Litchfield enquirer., 1872-10-10
EFFICACY OF PRAYER.

focr1Dner, armstrong N CO., NoW 1Ork, have published, in one volume, Fifteen Years of Prayer. in the Fulton street Meet ing by s. Irencus Prime" It seems that on every secular day for the past fifteen years, public meeting has been held at the corner of Fulton street and William, in the city of New York. Six denomina- tions of evangelical Christians have been active in these meetings, and Dr. Prime con- siders that they have been attended by an exceptional outpouring of the Holy Spirit
 The room became a centre, from which the revival spirit spread to many church es unblessed with 1t. Dr. Prime contends that the prayers in the Fulton Meeting had a practical effect, not only in saving souls, but wardlng off impending tempo ral calamities. Thus in the financial pan is of 1857, friend of Dr. Prime Chad oc- casion to go into large store, and as he ascended to the fourth story, he heard the voice of prayer somewhere-he could not tell where he opened the door to as- certain whence it came-and there was a boy on his knees, pleading with God to keep his father from .faiiing. The father did not fdiI. At another time, going in- to merchants counting-room. the head man of the place said to him Let us kneel and ask God to help me through, for without his help shall be bankrupt before the setting of the sum- So we kuelt and prayed. That man went through the pressure, and did not become a bank rupt." The position is also taKen that the life of the Prince of Wales. in his re- cent sickness, was saved by the prayers of the English and American churches. In other words prayer works miracles.
 far >A- whose credit IS shaken, and suspends the action of the laws of disease in the case of any sick man for whose recovery the English race prays. The miracle, in ei- ther case, is similar to that by which wa ter was turned into wine, or by which Lazarus was raised from the dead. Dr. Prime does not state the matter so blunt ly, but the statement is the inevitable in- ference which one draws from a sympa- thetic perusal of his book The age oi miracles has not, it seems, passed; but why, then, do Protestants object to the miracles which the Roman Catholic Church asserts that it works, or is the medium through which they are worked The i- quiefaction of the blood of St. Januarius is certainly not more difficult to believe than special Divine arrest of the order ly development of typhoid fever. We must therefore conclude that the different Evangelical churches now work miracles as we'll as the Roman Catholic Church. Dr. Prime, if hardly pushed, would say that his pious merchant was strengthened by prayer to put forth new energies to save his failing credit and no religious man, who feels that his will is reinforced with new vigor by communion with God in prayer, would hesitate to accept the ex. planation of the phenomenon but Dr, Prime, in the present book, is content to insinuate miracle by leaving untouched the simple statement, that the merchant asked God to preserve him from bank. ruptcy, and that God directly interfered with the judgement of capitalists and bank directors, in order to carry him through the panic. Those who did not offer Him the oblation of prayer. those who did not solicit His aid, were relent. lessly sacrificed. They lost their nice houses in Fifth Avenue, and their sum. mer villas in Newport or Long Branch, which the pious merchants, who had weathered the storm, proceeded to occu. py. It is curious that such divine as Dr. Prime does not see that his doctrine is not Christianity at all, It is the low. est possible form of religion, namely, Fe. tichism.
 We sincerely believe in Divine Infiu- ence, but we are shocked at the idea that 1t should be exerted to save pious spec. ! ulators in stocks, cotton, coffee, spices
 and merchandise generally from the con. sequences of their limited intelligence and their ravenous greed for money. Dr. Primes book is full of simple statements of struggling souls, praying to the Father of all for help. The most stoical or cyn. ical of reasoners feels the tears gathering | in his eyes as he reads, and criticisms ol | such statements and prayers would be proclamation. The infinite Father must hear the invocations of his dependent. de. pressed, tempted, wretched and feeble children. That he gives them help il some mysterious way, that He comes in direct contact with their souls, it would be essentially irreligious to doubt. But we must be pardoned if we question thu theory that He directly aids the prayer
 full Daniel Drew in his t'puts" on Erie stock, or that He lnterferes with tn. ssmarket" in order that a praying mer chants can be kept sleek, well-housed anG l prosperous, though he is inferior to hi. prayless brethren in insight, foresight knowledge of business, and rigid mercan
 tile integrity. Dr. Prime merely demand, that business man shall pray. His ig
 n0rance of affairs blinds him to the fac
 that many of his converts are incompe
 tents or imbeciles, who had no right t. l enter into commercial business which theil wild speculations disturb. But they ar, l hopefully pious;" and Dr. Prime record. that they escape the failure which is thei
 due, aHd live in fine houses, and have al the blessings of life, because God Al
 mighty himself answers prayers, ant keeps them rich and respected to prov, that merchants should rely alone on him It is difficult in such discussion as W, have started, to observe that delicac, which regards truly religious souls as ob