San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-06-06
PRAYER.
Written for the Light:

Written for the Light:
Prayer is supplication to God or
gods. No one knows who or what god
is. The name stands as an index of
Ignorance. No one can demonstrate
that a god lives and several in this
city who have promised to do so have
failed to toe the mark. Some claim
that God is a person but they also
claim that he is omniDresent. 1t is
impossible for a person to have the at
tributes of omnipresence. Prayer
goes on the idea that personal God
exists. Their God cannot be omni-
present but he must be all powerful,
all wise, Interchangeable, and all good.
This only comes up to the standard of
what the Christians call God. We ac-
cept this as basis and from it we will
examine prayer. God is all good so
the Christian says. This then implies
that such God will do all that ought
to be done. His goodness would al
ways be on the side of right and an
injustice could not possibly occur un-
less he were not aware of the condi-
tons. The Christian saws he Is all
wise hence he knows all that is going
on. He even knows our thoughts-he
knew before he made the earth just
what each one of us was going to do
he knew just what we would think
| and just what we would say. Being
all good and all wise he knows just
| when and where he is needed and as
| we are told that he is almighty or all
powerful there is not thing to pre-
vent him from doing good.
What is the use of praying to an all
wise, all good all powerful God? He
knows what you want and his goodness
will cause him to act. Why, he must
act to be all good! Prayer to such
God is an insult. Just suppose for
a moment that 1 were all wise, all
good and all powerful. Would it not
be an insult for anyone who is not all
wise to advise me what to do? To ask
me to do thing which ] would do
anyhow would be foolishness and for
ignorance to advise me would be folly,
and yet this is the way of all who
pray. To ask for a thing that God in
his wisdom and goodness would not do
is to ask him to commit sin. Such
| a prayer would be a sin. To ask God
to do thing which he ought to do
| anyway Is to suppose that he would
not do his duty fully and such a pray
er is an insult to God. A prayer sug-
gest the idea that God does not know
enough to attend to his duties. No
other idea can be drawn from it.
| We show our lack of faith in Gods
goodness when we pray, for were we
confident that he would do all that was
| good we would not have a desire to
pray. He who never prays is the one
who has faith that God knows enough
to do what ought to be done. The
child knows that his father will attend
to his wants and he does not pray and
yet the good God cannot be compared
to a weak worm of the flesh. The
praying man is the one who has no
confidence in God. The infdel who
does not pray is the one who acts
out a belief in the goodness of God or
acts the way that a true believer
should act in the matter of prayers.
Praying suggests the idea that God is
changeable. If God be Interchangeable
the same yesterday-today and forever
then our prayers are foolish. If we
can alter his intended actions then he
does not know as much as a poor weak
fallible men. Prayer supposes that
God is a person. Prayers are going
up Cor DOWN all over the world at all
times hence God could not be a person
and hear them all. Where two or
three are gathered together in the
name of the Lord would bother him
some to comply were there a thousand
such gatherings at the same time. and
there are more than a hundred thou
sand such gatherings. Just imagine
/ a r,araaF, orr~cTTfre. -
needed to make himself in all these
places at one and the same time Then
too II would not be all OF him as he
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