Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1873-01-18
The Prayer (;auge.

In the GGldzy for February, carl Benson
(.lr. Charles A. BristedD brings some fresh
thought tn bear upon the mooted' subject of the
efficacy Of prayer. The main functions of pray
er, he holds, are spiritual and personal, and he
continues:
"A man prays for spiritual help and guidance
and under the term spiritual would include
more than the moral part of our nature. He will
pray for wisdom and understanding, as solomon
did-foT ali the intellectual strength involved in
the determination of many ethical questions
He viii pray for support and help and comfort
under tie pressure of calamity and affection
And the benefit and fruitfuinesS of such PRAYERS
seem to be verified by much individual expert
ence, though it may BE- impossible to prove
Cal experiment.
"As soon as a man goes out of himself. and
ms PRAYER becomes objective, he Is yenturiug
On more dubious ground for several reasons
among others, the obvious one that he knows
less about Others real wants than about his own.
Ahd when II comes to aiming at a purely ply
seal object, we must be on our guard against
asking for a violation of the laws of nature or
IN other words, an alteration Of the course of
nature, or, in brief, miracle. Petitions which
assume that the Almighty acts with about as
much Conference a. Wendell Phillips talks. may
be suhjectivcly deyout, but are effectively bias
phemous."
Proceeding in this line, the writer argues that
when We consider how often, in cases where our
desires have not reached the earnestness AMI
dignity of prayers, and have referred to posi-
bic eventualities, we have been utterly upset by
the occurrence of these possibilities and the
qualification of our wishes-when we consider
this, AZ should make us cautious as to physical
and objective aims in prayer.
He cites as an Illustration, the fact that so
many of us were wishing year after year that
something might happen to check the over
weening arrogance and all-pervading encroach-
ment of the French, How we almost regretted
that Grant and Sheridan had not been allowed
to try il while their hand NJ Well ono Ia
the French were suddenly and utterly smashed,
and next day it turned out that the new power
which had taken their place was rather more
reactonary, rather more given to brute force,
and rather more perilous to progress and free
government everywhere than our old bugbear
had been. In view of such things, we ought to
be thankful that our prayers do not oftener pro-
duce what looks like direct physical agency"
We are still cropping in the dark; and, greatly
to our regret, the Chronicle fails to throw sat
lsiact0ry light on the relations which exist or
which one time existed between Mr.. Harlan on
the one hand and the Dr.-Durant- nion-Pa-
citic-Railroad- Credit Mobilier interest on the
other. For instance, We unable to give to :
the testimony of Mr.. Durant before the investi-
eating committee yesterday the same corstruc-
ton which, placed on it by our contemporary.
Referring TO this testimony, the Ckrosscle in its
issue of this morning SAYS:
:. This settles the question, If Dr. Du-ant's
testimony can be relied on: LIST. That the
Doctor wanted Mr.. Harlan elected on two
grounts-ptTsonal friendship and his Iowa in
trests, 2d. That he voluntarily contributed to
aid IN that result; 3d. That he used his oUa pri
Nate mt ans and not the funds of the company"
Let Us see. In answer to the question of
the chairman whether he gave Mr. Harlan
ten thousand dollars ont OF his own pri-
Sate funds, and never asked to have il refunded
by the company, Mr.Durant answered promptly
and pOintedly:
=" Ne, sir; did present a claim to the Union
fschc railroad for expenses. and il was allowed:
one clam was for three or four hundred thous-
AID dollars"
Now, tie only inference we are able to draw
from this language il that Mr.. Harlan's
"doueher' was included in this corruption fund
OF three or four hundred thousand dollars or
ore OF the other claims of like character the
amounts Of which are not given. Still, we NAV
be wrong. IL may be on account of our remote
ness from the transaction, and it NAV be from
Our plain straightforward way of looking at
things-our commercial character We think
the caTOHicEe called it. ANY way the thing has
dubious look as it stands, and a little better
Light upon 1t would be good thing in the in
terest of the public. VIII the Caroaicle please
strike another match?