Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-09-01
E AND A Y

SCIENCE AND PRAYER.
President Anderson, of the Chicago
University, has an article on "Sience
and Prayer" in a recent number of
the North american RevicW, from which
the following is taken:
The real difficulty in the way of Gods an
swering. prayer, according to the able scient-
lists, is the fact that the laws of the material
universe are absolutely Interchangeable. This
has led some theistic scientists to affirm that
prayer for spiritual blessings may be an
swered, while PRAYER for physical good.for
But if tixity of law makes prayer for physical
good absurd. it must make equally foolish
prayer for spiritual blessings since law is just
the realm of matter. The avs by which the
mind is developed are Just as immutable as
the laws by which the oak is unfolded from
rigid and fixed as those which regulate the
rivers in their flow or the clouds that sweep
across the sky: II, on account Of the tixed-
for the sumo reason equally absurd to pray
that the Divine Spirit may illuminate our
minds and guide our thoughts, II; then, God
in spite of the unchangeableness of law, an
swer prayer for physical blessings.
But we also suggest that the position which
ground that these able scientists do not, in
stating their objections to prayer, use the
term law with that precision of meaning that
times they personity it. 1t seems clothed with
personality. as when they tell us that the laws
q nature do this and that. They often defy
theist ascribes only to God. This is the meth
cd of poetry rather than of science. Every
thinker knows that the term law has several
our purpose to note barely two We call at
tention to the first simply because of its d-
yersity from the second, so that by the con-
trast we may add to the vividness of the sec
ond meaning, on which We propose to COM
ment. We are so made that we discern u dis
tinction between, right and wrong; we know
versally recognizing this distinction feel that
they ought to do the right and shun the
wrong. This ought is mightier than all other
forces which impel men to action. This dis
tinction of right from wrong, and the ought
ness which presses a man, as with the super
incumbent weight of a mountain, to do the
right, constitute the essence of moral law.
Bentham, in his unitarian argument in ref
erence to morals, was SO troubled with this
element of oughtness that he declared that
the word ought fought, to be banished from
the vocabulary of morals From the ineXor-
able necessities of his own being he could not
say 1t in any other way.
Now, when we come to talk of the law of
the material universe, we have in mind u very
different conception. No oughtness appears.
We mean simply the processes of nature-the
ton of men has extended, comet to pass. When
the cold reaches a given degree Of intensity
water freezes; we say that that is a material
law. When the high temperature of spring
call these processes laws. When p freezes
it takes tn the forms Of crystals; and and this
any further. He knows more than a clown
or g child only because, by study and ex-
tended observation, he has seen more OF the
processes of nature, and has generalized and
grouped them. In any single example, he can
only see what the ignorant may see-that q
thing, in the material world or IN the world of
mind, is done.
Now, since in these varied laws of nature
we see that certain useful ends are met, the
suggestion inevitably comes that intelligence
established these laws, or now works out
a law of nature is nothing more than the
way In which a certain thing is accom-
plished, it is certainly not contrary to any
thing which science has discovered to CON
slider the laws of nature simply as Gods
methods Of doing things. Such 9 superstition
does no violence to scientific method, while it
element in these laws. If it is asked why these
processes or laws of nature, OF the supposition
that they are Gods ways of working arc fixed,
lical revelation of Gods nature and character
Being absolutely perfect, when, for the first
time He did anything, He did it with absolute
can be no change for the better. since noth-
ing can be any more than perfect; but God
can not change, in these processes of nature.
since that Would be acontraddictio of His own,
absolute perfection. So we find in the char
acter of God, as presented to us in the Bible,
Of natural laws, when we regard them as simp-
ly His methods of acting. So when David
sang: 1.-The Lord also Numbered in the heav-
ems, and the Highest gave His voice." he may
not even in his imaginative song have uttered
anything opposed to the strictest science; it
may be that in such diction, poetry and sci
enee met together and kissed each other. But
it these processes of nature may, without the
slightest conflict with science. be considered
simply the actings of God immanent in His
W creation, it is not impossible that, work
may answer the prayers OF His children.
And it will not be difficult for us to discover
by analogy how. in perfect harmony with the
may do this. The perfect confidence Of men
in the fXity of natural laws underlies all their
acts: Without such confidence they could not
construct or work the simplest machinery,
They would not dare to sail lake or ocean, lest
by a change OF natural laws. their vessel
should suddenly sink rather than float. But
because they know these laws to be immuta-
Bile, they use them with confidence in all their
manifold activities. from analogy, we
are able osee how the immutability of natu-
raj laws. instead OF being an obstacle stand
ing in the way of Gods answering prayer.
may become rather the very means by which
ne answers every prayer Of faith. Men. be-
cause these natural laws are Interchangeable.
are able by, the adjustment to each other of
even very few of them to secure the most
wonderful results. The adjustment to each
other of a few immutable laws gives us the
steam-engine which moves most OF the ma
chinery, OF the civilized nations. The adjust
ment of a few immutable laws drives our
great merchant ships around the globe. The
bird which darts upward into the air and on
ward through it with such great velocity, in
ss'hctlveiy adjusts a few Interchangeable laws
VT Misn III Their III limited ited knowledge, and the birds Of
to reach such marvellous and varied results.
can c not God, who established these laws, SO
true prayer breathed into His ear? Immuta,
e1iity OF law. then: does not make prayer even
gests to us how God, because of this very i'm
mMtaoillty, may answer every true petition.
Then we are meyer to forget that at best we
Know i, but little. La Place is reported 70 have
sag, Just before he died: "What we do not
know is We have discovered. nv
centuries of toll, 2 few natural laws. As tbs
gree OF our knowledge has widened we have
become aware OF a still greater circle lust he.
y yna It st no human mind has ever explored.
ana IN me future. as our knowledge extends,
We snail ever grow more and moro Eoonl,,