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 rHEORY OF PRAYER 
 REV. W. H. EARS LAKE 
 
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 BV 205 .K28 1873 
 Karslake, William Henry. 
 Modern thought in reference 
 to the subject of prayer 
 
THE 
 
 MAR 13 1912 
 
 THEOEY OF PEAYEE: 
 
 mii\) Special Reference to 
 
 MODEEN THOUGHT. 
 
 Rev. W. H. KARSLAKE, M.A. 
 
 ASSISTANT PREACHER AT LINCOLN'S INN, VICAR OF WESTCOTT, DOEKINO, 
 LATE FELLOW AND IUTQ3 OF MEETON COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE COMMITTEE OF THE 
 SOCIETY FOR FROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORIES : 
 
 77, GEEAT QUEEN STliEET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS 
 
 4, llOTAL EXCUANGE; 48, PICCADILLY; 
 
 AND BY ALL BOOKSELLEES. 
 
 1873. 
 
The Cliristian Evidence Committee of the S.P.C.K., 
 while giving its general approval to tlie works of 
 tlie Cliristian Evidence Series, does not hold itself 
 responsible for every statement or every line of 
 argument. 
 
 The responsibility of each writer extends to his 
 own work only. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Questions to be considered as to the Efficacy of 
 Prayer ; and the way in which they are to be 
 considered 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Prayer in relation to the Fixed Order of Nature . 12 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Prayer in relation to Miracles 26 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Prayer in relation to the Greatness of God . . 38 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Prayer in relation to the Wisdom and Unchangeable - 
 
 ness of God 48 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Prayer in relation to the Goodness of God . . 57 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Prayer in relation to the Foreknowledge of God . 66 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Cases in which Prayer seems to bo Unaoswored . 74 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Experience as confirming the Doctrine of Prayer . 83 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Prayer in relation to Human Exertion ... 95 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Prayer in relation to Man's Spiritual Life . . 102 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Origin of the Belief in the Eflficacy of Prayer . . Ill 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 The Moral Influence of Prayer. — Conclusion . . 121 
 
PKAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 CHAPTER I, 
 
 QUESTIONS AS TO THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 
 
 The condition of men^s minds on tlie subject 
 of prayer seems to be an unsettled and divided 
 one. On tbe one hand there exists a very 
 widely-spread feeling of uncertainty as to the 
 direct, positive power of prayer, which some 
 who hold a leading position in other spheres 
 of thought, and whose opinions claim respect- 
 ful consideration, entertain strongly and ex- 
 press with force. On the other hand, at times, 
 under the pressure of some great national or 
 individual need, the doubts which floated on 
 the surface of men^s minds vanish for the time, 
 swept away by the strong, deep tide of reli- 
 gious feeling which carries away the spirit 
 with an almost irresistible force in earnest 
 
 B 
 
 9h 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 prayer to God. It was so remarkably of late, 
 when all classes of the nation united in con- 
 stant,, fervent prayer to the Almighty that the 
 life of the Prince of Wales might be spared. 
 And^ similarly^ there come times when some of 
 those who have through life neglected prayer, 
 or denied its efficacy, are brought to long 
 ardently for a living belief in its influence, the 
 thought of which somehow forces itself upon 
 them at the last ; and for power to lift up their 
 spirits with loving, child-like confidence to 
 God in prayer. And this shows a still more 
 deep, generally-prevailing sentiment (so to call 
 it at present) as to the power of prayer. But 
 these occasional strong outbursts of feeling 
 cannot in themselves, it may be fairly urged, 
 prove the efficacy of prayer, or, indeed, any 
 surely-grounded belief in it. They prove only, 
 it may be contended, the strong pressure of a 
 national or individual sense of danger and 
 need. And it may be argued that this pres- 
 sure does not so much sweep away obstacles, 
 and give free play to deep-rooted instincts of 
 reliance on the power of prayer, but rather 
 drives men to have recourse to all means, how- 
 ever futile; especially when, in the extremity 
 of danger, or under the influence of pain or 
 approaching dissolution, the regulating forces 
 
PEAYEE AND MODEEN THOUGHT. 
 
 of the mind have become impaired. Granted, 
 that a united nation poured forth its earnest 
 supplication to God; granted, that the event 
 so fervently desired, so heartily sought for, 
 did take place; still the sceptic may argue 
 that there is no consequential relation, at least 
 no proved relation, between the event and the 
 prayer. The prayer went before : the event 
 followed. And this, he may contend, is the 
 only known connexion between the two. The 
 idea of their relation, he may say, as cause and 
 effect, antecedent and consequent, may be a de- 
 lusion ; certainly is not, and cannot be, loroved. 
 
 And thus the whole question opens out 
 before us as to the efficacy of prayer. What 
 exactly, we try to think, is the meaning of 
 prayer, and the view taken of the course of 
 the world by those who believe that it is 
 affected by prayer? What kind of proof is 
 possible, on either side of the question, as to 
 whether prayer has or has not power to in- 
 fluence the course of things on the earth ? 
 What are the chief difficulties, existing in 
 men's minds in a more or less definite form, 
 which cause them to doubt or absolutely 
 reject the doctrine of the efficacy of prayer ? 
 
 Now, as to the first point, the general view 
 involved in the idea of prayer is this : It sup- 
 b2 
 
4 PKAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 poses the world to be governed indeed by 
 fixed laws imposed upon it by tlie will of its 
 Almighty Creator from the first; but it con- 
 ceives that He reserves to Himself the right 
 of interposing His power into the order of the 
 universe in such ways and at such times as He 
 may think fit. It regards Him as not having 
 made the universe once for all^ and then re- 
 tired absolutely from its control, leaving cause 
 and effect_, antecedent and consequent, to work 
 on uninterruptedly in the world of outward 
 nature and man^s social and moral life till the 
 end of time; but as exercising over it His coa- 
 troUing providence, maintaining it in existence 
 from moment to moment by His power, direct- 
 ing the course of events according to His will, 
 yet so as practically to preserve inviolable the 
 action of those laws which He, for most wise 
 and beneficent purposes, has ordained. This 
 is involved in the idea of the efficacy of prayer. 
 And, further, it involves the supposition that 
 in this His direction of the world. He is, in 
 some degree, influenced by the desires and 
 requests of mankind on earth; that, as an 
 earthly parent is moved by the petitions of 
 his children, over and above his knowledge 
 of their interests and needs, so God too, the 
 Heavenly Father of mankind at large, wills to 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. O 
 
 be addressed by us^ and suffers Himself to be 
 moved by our prayers. And the question arises^ 
 Is there really good ground for this belief in 
 prayer? or are there, on the contrary, such 
 strong objections to be raised to the belief as 
 tend to show that it is but a human invention, 
 a transfer of what holds among men to our 
 anthropomorphic conception of God ? 
 
 Then, as to the second point, it is most 
 important to observe that this supposed in- 
 terposition of God in the affairs of the world 
 is a matter of which it is absolutely impossible 
 to give natural (as opposed to supernatural) 
 proof. That which is quite possible in the 
 sphere of outward nature, where strict infer- 
 ence, based on the experimental methods of 
 inductive science, can be applied to the exact 
 observation of sensible facts ; that which is pos- 
 sible only with a modified degree of certainty in 
 cases of social and political science, where the 
 facts do not admit of being decomposed and 
 analyzed as the facts of physical science do — is 
 quite out of the question here. We cannot 
 prove the relation of cause and effect here. 
 We cannot penetrate the secrets of the invisible 
 world for ourselves. We can see that certain 
 effects are produced ; that a danger, e. g. is 
 escaped, a sickness healed. And we may know 
 
6 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT, 
 
 that this very thing was the object of the 
 prayers of others or of our own. But we cannot 
 2orove^ by any natural proof^ that the danger was 
 averted^ the sickness cured_, by any direct in- 
 terposition of Godj or that His interposition 
 (if there was such) was drawn forth by our 
 prayers. But then it is well to understand at 
 the outset that such proof is impossible from 
 the very nature of the case. Proof in each sub- 
 ject must be sought according to the nature of 
 the thing to be proved. And here we are deal- 
 ing with the things of the unseen spiritual 
 world; and these transcend the observation 
 which is applicable to matters of sense alone. 
 The only possible proof of things above nature 
 is the supernatural revelation of them to us by 
 the Beings of the higher world from which 
 they proceed. The testimony of God to it is 
 the only possible absolute proof of the efficacy 
 of prayer. And thus^ it must be clearly un- 
 derstood, we are precluded here from all con- 
 sideration of the only positive proof which can 
 be given of it. For we are to examine the 
 subject from the point of view of one who would 
 not admit the authority of Kevelation, or, at 
 least, would set it aside for the time. We are 
 to set forth, from the point of view of an unbe- 
 liever or a doubter, the difficulties as to the 
 
PEAYEE AND MODEEN THOUGHT. 
 
 efficacy of prayer as fully and fairly as we can ; 
 and tlien consider^ still from the point of view 
 of an unbeliever or a doubter, how far those 
 difficulties may be fairly met. The aspect in 
 which the question is to be regarded by us is 
 this : Granted, that men do feel something 
 within them — whether it proceeds from natural 
 instinct, or is the result of education, matters 
 not .now — impelling them to offer up their 
 prayers to God. Is this a mere delusion ? Is 
 there anything which can be brought forward 
 to show convincingly that it is no right, deep- 
 seated principle of life ; that men are in error 
 in believing that the great Author of the world, 
 and of man, the highest rational portion of it, 
 can, and does, listen to and answer their prayers, 
 even as a father is moved by the prayers of his 
 children, consistently with the Nature of His 
 own Being, and the Laws which He has im- 
 posed upon the world which He has made ? 
 
 It is, accordingly, with the difficulties raised 
 to the doctrine of the efficacy of prayer that we 
 must be mainly occupied here. We are not 
 to consider what positive ground there is from 
 Scripture for maintaining the power of prayer ; 
 but what weight there is in the difficulties 
 brought forward on grounds of reason against 
 it. Is it unreasonable J on natural grounds, for 
 
8 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 men to pray ? To have sought out the diffi- 
 culties here and set them in a clear lights 
 and disentangled them (as far as may be) 
 from the mass of irrelevant matter in which 
 they are not uncommonly involved^ and then 
 weighed them fairly and exactly in the balance^ 
 as far as we can^ will have been by no 
 means an unprofitable task. It is well in this, 
 as in other matters, to meet our difficulties 
 full in the face. It is the fancied terrors of 
 the darkness which most appal us. The dim, 
 shadowy apparitions, which the imagination 
 creates in times of doubt and a;nxiety, vanish 
 when the full light is poured in, and the objects 
 which gave rise to them are seen as they truly 
 are. And it will be the object, accordingly, 
 of the following pages to state as fairly and 
 fully as possible the difficulties which are felt 
 on the subject of the efficacy of prayer. And 
 if it should be found that those difficulties, 
 when set forth fully and candidly examined, 
 lose their force in great measure, or are seen 
 to be counterbalanced by much which makes 
 in favour of the value of prayer, for those 
 who will approach the subject in a fair spirit 
 and an unbiassed mind, then the way will be 
 cleared for the acceptance of that belief in the 
 power of prayer to which we are impelled by 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 the deep-rooted iustincts of our nature, as we 
 believe them to be, and which is confirmed and 
 enforced (for those who will accept its authority) 
 in (it may almost be said without exaggeration) 
 every part of the Book of the Word of God. 
 
 The subject, it must be added, is by no means - 
 an indifferent one, a matter for mere curiosity 
 or abstract speculation. It enters most deeply 
 into all the elements of our life. It may, in- 
 deed, be an error to think that the course of 
 events can he influenced by our prayers. But 
 the error is, comparatively speaking, a mere 
 harmless delusion, at the worst. It may draw 
 forth a sneer at the folly of the multitude from 
 the profounder intellects of the time. It can 
 hardly produce any greater ill. But, on the 
 contrary, if it be an error to maintain that 
 prayer caymot be availing ; that all proceeds in 
 fixed, undeviating order, on which it is mere 
 delusion to think that any influence can be 
 exercised by man's prayer — then how immeasur- 
 able is the loss of those who cut themselves off 
 from this advantage ! how deep the injury in- 
 flicted on their race by those who, in the vanity 
 of imagined superiority in wisdom, would lightly 
 deprive them of this, their one^if it be so — 
 most precious, most prevailing resource ! 
 
 And more than this : if prayer be, as many 
 
10 PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 feel it to be^ tlie very breath of the spirit^s life^ 
 the power which regulates and maintains in 
 action the other forces of the soul^ and if the 
 vigour of it be the best evidence of the exist- 
 ence in the soul of spiritual life^ which consists 
 in the conscious communion of man^s spirit 
 on earth with God in heaven^ and the desire to 
 live with Him in love — then all that weakens 
 or disturbs the souFs confidence in prayer 
 impairs or agitates the energy of the spirit^ s 
 life ; all that tends to destroy entirely man^s 
 trust in the eflB.cacy of prayer goes^ so far_, to 
 poison the very springs of his spiritual being, 
 and numb the vigour of his higher life. 
 
 And thus_, while other questions and difii- 
 culties do but attack the outworks — perhaps 
 only se&m to attack the outworks — of Christian 
 Faith, the denial of the efficacy of prayer 
 undermines utterly the whole fabric of belief. 
 Next to the denial of the existence of a God at 
 all, at least as known to us, comes the denial 
 of the reasonableness of communion with 
 Him on the part of man. And thus, with 
 belief in the power of prayer must fall, not 
 only Revelation, which throughout . inculcates 
 the duty, or rather, we should say, declares the 
 privilege, of prayer; not only belief in the 
 Divine Being and the teaching of Christ, Who 
 
PEAYER AND MODEEM THOUGHT. 11 
 
 even dictated to His disciples His perfect form 
 of prayer to be used by His followers in all 
 after- times^, and set tliem an example of a life 
 of prayer ; but also all that trustful deliglit in 
 communion witli a Higher Being, all that 
 reliance on Him as the source of temporal and 
 spiritual help in life, which constitutes in men 
 at large one of the first and fundamental 
 articles of religious belief; all conscious spi- 
 ritual union, in short, of man with God. So 
 great are the issues which hang on the question 
 of the efficacy of prayer. 
 
12 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PRAYER IN RELATION TO THE FIXED ORDER OP 
 
 NATURE. 
 
 The first and great difficulty with regard to 
 the efficacy of prayer arises from this^ that it 
 appears to conffict with that fixed order of 
 nature which everywhere appears. Looking 
 out upon the world, we see it_, for most wise 
 and beneficent purposes which we can, in some 
 measure, trace, arranged as one great well- 
 ordered kingdom in w^hich law reigns supreme. 
 Cause produces effect, consequent follows on 
 antecedent, with undeviating regularity. Day 
 and night, summer and winter, follow one 
 another in regular course. Industry brings 
 with it its natural fruits. Mental activity, cul- 
 tivated and trained, works out its fresh truths, 
 and contributes to the intellectual wealth of 
 mankind. Watch the course of the world for 
 a single day : see how everything can be 
 traced (so far as we are able to penetrate into 
 
PEAYEE AND MODEEN THOUGHT. 13 
 
 the secrets of nature) to the action of causes 
 producing it_, whicli causes are themselves the 
 effects of higher causes from which they 
 spring ; and say what room is there in all 
 this fixed order for that constant interposi- 
 tion of a higher Power, which is supposed in 
 the doctrine that the course of the world is 
 influenced by man's prayer. 
 
 Somewhat of this kind is the tone of mind 
 which finds a difficulty in reconciling the fixed 
 order of nature everywhere observed with the 
 supposed doctrine of the efficacy of prayer. 
 And the difficulty is strengthened by the fact 
 that this fixity of the order of nature appears 
 more and more, the more science is able to 
 extend its researches, and ascertain the laws 
 which regulate the course of things. True, it 
 may be said, we cannot follow the chain of 
 causation far ; we can only go a few steps in 
 tracing effects up to their causes, and those 
 causes themselves as effects to higher causes 
 still. But, so far as we can go, all does appear 
 ordered according to fixed laws. Chance is 
 practically eliminated from the universe. Every 
 thing leads us to suppose that, where law is 
 not ascertained, it is our knowledge only which 
 is at fault ; that in the physical world certainly, 
 perhaps to a great extent in the course of social 
 
34 PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 and political events too, all might be traced, 
 did our range of knowledge allow it, to the 
 action of fixed laws. And where, in this fixed 
 order, is the room for answers to prayer ? 
 
 And what confirms this view of the difiiculty 
 is, that men, even with the strongest belief in 
 the efficacy of prayer, do not think of praying 
 for that which they know to be absolutely 
 fixed. No one prays that the sun may not 
 rise on the morrow. No one asks that the dead 
 may be restored to life. Even where death 
 has not actually taken place, but yet seems 
 approaching inevitably, according to the uni- 
 form laws which regulate the course of disease, 
 we do not ask that the action of those fixed 
 laws may be interfered with, their course 
 supernatural ly arrested, and the issue stayed. 
 Is it, then, anything but ignorance of these 
 fixed laws in certain cases which gives scope 
 for the belief in prayer ? When we pray that 
 some danger may be averted, some sickness 
 healed, is it anything but ignorance of the 
 chain of causation by which the effect is to be 
 produced which leads us to make the object 
 desired the matter of our request, and then 
 to attribute the effect produced to the di- 
 rect response of an invisible agent to our 
 prayer ? 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 15 
 
 These difficulties I have tried to put forth in 
 the fullest and fairest way. Perhaps to some 
 it may seem as if they were set out too 
 minutely and given an undue weight. But it 
 is only right in candour to try to place in the 
 clearest light we can the view of another from 
 whom we dissent om^selves. 
 
 There is a striking passage in the writings 
 of Dr. Chalmers which puts very forcibly the 
 difficulties here stated respecting prayer : — 
 
 ^' Prayer/^ he writes,, " and the answer of 
 prayer — according to the popular^ and we shall 
 even say the natural understanding — are simply 
 the preferring of a request to another. Man 
 applies^ God complies. Man asks a favour, 
 God bestows it. These are conceived to be 
 the two terms of a real interchange that takes 
 place between the parties — the two terms of a 
 sequence, in fact, whereof the antecedent is a 
 prayer lifted up from earth, and the conse- 
 quent is the fulfilment of that prayer in virtue 
 of a mandate from heaven. 
 
