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presumption that the same thing can be done in other ways of which science simply knows nothing, and about which imagination cannot with much advantage exercise its power of conjecture. It is conceivable therefore that prayer relating to definite physical ends might be answered, without the appearance of the slightest departure from the ordinary course of nature.

If, then, the constancy of natural laws be so interpreted as to admit of indefinite variations, through free volition, of the course of nature, that constancy proves nothing against prayer.

If, however, it be interpreted to mean that by the operation of cause and effect the course of nature is so fixed that no change in accordance with human thought or desire can possibly take place in it, the argument proves too much. If the tremendous doctrine of necessity be called in at all, it is unscientific to apply it partially. If in the face of a fixed and necessary course of things prayer becomes an absurdity, how much else becomes absurd also! Everything properly human ceases to be rational, till we are reduced to the deadest fatalism. If a philosopher says to me, "How can you think that by your prayers you can divert universal nature from its preordained course?" I think I reply rationally by asking, "How can I suppose that by any acts of mine, any more than by any prayers, I can alter the unalterable?" If the assertion, "It is of no use to pray against the cattledisease or the cholera," be based upon the fact that effect follows cause with unvarying uniformity, the same reason would lead us on to the further assertion, "It is of no use to do anything against the cattle-disease or the cholera."

Let us consider what will have to be given up, if prayer for physical benefits be condemned on the ground of the uniformity of nature. Prayer for spiritual blessings can hardly be retained. Are not spiritual things mixed up inextrica bly with physical? Spirit acts upon outward things; outward things act upon the spirit. Fever is raging in a swampy

duty to try and subdue it, and learning that he might probably do so by draining it, cuts a drain. The place becomes wholesome. Then the moral tone of the population also rises. The children become brighter, more intelligent, more moral. A great spiritual gain is secured, by the enlightenment of one man acting through a physical improvement. Can it be said that visible things are subject to law, spiritual things to no law? Neither the philosopher nor the Christian could acquiesce for a moment in such a distinction. If, then, a mother is forbidden, by reason, to pray for the restoration to health of her child, can she reasonably pray that it may grow up wise and virtuous? Again, thanksgiving appears to be correlative to prayer. If we are to regard everything that happens as a fixed by a predetermined order, we shall be bound to repress all special promptings to gratitude. There may remain perhaps a certain sense of admiration of the course of things as a whole,

modified, one would expect, by a good deal of dissatisfaction,-but what we commonly mean by thanksgiving must disappear. Again, deliberate effort to accomplish any end is stultified. If a man were betrayed into it by the singular instinct which haunts us, the recollection of the true philosophy would make him smile at himself as a fool. And lastly, he would learn to be ashamed of desire and hope. Only those who have not been taught the unalterableness of the course of things can be weak enough to indulge a wish or a hope concerning the future. What will be will be and there is an end of it. Motives, aims, hopes, may be included as blind instincts in the great scheme, but they cannot be properly rational; they cannot justify themselves to the enlightened understanding. They must share the fate of prayer. They are instinctiveso is prayer. Prayer is not rational—n more are they.

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It would seem, then, that the unalterableness of nature, if it is allowed to condemn prayer, must go on to extinguish everything that we call human.

would no doubt be generally accepted as a reductio ad absurdum, conclusive for refutation. A reductio ad absurdum, however, is always more annoying to an opponent, than really satisfying or instructive. It ought hardly to be used except where strict logic is professed on the other side. That is so in the present case. And we might desire to meet as summarily as possible an assumption which holds up to contempt a large part of all the utterances which human souls in their earnestness and their anguish have offered up, and still offer up, at that Throne of Grace before which they have been invited to prostrate themselves. But the most important bearing of this argument is that it leads us to lay stress upon the affinity between Prayer and rational Desire.

"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed." All Christians have been ready to accept this as a principle of devotion.

