The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-12-03

ways.
The miracle may be the expression of
that which we are searching for with
all our hearts-the mind of God. The
mind of man cannot wake to it's full
power without making the body the
medium of a miraculous energy. He
did not many mighty works there be-
cause of their unbelief, The power of
the miracle must be found exclusively
in the spiritual power which lies back
of it.
The miracle is inseparably associated
with the author of prayer. If our faith
excludes the one. it will soon come to
exclude the other. The answer of
prayer implies a modification of nature
by God to suit the immediate wants of
men. The only difference between the
answer of prayer and the miracle lies
In the manifestness of the intervention.
Amy man, spiritually predisposed, will
be most reluctant to yield the right to
pray. Indeed it's exercise is to in
stinctive and inevitable. as we'll as ra-
tional, but he can hardly thrust it aside
When forced along the path of con-
cession in the presence of impersonal
law, the deVout mind yields one and
another form of petition as supersti-
tious, and takes refuge in some more
abstract and spiritual utterance. The
spirit struggles to the last, not to cast
off every inner garment of faith, and
stand naked. subject to all the cruel
shafts of the world. Indeed, could any
adjustment be less fitting, less creative,
than this? The spirit of man alone
with things: and that, too, in a world
in which there is not an unfledged bird
which is not born into a nest
An early compromise in this question
Of prayer has been that our petitions
are effective in changing our own
spiritual states, though they leave the
divine action unaltered. Prayer thus
rests on the essentially false ground
that its primary intent is a mistake,
but that in it's secondary effects it re-
tains desirable character. Those who
hold this view seem to forget that we
should present few petitions, if we
thought them inef1ieacious, and that
when they were offered the rebound
would be one of discoura cement. If in
the physical world we were to say that
| a reaction could be secured with no
action, we should be ridiculed but we
| are allowed freely to assert this in the
| spiritual world.
Some are willing to concede the fit
ness of prayer in the moral world, and
only find difficulty in it when it per-
| tains to a physical event Indeed it's
| i,,it
| fact in human history as it's presence.
Take an instance that stands for many
thousands, Mary Lyon, in her early
womanhood repeating to herself, wo-
man must be educated. commit your
way unto God, trust in Him and He
will bring it to pass. This temper of
| prayer became potent among men. 1t
| built UP great institution and brought
| forward a new and far reaching move
ment. 1t is impossible to overlook a
| spiritual fact of this order. But what
| definite boundary is there between
| physical and spiritual events A moral
| energy cannot enter our minds without
at once affecting the body Have we
| any reason to suppose that natural and
| spiritual influences lie any more apart
in the universe as one whole than they
do in us? 1t is impossible to put UP
a prayer of any scope without involving
| the physical world in it's consequences.
If we undertook to sort out our wants
in this way, we should find ourselves in
hopeless perplexity. A subtle temper
of distrust would take possession OF
US, and a constant falling off of faith
| oh &c. tN
things; we launch our prayers as we
| do our labors on the complex world
about us. and leave the results with
God. Prayer stands for the potency OF
| wants, and is % most reasonable thing
considering mems dependent position
| Indeed. it is so reasonable that it is
| inevitable Men cannot help praying
when the pressure of life Is upon them
A world without prayer would lack
all spiritual fitness. Prayer is as much
a gathering together of intellectual en-.
ergies as is gravitation o concentration
of physical forces. How cautious ARK
we becoming-and that wisely-not tt
overlook any physical law or put llpor
it any limitation 1t is in behalf Of
natural law that we make our criticism.
upon prayer. But how careless are Wa
in the way in which we set aside the
spiritual conference of the world. We
| made hodge, odge of higher courts, O.
moral laws, in order to furnish out the
| lower world with a little more absolute
| order; and this too, when this sense O.
order is a necessity Of mind, not O.
matter. Tt is high time that we hat
discovered an equal need of order in til,
| spiritual world. and had an equal con
fdence in the scone and force of it!
laws. When the order Indigenous tt
reason, to the righteousness of God t.
the ethical nature of man seems t,
come in conflict with a fatalistic orde
in things, we should hold fast by it al
the only real citadel of thought.
A biting sarcasm, recently uttered
has been, that those who adjust faitl
to knowledge are putting Christianit,
on rollers that they may get it out O
! harms way. AS a bit of rhetoric, i
may subserve the purpose of it's author
but as piece of philosophy it is utter
ly futile. Our Christianity, our sens
of spiritual things, should not be sim
ply on rollers, but on wheels, a greatly
spirit on the wheels. Does not knowl
edge come to us for this very purpos
of shaping and reshaDing faith? Is
| not here that the creative thought O
| j iy,,yp Il tot To