 " We must not disguise it, that this view of 
 prayer is the object of a strong philosophical 
 antipathy, as implying a perpetual invasion on 
 those established and general laws of nature 
 which are conceived to be unchangeable. It 
 is painfully offensive to a mind habituated to 
 
16 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 the investigation of causes to admit of any 
 fitful or capricious deviation from tlie march 
 and regularity of those magnificent progres- 
 sions which in its view compose the history of 
 our universe. It cannot bear that the cer- 
 tainties of nature and of science should be so 
 intermeddled with; and grievously would it 
 mar the luxury of many a philosophic contem- 
 plation if, instead of a universe whose efiicient 
 principles gave birth to their respective trains 
 of subordinate and strictly dependent phe- 
 nomena, and whose phenomena could all be 
 traced to the operation of fixed and invariable 
 principles, the harmonies of so noble a mecha- 
 nism were to be thwarted at every turn by 
 the power which lay in the inclinations of man 
 to call forth, through that eJEficacy which is 
 ascribed to prayer, the special interventions of 
 the Deity. There is no conception which so 
 adheres to the mind of a philosopher as the 
 unaltered, if not the unalterable constancy of 
 nature — or, in other words, the invariableness 
 of that order where, by a process sure as neces- 
 sity itself, the same antecedents are followed 
 up by the same consequents. He cannot give 
 place in his creed to the efiicacy of specific 
 prayer, because he never has observed, and he 
 scarcely can imagine, that the firm concatena- 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 17 
 
 tion of natuiVs sequences is in any instance 
 broken. He will acquiesce in tlie doctrine of 
 a general providence^ if by this be meant tbe 
 primary institution of a great mundane system 
 left henceforward to its own evolutions. He 
 will even acquiesce in the significancy of 
 prayer,, if by this be meant the homage of our 
 expressed dependence^ or if uttered for the 
 sake of a reflex influence on the mind of the 
 petitioner^ and not for the sake of a dnect 
 influence on the mind of the Divinity. But 
 prayer, in the obvious sense of it, as a thing of 
 asking on the one side and of receiving upon the 
 other : — prayer, as invested with a controlling 
 force over the processes of nature and history : 
 — prayer, as an engine by which to shift or to 
 modify the succession of events : — this were 
 disturbing, it is felt, the regularities of the 
 visible creation ; and it is a feeling which gives 
 painful disturbance to the enamoured student 
 of these regularities. It is resented as a sort 
 of breach or violence on all that is wont to re- 
 gale his imagination and intellect; and thus, 
 amongst the disciples of modern science, 
 amongst physical inquirers — and that whether 
 into the physics of matter or the physics of 
 the mind — it is in dissonance with all their 
 habits of conception Vv^hen told either of the 
 
 c 
 
18 PEAYER AND MODEEN THOUGHT. 
 
 doctrine of a special providence or of tlie 
 efficacy of prayer \^^ 
 
 And now^ admitting to the fall all tliat can 
 be said as to the fixity of the order of nature, 
 1 would say that there is another element which 
 has to be introduced, another aspect in which 
 the course of the nniverse has to be viewed. 
 For take into consideration the position of man 
 in nature ; and all is changed. There already 
 is introduced a disturbing element into the 
 midst of the fixed order of the world. And it 
 is, probably, owing simply to our perfect fami- 
 liarity with the fact, that we overlook the con- 
 tinual interference with the order of nature 
 which is produced by man, and fail to observe 
 the possibility, as an indisputable truth, of the 
 existence of an order in nature compatible 
 with the constant interference with that order 
 which issues from the action of man^s will. 
 The simplest and most homely instances are, 
 perhaps, the most suitable for illustration of 
 what is meant. The law of water is, that it 
 should flow downwards and find its own level ; 
 and the stream flows onward in accordance 
 with its fixed law. Yet the child can, at its 
 will, check the course of the stream at any 
 
 1 Dr. Ohalmers; Tol. v. pp. 436^438. 
 
PRAYEE AND MODERN THOUGHT. 19 
 
 particular point by the simple act of putting 
 its hand into the water as it flows ; and the 
 man can put obstacles in the way_, and^ so far, 
 absolutely stay its course. The law of the 
 stone is to tend downwards towards the centre 
 of gravity in the earth. Yet man^s will can 
 so far counteract this tendency as to throw 
 the stone upwards; the law of gravitation, it 
 is to be observed, remaining the fixed law 
 none the less. An accident which one meets 
 with causes the blood to flow in a manner 
 which must eventually bring death, according 
 to the action of natural laws. But to meet his 
 needs, the physician^s aid is sought ; and, by 
 the remedies which he applies, the flow of the 
 blood is staunched and the' evil stayed. And 
 here again the natural working of cause and 
 effect is interfered with, by reason of this, that 
 man becomes a fresh and independent cause. 
 And yet there is no violation of the law, but 
 only the application of counteracting agencies, 
 bringing about a different result from that 
 which would have followed had the first ante- 
 cedent continued to act alone. There is no 
 introduction of anarchy ; no interruption of the 
 reign of law. 
 
 And it seems almost inconceivable that any 
 — looking^ on the fact that man is thus an in- 
 c 2 
 
20 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 dependent cause in the universe^ empowered to 
 bring about tlie results which he desires, not_, 
 indeed, in contravention of the established laws 
 of nature, but yet by an interference in ac- 
 cordance with law — should deny the possi- 
 bility of an interposition on the part of a 
 Supreme Being in a similar, though in a far 
 higher and fuller, way. Granted, that there 
 is a Divine Creator by Whom our world was 
 made, shall we suppose that He has denied to 
 Himself that power which yet, as we see as a 
 fact. He has delegated to man ? Shall we be 
 guilty of the absurdity of supposing that the 
 Almighty Being, with His infinite wisdom and 
 absolute power, cannot do that which man, 
 with his limited capability, his slight know- 
 ledge, is yet able to perform ? Man does, as 
 a fact, prevent or bring about a calamity in 
 some cases ; he can, in particular instances_, 
 check the course of a disease. Can it be 
 imagined that God cannot, at His will, send 
 on a nation a famine, pestilence, or war, or 
 avert the evil when it is drawing near; that 
 He cannot so order the course of things as to 
 turn away the disease which threatens destruc- 
 tion, in answer, if it be so, to man^s prayer ? 
 
 And thus gradually the whole view which 
 we take of the course of the world becomes 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 21 
 
 changed. From looking on tlie world as pro- 
 ceeding in one great chain of cause and effect, 
 in which all things follow one another in fixed, 
 unalterable course, we are led, reversely, to 
 doubt whether there be any such thing as 
 causation in the sequence of things, in itself, 
 at all; whether the very idea of cause be not 
 derived from the agency of man as the repre- 
 sentative of God in this part of the universe ; 
 so that we should think of God alone as the 
 One true ultimate Cause of all. Whether the 
 idea of cause be a primary intuition of the 
 mind itself, is a metaphysical problem with 
 which we are not concerned here. But whether 
 it be derived from external things, or only 
 elicited and developed in the mind through 
 them, there is nothing to suggest the idea in 
 the simple sequence of events in the world. 
 It can only be suggested, we think, by that 
 originating power which man finds, experi- 
 mentally, in himself, and which he then trans- 
 fers, as it were, from himself to those external 
 agencies through the action of which those 
 results which he desires to effect are produced. 
 Man wishes to make water boil; he gives to 
 the heat through which the result is produced, 
 in that aspect of it, the name of '^ cause. ^' He 
 connects the ice with the cold which accom- 
 
22 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUaHT. 
 
 panies its production^ and lie describes cold 
 as tlie ^^ cause '^ of ice. And tlius, instead of 
 there being a fixed^ unalterable order of cause 
 and effect in tbe world, witb wliicli nothing 
 can be supposed to interfere,, it is from the 
 yery fact of there being such interference that 
 the idea of causation as pervading the world of 
 nature is derived. Cause is, in fact, really the 
 correlative of will. 
 
 And then, from this view of man, thus able, 
 as a fact, so far to interfere with the course of 
 nature as to apply its forces for the production 
 of ends which he desires to gain — the action of 
 those forces themselves remaining regulated 
 by fixed law; nay, through the very fact of 
 their being fixed, which enables him to ascer- 
 tain them and apply them, more or less, at his 
 will, and that with a wider and wider range, 
 as science continually lays open fresh laws to 
 man^s view,— the mind rises up to the thought 
 of that One far Higher Being from Whom 
 come both man and the system of nature in 
 the midst of which man is placed. And we 
 think of the great Lord of the Universe, not 
 as withdrawn from all care of the world which 
 He has made — not as having established once 
 for all a succession of events — not as having 
 infused a sort of vital power into its agencies. 
 
PEAYER AND MODEEN THOUGHT. 23 
 
 and then left it to run its course and follow its 
 own inevitable destiny by itself — but rather as 
 watching over and regulating the events of 
 His world. We think of Him as holding in 
 His hand the highest links^ as it were,, in the 
 chain of causation, maintaining the world in 
 being from hour to hour, and able at any 
 moment to put an end to its existence by 
 recalling that mysterious sustaining force 
 which permeates every part of it; and as so 
 influencing the application of the laws which 
 He has assigned to it, as to bring about the 
 results which He wills to produce, the action 
 of the laws themselves remaining for the most 
 part, if not absolutely, unchanged ^. And, as 
 
 2 The words of tlie eloquent writer before quoted set 
 forward this point also very forcibly : — " God hath in 
 wisdom ordained a regimen of general laws ; and, that 
 man might gather from the memory of the past those 
 lessons of observation which serve for the guidance of the 
 future, He hath enacted that all those successions shall be 
 invariable which have their j)lace and their fulfilment 
 within the world of sensible experience. Yet God has not 
 on that account made the world independent of Himself. 
 He keeps a perpetual hold on all its events and processes 
 notwithstanding. He does not dissever Himself for a 
 single instant from the government and the guardianship 
 of His own universe, and can adapt the forthgoings of His 
 130wer to all the wants and all the prayers of His dependent 
 family. For this purpose He does not need to stretch 
 forth His hand on the inferior and visible links of any 
 
24 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 if to give a simple practical illustration of His 
 manner of dealing with His worlds of a kind 
 easily understood by those who are not capable 
 of examining with subtlety the compatibility of 
 His action with the ascertained existence of a 
 fixed order in nature, and the other difficulties 
 with which the subject, philosophically con- 
 sidered, is beset. He has given to man, within 
 certain limits, the same power v/hich He can 
 put forth Himself, subject only to the limita- 
 tions of His own perfect Will, of using the 
 agencies of nature as causes, so to call them, 
 through which to produce the results which he 
 desires ; God Himself being, with man under 
 Him as His vicegerent in nature, the one true 
 Cause of all ^ And, therefore, it is only think - 
 
 progression, so as to shift the known successions of expe- 
 rience, or at all to intermeddle with the lessons and the 
 laws of this great schoolmaster. He may work in secret 
 and yet perform all His pleasure, not by the achievement 
 of a miracle upon nature's open platform, but by the 
 touch of one or other of those master- springs which lie 
 within the recesses of her inner laboratory. There, and at 
 His place of supernal command, by the fountain-head of 
 influence. He can turn whithersoever He will the machinery 
 of our world, without the possibility by human eye of 
 detecting the least infringement uj)on any of its processes, 
 at once upholding the regularity of visible nature and the 
 supremacy of natm-e's invisible God." (Dr. Chalmers, 
 Works, voL iii. p. 624.) 
 
 ' The argument here given has been stated very shortly 
 
PRAYEE AND MODEEN THOUGHT. 25 
 
 ing of God as doing in a far higlier degree 
 that which in a limited way He allows man to 
 do as a fact, when we conceive of Him as 
 influencing the course of events in answer to 
 man^s prayer. 
 
 in a periodical paper in answer to some objections raised 
 to the doctrine of prayer. It will be found quoted in 
 p. 29 of the author's short " Treatise on the Efficacy 
 Prayer," published by the Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge. 
 
26 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PRAYER IN RELATION TO MIRACLES. 
 
 The question of the relation of prayer to mira- 
 cles — tlie question^ in otlier words, wlietlier 
 miracles can be looked for in answer to prayer 
 — does not strictly belong to tlie inquiry as to 
 the efl&cacy of prayer at large. It stands at 
 the junction point of two other independent 
 questions. One, as to the nature of miracles, 
 and their limits, and the grounds on which the 
 belief in them is maintained — a question which 
 has been discussed in another volume of the 
 series to which this present treatise belongs. 
 And the other, as to whether it is conceivable 
 that God should interpose at all in answer 
 to prayer in the fixed order of nature esta- 
 blished by Him in our world — a subject exa- 
 mined in the preceding chapter. Granted, 
 that miracles can be conceived possible un- 
 der certain circumstances and >vithin certain 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 27 
 
 limits : — granted also^ tliat we can suppose 
 God may — nay^ tliat it is difficult to suppose 
 He should not — interpose in tlie events of 
 the world wliicli He has made, and which is 
 sustained from moment to moment by Him, 
 at the prayer of man — and the question as 
 to the possibility of God^s miraculous inter- 
 position in answer to man^s prayer is solved. 
 On the other hand, given the impossibility of 
 miraculous intervention, or of intervention in 
 the fixed order of the world at all ; and all 
 possibility of miracles in answer to prayer is 
 disproved. 
 
 But the difficulty as to the relation of mira- 
 cles to prayer assumes this particular form. 
 We never pray, it is contended, (as was said 
 in the last chapter,) that the sun should not 
 rise on the morrow. We never pray that one 
 who is dead should be restored to life; or that 
 one who is sick of a disease incurable (ac- 
 cording to the established order of nature) 
 should be restored to health. ^^ The most 
 devout believer in prayer would never," it is 
 said, ^^ in our day, dream of praying that the 
 sun should be arrested in its course, though 
 the fate of all that was dearest to him on 
 earth depended on the prolongation of the day 
 or night. The habitual and life-long expe- 
 
28 PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 rience of the invariable order of tlie sun^s 
 course would be too strong, and the con- 
 sequent perception of the magnitude of the 
 miracle required to change it too vivid, to 
 allow the idea of praying for it even to enter 
 the mind/^ And by this, it is argued, the 
 validity of our belief in the efficacy of prayer 
 is disproved. '' It is clear,^^ the same writer 
 continues, ^^ that in every case where the same 
 certainty of experience existed, the same sense 
 of the inutility of prayer would follow; and 
 that the only real difference between the scien- 
 tifically educated and the uneducated mind in 
 this matter is, the extent of the range of the 
 phenomena in which they feel respectively the 
 immutability of natural order.^^ In other 
 words, if God interposed at all, it may be 
 thought, in the order of events, at the request 
 of man. He might equally interpose, in His 
 Almighty power, in a supernatural, as in a 
 natural way. Therefore, the fact that we do 
 not ask Him to interpose in a supernatural 
 way, as being assured that such request would 
 be in vain, indicates that prayer is a delusion, 
 since it can only be employed in those cases 
 where natural causes may equally well be re- 
 garded as producing the result which we attri- 
 bute to God^s interposition in answer to our 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 29 
 
 prayer. And our ignorance, it is urged, helps on 
 the delusion. Did we know the cause which pro- 
 duced the effect, we should attribute the result 
 to that cause, and not to God. Not knowing 
 the cause, we assign the result to God^s inter- 
 position on our behalf. Being ignorant how a 
 cure is wrought, we attribute it to the exercise 
 of God^s power in love. Did we know the 
 medicine, whose healing properties had caused 
 it, we should refer the cure to the medicine, 
 not to God. Ignorance, therefore, becomes 
 the measure of our belief in the efficacy of 
 prayer. And with our scientific progress in 
 the discovery of the laws of the universe 
 must wane correspondently our child-like 
 belief in the interposition of God in our 
 behalf. 
 
 Now the whole of this argument, forcible 
 as it may, at first sight, appear, turns upon a 
 simple, but entire misstatement, or misappre- 
 hension, as to the grounds on which we do 
 not venture to ask of God to interfere with 
 the order of things in a miraculous way. It 
 is not in the least from any doubt as to His 
 power to interfere, should it please Him to do 
 so, in a miraculous manner in answer to our 
 prayers. It does not rest, in the slightest 
 degree, on a delusion as to God^s interposi- 
 
30 PKAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 tion, in ordinary cases, in a natural way. It 
 flows simply from this,, tliat we feel we may 
 not rightly ask of God to interfere with, that 
 which we see to be fixed according to His will. 
 Whether He may_, under special circumstances, 
 and within certain limits, be pleased to alter 
 even the established order of the world, for 
 His own higher purposes, in what we com- 
 monly speak of as a miraculous way; what 
 does exactly constitute a miracle, and how far 
 even it may be due, not to any violation of 
 established laws, but to the introduction of 
 higher laws, by which their ordinary action is 
 overruled — these are points which it does not 
 belong to us to discuss here. Though it may 
 be suggested in passing, that possibly the very 
 fixity of the order of nature, which is supposed 
 to render miracles impossible, may be or- 
 dained for this reason, among others — to make 
 miracles possible, in order to give the only 
 possible outward evidence of Divine authority, 
 and afford credentials to a messenger from God. 
 Were the order of nature not fixed as it is, 
 there could be no occasional interruption of 
 that fixed order to be observed. And, apart 
 from this, there would be no outward sensible 
 proof possible, so far as we know, to assure us 
 that one came to our world with direct illumi- 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 31 
 
 nation from God. Miracles and prophecy — i. e. 
 supernatural power in deed and word — are 
 the outward evidences of the faith. And these 
 imply and require the establishment of a fixed 
 order with which they are contrasted. The 
 unusual involves the usual course. The super- 
 natural would not be observed, unless the order 
 of nature were fixed. 
 
 But all we are concerned with here is this : 
 that we do see, in great measure, an established 
 order of nature, proving to us by its very existence 
 that it is God's will that it should be so. And 
 with that order we do not ask of Him therefore 
 to interfere, under ordinary circumstances, sim- 
 ply as behoving that we should not be asking 
 for that which is in accordance with His perfect 
 Will. We see that the sun always does rise 
 according to a fixed course in nature. Wc 
 know that those once dead do not return to life 
 again. We believe these things, then, to be 
 fixed. And, therefore, we do not ask of God 
 that the sun should not rise on the morrow, or 
 that the loved one who is gone should be re- 
 stored to hfe. But it is not from a moment's 
 doubt of God's power to interfere. We believe 
 that one day the sun will cease to shine, and 
 that all who are dead will hereafter be recalled 
 to a new life. It is our convictioD as to God's 
 
32 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 will, not any doubt as to His power,, or His 
 willingness in itself to listen to our petitions, 
 wliicli sets the limit to what we ask of Him in 
 prayer. 
 
 And with regard to that which is brought 
 forward further in favour of the view that our 
 not asking for what would be miraculous proves 
 the invalidity of prayer, it too is wholly without 
 weight. For when it is argued that even in 
 those cases where the event seems contingent 
 or uncertain, and not fixed according to an or- 
 dinarily unalterable law, we only refer the result 
 to God^s interposition where we cannot trace 
 the natural cause ; and that this ignorance is at 
 the root of our confidence in prayer ; — this is 
 an error throughout. We may quite attribute 
 a cure to certain medicines prescribed, and yet 
 believe that it may have been owing to the pre- 
 vailing influence of prayer that the medicine was 
 given which, in a natural way, wrought the cure. 
 We can attribute the deliverance of a vessel from 
 shipwreck to the change of wind which aided 
 the vessel or allayed the storm ; and yet equally 
 believe that the causes which brought about its 
 deliverance were set in motion by the interposi- 
 tion of God. It may well be, to refer to the 
 well-known saying, that a change of weather 
 cannot come unless the wind blows from a 
 
PijAYEK AND MODERN THOUGHT. 33 
 
 different quarter. But wlio can say liow the 
 wind_, which ^^bloweth where it listeth/^ may 
 be made to blow in one direction rather than in 
 another ; what agencies may be set to work in 
 that wide region of the physical universe which 
 lies beyond our ken, and so the desired result 
 in the change of weather be produced ; and this 
 in answer to prayer ? We may assign to physi- 
 cal causes, or to human efforts, the manes by 
 which a pestilence has been staved off or re- 
 moved, and at the same time look to God as the 
 Cause of those physical agencies being set in 
 motion, or those human efforts put forth. It is 
 in no way the truth that we assign to God's 
 interposition those effects only of which we are 
 unable to trace the proximate cause. Where it 
 may be that the interposition of a higher Power 
 may be introduced, we cannot tell. In attempt- 
 ing to follow the chain of causation we can, in 
 fact, go but a little way at most. We may 
 know that disease is the result of a certain con- 
 dition of the atmosphere as a proximate cause ; 
 we may be able to refer that condition of the 
 atmosphere to some further cause of which it is 
 itself the effect. But we can go only a short 
 way in tracing thus the links of the chain. 
 And we are wholly in the dark, therefore, as to 
 where and in vjhat luay the action of a certain 
 
 D 
 
34 PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 agency may have been introduced so as to 
 produce among us^ if it be so_, some evil as a 
 chastisement^ or to remove some trouble and 
 confer some blessing, in answer to prayer. Were 
 the light of science so strong as to light up for 
 us the secrets of nature, and show us the whole 
 chain of cause and effect, of which we now see 
 at most only some few links at the lower end 
 of the chain, it could but lead us up at last to 
 the one great Cause ; and the last visible effect 
 would then be the result of His will, if viewed 
 in the ultimate som^ce in which it took its rise. 
 So certainly is it not owing to our being igno- 
 rant of the causes from which effects are 
 produced that we attribute them to Divine 
 interposition in answer to prayer. 
 