But may we not find, in the definition that prayer is desire looking upwards, a useful guide as to the conditions of reasonable prayer? If desire, by looking upwards, becomes prayer, then we have a real basis for prayer before we come to consider its efficacy. We have it even before we have provided ourselves with any solution of the mystery of God's providence. What we do require, as an antecedent condition of prayer, is the confession of a living God, whose creatures we are, and in whose presence we stand. Then the simple affection of desire for this or that, by being the affection of a man who remembers God, and knows his relation of dependence and subjection to God, grows into a prayer. A man who desires, in his true consciousness as a creature and child of God, also prays. Supposing this ideal condition to be realized, whatever modifies the desire will modify the prayer; and whatever modifies the prayer will modify the desire,

This view of the nature of prayer would have two important negative effects-1. It shuts out the use of prayer as a kind of spiritual machinery.

has been gained by praying, which are often made use of to stimulate the devotions of religious persons, have a tendency to become thoroughly offensive to a reverent mind. We cannot pray rightly, if we resort to prayer simply as an expedient for obtaining what we want. 2. It protests against the divorce of prayer from exertion. Instead of being a substitute for effort, or a supplement to it, prayer is seen to be a kind of natural breath of effort. And the man whose energies are most simply roused in pursuit of any object, will be the man to pray most earnestly.

But how does this view, that prayer is the Godward aspect of desire, bear upon the question, What boons we may reasonably ask for from God? It suggests, I think, the following principles.

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1. We cannot reasonably either desire or ask for anything, except subordinately to the greater desire that God's will, and not ours, may be done. We are sometimes afraid, I suspect, that the full statement of this principle may damp the ardour of prayer. We apprehend the easy objection, "What is the sense of asking God to do His own will?" But let us bear in mind that the same principle applies to wishing. Can I deliberately desire that God should give up His will for mine? Suppose I earnestly desire,-say that my church should be crowded by reverent and teachable hearers. And suppose Divine voice to ask, "Do you wish this, whether it be in accordance with my will or not?" How monstrous and shocking an idea it would be that I could wish it apart from its being God's will! There is no difference, then, in this respect between praying and wishing. Eager importunate entreaties and desires will no doubt be checked by the habitual consciousness of the perfection and power of the Divine will. So far as reasoning goes, we might probably expect that such a consciousness would tend to the extinction of desire and prayer altogether. But experience seems to prove that a constant remembrance and worship of God's will does not

Whatever be the effect of it, we must take the consequences without reservation. If we can only say other prayers heartily on condition of not saying always, "Thy will be done," we must keep to this prayer and give up the rest. On this point no doubt or compromise can be admissible.

2. A second principle will be, that we should yield without resistance to the instinct of modesty in making particular requests. It is here that our increased knowledge of the laws of nature and the interdependence of all phenomena should tell upon us. Occurrences which primitive ignorance never dreamed of as being other than partial and limited, are known to us as having the widest bearings and connexions. To wish that this or that phenomenon should occur to suit our convenience, when we know that it must have other and far more important consequences than those which concern us, would seem ridiculously arrogant. We ought not to shut our eyes to the influence which this consideration may exert upon the character of our prayers. That influence will vary with the knowledge and with the habit of mind of different persons, and is sure to be increasingly great. But, whilst our prayers go hand in hand with our wishes, I think we need not fear for our prayers. We must be content to trust our human nature in the hands of its Maker. If it be His will that we should arrive at a state in which desires for particular things have become extinct, it is not for us to try to arrest our progress towards that state. But, on this point, it would be rash to speak confidently as to the future. At the present time, I imagine it cannot be doubted that cultivated minds, and especially those which are familiar with the study of the complicated and orderly processes of nature, instinctively shrink from allowing themselves in deliberate desires for external occurrences, which are not within the apparent scope of human effort. There is indeed a less scrupulous kind of feeling, somewhat different from desire, of which the natural expression

thing were to happen." Of this I am not speaking as being co-ordinate with. prayer, but of that which would lead a man to say, "I long for this or that to come to pass." A philosopher's desires of this nature (though I believe he will not be without them), will certainly be different from a child's; and it seems reasonable to apply to the growth thus to be observed the words of St. Paul, "When I was a child, I thought as a "child; but when I became a man, I "put away childish things."

