Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1872-08-27
The Efficacy of PRAYER,

Lately Professor Tyndal, the English scien-
fist, who, with other free-thinkers, denies the
efficacy OF prayer, holding that things obey nat
urai laws, brought forward proposal to this
effect LET" he says, ian hospital be found
ed in which there shall be two wards. Let
prayers be offered up for the inmates of one
ward and no prayers for the inmates of the
Other, and then, let az the end of a certain
number OF years, compare the mortality OF the
two wards, and TINS test the efficacy OF prayer"
The question has raised considerable discus
son in English journals, and Capt. Cation, in
the lat number of he F0rtHigbHy Rsrieac,
takes u up, going much beyond Professor
TyLdal; undertaking to demonstrate that pray
er Wherever tried, has been found wanting.
he points out that though, in both Protestant
and Catholic nations the soyerei On is more con-
stantly prayed for than any OF his subjects, see
ing that public prayer for him is included in
every ritual, the average life of royalty in
Europe during the past century is only 6IOi,
whereas that of ordinary gentlefoIk is 7O.22
Moreover, it would be expected that elergymen,
whose profession it is TO pray, and who certainly
are not likely TO forget themselves in their
deyotiOns, would live longer than Iicentious
lawyers and sceptical doctors, who neither pray
Tor themselves nor have any special Iitanies for
their benefit; but an examination of the lists of
'persons OF sufficient note to have had their
lives recorded in a biographical dictionary,
does not prove it. Again, he says, in all coun-
tries the priests urge the patient to pray for his
own recovery, and the patients friends to aid
him with their prayers; but that the doctors
make no account whatever of their spiritual
agencies, unless the office of priests and medical
man be combined in the same individual. 1t is
the universal habit of the scientific world to
ignore the agency of prayer. And to fully appre-
Clate the elD1VfUPp the silence nj ali nj
men We must bear in mind the care with which
they eDdeavOr - assign sanatory value to
every influence. Most people have some general
belief IN the objective efficacy of prayer but
none seem willing 10 admit its action in those
special cases OF which they have scientific cog
niZance.
In reply to these specious arguments the be-
levers IN the efficacy OF prayer maintain that
they are defective in assuming that Gods will
anu the vii OF the creature who prays to him
are one and the same. They assume that God
thinks as We think, that long life is great bless
ing. tie may really be consulting our own real
harTiLess by refusing to grant our prayer for
long life.
But some of the writer's on the religions side
make point blank issue with Capt Gallon and
the POsitiysts OIL the matter of fact The
London SFsc'GtoT cites two cases 80 so large and
so visible Is to be better than any of his own
IN which persons about whom the presumption
alike OF prayer and OF prayerfulspirit is greater
than il is about any OF those he names, have
been enormously, almost miraculOusly success
ful. IL it can be asserted OF any human beinrs
tAat they prayed for the diffusion of their ideas
of faith " can be asserted about the early Chris
tiaLs. IL il can be asserted about any PRAYER
that il involved an antecedent improba5ility of
realization, it can be asserted about that par
stances, Of the reluctance of mankind, of the
hOrTcr-struck resistance of princes OF the an
tagouiSm between those ideas and the instincts
OF mankind-of the weakness, as Capt. Cation
would say, OF those ideas-,hat PRAYER was
heard. those ideas were diffused. that faith is
tie faith OF the peoples who control the world
1.-The other instance says the Spectator, sis an
even stronger one Gu Captain Gallons sys-
ten Of proof. He says that God is necessarily
asked 10 grant Soyereigns long life, and they die
quicker than other people. We say in return
that God is perpetuaily asked in the same formal
way TO protect the Papacy, aud that in spite of
circumstances, of all OppOsitons, OF as we think
its own inherent and necessary tendency to
dssth-its rretensiOns being baseless-the Pa
Iacy endures through the ages, and seems, as
Macaulay said, rs If ight survive all existing
institutions. We do not say post hoe, ergo propter
hoc-in the second instance we could not say it
but Captain Cation, by the law of his method,
Is bound to say il for III the absence OF pro-
tectionfor churches from lightning and OF kings
from early death are proofs that PRAYER is use
less, than the victory of Christianity and the
durability OF the Popedom are greater, because
more certain and visible proofs that prayer is
useful
Tie Spectator might, also have brought for
ward the case OF Prince Albert, upon whom the
rrayeTs et the nation were concentrated when
lie was apparently upon his death-bed