 That they are the result of Divine interposi- 
 tion, or that that interposition, if there be 
 such, is granted in answer to our prayer, are 
 points which our argument here in no way 
 endeavours to prove. All that is shown, or 
 that we attempt to show, is, first, that no con- 
 clusion against the validity of prayer and the 
 possibility of Divine interposition can be drawn 
 from the fact that we do not venture to make 
 that which requires a miracle for its accom- 
 plishment the object of our prayers; and, 
 secondly, that there is no truth whatever in 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 35 
 
 the view that we refer those results only to 
 Divine interposition of which we cannot trace 
 the proximate cause ; that^ in fact^ the pious 
 mind does but refer to God what the ignorant 
 attribute to chance^ and the scientific under- 
 standing assigns to some fixed, though at 
 present unknown, law. Such a view is alto- 
 gether an untrue account of a believer^s trust 
 in the power of prayer. He believes, I con- 
 ceive, quite as much that those efi'ects are pro- 
 duced through Divine interposition of which 
 the direct causes can be traced; though where 
 and in what way (as was said before) agencies 
 are introduced into a chain of causation, 
 through which the result is brought about, 
 is a point which he does not profess to be able 
 to show. But still, if all the steps could be 
 traced, they would probably, he believes, but 
 lead up to the one great Cause to whose in- 
 terposition the result is due. A. has been suf- 
 fering under a severe sickness. His recovery 
 he attributes to the instrumentality of B., 
 though he assigns a certain medicine as the 
 immediate cause of his cure. Could he trace 
 all the steps through which his admission of his 
 pain to B., or to some one who communicated 
 it to B., led to the physician being sent and 
 the remedy applied, he would not one whit the 
 D 2 
 
36 PRAYEE AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 less — perhaps only the more certainly — refer 
 with gratitude his cure to the interposition of 
 B. in his behalf. Or again_, to take another 
 instance : a ship is on the rocks in a storm. 
 Death threatens all in it. Those on shore mark 
 their signals of distress,, and provide the means 
 for their escape. And those rescued feel that 
 they owe to them their deliverance, while they 
 listen to the steps through which that deliver- 
 ance was secured. The ignorant might assign 
 to chance the fact that the projectile reached 
 them with its rope attached by which they were 
 enabled to gain the shore. The scientific man 
 might calmly show the beautiful laws of motion 
 by which it was directed to the spot where they 
 were. The more truly wise would see reason 
 for deepest gratitude to those who had exerted 
 themselves to effect for them a deliverance from 
 impending death. And the higher, spiritual 
 mind would go one step farther, and see in this 
 at least a figure, possibly an actual instance, of 
 God^s interposition to meet man^s necessities 
 and answer his prayers. 
 
 Thus it is in no way a valid argument against 
 the efficacy of prayer to say that we do not 
 ask of God to work a miracle in answer to our 
 prayers. It is by no means true that we attri- 
 bute to Divine interposition meeting our re- 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 37 
 
 quests only those effects which we are not, 
 Avith our present knowledge, able to attribute 
 to any known direct antecedent or cause. There 
 are good reasons why ^^no sane and moderately 
 intelligent person'' would think of praying 
 when he '' has an absolute conviction that the 
 events in question are so fixed, unaltering and 
 unalterable, that they are beyond the scope of 
 prayer.'' Alike, whether he can or cannot 
 refer an event to its known proximate cg^use, 
 the believer can assign it ultimately to Divine 
 interposition, and that in answer to his prayer. 
 
38 
 
 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PRAYER IN RELATION TO THE GREATNESS OP GOD. 
 
 Granted,, now^ that tlie idea of prayer being 
 heard and answered by the Supreme Being is 
 not ^ incompatible with the idea of the fixed 
 order of the universe^ which is^ as a general 
 rule, everywhere maintained : still, it may be 
 contended, the belief in prayer is unreason- 
 able, as being inconsistent with our idea of the 
 greatness of God. Think how immeasurably, 
 nay, how inconceivably great, must God be! 
 Think of all the wonders and beauties of our 
 own world as they lie spread out before our 
 view; still more, as they are sKown by the 
 light of science investigating the deeper things 
 which do not so obviously present themselves 
 to the mind, and drawing out the secrets of 
 nature through careful observation and experi- 
 ment, and the processes of inference founded 
 upon them. Go on to think of those other 
 worlds which people space, some of which have 
 been brought more or less within the range 
 of our knowledge through the appliances of 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 39 
 
 powerful instruments aiding the natural powers 
 of sight. Extend your tliouglit to the worlds 
 and systems of worlds which may exist pos- 
 sibly in the realms which lie indefinitely ex- 
 tended altogether beyond our view. Consider 
 how one mighty unseen Spirit called the whole 
 into being at the first, and imparted to certain 
 portions of it that force which pervades mat- 
 ter in a thousand various forms, and gave to 
 other portions of it that still more mysterious 
 and diversified power which we call '' life.''^ 'And 
 then reflect whether it is reasonable to suppose 
 that this most mighty Being, the Infinite Creator, 
 Sustainer, and Lord of all, can bend His ear to 
 the prayers — and so order the course of things 
 in His vast universe as to affect the interests 
 — of each single unit in one, perhaps compara- 
 tively insignificant, world. So an objector may 
 fairly argue in opposition to the doctrine of the 
 efficacy of prayer. So many a one may think, 
 perhaps, for a moment, in the half- formed 
 fancy of his mind. And the shadow of doubt, 
 as of a passing cloud, may dim the bright sun- 
 light of God^s presence falling on the soul to 
 cheer and gladden it as it lifts itself up in the 
 hour of sorrow in prayer to its Father in 
 Heaven for His help from on high. 
 
 The general argument, which has here been 
 
40 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 applied to tte particular question of the efficacy 
 of prayer^ regarded as contradicting the sup- 
 position of any interference with our world on 
 the part of God, has been so forcibly urged by 
 one of our first scientific men, that to quote it 
 will put the objection here considered in the 
 strongest light. It must be premised that the 
 application of the words of David given at the 
 close cannot be accepted for a moment, as will 
 be shown farther on. ^' Transferring thought/' 
 he writes, ^' from our little sand-grain of an 
 earth to the immeasurable heavens where 
 countless worlds, with their freights of life, 
 probably revolve unseen, the very suns which 
 warm them being scarcely seen by us across 
 abysmal space; reflecting that beyond these 
 sparks of solar fire suns innumerable may lie 
 whose light can never stir the optic nerve at 
 all j and bringing this conception face to face 
 with the idea that the Builder and Sustainer of 
 it all should contract Himself to a burning 
 bush, or behave in other familiar ways ascribed 
 to Him — it is easy to understand how astound- 
 ing the incongruity must appear to the scien- 
 tific man. Under the pressure of the awe 
 which this universe inspires, well may we ex- 
 claim, in David's spirit, if not in David's 
 words, ^ When I consider Thy heavens, the 
 
PEAYER AKD MODERN THOUGHT. 41 
 
 work of Thy fingers^ tlie moon and the stars 
 which Thon hast ordained, what is man that 
 Thou shouldest be mindful of him ? or the son 
 of man that Thou shouldest visit him ?^ ^^ 
 
 Now, perhaps, with regard to the whole of 
 this argument, it must be said that we are in 
 error, not knowing the true nature of the 
 greatness of God. We make very free in our 
 conceptions of Him, and our thoughts as to 
 what His dealings must be. But, probably, we 
 ought to view it as an essential part of the 
 idea of His infinite greatness that nothing 
 should be too minute to engage His sympathy 
 and care, as well as that nothing should be too 
 grand for His direction and control. Even in 
 our judgment with regard to men on earth, we 
 do not count it a part of true greatness, but the 
 reverse, that a man should be able to give his 
 thoughts and attention to wide views only, and 
 larger schemes of utility in political and social 
 life, while unable to give heed to minuter de- 
 tails and individual needs. We accept it as a 
 necessary imperfection. We do not commend 
 it as a virtue in the least. Perhaps the notion 
 of its being part of greatness arises from this, 
 that we jprefer the power which can take wider 
 views ordy, to that which is capable of dealing 
 with smaller details alone. 
 
42 PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 To tliis must be added, tliat we are very 
 imperfect judges as to what may be great and 
 small in the eye of God. Before Him, Who is 
 Infinite, probably much of the distinction be- 
 tween great and small, as we draw it, may 
 vanish in great measure : much as, with our- 
 selves, the difference of hill and vale, which we 
 see when we are on a plain, is lost when we 
 look down on all from some height above. 
 Often, too, we are led to discover that those 
 things which seemed before to us insignificant, 
 have a most important bearing, and exercise a 
 great influence, far beyond what we should 
 have supposed possible before. Indeed, I con- 
 ceive one great lesson which we learn in the 
 school of experience is, how very much turns 
 upon little things : how much, sometimes, the 
 main formation of a character eventually, per- 
 haps some great influential movement affecting 
 the destiny of a country or a race, may have 
 been the result of some (as it seemed in it- 
 self) insignificant event ; how much good may 
 be hindered, or evil done, through the inter- 
 vention of something seemingly trifling and 
 small. And the scientific inquirer, I imagine, 
 would say that his observations lead him to the 
 same result. And thus we cannot judge how 
 any one event, occurring in any one portion 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 43 
 
 of the universe,, may appear to the view of 
 an All-seeing God. 
 
 And^ in confirmation of this, it must be said 
 thatj as a fact, the same Infinite wisdom, the 
 same tender care, is displayed in the construc- 
 tion of the least, as of the greatest, of the 
 works of God^s Hand. The mechanism may 
 be less complex, the adaptation of means to 
 ends may be more simple, in some cases than 
 in others. But there is the same perfection 
 in its kind in the mechanism given; there is 
 the same application of means to the ends to 
 be produced, alike in the smallest and in the 
 greatest of the organisms in the animal and 
 vegetable kingdoms ; alike in those which seem 
 to play a humbler, and in those which perform 
 a more important part in the economy of the 
 world. We cannot, in fact, trace any sign of 
 such differences as are often made by our- 
 selves, in the attention, if we may so speak 
 with reverence, given to the various portions of 
 the universe by God. 
 
 And the farther scientific inquiry penetrates 
 into the minutiae of nature, the more it seems 
 to confirm this view. Improved appliances 
 enable the mind to investigate farther, and 
 bring before the view minute objects which 
 were unobserved before. The division of la- 
 
44 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 bour, which is being continually carried farther 
 and farther on, gives opportunity for more de- 
 tailed examination of particular points. And 
 the result is in all cases the same. All things 
 alike, the smallest as well as the greatest, reflect 
 the goodness of God, and display at once His 
 power and His loving care. There is no such 
 thing as neglect of small things, or compara- 
 tive indifference to them, discernible in the 
 works of the Almighty Creator. The same 
 magnifying power which brings out the flaws 
 and imperfections of the minuter parts of human 
 workmanship, though these parts may have ap- 
 peared sufficiently good before, does but reveal 
 the same perfection and the same exquisite skill 
 of the great and loving Artificer, shown equally 
 in the smallest and the greatest of His works. 
 
 But after all there is a yet higher point of 
 view, regarded from which the difficulties with 
 respect to the reasonableness of prayer, arising 
 from a consideration of the greatness of God, 
 almost entirely fade away. For prayer, as it 
 rises up to the great Creator, has reference, to 
 a great extent, to the condition and the wants 
 of man : and man is, indeed, very great. De- 
 graded as he may be from his high position, in 
 great measure, through the abuse of the very 
 freedom which in part constitutes his high pre- 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 45 
 
 rogative and his greatness ; with his powers of 
 body, mind, and soul to a great degree im- 
 paired — man bears about with him the marks 
 of intrinsic greatness still. He may be more 
 or less a ruin ; but he is a noble ruin none the 
 less. Put aside, if you will, the Scripture reve- 
 lation that man is made "in the image of God.^'' 
 Reject, if it be so, the Christian doctrine that 
 God became Man, which seems to involve in it 
 the correlative doctrine which renders the other 
 possible, that man partakes of the nature of 
 God. Still, view man as he is, in his complex 
 organization and bodily powers ; view him in his 
 high intellectual capabilities ; view him in his 
 susceptibility to lofty, intense, lasting devotion, 
 his deep spiritual yearnings after things higher 
 than any which this world can supply, and a 
 perfection which he cannot in himself attain; 
 view him, once more, in the degree of develop- 
 ment possible to him, and to him alone — and 
 all must admit the inherent greatness of man. 
 The seeming superiority of the lasting, mighty, 
 outward world over man, in his transitory ex- 
 istence, his feeble powers, vanishes as the gifted 
 nature of man's immortal spirit comes into 
 view. The sophist-whisper of doubt is hushed ; 
 the confidence of the trustful spirit, as it pours 
 forth itself in prayer, is restored. We cease 
 
46 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 to wonder that tlie great God should listen to 
 the prayers of His — as He designed him to be 
 — great, and noble,, and god-like child. 
 
 And it is only carrying the same argument 
 one step farther to add, before concluding this 
 chapter, that the same God Who has given to 
 man this high being, this glorious destiny, does 
 also, we believe, watch over him, as a fact, with 
 special care. We take the words of the Psalmist 
 in a sense just the opposite to that given to 
 them by the distinguished scientific man re- 
 ferred to before, '' What is man, that Thou art 
 mindful of him : and the son of man, that Thou 
 dost visit him ? '^ The turn given to the ex- 
 pression of David, '^Hhat Thou shouldest be 
 mindful of him,^^ and " that Thou shouldest visit 
 him,''^ is not, it has been truly said, in David^s 
 spirit any more than in David^s words. " What 
 is man that Thou shouldest be mindful of him? ^^ 
 means that the supposition is inadmissible. 
 '^ What is man that Thou art mindful of him V 
 means that the fact is certain. Indeed that 
 God has been mindful of man by wondrous 
 interpositions of His Providence, and special 
 effusions of His grace; that God has visited 
 man in the Person of His own eternal Bon — 
 these are truths which all will admit who accept 
 the Bible as the true record of God's dealings 
 
PEAYER AND MODEEN THOUGHT. 47 
 
 witli mankind. But_, putting this quite aside 
 now, no one who looks out on outward nature, 
 and marks its wonderful adaptation tkrougkout 
 to the wants and the enjoyments of man, so 
 that it must be regarded as designed to minister 
 to man^s needs and man^s happiness, whatever 
 other ends it may serve in the multiform pur- 
 poses of God — scarcely any one who marks the 
 history of his own individual life — can fail to 
 believe that a higher Power watches over men, 
 and directs the course of events for their good. 
 And, if so, difficulties as to the reasonableness 
 of prayer in reference to God''s greatness are 
 so far removed. 
 
 And thus, whether we reflect on the true 
 nature of the greatness of God, to Whom prayer 
 is addressed, or the intrinsic greatness of man, 
 according to the design of God — which may, 
 perhaps, make things in reference to their bear- 
 ing on man, though in themselves insignificant, 
 great in His sight — for things are great or 
 small, sometimes, by reference to that to which 
 they have regard — and the beneficent care 
 for man's interests everywhere displayed, we 
 can see no ground in this admitted greatness 
 of the Almighty Creator for thinking that 
 prayer is unreasonable, or doubting that it may 
 be effectual with Him. 
 
48 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PRAYER IN RELATION TO THE WISDOM AND UN- 
 CHANGEABLENESS OF GOD. 
 
 But it may be urged that; however the idea of 
 prayer being heard and answered may be shown 
 to be compatible with the greatness of the 
 Infinite Being Who has made and sustains our 
 world; still it is quite incompatible with the idea 
 which we naturally entertain of the perfect wis- 
 dom and absolute unchangeableness of God. 
 Were there_, it may be argued_, (if it can be said 
 with reverence,) any possibility of error with God, 
 if there were any conceivable room for change or 
 caprice with Him, then it would be reasonable to 
 imagine Him changed and moved by sympathy 
 with man in his sorrows, directed by man's 
 declarations of his needs, influenced by that 
 delighting, confiding communion with Him 
 which constitutes the most true, comprehensive 
 view of prayer. But when we think of Him 
 rightly as perfectly wise, planning everything 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 49 
 
 with unerring foresight^ exactly in sucli manner 
 as is best ; and when we go on to conceive Him 
 as wholly unchangeable, without variableness 
 or shadow of turning, is it anything less than 
 supposing Him to contradict His very Being, 
 to imagine Him directed in His disposi- 
 tion of events by man^s petitions; moved to 
 change, and perform that which He would not 
 otherwise have performed, in answer to man^s 
 prayers ? 
 
 To put the matter in another way. If God 
 is influenced by man^s prayers in ordering the 
 course of events in the world, it must be either 
 with reference to the ends in view, or in reference 
 to the means by which they are to be produced. 
 Now we cannot think it possible that any ends 
 should be in His view but those which are 
 highest and best : the glory of God, and the 
 true well-being of man. , And, similarly, we 
 may be sure that the means employed by Him 
 are just those which are the most fitted for 
 compassing the ends in view. Whereas to 
 suppose Him to adopt one course in preference 
 to another, in answer to our prayers, implies 
 that the course v/hich would have been followed, 
 had our prayers not intervened, would either 
 have been a wrong one in reference to the end 
 to be attained, or, at least, not so good a one 
 
 E 
 
50 PEATER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 as tlie course adopted at our suggestion and in 
 consequence of our prayer. And thus there 
 is no place left for the supposed influence of 
 prayer as moving the will and afl'ecting the 
 counsels of an all-wise and unchanging God. 
 
 Now^ with regard to this latter way of exhi- 
 biting the argument^ (which I hope has been 
 stated in the very fullest and fairest way)_, it 
 must be said^ first of all^ that we do not know 
 how far this method of analyzing conduct into 
 ends and means applies to the system of manage- 
 ment of an Infinite God. We can speak of means 
 and ends J in regard to the motive powers by 
 whichoz(r ozf^i wills are set on work. Butwemust 
 speak with caution when we a]3ply the same dis- 
 tinction to the Divine action_, except as a means 
 of representing it more clearly to ourselves. 
 
 And_, with respect to the argument at large^ 
 it may fairly be maintained that it supposes 
 quite a difi'erent state of things from that which 
 exists,, as a fact, in the world. It takes no 
 account of the actually existing condition of 
 things^ which^ when observed, destroys the 
 argument at the very roots. What is meant 
 will be understood more exactly if the follow- 
 ing considerations are duly weighed. 
 
 Imagine a man — to view the matter on a small 
 human scale first — ordering his household with 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 51 
 
 the most consummate wisdom supposable in 
 man_, with the highest ends proposed, and all 
 things made to converge with perfect accuracy 
 towards those ends. And further, let all in his 
 household move with mechanical order, such as 
 is observed in the outward world, never diverg- 
 ing from their prescribed orbit, performing the 
 parts assigned to them according to strict law. 
 There is now no room for the supposition of 
 change, except on the supposition of error on 
 the part of him by whom all was in the first 
 instance arranged. 
 
