Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-01-07
Mr.. Hale on Prayer.

The Rev. Edward Everett Hale OF Bos-
ton is widely known as preacher and |
writer. He is Unitarian, but not an ex- |
tremist, and sometimes his uttrrances come |
surprisingly near TO orthodoxy. His re-
cently-published volume of sermons, with |
the title From Thanksgiving TO Fast, con
tains Thanksgiving sermon, in which he
thus defines his views on the subject OF
Providence and prayer:
"Am speaking now to any idealist who
has hesitated in his daily prayer, because he
would not ask God for physical blessings 7
He would ask, he says, for more of the Holy
Spirit in his heart, for more of grace, and
more of love; but would not ask for daily
bread, because that is the product of physi-
cal laws. | have known such men. re-
member a man who would not offer the
Lords Prayer, because it contained this
petition for daily bread. | have known
men who would not pray that pestilence
may be averted, because pestilence, they
said, is the result of fixed physical law
which God himself ought not to change.
Am speaking to such doubters ? Let me
ask that man to consider this great harvest
year of history, and ask where it comes from.
"What makes the harvest of this year
different from that of the year when Colum-
bus landed? Have the physical laws of the
world changed? No Have any new spir-
itual powers come into playP Has living
God, Of constant love, directed and taught
children like him ? All, yes He has given
courage to the pioneer in Nebraska and
Colorado. He has given faith to the set
tiers wife, so that she has established in
that cabin the kingdom of heaven. He has
given patience, perseverance,, to the wit OF
those inventors whose engines have reaped
the harvest, and threshed it and garnered it /;
who have built the highways and trains
which have speeded this harvest over the
land to the sea- NAY, when the men who
carried on these works failed in allegiance
to him and to his law, when they sought
themselves first and God afterwards, then
the wealth of the harvest was chaf and dust
again. Witness the selfshness which last
year stopped the movements of the Pennsyl.
vania railroads for only week, yet threatened
famine thus to half land Witness the
calamity when only one man-dishonest-
uses for himself the treasure which the order
of God has appointed, that in its honest use
YOU and and half the world may have ouI
daily bread.
"How is it that the English workman
feeds on beef which Texan drover sent to
Illinois, and an Illinois farmer fattened on
the abundance of the corn Was there any
natural law which compelled the OK to cross
the ocean, like the fabled beast that bore
, Europa? Or did some steadfast man, moi
easily discouraged study in advance the
problem of the feeding of the world, deter
mine that this thing should be done WheI
, he offered his daily prayer for daily bread
Z he remembered that he had no right TO ash
for it, unless he gave to other men theirs
And so, not of one or two but of ten thou
| of ubn ha IA
and hope and love-the three eternal ele
|, ments Of life. But for these three eterni
! ties, they would neither have tried nor sue
: | ceeded.
I "Let no man tell me that mere selisl
t greed sets on foot these agencies OF infnit
: blessing. The selfish greed of the savage
3 who ranged Nebraska never sent me
e grain of wheat for my breakfast. The self
y ish greed of the farmers of Southern Rus
i sia never sent me one. 1t is not till tn
n grace of God lifts up nations, and the mel
r in them, to the higher law which rests Of
i faith and hope and love, that the mountain
e | begin TO move to the sea, and the exubei
e ance of one land to feed the necessities o
o another.
e "The prayers of men have not change
o Gods physical laws. They were well al
o ranged when the world was set in ordel
G But it is the prayers of loyal men-it
e their work with God and his with them
n which planted this continent with men VIII
e wanted to obey his law. In the midst c
d personal selfshness and personal crime, tn
d drift. the general wish Of this land has bee
d TO obey his law, as far as the land coul
II make it out.
1t "In that wish, the nation gives every ma
his homestead in that magnificent commui
oh Iit,iJ ha M I