3. Besides this growth in what I have called modesty-the philosopher's modesty in the presence of the outward world-there is another kind of growth, more properly belonging to the Christian, which will tend towards the same result I mean the increasing spirituality which should characterize our desires

and our prayers. Every one would

concur in the statement, that, as a Christian advances in godliness, his mind will be set less on outward things, and more on the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. In all records of the aspirations of devout men, we observe that their genuine longings have been spiritual, and that physical good things have seemed hardly worthy of their prayers. And this answers to the teaching of our Lord-as in the Sermon on the Mount, "Seek ye first the king"dom of God and His righteousness, and "all these things shall be added unto you;" and "If ye, being evil, give good gifts unto your children, how "much more shall your Father which "is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to "them that ask Him?"

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It is not enough to say that the spiritual Christian will not pray earnestly for temporal good things for himself, but will think more of being enlightened, purified, and brought into fellowship with God. His feeling will be similar when he thinks of those in whom he is interested. For them, also, he will not be careful to ask physical blessings; he will most earnestly desire their spiritual good. Nor will the case be different when it is a community-a Church or a

vidual. In proportion as we know what is best, and understand the dependence of inferior blessings upon the higher gifts of spiritual life, we shall pray that light may be given us, and righteousness, and mutual harmony, and selfcontrol, and power to aid other nations and Churches, more earnestly and with more satisfaction than we shall pray for an abundant harvest or for a new development of trade.

It doubtless has occurred to the recollection of the reader that, in thus exalting spiritual objects as the proper objects of our prayers, we are but following the example which our Saviour expressly gave us to follow, when He said, "After this manner pray ye," and then recited the prayer in which we ask the Heavenly Father of all to cause His name to be hallowed, His kingdom to come, and His will to be done, before we speak of ourselves at all; and then only pray that our daily bread may be given us— this bread itself including unquestionably spiritual food-and pass on to petitions for forgiveness and for deliverance from the dominion of the evil one.

If our prayers be in their nature strictly co-ordinate with our desires, and if both our prayers and our desires should be governed by these principles, -that in all we wish for or ask we should be careful (1) to cherish a willing submission to the Divine will, (2) to bear in mind our own insignificance in relation to the natural order, and (3) to lift up our aspirations to spiritual objects, it will assuredly follow that petitions for physical objects of desire will become less and less acceptable to us, and will tend to disappear from our habitual prayers. Our feeling about them will probably be that they belong to an early stage of spiritual and intellectual growth, in which they are natural and wholesome; but that they are scarcely suitable to adult age. But we shall continue to pay deference to instincts and necessities of nature; and, when the pressure of suffering and alarm extorts a longing and an appeal, we shall not pronounce in the name of

shall not take form in words of prayer addressed to the Father or the Saviour. If we are to cry out at all, it is in every way best that we should cry to God. An earthly parent might desire that the wishes and requests of his little child should gradually be disciplined by knowledge; but he would not repulse the child, and bid him carry elsewhere than to him his childish petitions. Unless our relation to God in heaven be altogether a fiction and a delusion, it is impossible that He should not desire that our deepest feelings should be turned in trust towards Him. And, to those who contend that laws of nature make such appeals unreasonable, we have a right to say, "You, who tell a mother that it is useless for her to pray for the recovery of her sick child, tell her also that the longing she cannot suppress is an illogical anomaly: you, who say that a nation, in the agony of a struggle, should not ask God to bless its arms, say also that all the yearning sentiment which is roused into life by the struggle is futile and irrational."