 But admit into this system of things the 
 element of free-will ; grant that the members 
 of the hojisehold are allowed to act freely, 
 within certain limits indeed, and under con- 
 ditions influencing their action to a great de- 
 gree, but with an admitted freedom still — and 
 the state of the case is changed at once. For^ 
 through the action of this freedom, new con- 
 ditions and new combinations of circumstances 
 are introduced, owing to which new arrange- 
 ments in the course of events may become 
 possible or necessary, without any disparage- 
 ment of the wisdom of the ruler of the household 
 at all. His principles of administration, his view 
 of what is best, and most expedient for the end 
 in view, may, nevertheless, remain unchanged. 
 E 2 
 
52 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 That He Whom we have in view is not man, 
 but Almighty God ; that His wisdom is Infi- 
 nite, in contrast with the finite wisdom of the 
 wisest of mankind; and that the sphere in 
 which His wisdom is exercised is one infi- 
 nitely exceeding any in which man^s wisdom 
 can be called upon to act — makes no difierence 
 as to the argument in this case. Limit his 
 freedom as we may — represent it as influenced 
 by surrounding conditions as we will — man is 
 free. He cannot give up his freedom. He 
 can do, or abstain from doing. He may act in 
 this way, or that way, according to the, ul- 
 timately, self- determining power of the will. 
 And we can at once understand . how one 
 single act performed through this freedom 
 given to man^s will — especially one act out of 
 harmony with the will of God respecting His 
 creatures — may bring in its train a change in 
 the whole condition of things with which it is 
 connected. And thus that becomes possible 
 which would, indeed, but for man^s freedom, 
 have been inconsistent with the perfect wis- 
 dom of God, viz. change : change in the order 
 of events, which yet does not for a moment 
 contravene the perfect wisdom or the absolute 
 unchangeableness of God. 
 
 And thus those difficulties which were 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 53 
 
 stated at the outset of this chapter as to the 
 reasonableness of prayer, when considered in 
 relation to the perfect wisdom and absolute un- 
 changeableness of God, to a great extent disap- 
 pear. Contingency, not fixedness, is the order of 
 the world. The plan is, indeed, laid out by Infi- 
 nite wisdom. The principles of the Divine ad- 
 ministration remain absolutely unchanged. But 
 part of this very plan of wisdom is, to intro- 
 duce into the midst of the system a free agent, 
 who is, so far, a disturbing cause in the other- 
 wise fixed order of things. And the actual 
 administration of the world must be carried on 
 with a regard to the conditions which that 
 free agency may produce. Change; adaptation 
 of events to altered circumstances; remedial 
 provision for new wants — all these things, we 
 see, must form a part in the government of the 
 world, as a fact; for we do, as a fact, observe 
 the existence of things requiring them on every 
 side. And therefore, supposing prayer to be 
 efiectual at all, there is nothing unreasonable in 
 believing its efficacy, on the ground that all 
 is arranged by Infinite wisdom, and ordered by 
 a Being to Whom change is unknown. 
 
 It comes here in our way to notice, while 
 considering prayer in relation to the wisdom of 
 God, that reason itself can discover wise pur- 
 
54 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 poses wMcli this very condition of change^ 
 with the opportunities for prayer to which it 
 gives rise^ may be designed to serve. For no 
 one who observes man's nature simply as a 
 fact can fail to mark that he has certain ten- 
 dencies and desires which lift him up towards 
 things above this earthy and which we speak of 
 as ^^ spiritual.'''' So much so^ that we look on 
 any one as falling, so far, below his true being, 
 whose thoughts and affections are wholly 
 centred on earthly objects, in a way in which 
 we never speak of brute creatures when they, 
 following their nature, do the same. As, re- 
 versely, we admire and approve of, as rising up 
 to the true dignity of man's nature, one who 
 is — not refined merely, for mere refinement 
 carries us only a little way ; but — spiritually- 
 minded, having his thoughts and aspirations 
 and desires constantly lifted up above the 
 mere passing things of time and sense. And 
 that prayer has an obvious tendency to pro- 
 duce or advance this spiritual elevation, though 
 it is no proof in itself in favour of its efiicacy, 
 is yet an argument for it as part of the plan 
 laid down in His perfect wisdom for our world 
 by God. 
 
 This argument v/ould hold good on the 
 assumption that man is in an upright condi- 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 tion, and employs his powers according to 
 their original design. Even so_, as cultivating 
 and developing those powers higher and 
 higher^ there would be full room for the value 
 of prayer. But the argument becomes consi- 
 derably strengthened^ when man is vievv^ed as 
 fallen away from his true condition in some 
 measure^ or as being_, (as even one of the great 
 Heathen moralists could express it^) "Easily 
 carried away somehow to the pursuit of plea- 
 sure^ ^^ even though it may not be attainable 
 in accordance with what conscience within pre- 
 scribes as right. For^ when man is thus found 
 to abuse more or less the freedom which is 
 given him, and to feel confident in his own 
 powers, and to lose his regard for God and 
 allegiance to Him, and his sense of dependence 
 upon Him for help, what means can be con- 
 ceived more effectual for bringing hack man to 
 his true condition, as well as for educating and 
 advancing his spiritual faculties when so re- 
 stored, than this — that he should be led to 
 have constant recourse to God in prayer ; and 
 that, to a great extent, through the very diffi- 
 culties, troubles, and disorders, brought about 
 in the world by man^s disobedience, or imper- 
 fect obedience, to the will of God ? 
 
 These considerations apply to the subject of 
 
56 PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 prayer in relation to the wisdom of* God. And, 
 in a similar way, witii reference to prayer in 
 relation to tlie uncliangeableness of God, it must 
 be observed that tlie idea of God wliich 
 must be presumed in dealing with the ques- 
 tion of prayer at all is not as an immutable 
 system, but as a Person, a Personal Being. 
 And with the idea of personality we essentially 
 connect the idea of Will. And Will, we natu- 
 rally think of as capable of being influenced. 
 So that we regard as the highest form of will, 
 not that which is the most stern and unbend- 
 ing, but that which is most delicately sensitive 
 to the wants and wishes and requests of those 
 around : the strict principles of right by which 
 it is regulated being all the while inflexibly 
 maintained. And thus, so far as human reason 
 can guide us, we may well conceive of God as 
 unchangeable in His Infinite perfection, and 
 yet influenced by man^s petitions offered up 
 amid the ever- varying circumstances of man^s 
 life in the world. 
 
 So that, view the matter which way we will, 
 there is really nothing unreasonable, but the 
 reverse, in the idea of the efficacy of prayer, 
 regarded in reference to the Infinite wisdom 
 and Absolute unchangeableness which form an 
 integral part of our conception of God. 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 57 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 PRAYER IN RELATION TO THE GOODNESS OP GOD. 
 
 But it may be contended that the whole argu- 
 ment maintained in the last chapter, as well as 
 in that of the chapter which preceded it, leaves 
 out of sight altogether the goodness and bene- 
 ficence of God. It may be granted that God 
 is so great, so infinitely great, that nothing can 
 be too small, too trifling (as we deem it) to 
 engage His notice, and draw to it His care. It 
 may be admitted that, in the scheme which His 
 infinite wisdom has planned, there is place for 
 His continual interposition, according to the 
 variation of circumstances which man^s free 
 agency may introduce, and this without any 
 violation of the absolute unchangeableness 
 which we attribute to God. But still, granted 
 all this, it may be said that the perfect good- 
 ness of God presents an insuperable difficulty 
 in the way of our believing in the efficacy of 
 
58 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 prayer. If God is All-good and All-wise, He 
 cannot need to be told of, He cannot require to 
 be implored to supply, tlie wants of tlie crea- 
 tures of His liand.^ 
 
 Or tbe objection may be stated tbus, to put 
 it in its strongest form : — Suppose God to have 
 listened to tlie prayer of one in need, and to 
 have answered it according to tlie wishes of liim 
 by whom it was offered up. Now, either we 
 must suppose Him to have been ignorant of 
 the man^s need, though willing to supply it 
 when known; and then the perfect wisdom 
 and foreknowledge of God are impugned. Or 
 else we must suppose Him to have known the 
 man''s wants beforehand, and yet to have re- 
 quired to be moved to supply them ; and this is 
 contrary to our idea of God's perfect goodness and 
 love, according to which we must suppose Him 
 ready and willing always to bestow that at once 
 which He knows to be truly best for each. And 
 then, in this way, it may be said, by the idea 
 of the efficacy of prayer either the perfect 
 
 1 " We seem to think" (one writer says) " either that God 
 does not know what we need, or, at all events, what we 
 would rather have : or that He would be offended if we did 
 not tell Him, although He knows. And we are indignant 
 with those who tell us (as the scientific thinker does) that 
 our prayers for such matters are a pure waste of breath." 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 59 
 
 goodness or tlie perfect wisdom of God is 
 arraigned. 
 
 The argument in itself must be admitted to 
 be a strong one. Indeed,, it might be difficult 
 apparently to know how it is to be answered, 
 if it were not found to be opposed to another 
 set of facts, which show by analogy the error 
 of the grounds on which the argument is based. 
 We may not venture to affirm much as to the 
 purposes which may have been in the view of 
 the All-wise Creator when He planned the 
 system of our world. But we may at least 
 conceive it possible that, in ordaining among 
 men the existence of the relationships of father 
 to son, ruler to subjects, and the like. He de- 
 signed to give us a figure of those spiritual 
 relationships in which we stand to Him. And 
 certainly, we cannot go wrong in considering 
 that which does, as a fact, hold with regard 
 to those earthly relations, and applying what is 
 thus ascertained, as a means of explaining what 
 may he true as to the relation in which we 
 stand to our Creator, though it cannot, of course, 
 show that it is. It will be enough to remove 
 difficulties, if not to affiDrd proof. 
 
 Now, it is quite clear that what seems to 
 raise a difficulty with regard to the efficacy of 
 prayer, when it is viewed in relation to the 
 
60 PEAYER AND MODERN THOUaHT. 
 
 perfect goodness of God^ occurs with respect 
 to the dealings of a child with its parent, where, 
 notwithstanding, no such difficulty is felt. The 
 parent grants the request of the child. Nay, 
 in many cases, whether the thing to be granted 
 is bestowed or not, depends on its being asked 
 for or not. The fault of the argument now 
 becomes clear at once. We could not argue 
 against the wisdom or the love of the parent, 
 because he waited to be asked by the child. 
 We cannot say that he must have known what 
 the child would desire, and what it might de- 
 sire rightly, and yet have withheld it through 
 deficiency of love ; or else that he must have 
 been ignorant as to what it would rightly desire, 
 though willing to acquiesce in its desire, and 
 grant it, when made known. We see at once 
 that there is a fallacy in the argument some- 
 where, in this case. And therefore we may 
 quite infer that there may similarly be a flaw in 
 the argument, when it is applied to the dealings 
 of God with man. 
 
 And if we go on to examine how this is, we 
 find it to arise from this in great measure, that 
 the mere supply of the wants of the person 
 making the petition, is not the whole account 
 of the matter either in the one case or the other. 
 There is a moral and spiritual character to be 
 
PRAYEK AND MODERN THOUGHT. 61 
 
 educated,, as well as a physical nature whose 
 wants are to be supplied. And these two are 
 very closely interlinked ; so that it is very much 
 through the instrumentality of the lower part 
 of man's being, that the development and 
 guidance of the higher is carried on. The child 
 wants something allowable, nay desirable, nay 
 (we will suppose) absolutely necessary for its 
 support. And yet it may argue nothing against 
 either the intelligent care of the parent for his 
 child, or against the sincerity of his love, that 
 he desires request for the thing needed to be 
 made. There is a sense of dependence to be 
 brought out, where the state of dependence is 
 the condition of the child as a fact. There is a 
 consciousness of weakness to be elicited and 
 trained, that rashness and over-confidence may 
 be checked, and self-reliance, resting on its true 
 foundations, may eventually be reared. There 
 is an appreciation of the parent's kindness and 
 love to be cultivated ; perhaps the knowledge 
 of his wiser foresight, by which the very wants 
 in question have had provision made for them 
 long before, to be gained. There is the high 
 and noble feeling of gratitude to be drawn 
 forth, by which man is to be linked to his 
 fellow-man in the golden chains of love, and a 
 fresh rivet is to be added to the great system of 
 
62 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 uuion, tlirough wliicli the social order and 
 well-being of mankind are maintained. And 
 these faculties of man are called into action^ 
 these qualities of his moral being are developed, 
 through the prayer of the child to his parent, 
 or the friend to his friend, which is the expres- 
 sion of that which is passing within, the out- 
 ward action (if we may so term it) of the inner 
 being, which — as all outward action does — 
 stamps a more deep and lasting impress on the 
 character of the inner life. 
 
 And thus, by parity of reasoning*, we may 
 argue that there is nothing unreasonable, but 
 the reverse, in our being required to make 
 known our requests to God, Who yet does not, 
 in Himself, either need to be informed of 
 them, as if He v/ere ignorant, or to be moved 
 to supply them, as if He were wanting in love. 
 Granted that we are — which must be supposed, 
 in order even for the difficulty to be raised — 
 dependent upon the care of God, and that He 
 is as willing as He is able to extend to us 
 His care, still it may well be His will that we 
 should address Him in prayer, setting forth our 
 desires and our wants; and that He should 
 make His grant dependent in great measure on 
 our request. Were it otherwise ; were all our 
 wants supplied at once, and without any sup- 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 63 
 
 plication made on our part to God, it is easy to 
 see what tlie natural consequences would be. 
 We should cease very much to think of God as 
 a Personal Being, and more, as our Father in 
 Heaven : much as a child might cease to think 
 of his earthly parent, if he were cut off from all 
 communion with him ; though his wants might 
 be really supplied, as a fact, by the parent in 
 an indirect way. We should soon forget our 
 dependence upon God, and place ourselves in a 
 false position, as imagining ourselves to be 
 independent, with all our needs supplied ac- 
 cording to an unfailing law. And with that 
 imaginary independence would come a spirit of 
 absolute self-reliance, trust to the keen intellect, 
 and the indomitable energy, and the strong 
 will, which are to the man, for the time, as his 
 God. And with the growth of this confidence 
 in self would vanish that grateful adoration of 
 a higher, unseen Power which arises from, and 
 itself in turn cherishes and increases, the sense 
 of being from moment to moment v/atched over 
 by the care of an All-wise and All-loving God. 
 And so, with the notes of prayer to God, would 
 die away the notes of thanksgiving too. And 
 with the loss of gratitude, would be lost also 
 very much of our theme of praise. For the 
 spirit would less occupy itself in searching out 
 
64- PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 the attributes of God, and exploring new ranges 
 in which they are displayed. Love and grati- 
 tude would no longer fire it with desire to 
 search out fresh and fresh manifestations of His 
 infinite wisdom and power and beneficence, in 
 the composition and order of outward nature, 
 and in the disposition of events in their bearing 
 on political, social, domestic life in the world. 
 And in this way, a living faith in God, and 
 constant thought of Him, as He is in Himself, 
 and as the giver of all temporal and spiritual 
 blessings to men, would gradually die out, not 
 being kept alive, and called forth, by the con- 
 stant action of prayer. And man would not 
 become fitted, by communion with God, and 
 that lifting up of the spirit to Him, which goes 
 far towards elevating the spirit into likeness to 
 Him on Whom it spiritually looks, for being 
 with Him, and holding communion with Him, 
 in a future, eternal state. 
 
 So clearly is it apparent — not to pursue the 
 subject any farther — how very much depends 
 on our being led to make our requests, as 
 children to a parent, to God in prayer. So 
 compatible does the efficacy of prayer appear 
 not only with the infinite wisdom, but also with 
 the absolute love, of God. So reasonable, even 
 on grounds which human sagacity can discover. 
 
PEAYEE AND MODERN THODGHT. 65 
 
 is the precept of the Apostle_, ^' In everything, 
 by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, 
 let your requests be made known unto God/^ 
 So much does it evince the wise, loving care of 
 God for His children, so much does it bear 
 witness to His goodness, instead of being in- 
 compatible with it, that the supply of man^s 
 wants should be made, in great measure, 
 dependent on man^s prayer. 
 
66 TEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PRAYER IN RELATION TO THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF 
 GOD. 
 
 The observations advanced in the foregoing 
 chapters will, practically, have met very much 
 any difficulty which may be felt as to the rea- 
 sonableness of prayer, arising from a consider- 
 ation of the absolute foreknowledge of God, 
 and perfect pre-ordination of all things by Him. 
 But still, in case the difficulty should lurk in 
 the minds of any, with all the more force, 
 because it is enveloped in mystery, and its 
 dimensions are not exactly ascertained, it may 
 be well to devote a few pages to this subject 
 in particular. The difficulty shall be fully and 
 fairly stated first. And then such reflections 
 shall be offered as may seem in some measure 
 to meet the difficulty, so far as we are able at 
 all to comprehend a matter so much above our 
 understanding as the foreknowledge and fore- 
 ordination of God. 
 
 To state the difficulty first. If all that is to be 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. Q'J 
 
 is perfectly foreseen^ as we must suppose it to 
 be^byHim before Whom^ in His infinite wisdom, 
 the whole future must be open to the view ; if, 
 further, it is not only foreknown, but also fore- 
 ordained, so that nothing can happen but what 
 is in accordance with the fore-ordained plan of 
 His perfect will, what place, it may be thought, 
 is there here for prayer ? If that which we ask 
 for — as, e. g., a fruitful season, or the recovery 
 of one from illness, or the safe journey of one 
 whom we love — is already fore-ordained in the 
 counsels of Infinite Wisdom, directing the 
 course of our world, what need is there that we 
 should pray for it, or how can it be viewed as 
 granted in answer to our prayer ? If the mat- 
 ter be contingent, depending for its being 
 granted on our prayer, how can this be re- 
 conciled with the idea of God^s perfect know- 
 ledge as foreseeing. His infinite wisdom as 
 fore-ordaining, everything which is to come to 
 pass ? If it be dependent upon our prayer, 
 which is uncertain, how can it be certainly 
 fore-ordained ? If it be absolutely fore-ordained 
 and fixed, how can it be given in answer to our 
 prayers ? 
 
 Now, with regard to the whole matter of the 
 foreknowledge and the predestination of God, 
 it must be admitted to be so far beyond the 
 F 2 
 
68 PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 range of our faculties_, that we cannot fathom 
 it^ or solve all the difficulties to which it gives 
 rise. We must admit the facts on both sides, 
 without requiring that an absolutely satisfactory 
 harmony between them should be shown. On 
 the one hand, we cannot even conceive of the 
 Infinite Being otherwise than as knowing all 
 things, foreseeing the end from the beginning, 
 and also as arranging all things according to 
 the counsel of His perfect will. We cannot 
 imagine anything unforeseen by God, or as 
 resulting independently of Him on Whom all 
 things from moment to moment depend. And 
 yet, on the other hand, apart from the specula- 
 tive difficulties which disturb the minds of the 
 few, there is nothing felt practically to hinder 
 the child-like confidence with which we pour 
 forth our prayers to our Father in Heaven, 
 believing that He can, and will, order the course 
 of events in accordance with our requests, if 
 He sees that to do so will be really for our 
 good ; and believing also that His disposal of 
 events is, to a certain extent, dependent on our 
 prayers to Him. 
 
