Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-08
ANSWERS TO PRAYER.
The Objections Strewn Along the
Pathway of the Believer.
WHAT THE ATHEIST HAS TO SAY.
A Conflict With the ALI Embracing System
Of Natural Law.
FRAMING TIE PETITIoN IN WORDS
WRITTEN FOR THE prspArCH.l


followed by three main differences. The
three stages are indicated by the words
cause, nature and man. The three difficult
ties are represented by the words material
ism, agnosticlsm and pessimism. The three
| inferences are the inierences as 10 praper, as
to miracles and as to revelation.
With the last paper the actual argument
| for God came to an end. What was the use
of making it at all? For nobody comes to
believe in God by argument. Else nearly
all of us would have to be atheists. And
the argument, even if it were considered to
be we'll made and a man should accept it,
| does not after all amount to religious faith.
The accepting of such a course Of reasoning
is not the faith to which is attached the
promise of salvation. 1t is only the assent OF
the reason. Why argue, then?
Why, for two reasons. First, because al
though it is true that nobody comes into
belief by argument, it is true also on the
other hand that many are in danger of los.
ing belief by arguments on the unbelieying
side. There is need that minds who are ex-
posed to this danger should be fortified
against it. 1t is we'll that we should know
| just what the arguments which we read and
hear against religion really amount to.
They all have reasonable answers. Faith in
GOD is not in the least danger of being
u,
And although faith is more than an assent
| of the reason, still it rests most soIidly upon
a good, sound basis of reasonable asse mt.
From this one may 60 on. The next step
after reasonable assent is faith in God, not
as an abstraction like the old philoso-
pher, but as a Friend and Father. Faith
is an assent which is simply willing to COM
NIT itself to the result OF argument.
AN ILLUSTRATION.
In certain mill there was a workma n
who, having dipped his hand in water,
dared 70 put it into kettle OF molten iron.
But the other workmen, who looked on and
saw that done again and again, had not the
courage to venture. The thing was demon
strated before their eyes, but they held back.
What they lacked was faith.
If the argument is true, and man as
sents to it, then let him commit himself to
it; let him follow it into its inierences.
Since God is, certain inferences must be
made and held. The reasonableness of
prayer is one; the credibility OF miracle is
another; the fact of revelation Is a third.
We begin with prayer.
Unless God exists, prayer is the most
| foolish of human actions. If there is any
doubt about the existence of God, or about
the nature of God, if there is any question
as to the personality or the love and care OF
God. then prayer is struck dumb at once.
But everybody who really believes in God,
prays. Prayer, to the believer in God, is
perfectly natural and reasonable. About
us and above us is Being, our maker, our
preserver, the guide of our whole lite, all
wise, aIl-holy, all-loving. What better can
we do than put ourselves into communica-
tion with Him? When we kneel and pray,
we are not speaking into empty air. We
are addressing an unseen Being.
Thus prayer is universal. Everywhere
are affairs and temples and people praying.
Everywhere men are bowling down before
the unseen. There are two elements which
enter into all religions: The spirit of de.
| pendence and the sense of relation. But
these mean prayer. They find their most
natural expression in the voice of prayer.
Prayer follows reasonably upon the fact OF
Gods existence. There are two things
which I want to say to-day about prayer:
That it is helpful, and that it is efectual.
The argument for God is an argument for
the helpfulness and the effectualness of
prayer.
| COMMUNION AND PETITION.
Prayer is partly communion and partly
| petition. When we think of prayer as COM
munion, we say it is helpful. When we
think of prayer as petition, we say IL is
| effectual. Prayer uplifts, because it fills
| the mind OF him who prays with the high
est and worthiest thoughts which a man can
| think. The highest fact about ourselves is
the fact of our personal existence. 1t lies
| in the pronoun 81, that means the soul.
The highest fact about the world in which
we live is the fact of God. In prayer these
two supreme thoughts meet. The soul ap-
| proaches God.
OF course, when speak here of prayer, 1
| Ia bo
say their prayers as they might recite the al
phabet or the multiplication table. But
that is not prayer. I am speaking Of
PRAYER. Whoever has really prayed knows
| how prayer helps. He knows what peace
and strength come into the uplifted heart,
| Out of the place OF prayer comes one who
has really prayed, as Moses came from
Sinai, with face illuminated. He has talked
with God.
All this, however, is true whether prayer
| is answered or not Prayer, indeed, in the
hlg hest sense, is answered in the act of pray
ing. Like the doing Of good. its reward goes
with it. Prayer is communion with God.
| That is the best part of it. Who will think
| that the Master, in His long nights of prayer
upon the hills and beside the sea in Syria,
was setting out before His Father some long
| list OF His wants? He was communing with
God. That was the prayer He was praying.
THE LIST OF WANTS.
But prayer Is petition also. PRAYER is
the act of asking Tor something. Here we
meet with difficulties Let US look them
squarely in the face. Can God answer
| prayer?
Because there are 80 many prayers!
Think of it, this single day, the world over!
By the bedsides and before the altars, in
the cities where the noise of the streets comes
into the windows, and in the country where
the birds sing among the branches
of the green trees, in Pittsburg
and in Allegheny, in New York and Lon
don, from the forests of the equator to the
| icefelds of either pole-how many prayers!
Can God he's all these prayers, everyone of
them?
Now we are forbidden, by the conditions
| of our argument, to refer to revelation. We
have single fact to draw differences from
the fact of God. We refer to agnosticism
and evolution. They will answer this ques-
| ton for us we'll enough. Remember what
: it is that agnostisism teaches about God
that the truth about God goes beyond all
human comprehension; that God is all that
! we can conceive of and infinitely more;
that the choice is not between the ideal man
and something lower, but between the ideal
| man and something infinitely higher. But
great men do not overlook small things.
One element of greatness is power to see
to vast distances, and to perceive the value
and importance OF little things, and have a
wide and comprehensive knowledge.
And remember what evolution teaches
about God-that God is not one who sits
away off somewhere in the clouds upon some
] inaccessible gold throne, with the great blue
! curtain of the sky drawn between Him and