The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-08

Rev. Adelbert L. Hudson preached
yesterday morning on Prayer" He
quoted the saying OF an old philosopher
alone of all created things, man
prays.", Today this aphorism seems
hardly to be sustained by facts. Men
have come to feel widespread distrust
of the validity of prayer. The great
majority of men go about their differ
ent tasks. from day to day without any
form of conscious prayer. While it
is probably true that most of those who
still continue some outward form of
praying, do so more as a matter of
habit than from any real sense of the
connection of prayer with their daily
lives. With women prayer is more
prevalent, because in them the reliSi-
Gus sentiment is stronger. But even
among women of religious training, the
number is increasingly large of those
to whom prayer has ceased to nave
any vital significance.
At first blush these facts would seem
to indicate the growth of impiety and
irreligion. But studied more closely it
viii be seen that it is not religion
which has been discarded. but out
grown conceptions of religion, which
have been handed down from the lg-
norance and superstition of the past
Stimulated and led by the scientific
progress of the latter half OF our CEN
fury, the present generation is wax
ing up to the fact that. while the
world has been going forward in every
other field of thought, it has still re-
tanned the crude notions about religion
which were formulated in the most
primitive times.
Our idea of prayer grows out of our
idea of God, man, the universe. Mems
conceptions of these facts have
changed greatly in a century, still more
in a thousand years, so that the forms
of prayer that were in use 1900 years
ago must necessarily embody many
outgrown and Anticipated notions. II
prayer were limited to these forms,
there would be no choice for honest and
clear thinking minds, which had out
grown the ideas OF the middle ages,
but to discard prayer altogether as
hollow, hypocritical and meaningless.
Most of the set prayers which have
been used or have served as models for
use in the churches were formulated
when people supposed that the earth
was fiat and stationary; that heaven
was a definite place located directly
above it; that hell was an equally DELI
mite place located directly below it;
that God was. a personal ruler sitting
on a throne in heaven, from which he
directed affairs on earth by special
intervention, while the devil ruled in
hell, although spending most Of his
time on the earth. 1t was also sup
posed that the earth was the center or
the universe and that the sun, moon
and stars revolved around it daily. so
that there was no difficulty about
fsR,cr he
ments of the heavenly bodies, If such
change was sought for in prayer. Hence
there seemed to the Hebrew mind
nothing strange in the idea of their
national God stopping the sun for the
space of about day, so as to give
Joshua that much more daylight in
which to overcome the enemies of Is
rael at Gideon. A modern astronomer
would at once set the story down as
part of the folk lore of an ignorant
people: but before there was any sci
ence of astronomy it was quite natural
20 suppose that the Hebrew God, ia
heye, might do such things in answer
to prayer.
Many of the notions of the ancients
were still more crude, such as that
God was a great destroying demon ana
that prayers and incense and sacrifices
r.ust be offered TO him in order to keep
aim good natured, and thus prevent
him from devouring the people. Out
of this idea probably grew the notion
that God continually demanded praises
to his name. Earthly rulers required
to be fiattered. Why not Cod who was
of as a personal ruler, only
larger and stronger than ordinary
kings. Sometimes it was the forces of
nature that were worshipped, the sun,
the thunder, or fire; but then they
were personified as Varuna, Indra,
Agni, etc, and prayers and offerings
were addressed TO them: they were
praised beyond measure for their power
and goodness and then begged not to
destroy the worshipper, but to help
him do his work and wreak vengeance
on his enemies. Running through all
the different conceptions was this cons
mon idea that God was person who,
in response to prayer, would interest
himself personally in human affairs,
in violation of existing laws, if neces-
sary, for the benefit of those who
prayed to him acceptably
These coarse, materialistic notions
came TO be embodied in forms and
ideas of church prayers, and $50 have
been handed down to our own time.
Even in more refined forms there is
found this idea of material gain, just
as though prayer were something like
to the store for groceries
or dropping orders in the postoffice.
Nor does it help the matter much to
retain this element of material gain
prayer, while dropping the
element, explaining that
God gives what his children ask for
but gives it through natural means.
So Mr.. Moody thinks that a ship on
which he was sailing was saved by
reason of the prayers of those on deck, !
but that the answer came through
control of the natural
forces behind the storm. Something /
IF the same idea is expressed in the |
saying that one should never pray for /
rain on a rising barometer. Perhaps |
The most logical of this class of OBJ !
iervations was the old darkey's, who /
said, He had obsarVed dat when he {
pray de Lawd to send him a TURKEY, /
lie turkey nebbah cum; but when he /
pray de Lawd to send him after a
turkey, den he allus done got de buhd'' I
But the whole attitude toward prayer /
implied in this idea of getting some I
material gain by praying for it, is
gross, materialistic, and a superstitious |
survival from times of ignorance and |
barbarism. Either prayer is a spiritual !
fact, entirely transcending the plane of !
forces, or it is nothing But |
here is in man universal tendency to |
Whether we observe it in the |
barbarian bringing gifts and prostrat-
ing himself before some hideous idol. |
IN the devout Catholic repeating pray |
srs to an image of the Virgin Mary or |
n an Emerson conscious of some subtle |
with the over-soul-we find |
n all the same instinct to worship |
which is greater. higher. |
)r better than ourselves and yet in |
some wa-y related to ourselves. This !
universal instinct cannot no Soi6 70 !