 And it may at least illustrate the position of 
 the question, if it does not assist us to solve the 
 difficulty, if we consider that the same problems 
 with regard to the foreknowledge and predes- 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 09 
 
 tination of events by God, meet us at other 
 points of spiritual inquiry as well. Tlie wliole 
 subject of our free-agency, of tlie wliole self- 
 determining power, to a certain extent, of man's 
 own will, stands in apparent conflict with tlie 
 doctrine that all things are foreknown and fore- 
 arranged of God, For how, it may be fairly 
 questioned, can we be perfectly free in doing 
 that, of good or of evil, which yet is not only 
 foreseen by God, but is also part of His scheme 
 whereby certain ends pre-arranged by Him are 
 carried out ? And the same difficulty occurs 
 also as to the moral government of God. If 
 our actions are foreknown and fore-ordained by 
 Him, how can they be the subjects of praise or 
 censure, reward or punishment ? " Why'' (in 
 the language of the objector introduced in 
 Scripture) '^ doth He yet find fault ? " is the 
 argument of the evil-doer. The virtuous man, 
 indeed, would not willingly give up his approval 
 and reward. And yet, as the heathen moralist 
 could see, virtue and vice stand on the same 
 footing. Both must be involuntary, or both 
 free. We cannot claim to be free in the case 
 of right- doing only, and in that to merit re- 
 ward, whilst we are irresponsible in doing 
 wrong. 
 
 These corresponding difficulties in matters 
 
70 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 more immediately under our notice, at least 
 illustrate the position in wliicli we stand as to 
 the question of the compatibility of God's pre- 
 arrangement of events,, in His perfect wisdom 
 and foreknowledge, with the eflScacy of prayer. 
 The two classes of facts in each case must 
 be set side by side, while it is admitted that 
 we cannot altogether harmonize the dealings of 
 a Being Who is infinite, with the requirements 
 of our finite thought. And the view of Bishop 
 Butler, when he regards the doctrine of the 
 Divine pre-ordination of events as compatible 
 with our free agency as a fact, and ]oractically, 
 may be applied to the efiicacy of prayer. " The 
 notion of necessity,' ' he writes^, '"'' is not appli- 
 cable to practical subjects : i. e. with respect 
 to them it is as if it were not true. ISTor does 
 this contain any reflection upon reason, but 
 only what is unreasonable. For, to pretend to 
 act upon reason, in opposition to practical prin- 
 ciples, which the Author of our nature gave us 
 to act upon, and to pretend to apply our reason 
 to subjects with regard to which our own short 
 views, and even our experience, will show us 
 cannot be depended upon — and such at least 
 the subject of necessity must be — this is vanity, 
 conceit, and unreasonableness.'' Or, as he 
 
 ^ " Analogy," part I. cli. vi. 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 71 
 
 simply sums it up at the end of tlie cliapter, 
 ^^ the opinion of necessity^ considered as prac- 
 tical_, is false/' 
 
 Lifting up our thoughts into a higher sphere^ 
 wherein an Infinite Being governs all things 
 with a wisdom such as we^ with our finite 
 powers^ can but faintly conceive^ we view all 
 things as absolutely foreknown^ all absolutely 
 fore-ordained_, (so far as we may apply to Him 
 the conditions of time which belong to our 
 minds^) in the counsels of His perfect will. 
 And then_, turning our eyes down to our own 
 little finite worlds we see men within that 
 mighty framework, as it were, of an Almighty 
 Being's superintending care, acting, as a fact, 
 as free ; governed, as a fact, as free ; and re- 
 warded or punished as responsible for what 
 they do. We admit the reasonableness of their 
 conduct in these cases ; nay, we should deem 
 it most unreasonable for men to act otherwise, 
 and attempt to live as if they were not free ; 
 and this, while yet reason, from another point 
 of view, cannot explain how it is that, in the 
 Divine system, they are free. We are sure 
 that, in some way, within the comprehensive 
 scheme of the Divine arrangement of things, 
 must be included man's freedom, and the results 
 which that freedom of action will produce. 
 
72 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 And^ in a like manner_, we see men kneeling 
 before tlieir unseen Creator in adoring grati- 
 tude and earnest prayer. And we admit tliat 
 here^ too^ there may be tlie action of a true 
 instinct_, and no mere delusion of tlie fancy^ 
 called forth by hope or fear ; though we may 
 be unable to explain wholly how the absolute 
 arrangement of events in the wisdom of an 
 Infinite Being, is to be harmonized with the 
 dependence of them in a measure on ourselves, 
 and our supplication to Him for the supply of 
 our individual needs, so that we can rightly 
 thank Him for mercies past, and pray to Him 
 for blessings to come. But we believe that all 
 may he harmonized fully. We accept both, 
 God^s fore- ordination of things, and the efficacy 
 of our prayers, as a fact. We think that, with 
 that mighty Being, not only all the volitions 
 and actions, but also all the prayers — all 
 the humble, trustful, adoring converse with 
 Him — of ev#y single one, may well be open to 
 His infinite view, and enter, with all their con- 
 sequences^ into His scheme of infinite wisdom 
 for the government of our world. "However 
 I may decide,^^ writes Canon Liddon, " my 
 decision, so absolutely free to me, will have 
 been already incorporated by the all-seeing, 
 all-controlling Being, as an integral part, how - 
 
PRA.YER AND MODEEN THOUGHT. 73 
 
 ever insignificant, of His own all-embracing 
 purpose,, leading on to causes and effects beyond 
 itself. Prayer, too, is only a foreseen action of 
 man, wliich, together with its results, is em- 
 braced in the eternal predestination of God. . . 
 God works out His plans not merely in us but 
 by us j and we may dare to say that that which 
 to us is a free self-determination, may not be 
 other than a foreseen element of His work ^" 
 
 It should, perhaps, just be added here, that, 
 were prayer incompatible with the Divine order, 
 it would be strange that He, to Whose infinite 
 wisdom the delusion with regard to it under 
 which men through long ages would labour 
 must have been foreknown, should not have 
 made some provision whereby to deter men 
 from falling into the error, instead of encou- 
 raging them in it, or, at least, allowing them 
 to continue in it undeceived. " One of two 
 things," it has been urged, " seems quite cer- 
 tain. Either God answers prayer, or He has 
 so skilfully arranged the working of His ' im- 
 mutable laws,^ as to produce the impression 
 that He does so, and thereby encourage the 
 faithful to believe that they have a Father in 
 Heaven, instead of being in the grasp of an 
 almighty machine." 
 
 ' "Some Elements of Religion," p. 193. 
 
74 
 
 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ON CASES IN WHICH PRAYER APPEARS TO BE 
 UNANSVv^ERED. 
 
 Against tlie wliole argument maintained in the 
 foregoing chapters in favour of the efficacy of 
 prayer^ it may be objected that prayer is some- 
 times — nay_, often — unanswered as a fact. This^ 
 it may be said^ at once cuts at the root of all 
 arguments advanced on the side of the possi- 
 biUty, or even the probability^ that it may have 
 weighty and be the means of influencing the 
 course of events with regard to others or our- 
 selves. If God is perfectly^ unchangeably^ 
 good_, and if prayer is ever effectual with Him^ 
 moving Him to supply the needs^ and fulfil the 
 desires^ of those vfho address Him in prayer — 
 how is it that prayer ever fails ? That it does 
 fail at timeS; seems to be a proof that it never 
 doeSj really, prevail. It seems to show that 
 those are but accidental coincidences,, which we 
 take to be answers to prayer. We note, it 
 may be said,, only those cases in which our 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 prayer, and tlie event desired, harmonize j and 
 build our theory upon these. We omit to take 
 account of those instances in which our prayer 
 is not attended by the desired result. And 
 thus it might seem to be with those who pray, 
 as with those who had recourse to the oracles 
 of old, and who laid all their stress on those 
 cases in which the oracle happened to turn out 
 true. To which must be added (it may be 
 urged) the increased facility of deception 
 arising from the ambiguity of the oracle given, 
 or the prayer offered up, enabling any one who 
 wished to do so to trace more repodily a fancied 
 connexion between the event following and the 
 oracle or the prayer. Post hoc, ergo jpropter hoc, 
 an objector might argue, is the latent fallacy 
 underlying all belief in the power of prayer. 
 
 It must, however, be plain to any one who 
 will be at the pains to weigh the matter for him- 
 self, that no valid argument against the efficacy 
 of prayer in general can really be drawn from the 
 fact that it does, in some cases, fail to obtain a 
 response, or, certainly, does not gain the parti- 
 cular response which was the special object of 
 the request in the prayer. That a parent some- 
 times refuses the request of a child, is no proof 
 against the ordinary fulfilment of the child-'s 
 requests. And many causes may be conceived 
 
76 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 as interveuiug so^ as either to prevent our 
 prayers from being answered by God_, or, at 
 least, to prevent their being fulfilled in the way 
 in which we looked to have them fulfilled by 
 Him : while yet this may in no way interfere 
 with the general truth, that our prayers are, 
 under certain conditions, heard and answered 
 by God. 
 
 Thus it may in some, perhaps in many, cases 
 occur that the particular thing which we desire 
 and ask for would not really conduce to the 
 end with a view to which we desire it, and 
 therefore is not accorded to us, even for our 
 own true good, by God. He, in His infinite 
 wisdom, must see far beyond the limits which 
 bound our finite view. And we may well con- 
 ceive it possible that He may see that the thing 
 which we long for as the one object on which 
 our afiections are set, would, if gained, be so 
 far from being conducive to our happiness, that 
 it would really bring sorrow instead in its train. 
 Thus He may, in denying them, be most really 
 granting our requests . To withhold the particu- 
 lar thing asked for, may be to grant most truly 
 the desire of our heart. Even an earthly 
 parent is forced, of very love, to refuse that 
 which he knows would be injurious to his child. 
 In how infinitely fuller a degree must the same 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 77 
 
 thing hold with reference to the deahngs of 
 God with mankind ! 
 
 To this must be added_, that God may have 
 higher ends in view towards which He would 
 direct us : and that for this purpose He may 
 withhold at times those things which would, 
 indeed, conduce to the end which we have in 
 view ourselves, while they would, even by 
 virtue of their conducing to those objects, so far 
 draw us away from pursuing the higher ends 
 which He would set before our hearts and 
 minds. Wealth does, no doubt, bring material 
 prosperity, which is desired by most. Poverty 
 does bring commonly sorrow and trouble in its 
 train. Yet it is by no means the case that 
 prosperity is with men at large the best con- 
 dition for drawing them to the thought of God, 
 and of the true end of their existence, the glory 
 and service of the Great Author of their being, 
 the fulfilment of the work assigned to them on 
 earth by Him, and their preparation for an 
 eternal existence with Him in heaven. And 
 thus, even while it is admitted that the things 
 desired would lead to the particular end with a 
 view to which they are sought, it may be that 
 our petitions for them are denied by an all- 
 wise and most beneficent Being, for the purpose 
 that, through the denial of them, we may be 
 
78 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 placed in a better position for the attainment 
 of tliose liiglier and more lasting objects whicli 
 He^ of His goodness^ proposes for our pursuit 
 instead. 
 
 From both, these two points of view we can 
 see the force of those words in the collect 
 which is appointed to close our public service 
 of daily prayer, wherein we ask of God to 
 grant the desires of our hearts, and the peti- 
 tions Tvhich we have made, '^ as may be most 
 expedient for us -^^ in so far, and in such ways, 
 as He, in His wisdom, may know to be condu- 
 cive to our interests ; and that not our present 
 temporal well-being only, but our true eternal 
 good. 
 
 Then, further, as a third point, it must be 
 borne in mind that all our desires are to be 
 bounded by this, all our requests qualified by 
 this, that what we desire or ask for be in 
 accordance with the will of God. And, by the 
 very nature of the case, we can know but little 
 as to the Divine will. We cannot tell how far 
 that which we desire and pray for may be in 
 harmony with that will. We need not think 
 of the vain petitions sometimes offered up, the 
 folly of which could move even the heathen to 
 scorn\ But the prayers which rise from the 
 ' See Persius, Sat. ii. 31—40. 
 
PEATER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 79 
 
 spirits of even the wisest aud best of men must 
 be offered to the Divine Being with the reser- 
 vation expressed or implied, that the thing 
 desired is asked for only if it be in accordance 
 with His will. For we know not how far our 
 seeming wisdom may be foolishness in His 
 sight. We cannot fathom — the wisest of men, 
 probably, never will fathom — the mystery 
 which hangs over much of the course of events 
 in the world. We cannot penetrate into the 
 mighty plan, we cannot know the mind of God. 
 And it becomes, I suppose, only a question of 
 words whether we shall say that a prayer has 
 been granted or denied, when the thing asked 
 for, even if good in itself, has not been granted, 
 as being incompatible with the whole scheme of 
 God, if we ourselves, in making the request, 
 have sincerely asked for it, only if it were in 
 accordance with God^s will. 
 
 And then, as a last point, in examining cases 
 in which prayer seems to have met with no 
 response, account must be taken of those con- 
 ditions and qualifications which are wanting 
 not unfrequently in those who offer prayer, and 
 which yet even natural reason would lead us to 
 suppose must be present, if our prayers are to 
 be acceptable, and obtain an answer from the 
 Great Controller of the world. 
 
80 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 To consider these qualifications in any detail 
 belongs to the province of practical theology, 
 and would be unsuitable here. But — just to 
 illustrate what is meant — it must be obvious to 
 all, that those cannot draw near efiectually to an 
 all-holy God, who are not striving to cultivate 
 a holy character, and are surrendering them- 
 selves to evil courses in life. It is vain to suppose 
 that the all-righteous Spirit, who is too pure 
 to bear the presence of iniquity, can be pleased 
 with the communion, and listen to the address, 
 of one who is in no way striving to do that 
 which He approves, and become in his inner 
 being like to Him from Whom he has his 
 existence, and in Whom he hopes to live an 
 eternal life. And, as all His works set forth 
 the goodness and beneficence of God, and con- 
 firm that which the Scriptures emphatically 
 declare of Him, that He is Love, as if it were 
 of the very essence of His being, one quality, 
 it is clear, specially requisite in those who would 
 present their petitions to Him, must be a spirit 
 of love or charity towards their fellow-men. 
 The sullen, peevish, morose disposition; the 
 angry passion; the selfish indifference about 
 the well-being of others ; the want, generally, 
 of a real, living desire to do what we can for the 
 good of our fellow-men, and of a sympathy in 
 
PRAYER Ai^D MODERN THOUGHT. 8l 
 
 their sorrows and their joys, — must be a bar, 
 making our prayers ineffectual, and preventing 
 them from obtaining God's help. .Neither, 
 once more, can we suppose that prayers will be 
 availing, when offered by those who are want- 
 ing in thorough faith or confidence in the Power 
 which can, and the Love which will, answer the 
 prayers which are poured forth from the li]DS. 
 It may be that one purpose for which the grant 
 of blessings is made dependent (if it be so) 
 upon our prayers, is in order that thereby may 
 be cultivated in us a sense of our entire depen- 
 dence upon our Heavenly Father's help, and a 
 hearty trust in His loving care, which ought to 
 exist in us, and must he wrought in us, if the 
 true condition of our being is to be attained, 
 viz. that which is in accordance with the re- 
 lation in which we truly stand to God. And 
 therefore it follows that the petition lightly and 
 heedlessly offered up, with scarce a thought as 
 to whether it will really be accepted or no ; or 
 the supplication wrung by fear from the cold 
 heart, which would, perhaps, relapse into indif- 
 ference and practical unbelief, if the request 
 were granted, and the cause of fear removed — 
 cannot look to obtain an answer from God. 
 And natural reason in itself might suggest also, 
 that the answer to prayer may be withheld at 
 
 a 
 
82 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 times for the very purpose of putting tlie reality 
 of tlie faith of the suppliant to the proof, and 
 testing -v^liether there was indeed that entire 
 well-grounded belief, which could repose in 
 unfailing confidence on the power and love of 
 God. 
 
 And thus, from whatever point of view the 
 matter is regarded, it becomes clear that the 
 fact of our petitions being sometimes, or even 
 often, unanswered, is in no way Y,^hatever a valid 
 objection against the general doctrine of the 
 efficacy of prayer. 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 83 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OP EXPERIENCE, AS CONFIRMING THE DOCTRINE 
 OP THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 
 
 But wliile due allowance must be made for 
 tliose cases in wliicli prayer necessarily fails 
 to meet with a reply, and due weight given to 
 those considerations by which the reason for 
 prayer being unanswered may be more or less 
 explained, there still remains a large mass of 
 evidence from experience in favour of the effi- 
 cacy of prayer, which must not be entirely passed 
 by ; although our object here is rather to show 
 how objections to the doctrine of prayer may 
 be met, than to support it by direct proof. 
 
 Positive, certain, experimental proof, it must 
 be remembered, as was said at the outset, we 
 cannot, by the very nature of the case, possibly 
 have. Even positive, probable proof, of the 
 same kind exactly as that which belongs to 
 practical, in contrast with physical matters — 
 to which last certain proof is mainly confined 
 — cannot be looked for in the case of prayer. 
 
84 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 For we cannot^ as we can do in tlie subjects of 
 physical science^ eliminate^ or to a great extent^ 
 at least, elimmate, all other agencies but tlie 
 one whicli we have in view, so as to discover 
 with certainty whether it is the cause of the 
 effect which we are tracing to its source. We 
 cannot even mark the action of the agent in 
 question in its combination with other agencies, 
 which is all that is possible in practical matters, 
 where we are unable to decompose the elements 
 with which the agent in view is combined, and 
 to note its working separately, as we can do in 
 the case of the matters of the physical world. 
 Even so much as this is not within our reach 
 in the case of prayer; since prayer, of course, 
 is not a cause in the sense in which natural 
 agencies in the physical world (for example) 
 are, i. e. as the media through which, as ante- 
 cedents, the results following are produced. 
 For prayer (granting that it is a cause) is so 
 only as a means through which the action 
 of an invisible agent is called forth. We can 
 perceive by sense the antecedent and the conse- 
 quent both, where a certain remedy is applied, 
 and a certain result upon the health of the 
 patient is produced. But the action of prayer 
 (supposing it to be effectual) is clearly of 
 a different kind; and, therefore, we cannot 
 
PEAYEE AND MODEEN THOUGHT. 85 
 
 exactly in the same way show the efficacy of 
 prayer. But stilly what we can find from expe- 
 rience with regard to it must be admitted in 
 fairness to go far towards counterbalancing 
 objections raised against it, and supporting the 
 view — resting on its own proper grounds — of 
 those who maintain the doctrine of the reason- 
 ableness and power of prayer. How far, on 
 principles of reason, we have really any stronger 
 grounds for believing the connexion between, 
 say, a certain remedy and the effect produced, 
 than for believing one to exist between prayer 
 and a result following, is a deeper question, 
 which cannot be discussed here. 
 
