either as the sole efficient, or through the interme- diary agency of a secondary cause." It remains now to apply the prin- ciples we have found and illustrated to the matter of answering prayer. We must classify prayer with mira- cles: what is true of the one is 47 equally true of the other. As already stated, we believe that there are laws of nature, that God employs these in the government of the world, and that this is His customary way of dealing with men. But God is not a slave to His laws; He is their author and He controls them at His will. We think of God as an intelli- gent, free, self-directing personality, and therefore not fettered by the laws which He has instituted and which He uses as His agents work- ing His sovereign will. It would be quite illogical to infer that, since there is an established order of na- ture, no such phenomena as miracles or answering of prayer could have occurred or ever would occur in the future. A miracle, as J. Stuart Mill has remarked, supposes the introduc- tion of a new antecedent, namely, the volition of God, and the presence or absence of the antecedent is shown by the effect produced. Just so; but this new antecedent in the form of 48 God's volition may at any moment and at any point come in, and cer- tainly has come in at innumerable points in the history of the world, and therefore nature is not a closed circuit. Without positing this 'new antecedent of God's volition', it is im- possible to write the history of civili- zation or to preserve order in the cosmos. No one can get far in the interpretation of events or in the con- struction of a systematic body of truth without bringing into the ac- count the volition of God. Nature is not unalterably uniform in the sense that miraculous effects, as we under- stand them, have never occurred, nor ever can occur, if God so wills. Any- thing can happen if God wills it, but we are assured that a rational God wills only that which is reasonable. Precisely so in the matter of answer- ing prayer. He can answer prayer, if He wills it, by working with and modifj^ing the customary action of His laws; but He answers only such 49 prayers as are reasonable. God is not bound by the inflexible chains of fate; He is over all, the Absolute First Cause, and so is free to work in the system of things as Pie may will. If He "makes the rain to fall", He can send it or withhold it as He deems best. There is, therefore, nothing impossible or inconsistent with any law of nature or any princi- ple of the divine economy for God to answer Elijah's prayer that rain be withheld from falling on the land of Ahab for the space of six months, and again to send an abundance of rain when the prophet prayed that rain might come. The fall of rain is governed by the laws of meteorology, but God ordained and constantly up- holds these laws by His will. He can assemble the clouds and make them pour out bounteous showers of rain to refresh the earth and minister to the wants of man and beast without violating or suspending His laws or 50 in any way acting in conflict with the order of nature. There are numerous theories as to how prayer for physical changes may be answered. We can mention only a few. Schleiermacher thinks that prayer answers itself by operating as a cause among other causes, pro- ducing its own fulfilment. Similar to this is the view of Dr. Chalmers. He supposes that prayer and its an- swer may be connected as cause and effect, that these may form a se- quence of a very subtle kind, more subtle than any of the sequences of the most latent physical substances; that God may interpose among the physical agents beyond the limit to which human sagacity can trace the operation of law. In all human af- fairs we know it is a fact that we can trace the actual agency of law but a very little way back. All this may be so, but it is too intangible, too ob- scure, to make a good working hy- 51 pothesis; it is not adequate for the ends of a science of psycholog\\ If we may apply the principles of psy- chology to explain the phenomena of prayer we must build our theory' on the facts of consciousness and not on metaphysical subtleties. Dr. jMcCosh, in liis "Divine Gov- ernment", tells us that it is not nec- essary to suppose that praj'er and its answer form a separate law of nature, for the answer may come as the re- sult of other laws arranged for that very purpose. Nor is it necessary that God interpose to change His own laws. He has arranged these laws so that by their agency He may answer prayer without at all inter- fering with them. This is good so far. Then he goes on to say that God answers prayer in the same way that He compasses all His other moral designs. He does not require to interfere with His own arrange- ments, for there is an answer pro- 52 vided in the arrangement made by Him from all eternity. He answers prayer by a preordained appointment when He settled the constitution of the world and set all the parts in order. The answer to prayer pro- ceeds on the foreseen circumstance that the prayer will be offered. The connection between prayer and its answer is not one in the mechanical laws of nature, but in the counsels of God; and the man who has prayed, as he looks for the answer, feels that he must fall in with the Divine pro- cedure. Dr. McCosh assumes a pre- arranged harmony between the prayer and its answer; both had their place in the plan of the world. The train of causes is set at the be- ginning, in the foreknowledge of the petition to be offered, for the evolv- ing of an appropriate response. No interposition is required; the reign of law is undisturbed. This theory may be plausible and satisfactory to one whose mind is pre- 63 occupied with ideas of foreordination and predestination, but to tlie present writer it does not seem good psj'chol- og}', because it sets aside the free will of God at every moment and in every new emergency that may arise in the ongoing of the affairs of the world, and also because it does not recog- nize the free action of the petition- er's will. On this supposition the mind of the petitioner is simply receptive, entirely passive and not cooperative- ly participating. This is similar to that theory of prophetic inspiration which posits that the medium of reve- lation, the prophet or apostle, is en- tirely passive; he is simply the pen of the inspiring Spirit, but his mind or will does;not in any sense partici- pate in the message; the prophet or apostle is only the flute on which the Divine Spirit plays, but he takes no part in the music; the personality of the medium does not figure in giv- ing the words of inspiration. But this is certainly false. If this pre- 54 arrangement theory is true then the petitioner has no active part in his petition; he is only a passive looker- on while the Divine plan is in process of fulfilment; there is nothing else for him to do but simply wait for the fulness of time when his petition will be automatically answered. And this is contrary to the known princi- ples of psychic action. The mind of man, neither in prayer nor any other mode of activity, acts thus automat- ically. The will of him who prays aright is a powerful factor in the an- swering of his prayer. Prayer is the