It is right to state plainly the conclusion, from which some perhaps might shrink, but which seems to follow from the above considerations, that the forms which prayer may take, as they must be unimportant in the eyes of God, are also comparatively of little importance for us. The spirit of prayer is that which is really acceptable to God, and therefore really efficacious. That spirit may find expression only in unspoken groanings. It may address petitions to God as unreasonably as when a child asks for the moon. "We know not what we should pray for as we ought." But the prayer will be weighed and estimated, not by its form, but by its essence. There is some danger, let it be admitted, in what may be called the laxity of such a view concerning the utterances of prayer. But we cannot avoid danger, though we may in some degree guard against it. And, in the deeper matters of faith and worship, the true view generally seems to be that which is not unreasonably sus

And, though it is right to speak decidedly of the comparative unimportance of forms of prayer, it does not by any means follow that they are entirely unimportant; still less that we can dispense with them. It should be regarded as a solemn duty-and it is one which easily commends itself to the conscience and the judgment-to throw the spirit of supplication into the most rational forms which our knowledge enables us to create. It is surely a mistake to force ourselves to pray for things which do not impress us as fit objects of deliberate desire. Liberty in this respect should be allowed to individual consciences; and at the same time it might be hoped that tolerance, a reverent tolerance unmixed with contempt, should be shown by more cultivated and philosophical minds towards the humbler prayers of the more ignorant.

For they who recognise in any degree the nature and relation of man as a son of God can scarcely fail to admit, that it is well for a man to bring all his thoughts, whatever they are, into the presence of his unseen Father. It is better, a thousand times better, that he should put the most foolish and irrational desires into prayer, than that he should throw himself into the same desires without remembering God. Not that no praying can be bad.

Prayer

may be bad, it can hardly be good, when it is addressed to a capricious being, to a tyrant who may be coaxed or soothed or bribed, in order to obtain some private advantage. And there is room for earnest thought and endeavour in the effort to keep the image of the Fatherly will of God pure and clear before the mind. But, if it be remembered who and what God is, then, I think, it may be said without limit, it is good for a man to bring all his desires to God and to turn them into prayers, that God Himself may teach him what desires are worthy of a child of His, and from what he needs to be purged.

After all, I may seem to have evaded the question as to the efficacy of prayer.

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we ask any the more for our asking? Are we ready to bring this question to the practical test of experiment? confess to a shrinking from such an inquiry, as from one which it is neither reverent nor useful to prosecute. But that this feeling may not be reasonably attributed to the consciousness of a bad case, we are bound to try to justify it. Let due consideration, then, be given to the fact, that prayer, when it comes to be regarded as efficacious-that is, as a machinery for securing results-is beginning to pass into a hurtful and irreverent superstition. No doubt we here confront a paradox. We are taught to believe in the efficacy of prayer; we may be satisfied that prayers have brought down definite blessings from heaven but, the moment we begin to act in a business-like manner upon a theory of the efficacy of prayer, we cease to pray acceptably. This, let it be borne in mind, is not a mere makeshift of an argument, introduced to cover a weak point; it is a first principle in the doctrine of prayer. If, therefore, specific fulfilments were fixedly or even abundantly assigned to human prayers, a great evil would almost inevitably be created. Prayer would cease to be, in the deepest and truest sense, the prayer of faith, and would become the prayer of calculation; and the spirit of it would evaporate. I should be sorry to say that no good is done by appeals to instances of prayers answered by direct gifts; we have some such appeals in Scripture. But I think a reverent mind must experience some shock to its delicacy from a contact with such appeals; I can almost imagine that it would rather hear nothing of such answers. It scarcely raises our idea of the character of God, to be told that He has caused some little thing to come to pass just because Soand-so asked Him. What we want to feel assured of is, that God hears our prayers; that if we pour out our hearts before Him in childlike hope, He is pleased, and helps forward the cause into which we have thrown our sympathies. In this way, we may thank

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