 We are to consider, then, here, how far ex- 
 perience does confirm the doctrine of the direct 
 efficacy of prayer. Now, the modes of apply- 
 ing experiment and observation, (as all who 
 have studied this branch of scientific inquiry 
 are aware,) as the basis on which a superstruc- 
 ture of inductive reasoning is to be reared, 
 may be set forth for the sake of clearness 
 under some main forms — the " Experimental 
 Methods,^^ as they have been named. And, as 
 we apply these one by one. Experience, in each 
 case gives an answer, when the test is applied 
 to her, in favour of the power of prayer. The 
 chief principles of the Experimental Methods 
 
S6 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 are given formally and strictly in tlie admirable 
 "Preliminary Discourse on Natural Philoso- 
 pliy '' of Sir J. Hersclielj and in the first volume 
 of tlie " Logic '^ of Mr. J. S. Mill. In a less 
 exact and popular way they may be stated 
 thus : First. Where the presence of an ante- 
 cedent is uniformly attended by the presence 
 of something else following^ there the first may 
 be regarded as the cause of the second. Second, 
 Where the absence of an antecedent is uni- 
 formly attended by the absence of something 
 else following, there the first may be regarded 
 as the cause of the second. The first of these 
 is the method of agreement^ and the second the 
 method of difference. Third. Where the more 
 fully and strongly a certain antecedent is pre- 
 sent, the more the presence of something else 
 follows j there the first may be considered the 
 cause of the second. Fourth. Where, accord- 
 ing to the degree in which a certain antecedent 
 is absent, the absence of something else follows 
 correspdiidently ; there the first may be taken 
 as the cause of the second . These last are the 
 methods of concomitant variations. And, as 
 these are applied one by one to the subject 
 of prayer on the one hand, and the objects 
 sought through it on the other, there is every- 
 thing to indicate (so far as it can be) the con- 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 87 
 
 nexion between tlie two. We pray for some 
 object,, and it follows very generally^ (witli 
 such, limitations as were before explained^) 
 upon our prayer. Blessings on his family and 
 household^ blessings on his friends and rela- 
 tionSj blessings showered abundantly on him- 
 selfj engolden the life of the man of prayer. 
 Eeversely^ where prayer is neglected or de- 
 spisedj there is commonly found disorder and 
 sorrow^ even^ perhaps^ amid seeming prosperity. 
 Children grow up to be a curse instead of a 
 blessing ; friends are alienated ; and peace of 
 mind is lost. And^ further^ it can hardly 
 be denied by any one who will look the facts 
 of experience fairly in the face^ that just in 
 the degree in which prayer^ in the private 
 chamber and in the household^ abounds and 
 grows in fervour, so do blessings more and 
 more abound. As, on the contrary, in propor- 
 tion to the neglect of prayer is the correspond- 
 ing loss of that which goes to make up the 
 happiness of man^s social and domestic and 
 individual life. Thus, attempt to explain the 
 fact as we may, attempt as we may to deny 
 that there is anything more than accidental- 
 coincidence in the relation between the two, it 
 may well be held that the answer of experience, 
 luhen fairly testedj is in favour of a connexion 
 
88 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 between the prayers which men offer and the 
 good which they receive. 
 
 And it is to be noticed that those who deny 
 the power of prayer in other spheres, admit 
 not uncommonly the efficacy of it in some par- 
 ticular sphere, in which, apparently, their own 
 experience of it has given them confirmation 
 of its power. One who could write that " the 
 mind revolts from the ineffable arrogance and 
 folly of petitions which would dictate to perfect 
 goodness, and alter the order established by per- 
 fect wisdom,^^ can yet go on to add, " Here we 
 come to the prayer which is efficacious, to the 
 domain in which prayer is all-powerful, and 
 never fails of its answer; and that answer is 
 not a matter of belief but of knowledge. He 
 who has prayed in agony of soul, every fibre of 
 his being quivering with dread of the cup pre- 
 sented to his lips, hiows that his prayer is an- 
 swered when the angels of strong patience and 
 enduring faith descend into his heart, minister- 
 ing the peace of perfect trust, till he can take the 
 cup with unfaltering hand and drain it, saying 
 only, ^ Thy will, not mine, be done.^ He who, 
 in the dark storm of doubt or temptation, has 
 prayed for light, only for light to see the truth 
 and the right, hnoius that his prayer is answered 
 when a path becomes visible, in which he is 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 89 
 
 constrained to treadj let it lead where it may. 
 Those, again, to whom prayer ^ is not only peti- 
 tion but communion/ they also know that 
 their prayers are answered, when, in the still- 
 ness of morning or evening, in the hush of mid- 
 night, or the pause in the toil and turmoil of 
 the day, they lift up their hearts to that Presence 
 whose holiness shames all impurity, whose love 
 shames all selfishness, whose ceaseless activity 
 shames all faint-hcarfced sloth. To tell these 
 that they first imagine the strength, the light, 
 the help they are conscious of receiving, and 
 then account for them by imagining a God who 
 answers prayer, is neither a more nor a less 
 valid argument than to say that we first imagine 
 the impressions we are conscious of through our 
 senses, and then invent an external world to 
 account for them. The proof of the existence 
 of a God in communion with the souls He has 
 created, is of precisely the same kind as the 
 proof of an external world, and is equally in- 
 capable of being demonstrated or disproved." 
 
 And here, in reference to experience as con- 
 firming belief in prayer, come in all those many 
 testimonies to the value of prayer which Holy 
 Scripture supplies. It matters not now what 
 view be taken of the composition of the Book. 
 Let it be regarded for the time simply in the 
 
90 PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 samo light as any otlier book. And even so, 
 liow strong is the testimony afforded in it as to 
 the efficacy of prayer; a testimony not ex- 
 pressed in words only, bnt supported by con- 
 duct evincing in many cases the sincerity of the 
 belief of those who gave the testimony, that 
 their prayer was indeed heard and answered by 
 God. 
 
 The prayer of Hannah, and the blessing which 
 followed ; the prayer of Isaiah and Hezekiah, 
 and the signal deliverance which was granted 
 in reply; the prayer of Elisha, and the view 
 which was granted to his servant in his fear ; 
 the prayer of Manasseh, who '"'' humbled himself 
 greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed 
 unto Him,''^ whereupon ^^ God was intreated of 
 him, and heard his supplication, and brought 
 him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom," 
 whereby ^' Manasseh knew that the Lord He 
 is God," are but a few among the many in- 
 stances in Holy Scripture of the answers granted 
 by God to prayer. 
 
 And David, Elijah, Hezekiah, Daniel, the 
 Apostles of Christ — to adopt here the thoughts 
 of another, respecting these and similar in- 
 stances of answer to prayer — were not the 
 victims of an illusion, in virtue of which they 
 connected particular events which would have 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUaHT. 91 
 
 happened in any event with prayer that pre- 
 ceded them. They who never pray, or who 
 never pray with the humility_, confidence, and im- 
 portunity, that wins its way to the heart of God, 
 cannot speak from experience as to the effects 
 of prayer ; nor are they in a position to give 
 credit, with generous simplicity, to those who 
 can. But, at least, on such a subject as this, 
 the voice of the whole company of Grod^s ser- 
 vants may be held to counterbalance a few a 
 'priori surmises or doctrines ; and it is the very 
 heart of humanity itself which, from age to age, 
 mounts up with the Psalmist to the Eternal 
 Throne : ^' Thou that hearest prayer, unto 
 Thee shall all flesh come ! '' 
 
 To sum up now the whole argument from 
 experience as to the efficacy of prayer, it must 
 be admitted, I think, that no inference can be 
 drawn in its favour in the way of direct proof — 
 such proof, i.e., as we can have respecting mat- 
 ters which are directly objects of sense. And 
 this for two reasons. Firstj because prayer is 
 no immediate antecedent on which something 
 follows, in the way in which one object of sense 
 is an antecedent of another consequent upon it, 
 as a certain medicine may be followed by a 
 certain new condition of health. It can only 
 be the hiown antecedent of a certain known 
 
92 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 result; the intermediate intervention of a 
 Higher Power, acted on by the prayer, and 
 bringing about the effect, being something 
 which is supposed, but which it is impossible, 
 by the very nature of the case, to hnoto, except 
 as a matter of Revelation, and, therefore, a 
 point of religious belief. And, secondly, be- 
 cause moral considerations must be admitted 
 to enter into, and blend with, and influence, 
 to an indefinite extent, the actual supplication 
 made, and must necessarily be taken into 
 account in weighing experimentally the efficacy 
 of prayer. All that experience can be expected 
 to test strictly is, the uniformity of answers to 
 prayer; and that uniformity the believer in 
 prayer never expects. There may be, pro- 
 bably there are, countless prayers offered up, 
 which yet may strictly be reckoned as no 
 prayers (really) at all, in estimating experimen- 
 tally the results of prayer. Yain petitions, 
 prayers of those who are not trying to conform 
 to the Divine Will, mere formulated prayers, 
 such as those for large classes of men, which 
 often are offered with no sincerity of heart by 
 men in general at all — experimental prayers, 
 (as I may call them,) such as those which it 
 has been seriously proposed to offer for certain 
 persons, as for the sick in a hospital, in order 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 93 
 
 to put God^s answer to prayer to the proof, 
 without that real behef in His willingness to 
 hear and answer our petitions, which is a very 
 condition of true prayer — all such prayers, and 
 the like, must be viewed as not entering into 
 the question of the efficacy of prayer at all. 
 
 And the practical result of the whole, I 
 imagine, will be this. Those who desire, on their 
 grounds, to deny the efficacy of prayer, will find 
 enough on their side in experience to seem to 
 justify them in their view. While those, on 
 the other hand, who, by the instincts of nature, 
 or education, or Divine teaching, have been led 
 to trust confidently in the power of prayer, will 
 find little or nothing in the results of expe- 
 rience to make them surrender their belief. 
 On the contrary, they will find everywhere, in 
 their own experience and in the recorded ex- 
 perience of others, evidence that true, faithful 
 prayer is always (so far as it may be) answered 
 by God. And thus the argument from expe- 
 rience respecting prayer may be summed up 
 practically in the illogical form : Pray faith- 
 fully, and you will assuredly find prayer so 
 effectual as to confirm your faith, though you 
 may not be able to produce in others a convic- 
 tion like your own. 
 
 And this, perhaps, is the utmost which a 
 
94 PEAYEE AND MODEEN THOUGHT. 
 
 believer can expect to find. He knows that he 
 is to walk by faith and not by sight : he marks 
 the inherent difficulties which exist every way 
 as to answers to prayer : he recognizes the im- 
 possibility^ from the nature of the case^ of 
 absolute proof from experience as to the validity 
 of prayer: he is content in this^ as in other 
 things^ to look for a light shining in a dark 
 place^ not so strong as to flash conviction on 
 those whose view is resolutely fixed on earth, 
 but yet bright enough to guide those whose 
 eye is always turned upward^, looking for light 
 to guide and cheer them in their aspirations 
 and their endeavours to ascend upward, and 
 live day by day nearer to God. 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 9b 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ON PRAYER IN RELATION TO HUMAN EXERTION. 
 
 It can hardly be called a difficulty in the way 
 of belief in the doctrine of the efficacy of 
 prayer^ that it may be represented as opposed 
 to_, and having a natural tendency to stand in 
 the way of, human exertion. It can at most be 
 viewed as a practical objection to the validity of 
 prayer, as if it superseded human diligence and 
 foresight; and therefore could not really be 
 designed to hold a place in that order of things 
 in which so much is placed within the reach, 
 and made dependent on the energy, of man^s 
 own powers, as a fact. Are we to sit with 
 folded hands, (the doubter loves to insinuate), 
 and pray that one who is ill may be restored 
 to health, instead of using all the means in our 
 power for his recovery; or that some pesti- 
 lence may be withdrawn, or its course, as it 
 approaches, arrested, while we do nothing to 
 remove those conditions which tend to de- 
 velope it, or to strengthen its virulence when 
 
96 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 produced ? Are we to pray that some evil cor- 
 ruption wliicli is destroying mysteriously our 
 cattle or the fruits of tlie earth may be re- 
 movedj instead of applying ourselves diligently 
 to discover^ if possible^ the seat of the evil^ and 
 the circumstances under which it is diminished 
 or increased, in order to learn what remedies 
 may be availing to remove it, or at least to 
 lessen its force ? 
 
 To all such objections it would be obvious to 
 answer that this is an entire misrepresentation 
 of the teaching of those who inculcate the 
 value of prayer. ^' It is by prayer_, in union 
 with exertion/^ one writes ^, " that we obtain 
 our ends and objects. Prayer, without exer- 
 tion, is mockery ; exertion, without prayer for 
 a blessing on exertion, is profaneness.^^ ^' God 
 in His wondrous condescension,^' writes ano- 
 ther^, ^^willeth the free co-operation of man. He 
 willeth, in human things as in Divine, that we 
 should use to the utmost the powers and capa- 
 cities which He has lodged in us, yet not as if 
 we were lords, not He, but in blessed depen- 
 dence upon Himself. ^ Act and pray ' (in 
 Eavignan's words) : ^ pray and act / expect all 
 
 ^ Dean Hook, ^' Lives of the Arclibisliops," vol. ix. 
 p. 437. 
 
 - Dr. Pusey, " Miracles of Prayer," p. 19. 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUaHT. 97 
 
 of God, yet neglect neither care, nor desire, 
 nor efforts. This order is wise, is grand, 
 is beautiful. It comprises the economy of 
 Providence, the very condition of His govern- 
 ment, the covenant of God with man." And 
 the teaching of Scripture is exactly the same. 
 "With a fearless boldness which does not stay to 
 reconcile apparent contrarieties, it at once bids 
 us, '''In everything, by prayer and supplica- 
 tion, with thanksgiving, let your requests be 
 made known unto God," and promises that 
 '^ whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, 
 ye shall receive j" and yet at the same time it is 
 full of exhortations '^ to use all diligence ;" it 
 bids us not to be laggards, but earnest in 
 doing our appointed work in the world. 
 
 And there is, therefore, no contradiction at 
 least between the teaching and the practice of 
 those who forbid us to separate the exertions 
 of duty from trust in God and prayer to Him. 
 And so, practically, in the foremost ranks of 
 those who have been steady, diligent workers 
 for God and the good of their fellow-men, 
 are found those who have been also the most 
 constant and earnest in prayer. Missionaries, 
 who have laboured in teaching and preaching 
 as if all depended upon themselves, while yet 
 they were instant in prayer, as looking only to 
 
 H 
 
98 PEAYEE AND MODEEN THOUGHT. 
 
 the blessing of God upon tlieir endeavours 
 for success : teachers, who have devoted their 
 utmost energies to the instruction and forma- 
 tion of the character of the young, while living, 
 and teaching others to live, in a constant sense 
 of the overshadowing presence of God, and of 
 the power of prayer to obtain His help : bene- 
 factors of mankind in all times, who have 
 given their hours of labour to unremitting 
 effort, while they none the less implored God^s 
 blessing on their work in hours of rest — all 
 prove that, practically, exertion need not be 
 separated from prayer. 
 
 But still it may be contended that the teach- 
 ing and the practice of men are in error alike; 
 that there is, in the nature of the things them- 
 selves, a.radical inconsistency between exertion 
 and prayer. If a thing is to be obtained by 
 man's exertion, how can it be the subject of 
 prayer ? If it is to be given as the result of 
 prayer, what place is there for man's exertion 
 in order that it may be gained ? But the argu- 
 ment here is by no means a sound one. Prayer 
 is not incompatible with exertion. The exer- 
 cise of human energy and human ingenuity 
 leaves abundant room for prayer. 
 
 For there are, in fact, many ways in which 
 the assistance of a higher power outside our- 
 
PliAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 99 
 
 selves may be beneficial, if not absolutely 
 necessary, in order to make our exertions of 
 any avail. The very power of exertion depends 
 on a condition of mental and bodily vigour, tbe 
 maintenance of wMcli is by no means wholly 
 within our own control. And, so far as it does 
 rest with our own selves, it depends on circum- 
 stances very much whether we have the know- 
 ledge of the means necessary to maintain that 
 vigour, or the power or the will to use them 
 when known. And through prayer — granting, 
 for the time, that it is efiectual — these circum- 
 stances may be overruled for good for our- 
 selves or for others for whom we pray. Then, 
 further, the success of our exertions depends in 
 great measure on the condition of those things 
 upon which our energy is put forth ; as all the 
 efforts of the husbandman, e. g., may be baffled 
 by atmospheric or other influences affecting 
 the corn ; or the utmost endeavours to train a 
 child well may be frustrated through the indo- 
 lence or bad conduct of the child. And here, 
 again, accordingly, exertion may well be ac- 
 companied by prayer. And even in those 
 matters which rest mainly on a man^s own 
 self, and depend less on external circumstances, 
 as in points of practical judgment and the con- 
 duct of speculative inquiry, so subtle are the 
 H 2 
 
100 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 influences by wliicli we are afiected, so myste- 
 rious altogether is tlie action of thought, that 
 after the most careful mental training, in com- 
 bination with well-regulated meditation and 
 patient, diligent research, there is still abun- 
 dant room for the interposition of the aid of a 
 Higher Power, guiding, stimulating, assisting 
 thought ; and that in answer to man^s prayer. 
 Thus the labour of the energetic and self- 
 reliant may well be attended by prayer. And, 
 reversely, the prayer of the devout and the 
 trustful may be, nay, should be, accompanied 
 by efibrt. It may be that one reason why 
 prayer is not in many cases directly answered, 
 and our request is not directly granted, in the 
 particular form in which it is made, is that we 
 may be taught to combine exertion with 
 prayer. If our prayers were always exactly 
 and literally granted, we should naturally be 
 led to rest entirely on prayer, and should fail 
 to exercise and develope those physical, intel 
 lectual, and moral powers which are called into 
 activity and disciplined by man^s exertion with 
 a view to the supply of his higher and lower 
 needs. Industry and perseverance, foresight 
 and self-control, powers of observation and 
 memory, of imagination and reasoning, are 
 cultivated through exertion with a view to the 
 
PEAYER AND MODEEN THOUGHT. 101 
 
 attainment of our ends. And the need for this 
 exertion might be withdrawn, were prayer 
 answered otherwise than it is. Oh ! the wis- 
 dom of the order wherewith the Beneficent 
 Ruler of our world has appointed that prayer 
 and exertion should harmoniously blend, and 
 each supply that element in the cultivation o{ 
 our higher being which the other fails to 
 give ! If exertion were all, without prayer, we 
 might fall into an earthly state of simple self- 
 reliance, and the spiritual part of our nature 
 might be neglected, not being lifted up con- 
 tinually to God in prayer. If prayer sufficed 
 alone, without exertion, wo should have no 
 need to cultivate a great part of our nature, 
 and should be in danger of degenerating 
 through carelessness and sloth. 
 
102 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ON PRAYER IN RELATION TO MAN^S SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 The difficulties which have been considered in 
 the foregoing chapters have reference mainly 
 to the doctrine of God^s interposition in answer 
 to prayer in respect to the inaterial ivorld. There 
 it is especially that a fixed order is seen esta- 
 blished. There it is that any interference 
 with that fixed order seems impossible, or im- 
 probable at the least. The case is somewhat 
 difierent with regard to our inner spiritual 
 life. Its course is regulated by such myste- 
 rious laws : such subtle influences afiect it ; its 
 condition appears so difierent in the cases of 
 different men, the chords of one mane's inner 
 being responding at once to a touch which is 
 wholly powerless in the case of another to wake 
 up any note of response — that there seems 
 more room for the possibility of Divine inter- 
 position here. But then the greater the sup- 
 posed possibility of interposition, the more 
 difficult is all approach to proof of it as a fact. 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 103 
 
 In tlie case of a storm, e. g.j we may know that 
 prayer was offered, and we may know too that 
 the storm was allayed : the two facts are defi- 
 nitely known, though there remains the doubt 
 (on grounds of human reason) as to the con- 
 nexion between the two. But in spiritual 
 matters, as in the case of prayer for the conver- 
 sion of another to God, or for victory over some 
 besetting sin, the result is commonly so secret 
 and gradual that it is really more difficult, 
 except on a believer^s grounds, to maintain that 
 the one is related to the other as an effect to 
 its cause. 
 