highest form |Of cooperative action which a human being can perform. In a very important way the peti- tioner must cooperate actively in the process of answering prayer and re- ceiving the blessing. The blessing sought in prayer is not thrust upon us while we remain in a passive state ; we receive the Divine blessing in a degree proportionate to the earnest- ness and faithfulness with which we 55 do our part. We ask and receive not, because we ask amiss. And this is one way in which we ask amiss, namely, when we pray for God's blessing and fail to do our part to make that blessing possible. If the answer to our prayers was arranged for from the beginning of the world, then plainly our mind or will has no real part in the process. Our Lord exhorts, "Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you". Such language implies an intensely active state of mind on the part of him who prays aright. "Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, be- lieve that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." "If thou canst be- lieve, nothing is impossible to him that believeth." The faith and the will implied in such utterances denote an active cooperating state of mind, in fact the most active we can con- ceive, and not simply a state of pas- sive receptivity. The soul of him 56 who prays in earnest lifts itself into communion with God, reaches out its hand, so to speak, to lay hold of the arm that sways the universe. The words of our Savior to the father of the lunatic boy, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth", powerfully emphasize the dynamic aspect of the prayer of faith, which truly accom- plishes wonders. And it is not nee- essary to suppose that the power is all supernaturally imparted just at ^ the moment. Of course all power ultimately comes from the Divine Spirit, but the Holy Spirit may work mediately through the human spirit in the prayer of faith as He does in / the act of inspiration. The Holy' Spirit induces a state of mind on the part of the one who prays in which the latent resources of the soul are made available for service! No man, under ordinary circumstances, makes use of all the power God has given 57 him; there is always an unexplained and unexplored and unused remain- der of resources. A great psychol- ogist has said that in the service of our daily life, if we worked up to the full measure of our ability we would all be geniuses. , So if our faith-life were keyed up to the full extent of its possibilities, mighty works would be performed. This is what the Mas- ter meant when He said to His disci- ples, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do". How poorly we realize the possibili- ties of faith in a soul that is fully alive and dtaws upon the resources that are liidden within its capacity. This idea is suggested by the case of the lunatic boy who was brought to the disciples of Jesus to be healed, "and they could not". Why could they not? "Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could we not cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief; 58 for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impos- sible unto you. Howbeit, this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fast- ing". Their failure was not due to a lack of ability, but to the fact that they had not the, state of mind and heart necessary for the occasion. The statement that if they had "faith as a grain of mustard seed" they could remove mountains, is to be taken in a literal sense. Not that by simply be- lieving the mountain would remove, but if they had the right mental atti- tude, the right faith and will, they would put agencies and forces into operation that would certainly bring about the desired result. Faith im- plies a state of mind in which its powers are active and its resources are made use of. According to the words of the Master, the condition of a miracle-working faith is that of 59 "prayer and fasting". The efficacy of "prayer and fasting" consists in a kind of spiritual discipline which sets free the latent powers of the soul and so makes possible the performance of a work which otherwise could not be performed. When the Savior here mentions 'fasting' as one of the con- ditions of power, He refers to a deep psychological truth. There is a close relation between 'fasting' and mental activity. It has been observ'^ed that prolonged abstinence from food fre- quently results in highly sharpened intellectual powers. Numerous ex- amples of this are found in the liter- ature of history and biography; many actors, speakers, and singers habitually fast before their public performances. Fasting has marked effects in the way of speeding up the mental and spiritual processes and of clearing and invigorating the mind. It is a significant fact that fasting has been practiced in all ages and in all the ancient religions, with 60 perhaps the single exception of that of Zoroaster. It appears to . have been in use also among the semi-civil- ized and savage tribes in both hemi- spheres. Among the Israelites it was an established custom which they ob- served with gi'cat diligence. It was also practiced among the early Chris- tians. The Reformers returned to the original conception of fasting as a means of self-discipline and a prep- aration for prayer. Our Lord Him- self fasted. It cannot be that a prac- tice so universal, commended by the greatest of men, and encouraged by Christ Himself, is a mere supersti- tion. It is a principle in human na- ture which serves the important pur- pose of strengthening the mental powers and making the soul's re- sources available for service. Prayer induces a dynamic state of mind in which the soul's powers are keyed up to the Hmit of their possi- bilities ; it serves to convert the soul's 61 potential energ}' into actual miracle- working power. It acts like a burn- ing glass to concentrate the energies of the soul to a focus; it brings about a psychic state in which the soul, like an electric conductor, be- comes charged with dynamic energy which pours itself into the motor tract to be given out in the perform- ance of works that would not be pos- sible in the ordinary state. Prayer acts like a mental tonic to tone up and invigorate the soul into a state of forceful ness. It begets a holy con- fidence in which the soul lays hold on omnipotence and draws into itself divine strength. It has been said that if we cannot move God toward us by prayer, we do move ourselves toward God. By this means a channel is opened for the influx of divine power. When men enter into the fulness of the prayer-life they come into a condition of superior forceful- ness in which not only the larger con- ception of life is realized, but the 62 soul discovers its kinship and unitj^ with God. God answers our prayers by taking us into His confidence and by the influence of His Holy Spirit so working upon our spirits that we are made to cooperate with Him in securing the blessing asked for. When God created us in His own image, He conserved in our spiritual nature mighty powers and sublime possibilities which in prayer, through the Divine influence, are called forth into action for the performance of works that seem miraculous. DATE DUE y^^^^.,^.~^,Met