Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-01-31

LlIu IO0AoSAA WAVE 49,
that inhabiteth eternity. Andthis breaking
away from the hampering details Of earth
and associating yourself with that power
who is behind us in all phenomena, is just
in its highest, purest form, and ena-
bles me. with more fitness and tone, with
larger. purer heart, and loftier spirit again
to engage in the employments of time:
There is ssno variableness nor shadow OF
turning with God" in either kingdom.
The laws of both the physical and the mo-
raj world are alike invariable. When we
transgress or obey the laws of nature or the
laws of grace, we receive in either kingdom
exactly according to our deeds. God gives
us our daily bread as he gives us grace, put
the mode in which each is given is differ
ent. We can get bread but not grace wlth-
out true prayer-which is not to be con-
founded with mental wishes in alliance
with certain creeds and emotions.
Persons have so long been trained 10
think of God under the limitations Of hui
man personality, that such views as l have
given may in some, cause honest alarm
and distress. But when the religious feel
ines are made to harmonic with true con-
ceptions of phenomena and with majestic
ideas of the Diety, our faculties will ad-
lUSl LDClloClNCo W CDL1 ACNAAA1ANof
we will have religion without superstition.
In the fervent effectual prayer of a righteous
man, who is also a rightly informed man,
there is no superstition. Meeting together
for worship with the notion that God will
at first hand interfere to give us the things
we need or desire, tends, in so far IS IRE
are qorerned by that notion, just to keep
us from ever getting them. Meeting to-
gether with the true idea of prayer, realiz-
ing that it is an aid to bring us into har-
mony with all the laws which concern us,
that it is communion with God, being
brought into harmony with the laws of
both the physical and spiritual world, this
is a great help to the soul. Let me quote
Tyndal on this matter. eff III spiritual
authorities could only devise a form
in which the heart might express itself
without putting the intellect toshame, they
might utilize a power which they now
waste, and make prayer, instead of a butt
to the scorner, the potent inner supplement
to a noble life" These are weighty words
and uttered by one whose theological opin-
ion is worth more than that of an arch
bishop.
God is love, and he that dwelleth in
love dwelleth in God and God in him.
There is a co operation of the Divine Spirit
in souls DESTROYS Of good and the cherish
ing of these desires is prayer. Prayer is a
longing, a yearning, an aspiration of the
soul after all goodneSs-it is a vehement
selfsurrender of the spirit to the best, the
highest, the hottest influences it can have
it is the breaking away of the soul from
mere contact with earth, its being lifted'up
above the mere temporal, its glad entrance
and living within the sphere of those moral
laws by which God governs the moral
world and in which his presence is felt and
his benediction had; and the doing of this
is the communion of soul with soul, of
mind with mind, Of n with another con-
sciOus vOlitional agent, and this COM
munion may be real and blissful, though
we be as little able to comprehend God as
| the babe TO comprehend its mother.
You can live a full-orbed life as a mere
earthly, selfish being without having any
prayer in your soul. But you must break
contact with the hampering details of earth
and let the soul soar away to associate with
that power which gives fullneSs and tOn to
existence if you would know what life is.
COleridge says that prayerin its perfect form
isthe very highest energy of which the human
heart is capable. Often persons have not
earnestness enough TO put forth this energy,
and so they substitute for true prayer a con-
sciOus wish for things physical and spiritual,
looking for help from God in an arbitrary
and supernatural way. Prayer is opening
the windows of the soul for spiritual influ-
enceS to come into tit is a hungering and
thirsting of the soul after goodness-it is
such an obedience Of the laws Of our natu-
raj being as makes us receptive Of more
grace. In the forest and the fiOwery mead
the breath of heaven works variOusly in
each several plant according TO its kind,
period of growth and circumstance of soil.
cline and aspect. So does our alEperva-
ding spirit Of love and goodness work vari.
Ously in each moral being according to Its
kind, character, temperament and circum-
stances of training. The plant has no will
to refuse the influences. Our will must
yearn for and welcome them and cooper
ate with the Divine will for these influ.
ences to cause our growth in all goodness
and this glad reception and cooperation is
prayer. We have W interests and live in
two worlds, and PRAYER is the means by
which We live in the higher world. Sup
pose an island whose residents are isolated
from the rest of the world, and whose eli
mate and soil refuse to yield all which the
physical system demands for its perfection
and You have a case analogous to that OF
the man who never prays but confines his
all of existence to the 'hampering details
of earth.o The desires, the wants, the
faculties, the needs of man require some
thing which this world cannot give and
prayer is the means of getting them. Thi:
world is isolated from a larger and more
glorious One-prayer is commune with it
1t is the means by which the soul break.
contact with the hampering details of earth
pierces into the spiritual world and gets the
riches it needs to grow in holy qualities
to bind up its bleeding heart, to wash the
stains from its guilty soul, to infuse happi
ness into its gaunt and joyless frame, tC
give it strengthto leada Cody, righteous and
sober life, and to bless it with a peace which
the world cannot give and which the world
cannot take away, and which shall be with
it when time shall be no more.
"Praying to Thee our wills do not require,
That Thou, the Lord who dOest all things well
Guiding thy worlds by laws immutable,
Shouldst, when some wishes Of our hearts in
spire
Thee-ward in faith, grant unto the desire
OF each man that which suits his own small
need,
Qest others wishes fell if his succeed,
Being contrary:) but lower viii to higher
Can in proud meekneSs and strong helplessnesl
i Yield, and own Law as girdling Destiny;
Thou, setting us within fixed bounds, didSt give
Great passive strength to human littlenesS,
Only we cry to Thee for sympathy
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