 The wonderful works of Christ, accordingly, 
 were wrought in great measure in the sphere 
 of material things. The lepers were cleansed; 
 the paralytic were healed; the tempest was 
 allayed ; the ears of the deaf were opened, and 
 the blind were restored to sight. Sometimes 
 the mere knowledge of the need of those around 
 Him was enough to call forth the compassion 
 and the power of the Saviour, as when He fed 
 the multitudes in the wilderness, or raised the 
 son of the widow of Nain to life. Sometimes 
 the desire was just faintly intimated, and the 
 half-expressed wish was fulfilled, as when the 
 words were uttered by His mother at Cana, 
 " They have no wine.''^ While sometimes, 
 
104 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 again_, the petition was expressly made^ and 
 answered, as wlien the Centurion of Capernaum 
 sent his friends to beseech Christ^s aid for his 
 servant, or when the nobleman came in person 
 and besought Him to come down and heal his 
 son. As if to show that God is indeed willing to 
 give us more than we either desire or deserve, 
 as well as to grant the desires of our hearts 
 and the prayers of our lips — '^ our desires and 
 petitions/^ as it is expressed in our service — 
 when we ask faithfully in accordance with His 
 will. And they who witnessed these wonderful 
 works of Christ, had in them an evidence that 
 Divine power rested with Him Who was able to 
 perform them, and that He was drawn to the 
 performance of them by a consciousness of the 
 needs, and by the influence of the desires and 
 prayers of men : — an evidence of fact so clear 
 and indisputable that it could only be opposed 
 by blind, obstinate resistance to the conviction 
 which it was fairly calculated to produce. Thus 
 the works of Christ were wrought in the sphere 
 of outward, sensible things, when He would 
 give evidential proof of His Divine power, and 
 of His willingness to hear and answer prayer. 
 
 And yet these were but signs given in the 
 sphere of external things of God^s power over 
 the secret invisible things of man^s inner being, 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 105 
 
 and His willingness to interpose there in an- 
 swer to man's prayers. And these last arc 
 far greater, mightier works. Easier, indeed_, in 
 one sense, they are — as those probably would 
 have answered to whom our Lord put the 
 question, '^ Whether is easier to say, Thy sins 
 be forgiven thee : or to say. Take up thy bed 
 and walk ? ^' — easier, as not being so capable 
 of being disproved, since they do not come 
 within the domain of sense : but really far 
 harder, as affecting the moral and spiritual 
 elements of man's being, and the relations of 
 man to God. "Which are greatest," it has 
 been well said, " the miracles of nature or the 
 miracles of grace? Which is the greatest 
 interference, (to use man's word,) to change 
 passive, unresisting nature, or man's strong, 
 energetic, resisting will, which God Himself so 
 respects that He will not force the will which 
 He has endowed with freedom, that it might 
 have the bliss freely to choose Himself ? Which 
 is the mightiest, noblest work, to condense, if 
 so be, the operations of nature, and change the 
 water into wine, without the intervening pro- 
 cess of its passing through the vine, or to 
 change the wolf into the lamb, the blasphemer 
 and constrainer to blaspheme into the Apostle, 
 the persecutor of Jesus into His disciple, into 
 
106 PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 him to whom to live was Christ and to be 
 crucified with Christy who became the ser- 
 vant of all that he might win the more to Christ 
 and to life ? or, again_, to change the slave of 
 degrading passion, its fires yet unspent, into 
 the saint j the spirit entangled in the wild, 
 God-degrading fanaticism of the Manichees 
 into the clear, God-enlightened teacher and 
 oracle of the Church, now for 1400 years ? 
 
 ^^ Or again, to take the greatest miracle in the 
 province of nature, which is the greatest — to 
 recall into the body the departed soul, to re- 
 animate it again for a few years, and then again 
 (except in the case of our Lord) to depart from 
 it until the Eesurrection at the great day, or to 
 transform the soul, dead in its sins, into the life 
 of God, to gain for it a hfe which shall never die, 
 a brightness and brilliancy of Divine life which 
 shall never fade, an union with God which the dis- 
 solution of thebody from the soul shall not dissolve ' 
 nor interrupt, but which shall live on for ever, to 
 be perfected in the beatific vision of Himself, and 
 the never-ending, ever-unfolding communica- 
 tion of Himself throughout all eternity ? Truly 
 these are greater works. For deeper-seated 
 is spiritual blindness than bodily, more malig- 
 nant and more inveterate are the diseases of 
 the soul than those of the body. A small 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 107 
 
 thing it were to restore the hearing of the out- 
 ward ear, compared with the heahng of that 
 inward deafness whereby a person is, by man 
 incurably, deaf to the voice of God. A small 
 thing is it to make one lame from his mother^s 
 womb to walk, notable as the miracle was, 
 compared to that infusion of Divine strength 
 which, running through the whole moral frame, 
 heals the paralysis of the sin-stricken soul, em- 
 powers the enthralled will, enables it to trample 
 on the sin which held it fast motionless to good, 
 and gladly and freely, self-sacrificing, to run the 
 way of the all-holy law of the love of God. 
 
 ^' And yet these stupendous spiritual miracles 
 are daily renewed. The love of the Church, of 
 the Pastor, of the mother, the combined prayers 
 of those whom God has inspired with the love 
 of souls, draw down on the prodigal soul many 
 a wasted or half- wasted grace, until at last God 
 in His providence has laid open the soul to the 
 influence of His grace, and the soul, obstructing 
 no more the access to Divine grace, is converted 
 to God, and lives. These are spiritual facts as 
 certain in the history of souls as any other 
 facts are in the province of science'.''^ 
 
 Thus, to a believer, the miraculous works 
 performed by Christ are an outward assurance 
 1 Dr. Pneey, " Miracles of Prayer," pp. 6—8. 
 
108 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 tliat He can and will perform the still greater 
 works wliicli influence man^s higher spiritual 
 being, in accordance with His word. And then, 
 reversely, the consciousness that a mighty 
 spiritual influence is being put forth upon him, 
 in answer to his prayers, empowering him more 
 and more to conquer evil, and drawing him up 
 more and more into a higher sphere, reacts on 
 and strengthens his assurance of power being 
 manifested from time to time in outward nature 
 by God. 
 
 And, in a similar way, he who considers the 
 matter on grounds of reason alone, finding that 
 the difficulties which present themselves on the 
 surface against the supposition that God may 
 interpose in the events of outward nature in 
 answer to man's prayer vanish very much when 
 fairly weighed, may look with greater confidence 
 to obtain Divine assistance in the cultivation of 
 his higher beings and the work of his spiritual 
 life. And then, discovering there strength 
 given in his weakness, and guidance in his 
 difficulties^ and comfort and peace amid trials 
 and sorrows; feeling too empowered to live 
 more and more a higher life, in proportion to 
 the growing frequency and earnestness of his 
 prayers, he can come back with a fuller con- 
 viction that God does indeed interpose with the 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 109 
 
 secret toucli of His almighty power, in such 
 ways and at such times as may seem good to 
 Him, ordering the course of outward events so 
 as to meet the desires of those who faithfully 
 pray to Him, and yet without any interruption 
 of the fixed order which He has wisely and 
 beneficently appointed in the world. 
 
 And here, in spiritual, as in material things, 
 experience gives evidence enough to confirm 
 the believer, enough too (according to the 
 nature of the ca,se) to satisfy the fair inquirer 
 after truth : but not enough to compel convic- 
 tion, and render those who obstinately resist 
 it absolutely without excuse. And according 
 to the degree in which the spiritual life is cul- 
 tivated, is the amount of conviction which 
 experience will afford. As it is in intellectual 
 matters : the higher, more cultivated intellects 
 are open to a thousand influences, and find 
 thoughts flashing upon them in a thousand 
 unexpected ways, and have avenues open along 
 which suggestions enter, such as are wanting 
 in the cases of inferior and untutored minds : 
 so it is in spiritual things as well. To the 
 spiritually-minded, to those who live much in 
 communion with God — it matters not under 
 what circumstances and in what sphere — there 
 comes a delicate appreciation and a fine sensi- 
 
110 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 tiveness, which seems at once to make them 
 more open to the reception of Divine impres- 
 sions^ and also more ready to refer them to 
 their true source. 
 
 One thing only God will not do. He will 
 not force conviction^ any more than He will 
 constrain the will. For good or for evil. He 
 has made us to be free ; and that at once in our 
 actions and in our beliefs. He gives us help in 
 our actions and our wills for our good ; and 
 will give us more and more help if we seek it 
 from Him, and use well that which He gives. If 
 we will resist Him for evil, the fault lies with 
 ourselves. And it is so with our beliefs too. He 
 gives us light to guide us, a light from Eeason 
 and from Kevelation combined: for truth, like 
 light, is the result of many elements harmo- 
 niously blending into one. And He will give us 
 more and more light, if we seek it fairly and 
 earnestly, and make good use of the light which 
 He gives. But He will not, commonly, force 
 conviction upon us, if we resolutely, in pride or 
 in prejudice, close our eyes against the truth. 
 May we not apply it as, indirectly, an acted 
 parable, while we recognize the immediate pur- 
 pose of the act, that one had his eyes closed for 
 a season, when he had long steadily refused to 
 admit one portion of Divine light ? 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. Ill 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE BELIEF IN THE EFFICACY 
 OF PRAYER. 
 
 One question still remains to be considered, 
 viz. what is the origin of the idea of the 
 efficacy of prayer ? Whence has it arisen ? 
 How are we to account for the notion of 
 prayer as having power to influence the Great 
 Ruler of the universe,, and to draw down a 
 blessing from Him^ which is so very generally 
 prevalent in the world? Is it derived from 
 natural instinct? Or is it simply the result 
 of instruction and example, each one training 
 others to pray, and spreading by his example 
 the idea of the power of prayer ? Can it be 
 said with truth that ''Hhe desire for prayer 
 is simply a creation of theologians; so that 
 the savage does not pray by natural inclina- 
 tion, but the missionary teaches him to pray ; 
 and as, at the same time, he preaches to him 
 on the existence of a God who listens to 
 
112 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 prayer, precept to pray is a logical sequence 
 of that instruction " ? 
 
 Now all questions as to wliat are natural 
 instincts or natural intuitions must, by the 
 very nature of the case, be very difficult, if 
 not impossible, to solve. The development of 
 our inner moral and intellectual being, as of 
 our outward physical frame, is so gradual, and 
 the influences which act upon it are so 
 complex, that it is most hard to discover what 
 is the result of culture simply, and what is 
 innate. The ideas of the intellect, and the 
 affections of the heart, do not come into exist- 
 ence fidl-hloivn, so to say, any more than our 
 faculties are given to us perfect at the first; 
 and it is difficult to trace back to their original 
 principles the full and comprehensive know- 
 ledge, the high and noble feelings, of the well- 
 trained man, just as it is hard to refer back 
 the plant or the tree in its fully developed 
 strength and beauty to the primary germs 
 in which all took its rise. Or to use another 
 illustration, as the majestic river rolls on, fed 
 by a thousand tributaries, we cannot mark in 
 its waters the exact elements derived from the 
 original spring. Analogies such as these illus- 
 trate the difficulty of analyzing our thoughts 
 and feelings, and discovering what exactly is 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 113 
 
 due to elements given in our very being from 
 the first. Even those who hold the doctrine 
 of innate ideas — of ideas, i. e._, pre-existent in 
 the mind anterior to experience — yet have to 
 admit that these are at least called forth and 
 developed by experience, as the condition of 
 their existence, if not their source. And, in a 
 similar way, if there are feelings and affections 
 implanted in our nature, impelling us to a 
 certain course, and drawing us towards certain 
 objects to which they are adapted, yet these 
 too require to be elicited and disciplined by 
 exercise and guidance amid the circumstances 
 of life. 
 
 It must be understood, then, to be simply 
 out of our power, by the nature of the case, 
 to jp7'ove absolutely either that the idea of 
 prayer is, or is not, an original instinct. All 
 that can be done is, to weigh such considera- 
 tions as may be adduced in favour of one or 
 the other view. 
 
 And in favour of the view that prayer rests 
 on a natural instinct may fairly be brought 
 forward the very general, if not the universal, 
 prevalence of the idea of the efficacy of prayer. 
 '' All men, it would seem,'^ wrote the Heathen 
 moralist, ^^ all who have even some small share 
 of wisdom, do always in all that they set 
 
114 PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 abontj be it a great matter or a small^ call 
 on God for His help ^." And to this must 
 be applied the principle of the other great 
 philosopher of Greece^ that ^^what all men 
 accept^ that we hold to be the truth ^."'^ Or^ 
 as it is expressed by Hooker, " the general 
 and perpetual voice of men is as the sentence 
 of God Himself. For that which all men have 
 at all times learned nature herself must needs 
 have taught ; and God being the author of 
 nature^ her voice is but His instrument^/' 
 We can hardly mark men everywhere, or 
 almost everywhere, pouring forth their petitions 
 to God, with much, it may be, of folly and 
 extravagance in the manner of it intermixed, 
 without concluding that the desire for prayer is 
 either a natural instinct of man's being, or, 
 at least, in harmony with his instincts, and 
 capable of being connected in the chain of 
 natural sequence with them. 
 
 For it is only throwing the matter one step 
 farther back, to view prayer as the result 
 rather of man's natural idea of God. Be it 
 
 ^ 'AAA* S> "SiCtiKpares, tovt6 ye St; irdpTes, '6(Toi Koi Kara fipax^ 
 (rw(ppo(rvyrjs fxerexovaiy, inl Trd(rrf opfxfj Koi crfxiKpov koX ueydXov 
 irpdy/naTos dehv aei ttqv KaAovcri. Plat. Tim. in, 27. 
 
 - 'O yap Traai SoKel, tovt' ehai (pafxey. 
 
 3 Eccl. Pol. I. viii. 3. 
 
PBAYER AND MODEEN THOUaHT. 115 
 
 SO, that we view it rather as following 
 naturally from the conception which we form 
 of Him, and from that ^^ known relation which 
 God hath unto us as children, and unto all 
 good things as unto effects whereof Himself 
 is the principal Cause ^'^ whence we are led 
 to seek of Him in prayer those things which 
 we trust He will give us as a loving Father, 
 and which we know He can give us as God ; 
 then this will but make prayer to be founded 
 on a natural conception of God, resulting in 
 the way of regular consequence from it, instead 
 of its being, as we should rather ourselves 
 believe it to be, an instinct implanted in its 
 germ in our nature itself. 
 
 It is urged, however, that this desire for 
 prayer is really only the result of instruction 
 and example, the generality of which causes 
 us to mistake the nature of the belief in the 
 efficacy of prayer, as if it were a natural 
 instinct, instead of looking on it as a mere 
 matter of education, which it really is. But 
 this view puts out of sight altogether the fact 
 that this very tendency to instruct others to 
 pray, this very example of prayer by which 
 others are led to it, must itself have had its 
 
 * Hooker, Eccl. Pol. I. viii. 7. 
 I 2 
 
116 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 origin in some source. Who first tauglit those 
 to pray by whose instruction others every- 
 where are being influenced now ? Was the 
 origin of prayer a mere delusion in the minds 
 of some ? If so, how can we account for the 
 prevalence of the delusion^ and the power 
 which it has gained among men ? If it is not 
 an error, but something which approves itself 
 to mankind at large, whence did the idea of 
 prayer, and the belief in its power, take its 
 rise? 
 
 It may indeed be answered to this, as it is 
 answered practically, that the idea is owing to 
 '^ theologians,^^ i. e. to those who take Kevela- 
 tion as their guide, and instruct others in that 
 which, as derived by themselves from Scrip- 
 ture, they believe to be the truth. Still, from 
 whence is the doctrine of the efficacy of prayer, 
 as inculcated throughout in the Bible, derived ? 
 Granted that the Bible is written under the 
 inspiration of God, then the doctrine has the 
 highest possible sanction, as being com- 
 manded, or, we should rather say, permitted 
 to man by the express revelation of God Him- 
 self. But, supposing the Bible to be a mere 
 human composition, then the same difficulty 
 arises as before. How comes it that those by 
 whom it was composed should all, with one 
 
PRAYEE AND MODERN THOUGHT. 117 
 
 consent, have taught the value of prayer, and 
 throughout unhesitatingly implied its efficacy 
 — and that, not as if it were their own private 
 belief only, but as being an accepted point of 
 universal national belief — if prayer had no root 
 in man's true being, if it were only the crea- 
 tion of a distempered imagination, the result 
 of fear, and weakness, and credulity com- 
 bined ? 
 
 Still it is argued that prayer stands on the 
 same level with '^ obedience to dreams, incan- 
 tations, and witchcraft,^' and the like, " which 
 are intuitive;'' from which it is inferred that 
 even our instincts or intuitions cannot be 
 trusted ; that they may lead us into error as 
 much as into truth. Now, apart from any 
 question as to whether such beliefs are intui- 
 tive, I think it may be safely contended that 
 any very generally prevailing opinion will be 
 found commonly, if not always, to have some 
 groundwork of truth as its basis, however 
 much of error may be intermixed in the super- 
 structure which is reared upon it. And it is 
 thus no real argument against the validity of 
 prayer to contend that other beliefs too have 
 prevailed widely, which yet, in the form in 
 which they were maintained in times of 
 ignorance, may call forth the ridicule of wiser 
 
118 PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 times. As neitlier is it any disproof of the 
 true idea lying at the root of tlie doctrine of 
 the eflScacy of prayer tliatit too has been much 
 perverted^ directed to wrong objects, employed 
 for ends which were foolish, and exercised in 
 superstitious ways. Rather, perhaps, it should 
 be viewed as a proof of its intrinsic vitality, 
 that, amid such perversions, it has still main- 
 tained its ground. Hidden among rubbish 
 which has obscured its beauty, the jewel itself 
 has remained unimpaired. 
 
 On the whole, therefore, I think, on grounds 
 of reason, the result is in favour of the view 
 that prayer is the result of a natural instinct of 
 man^s being, though requiring, like all other 
 natural instincts — nay more, like all natural 
 faculties — to be called forth into exercise, and 
 disciplined, under the guidance of progressive 
 experience and illumination, with a view to its 
 proper use. And when we view man as called 
 into being by the will of the Great Creator, 
 who has been pleased to give him faculties 
 which raise him above the other orders of 
 created things on the earth, and not only bring 
 him into special likeness to God Himself, but 
 also endue him with the power of thinking 
 of God, and loving Him, and desiring to live 
 in communion with Him; when we reflect 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 119 
 
 further, tliat man, so constituted, is yet made 
 subject during his life on earth to circum- 
 stances on which his existence, and the vigour 
 of his being in every part of it, depend, so that, 
 with his utmost exertions, he yet cannot, 
 beyond a certain bound, provide that which is 
 necessary for himself and for others — regarding 
 man thus constituted, thus placed, we can 
 hardly conceive an All-wise and All-beneficent 
 Creator to have launched him into being, with- 
 out imparting to the immortal spirit which He 
 was sending forth into existence an instinct 
 which should lead him, when rightly trained, 
 to that very communion with God for which 
 his nature was adapted, that expression of his 
 wants to God, by which not only a supply for 
 his necessities would be obtained, but also the 
 highest qualities of his being would be educated, 
 and his true position in the universe be main- 
 tained. 
 
