Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-01-30

ters all declared that fair Testher was tust
the thing they ought not to have. An ex-
PLANTATION sometimes made is, that the,
prayer must be made according to the d.
vine VIII and that God hath foreordained
that a certain sequence shall coincide with
the Offering up o. certain prayers to him.
Calyinism makes this logical, but in any
other system, the reasoning, such as 1t IS,
is NO reasoning at all. And when we leaye
the metaphysical cobwebs which men have
spun out of their own brains, and just
study ourselves and the facts Of the uni
verse, the system has nothing at all to base
itself on. The supposition that physical
events are contingent up the prayers OF TINS
or that imam or body of men does not add
to the ideal perfection of the universe and
is not favored by facts. II cannot be verl-
fed that God suspends or alters the course
OF nature in answer to prayer. Experience,
as well as reason and reverence, requires
the belief that when any connection exists
between prayer and these physical changes
which occur, il Is casual, not causal. All
the cases of success in arms, of the fall OF
rain, of abundant harvests, of deliverance
from pestilence, may easily be accounted
for without any interference by God with
the laws Of nature.
There Is no doubt that what are
feet the course of nature. The re-
ligious revival going on in France may
so increase and intensity the zeal against
Germany and for an ultramontane on the
throne as to have an immense effect on
the fortunes and lives of individuals and
on the fate of nations, and those union
prayer-meetings which have been going on
lately may have a great effect upon the re-
ligious andtemporal condition of thepeople.
But it is obvious that in such cases the re-
suit is not owing to any interference by
God with the laws of nature. BY the ex-
ercises of mind they 60 through with, an
emotional condition is induced, which
causes resolves and determinations, inten-
SITES the feelings, which prompt action
which tends to produce certain results; but
often the result would be more certain and
greater if, instead of expecting God to in
terfere with the course of nature, they
realized that what was to be done was to
be wrought out by human beings acting
in accordance with the laws which
God has ordained. This superstltious
vi~ewofprayeris often an enfeeblingagent. l
have no doubt that many rich religious
men at the South who felt that their for
tunes would be gone if the Confederacy
failed, would have done a great deal more
for its success, but for the feeling that the
cause was just and God would be sure to
vindicate the right and so it was not nee
essary for them to risk their lives or sacri-
flee much of their property-God was just
and He would not turn q deafear to our
prayers.
Cation says: "God might give physical
blessings in answer to prayer but there is
no evidence that he does So" No, but
there is seeming evidence. Some Of the
Psalms indicate a society in which religious
ness of character and a certain morality
were so universal that an irreligious and
immoral man would be so out of harmony
with society that he could not get along at
all, and, other things being equal, the more
devout a man was the more physical bless
ings would he get. If you were living in
a societyin whichwas no elevationof toned or
purity of morals, you would have to be Oh
the same low plane with its members in Or
der to get along tremendously and receive
the greatest amount of physical blessings.
The prophet who exclaimed in anguish,
s.He that departeth from evil maketh HIM
a prev. IdI WIKI IL NOIlu uItlC llldt1
or fame, but his prayers brought 10 physi-
cal blessings to him, but the more he de-
parted from eyilthe more was he beset by
physical evils, while now it is often the
case that the church member in securing
harmony with his religious society gets the
more physical blessings the more prayerful
he seems, though at heart he may be a bad
mau. The various evil and good fortunes
in the world can be accounted for without
~supposing God to interfere with the laws Of
nature; and this view of prayer is not only
a superStititious but a very drmoralizing
one. Many of our best men, as devout as
David and a vast deal holier, are unsuc-
cesSful in the world because they will be
true to conscience, and many a shuiiing,
tricky divine, low aimed and hypocritical,
is confirmed in his meanneSs because God
rewards his labOrs with such abundant
physical blessings.
The question of prayers for the sick is
more involved. The recovery Of the Prince
of Wales was argued as a proof Of the eff
fcacy of prayers IN sickness, though it
would hardly be doubted that there were
then in England infdels, whose recovery
was seemingly as hopeless, who also got
we'll. But prayers for the sick may DO
good and God not at all interfere with the
laws of nature simply by causing more
sedulous care, a preternatural keenneSs of
observation and of sympathy. But there
is something more. The Spectator, or one
of its correspondents, says that Dorothea
Treedal, of Switzerland, was prosecuted in
three successive courts for keeping an gn-
licensed hospital, and finally acquitted, be-
cause, as she used no medicine, it was not,
in a legal sense, a hospital. Bishops, pro
feSSOrs of the university, and physicians,
testified to her success, and that she used
10 medicine. Doctors affirmed that they
had known persons of every variety of dis
ease who had left her, perfectly cured, and
that some of them were patients whom nc
earthly power could have cured. 1t was
proved that she did nothing but pray over
them, and, in some cases, anOint them with
oil in the name of the Lord. / have read
other seemingly well atteSted cases of the
like kind. The Anglicans will not admit
such s'answers to prayer" though they are
beyond compare the best attested cases,
Some persons may have a mesmeric o.
psychic force which enables them to effect
quasi miraculous cures, but this power, il
a reality, is not confined to christians, nor i;
it supposed to be an interference by God
with the laws Of nature, and so is not al
answer to prayer, as the Anglicans define
that word. But this is not all. Even i
the popes of science put an interdict or
prayers for the sick, it is to be considered
that they are no more infallible than arr
the pOpes of theology, and it may be thai
the intense longing of the soul, whose ut.
terances are called prayer, may in somt
hidden way evoke some mysterious poten
TALLY in the patient or in some n else
and whether the cure be effected by thu
physician or by some mysterious influence
evoked by prayer, God dOeth it through hi
laws. But when | use prayer for the sicl
l do not use it in that sense which wOulC
bring me under the anathema of tn
scientists. l do not hope that God will, a
first hand, stop the disease, but that b!
communion with Him "who gives fullnes
and tone to existence" it may, through
the wonderful influence of sympathy an
the marvellous powers of the soul in Ger
tain ~ecstatic conditions, aid in making tn
sick one receptive of influences which mer
medicine could not give. But that wOul
not be proper according to the Anglicans
for it is essential to IL that the petition
should be offered with a certain belief as t
the work of Christ, and that it should re
suit in an interference by God with th
laws of nature