Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-03-14
PRAYER:
Or, Law as Related to VIII i'm the
Universe.


Universe.
A Sermon Preached I'm Christ Church,
Nashville, by the Rector, Rev. WIN.
Graham.
CONCLUDED
The proposition is unanswerable, be-
cause it is supremacy unscientific to test a
religious principle by material gauge
There are two kingdoms-the kingdom of
Nature and the kingdom of Grace. The
kind of evidence that is admissible in the
one kingdom, is inadmissible in the other.
Scientific theories in the one, are estab-
liShed by-classifcation and experiment;
while moral and religious truths in the
other, are sustained by an entirely different
kind of evidence. Physical science deals
with inorganic and organic matter; whereas
Prayer has to do with spiritual existences
mutually related to each other in system
of moral government and moral obedience.
This takes it out of the sphere of the phys
ical, and blends it in the sphere of the
spiritual. Prayer is altogether above and
beyond science; it belongs to the realms of
Scripture, and to Scripture only the Chris
tian looks for the laws of prayer. A scien-
tific test of prayer is therefore an absurdity.
1t should, however, be said in justice to
Prof. TyndalI, and those who agree with
him, that they do not absolutely deny that
a God who can answer prayer may exist.
s'The theory" he says, 'that the system of
nature is under the control Of Being, who
changes phenomena in compliance with the
prayers of men, is, in my opinion, a per-
fectly legitimate ole." While we thank
the Professor that he has left us at least
theoretical God, we aresequally grateful to
him that he has not left US in doubt and
obscurity as to the tendency of the Positive
system of which he is a representative. The
obvious tendency of his system is to ignore
any personality in God, and to look upon
Force as that which alone governs and
moves the universe. Iu that case, prayer
is an absUrdity, perhaps an impoSsibility.
If there be no personal God, there is none
TO pray to; and if God, surprising such
Being to exist, has no control over nature
or man, then there is no rational motive for
prayer; there is nothing to be accomplished
by it.
But it may be said, God is unchanged
bic, and if God be Interchangeable, and His
laws uniform, of what use can it be to
pray unto God? Can our prayers modify
the will of God, or change the Divine
mind? This objection is obviously self
destructive in itself, intrinsically. The
objection to mean anything is against the
possibility of change Of relation between
any one of two parties. This relation can
not be altered, it is said, because God is
Interchangeable. This is not a logical re-
joinder, because ii might be that the change
was on the part Of man. And if man can
change, then the objection falls to the
ground. Let it be asserted that mans ma
ture cannot change, and then, and not till
then, may Gods undergraduates be
pleaded in bar to the doctrine of prayer.
God has promised to confer certain favors
on man upon certain conditions, and when
these conditions are complied with the
favor is bestowed. God has promised to
bestow certain blessings upon repentant
and prayerful men; and men, in changing
from a state of non-repentance and nom
prayerfulneSs to a state of repentance and
prayerfulness, become the recipients of
Divine favors. Though prayer does not
change law, or the God of law, it changes
the relation of man to law; not physically,
but spiritually; so that, when man turns
God-ward, be becomes the recipient Of Di-
vine grace and an inheritor of the king
dom OF God.
ALOW OCA oAASNCAo oAN ftOC al
swers to prayer can comport with the reg
ularity of Providence and the government
of the world by fixed, immutable laws, are
questions which are of the deepest interest.
HOp God answers prayer is mystery. The
world is full of mysteries. Many doctrines
of our holy religion are involved in in
scrutable mystery. What of the existence
of evil in the universe of a holy God?
Of hop1rrta nd
will? There is a Providence, and yet We
are responsible. Prayer is not the only
matter in which darkness is mingled with
light. To ascertain causes is clearly be-
yOnd the reach of any faculties that have
yet been given to man. And if the doc
trine of prayer be not comprehensive, it is,
at least, apprehensible by the human in
tellect.
Various solutions have been given, at
once conceivable and credible, any one of
which may be sufficient to account for ''the
efficacy of prayer in perfect consistency with
the established order of nature.
There are some who hold that there is
the same relation between prayer and the
answer to prayer as between cause and eff
feet in any other sequence of nature. But
the chain Of cause and effect can only be
traced short way up by US; we cannot
conceive of an infinite series
of effects without an ultimate cause, and
God, the great first cause, may, for aught
we know, influence the chain at higher
point beyond our ken, in answer to our
prayer, without introducing any miraculous
interruption of the fixed order of nature.
1t is impossible TO say how far beyond the
limits of observation and reason the IN
-nlna q
Science cannot even guess whether there be
one link or a thousand millions. DR..
Chalmers advertS to this, and suggests that
in the vast scale of natural sequences,
which constitute one connected chain, the
responsive touch from the finger of the Al
mighty may be given either at a higher or
lower place in the progression, and that if
it be supposed to be given far enough back,
it might originate new sequence, but
without doing violence to any ascertained
law, since it occurs beyond the reach of our
experience and observation. Here then is
a sphere in which prayer may operate with
out the possibility of coming into contact
with the established order Of nature.
But if the mind still clings to the thought
that there is a fixed, pre-established order
of things with which nothing can interfere,
SILL, prayer llScll3 anu Tic sAllSNtL " IL,
will be, upon this supposition part of this
fixed order itself If we look abroad into
the universe of God, we meet everywhere
with the existence of general laws. Those
general laws were part of the arrangements
made for the government of the world from
the beginning-even from everlasting.
Looking at those general laws, see that
they are not mere mechanical contrivances.
l see the physical is made subordinate to
the moral, and that these general laws have
a marked moral character, indicating most
clearly that something besides the mechan-
ical regularity ofthe world has entered into
the mind of its creator.
Now, we may get some idea from this Of
the way in which God answers prayer.
There are spiritual purposes to be realized