 Still, all these thoughts — all the views of 
 the foregoing pages — are but surmises after aU. 
 Reason can but go a little way. The more 
 carefully we meditate on her principles, the more 
 we feel how little she is able to guide us along 
 the path of inquiry as to the things of the 
 higher world, and the relation between them 
 and man on earth. " Where shall wisdom be 
 
120 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 found ?^^ is the question which the mind^ 
 pursuing these inquiries, naturally asks. And 
 thus reason becomes the handmaid to faith. 
 The natural understanding admits that she 
 can do no more than weigh the difficulties 
 which the natural understanding has raised. 
 She can but lead us by the hand to the school 
 of Divine wisdom, there to learn what God has 
 been pleased to reveal of Himself and our 
 relation to Him, there to confirm when true, 
 there to correct when erroneous, those points 
 of belief respecting God and our own higher 
 being, which, from whatever source derived, 
 have obtained currency among mankind. And 
 over the very portals of that school it may be 
 said to be written, so that each one as he enters 
 may read the words, ^' Ask, and ye shall have j 
 seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall 
 be opened unto you," as the charter of promise, 
 the ground on which may rest securely our 
 belief respecting the efficacy of prayer. 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 121 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ON THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF PRAYER. 
 
 The object of tlie preceding chapters has been 
 to consider the difficulties which may be raised 
 on grounds of reason alone to the doctrine of 
 the efficacy of prayer, and the manner in which 
 they may be solved. There remains one aspect 
 of the subject of prayer to which a few pages 
 may well be devoted, namely, the subjective 
 influence of prayer, as it would technically be 
 called : i. e. the influence which prayer has a 
 natural tendency to exercise upon those by 
 whom it is offered up. Here we breathe a 
 serener atmosphere. We have passed out of 
 the region of controversy and doubt. Even 
 those who strenuously deny the direct, actual 
 power of prayer, as a means of obtaining 
 Divine interposition, at least in the sphere of 
 outward nature, where all seems to them un- 
 alterably fixed, yet do quite admit that it may, 
 by a sort of natural reaction, exercise a very 
 
122 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 powerful influence on tlie minds and hearts of 
 those who pray. 
 
 And jetj pleasing as the illusion is here, 
 beneficial as it may be, as preventing those 
 who are under its influence from giving up 
 prayer altogether, which they otherwise might 
 be induced to do : — still in the interests of 
 truth it must be admitted that such a view is 
 but an illusion after all. The position is really 
 quite untenable. And however sound it may 
 seem for a time, this view of prayer must even- 
 tually give way under a stricter criticism ; and, 
 with it, the whole doctrine of the efficacy of 
 prayer may seem to be destroyed. For if 
 prayer in itself, as the supplication ofifered to a 
 Higher Being, is held to be a thing unreason- 
 able and unreal, the very idea of ofiering it 
 must, eventually, be seen to be unmeaning; 
 and, with that, its moral influence, or influence 
 on those who ofi*er it, must cease too. Destroy 
 the real validity of prayer, and its moral 
 power must at length be destroyed. It can 
 be only so long as natural instincts or the 
 results of training maintain their ground 
 against the theories of the intellect, only so 
 long as there do linger some convictions as to 
 the real, actual power of prayer — that it can 
 have any reality to the mind of him who 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 123 
 
 offers it, and so act upon him with a moral 
 force. 
 
 But, on the contrary, once admit the real, 
 direct power of prayer; grant, that it can 
 indeed influence the will of that mighty moral 
 Being by whom the universe was created, and 
 by Whom it is from hour to hour sustained and 
 ruled; allow that blessings which we desire 
 may be granted, and evils which we deprecate 
 be removed, or a gentle but powerful influent3e 
 be exercised on our moral being whereby the 
 whole character of it may gradually be changed 
 and raised — once admit this, more or less, 
 with such limitations even as one or another 
 may think fit to set to the range of his own 
 individual belief in the efficacy of prayer, and 
 prayer, thus real, thus trustivorthy j is found to 
 react with a great and comprehensive power 
 on all the sides of our moral and spiritual 
 character and life. 
 
 Rising, then, above the world in the midst of 
 which he moves, man is lifted up in spirit into 
 a higher sphere. At one time he may look 
 on the things of earth as a veil through and 
 beyond which he can gaze by faith on God. 
 At another time he may view them rather as a 
 mirror, wherein are manifested in some degree 
 the glorious attributes of God. But in all 
 
124 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 things God is more or less constantly be- 
 fore the view of Ms spirit^ wLicli is drawn up 
 by communion with Him in prayer. The work 
 of lifoj however high or however humble be 
 the sphere in which he is placed, is seen as 
 a duty to be performed for God, a discipline 
 through which the spirit is being prepared 
 for an eternal life with Him. The things of 
 earth — with their beauty, their use, their adap- 
 tation to the end which they are intended to 
 serve — are regarded as showing forth the 
 goodness and the wisdom of God. The life and 
 the force, of which the working appears on all 
 sides, is to him the visible sign of the outflow 
 of Divine Power from the Spirit of Life. And 
 thus the danger to which man is liable of 
 being drawn away from the thought of God by 
 those very things which should continually 
 bring Him before our view, is being constantly 
 counteracted for us by prayer. And thus, first, 
 the value of prayer is seen as lifting up the 
 immortal spirit into that higher sphere which 
 is congenial to its true being, and in which it 
 should habitually dwell, and thereby preparing 
 it on earth for its future eternal home. And 
 how much it does this may, perhaps, be seen 
 most strikingly by contrast in the lives, 
 becoming more and more earthly in their 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 125 
 
 view, of those who have ceased to be men of 
 prayer. 
 
 A second great service performed by prayer 
 is one which is not, I think, commonly re- 
 cognized, its power, namely, as a means of 
 producing union among men. The social cha- 
 racter of man, his need of society as a con- 
 dition under which the powers of his higher 
 nature are to be developed, was noted by the 
 Greek philosophers long ago. And all that 
 which helps to draw men together more and 
 more in the bonds of true and lasting union, 
 all which tends to prevent the disintegration 
 of families and communities and states, which 
 other causes have a tendency to produce, may 
 be regarded as a benefit to mankind at large. 
 And just such an agency is to be found in a 
 special degree in prayer. For prayer, lifting 
 up the mind to higher things, in the way 
 described before, removes to a great extent 
 the selfishness which is fostered by allowing 
 the mind to become engrossed with things 
 around. And then, the barrier to the outflow 
 of regard and love for others being withdrawn 
 the heart is free to sympathize with the joys 
 and the sorrows of others, and consider their 
 interests, and forego its own pleasure or advan- 
 tage for the sake of others, and put forth those 
 
126 PEATEE AND MODE EN THOUGHT. 
 
 many little acts of courtesy and considerate- 
 ness by whichj more, perhaps,, than by greater 
 things, the union of man with man and class 
 "with class is maintained. And this feeling 
 of love and regard for others is further 
 strengthened in us by the sense that their 
 prayers are going up to Heaven for the same 
 blessings, in great measure, for which we pray 
 ourselves ; nay, more, that we, either indi- 
 vidually, or at least as members of a class, are 
 being continually remembered by them before 
 God in their prayers. And thus a second 
 aspect of the value of prayer is, as producing 
 and maintaining union among men. 
 
 Great, too, is the encouragement and sup- 
 port amid the trials and difficulties of life 
 which naturally flows from prayer. For very 
 inciting and stimulating to exertion it is to 
 feel that all our work is being done for God, 
 that it has been presented beforehand to Him, 
 and is being carried on as in His presence, as a 
 tribute to Him, in the employment for Him 
 of the faculties which He has given, the life 
 which He from hour to hour sustains. And 
 thus is obtained the one high motive which 
 never fails. Self-interest, love of power or 
 fame, benevolence, and desire for the good of 
 others — all these motives lose at times their 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 127 
 
 force. The desire to fulfil our duty to God^ 
 tlie love of pleasing Him by the right use of 
 the power which He has bestowed — this mo- 
 tive never fails ; it rather grows stronger as 
 earthly things pass away, and we draw near 
 to eternity, and look forward to being with 
 Him from Whom we have derived our being, 
 and from Whom we hope to receive our re- 
 ward. And, as prayer thus incites us to exer- 
 tion, so it also lends a great moral support to 
 the spirit when engaged in its work. How 
 much additional confidence is gained when we 
 can feel, not only that our own powers are 
 being to the utmost fairly and diligently put 
 forth, but also that we can hope for a blessing 
 upon our work from God aiding our efi'orts 
 and directing their ultimate issues at His will ! 
 How much of the evil effect of worry and 
 uncertainty and rivalry and disappointment 
 would many a broken spirit have been spared, 
 if it could but have really felt that it was 
 working for God, and with God ; and that its 
 true end could not but be gained, under all 
 circumstances — its endeavour, namely, to do the 
 best it could for Him ! In times of danger, too, 
 it has been noticed that a special firmness and 
 fearlessness may be inspired by the conscious- 
 ness of having sought God^s help in prayer. 
 
128 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 Tims it is related of the late Bishop Patteson, 
 that on one occasion he felt assured of the 
 treachery of the natives who were guiding 
 him to their Chief : ^^ Uneasiness took posses- 
 sion of him, and he feared for his life. Pre- 
 sently he came to an abandoned hut_, and for 
 a few minutes he left his guides; and those 
 moments he employed on his knees in prayer. 
 The effect, he used to relate, of thus com- 
 mending himself to his Divine Father, soul 
 and body, was wonderful; all fear left him, 
 and he came out of the hut regardless of 
 consequences.^' "The effect upon his trea- 
 cherous guides,^' it is added — though that is 
 not to our present point, " was no less won- 
 derful ; they gradually ceased to plot ; and at 
 last one of them turned, confessed the trea- 
 chery, and offered to lead him back to his 
 boat in safety." So great is the power of 
 prayer to produce confidence in those by 
 whom it is trustfully and heartily offered up. 
 
 And the same power which is thus seen as 
 influencing man on the more active side of his 
 being, appears equally as giving him succour on 
 the passive side as well. Humility, and patient 
 endurance in resignation to God's will, under 
 the assurance that all is being ordered for the 
 best by the care of a loving Father, are virtues 
 
PEAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 129 
 
 whicli naturally spring up and grow througli 
 prayer. We have put our case into His hands : 
 we have used all the diligence^ all the skilly all 
 the means which lay in our own power : and 
 we can rest secure in His care as being sure 
 that He will give us that which we desire^ so 
 far as is compatible with the laws of His per- 
 fect justice, and the wider scheme of the uni- 
 verse, and the order which He has established 
 in the world : sure, too, that so far as the desire 
 of our heart cannot be granted, He will make 
 all things to turn to the true good of those who, 
 in singleness of heart, rest their whole trust on 
 Him. 
 
 This subject of the moral influence of prayer 
 might be carried on to an almost indefinite ex- 
 tent. This " breath of the spirit '' might be 
 viewed in its bearings on all the parts of our 
 moral and spiritual being, just as the action of 
 the natural breath might be regarded as affect- 
 ing all the various sides of our physical life. 
 But we will not pursue the matter farther. 
 Even to what has been suggested so far the 
 words of the great Greek historian^s panegyric 
 over the dead, as put into the mouth of Pericles, 
 may be felt to apply. Those who do not know 
 the value of prayer may consider what is said 
 as exaggerated ; while, reversely, to those who 
 
 K 
 
130 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 do know its power by experience_, what has 
 been said may be viewed as falling very far 
 short of the full truth. 
 
 I feel^ in closing the volume,, that I have 
 been able to proceed myself^ and to lead those 
 who may be at the pains to follow me^ only to 
 the outskirts of the subject after all. The 
 consideration of the difficulties which may be 
 honestly raised as to the efficacy of prayer^ and 
 the manner in which those difficulties may fairly 
 be met — all^ as far as possible^ from an unbe- 
 liever\s point of view — cannot carry us into the 
 heart of the mp.tter. The value of prayer^ direct 
 and indirect;, spreads out into vast ranges of 
 our being ; its foundations are laid far down in 
 depths out of sights to which such difficulties 
 do not reach at all. Above the subject of 
 prayer J we feel^ there stretches away before 
 the mind of the believer a view ever rising 
 higher and extending farther of that com- 
 munion with God in heaven which really con- 
 stitutes prayer^ as full of blessings temporal and 
 spiritual^ direct and indirect^ as raising and 
 purifying and strengthening man^s highest 
 beings and as maintaining, by a thousand in- 
 tricate links of connexion, the relation between 
 man and God. While beneath it, again, as 
 the foundations on which it is reared, lie the 
 
PRAYEU AND MODERN THOUGHT. 131 
 
 deep questions as to man^s instincts and prin- 
 cipleSj tte ground of his knowledge of God 
 and of himself^ and so of the foundations gene- 
 rally of his moral and spiritual belief — perhaps 
 we must add even of his belief in the existence 
 of outward nature^ and of the uniformity of its 
 laws^ of which — and of which only — they feel 
 so sure_, who would deny the reasonableness 
 and the efficacy of prayer. 
 
 I have tried to keep to my prescribed limits^ 
 and neither to preach a homily on the inesti- 
 mable value of prayer generally^ nor to enter 
 on those deeper matters y/hich are apart from^ 
 though they underlie^ the subject of prayer. 
 
 But for some benefit to be derived even from 
 the considerations which have been advanced 
 in this volume^ I would look still. The diffi- 
 culties which are felt sincerely by some, and only 
 dimly hinted at as difficulties of overwhelming 
 magnitude by others, have been stated, I hope, 
 in their exact truth. And thus their real force 
 may more easily be examined ; w^hile such help 
 towards their honest examination will have been 
 given, as it was in the writer^s power to afford. 
 And if it is found that their weight is not great, 
 especially when counter-balanced by arguments 
 which may be adduced on the other side, the 
 candid mind will be better prepared to come to 
 
132 PRA.YER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 those deeper truths on which the validity of 
 prayer must ultimately be made to rest. He 
 will, at least, not be biassed against them as 
 maintaining, what he fancies to be untenable, 
 the doctrine of the Efficacy of Prayer. 
 
 Further, the consideration of the subject 
 even thus far cannot fail to bring about a 
 deeper conviction of the vast importance of the 
 matter, and the great issues which it involves. 
 On a true view of it may depend the enjoyment 
 of incalculable blessings in respect of our phy- 
 sical and moral welfare, if God does indeed 
 direct the course of events, and accepts our 
 worship of Him, and communion with Him, and 
 influences our moral being in answer to our 
 prayers for others and for ourselves. Certainly, 
 with the denial of the power of prayer, all the 
 great and varied influence of communion with 
 a higher, unseen Being must be lost too. And 
 also, if prayer is surrendered, our faith must 
 be given up. " If prayer is not answered, and 
 cannot be answered ^^ (it has been truly said), 
 '^ then there is in the Christian, or rather in the 
 religious sense of the word, no God:^^ our 
 belief in God, and the Revelation of Him which 
 we accept, and the religious instincts of our 
 nature, (if there be such,) confirmed and guided 
 by it — all fade away. We are left in that 
 
PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 133 
 
 dreary state^ in wliicli the sceptic would triam- 
 phantly place us, with all beyond this present 
 visible world as a '^ terra incognita -/' all else^ 
 all belief in God_, and Providence, and prayer, 
 wisely put aside as ^Hhe baseless products 
 of human speculation/^ Here, then, is the 
 alternative, A hard, earthly life, on the one 
 hand, without any knowledge of God, or com- 
 munion with Him, in the midst of a fixed chain 
 of events, an unalterable course of nature, in 
 which we are to play our part for a short period ; 
 with, at best, but human affection and earthly 
 refinement, to cheer and elevate us; and no 
 view of a world beyond this. Or, on the other 
 hand, a life raised and purified by the thought 
 of God and communion with Him, cheered, sup- 
 ported, stimulated by the conviction that we 
 are watched over by His care, and that His 
 superintending Providence orders the course 
 of nature, so as yet not to interrupt its ordi- 
 nary laws ; with the hope of an eternal exist- 
 ence with Him, when this life, with its trials, 
 and sorrows, and inequalities, has passed 
 away. 
 
 It is well at least to know how much is 
 involved in the doctrine of prayer. On the one 
 hand, it may prevent our lightly throwing out, 
 or taking up from others, objections which may 
 
134 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 shake,, if they do not undermine, the foundations 
 of belief. On the other hand, it may make us 
 appreciate more truly that Revelation from God 
 by which our belief in Him and our confidence 
 in the power of prayer to Him are assured : and 
 to reflect afresh on the evidence by which that 
 Revelation is supported, and its harmony with 
 the deep religious instincts and convictions of 
 mankind at large, which underlie the errors 
 with which very commonly they have been 
 overlaid. 
 
 And thus the vv^ay is cleared to a truer view 
 of the ground on which ultimately rests our 
 belief in the efiicacy of prayer : viz. religious 
 experience and religious belief. The student 
 of nature proudly bids the theologian stand 
 aside, and not interfere in questions with which 
 his habits of thought and tone of mind ren- 
 der him incompetent to deal. The theolo- 
 gian may reverse the sentence, and desire the 
 student of nature to pursue his own most valu- 
 able, most interesting inquiries, without rudely 
 interfering with what the theologian holds and 
 teaches as his most true, most well-founded, 
 belief. ^''All truth ^'' (it has been said most 
 truly) '■^s not attainable by the same avenues. ^^ 
 Let the natural philosopher teach on his grounds 
 that the order of nature is fixed, and proceeds. 
 
PEAYEK AND MODERN THOUGHT. 135 
 
 as far as it is observed ordinarily^ according to 
 fixed laws. Let tlie theologian teach equally 
 on Ms grounds^ that God does overrule tho 
 order of events in a sphere beyond the range 
 of our view^ and that in answer to man^s 
 prayer. There is room for the acceptance of 
 both truths. 
 
 And so with regard to religious experience 
 as confirming the doctrine of prayer. The un- 
 believer may reject prayer himself — may show 
 by facts that it does not in many cases produce 
 its direct result. Be it so. There are moral 
 requisites to make prayer efficacious. It is one 
 tenet of the religion which a believer holds^ 
 that the candlestick may be removed where its 
 light is unused. One who will not pray faith- 
 fully, cannot look for answer to prayer. But_, 
 reversely, the believer may maintain that his 
 prayer is answered. His religious experience 
 may confirm the doctrine. His life may give 
 evidence of the power of prayer, on which it is 
 reared. Christianity — true, living Christianity 
 — shining outwardly, realized inwardly, con- 
 firms with a special power the doctrine of 
 Christ. Prayer, real, trustful, constant prayer, 
 carries with it, to those who pray, and to others, 
 so far as it can, its o^n experimental joroof. 
 Live to Christ, and you will never deny Him. 
 
136 PRAYER AND MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 Live in prayer^ and your experience of its power 
 will confirm your belief. 
 
 The whole subject may well be closed in the 
 following admirable words of Archbishop Sharp^ 
 which form part of his ^^ Persuasive to Prayer :'' 
 — '' That which constitutes the nature of man, 
 and doth formally difference and distinguish 
 him from all other animals, is not so much the 
 power of reason, as the capacity of being reli- 
 gious. There are some footsteps of an obscure 
 reason to be observed in many creatures besides 
 man. But in none, except him, is there found 
 any sense of a Deity, or disposition towards 
 religion, or anything which looks like it. That 
 seems to be the prerogative of mankind. God 
 endowed men, and them only, with spirits 
 capable of reflecting upon the Author of their 
 being, and of making acknowledgments and 
 performing religious worship to Him. 
 
 ^' So that, to worship God ; to converse with 
 Him in the exercise of devotion ; to pray and 
 give thanks for His benefits, may be truly said 
 to be the proper office of man as man.-'^ 
 
 GILBKUT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTEllS, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE, LONBO> 
 
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