The morning journal-courier., 1908-03-16

pie of healing and its method Of oper- ating. Why" said the disciples, could not we cast him out?" And Jesus tells them 1t was because they did not have faith, and because, also, they did not exercise in prayer what little faith they did have. He puts these two things, faith and prayer, together, and out or the union comes our phrase In the text -'the prayer of faith"
 Let it be understood, then, that the kind of prayer which is spoken of as having power to heal the sick is not formal, but vital thing. l am going to venture the opinion that there IS very little real praying done In this modern age. People say their prayers but to say ones prayers is not always praying. It is possible for you to say your prayers without praying; and It is quite as possible for you to pray without saying your prayers. Prayer IS the open, receptive attitude Of ones mind towards God. We cannot state 1t in better language than that which the poet employs
 Prayer Is the souls sincere desire,
 Unuttered or expressed;
 The motion of a hidden fire
 That trembles in the breast"
 The fire is our faith; the motion of that fire is prayer
 But is 1t really true. men will ask, that genuine prayer helps one to free himself from bodily ills? Does the Elm manuel movement, for instance, Of which we spoke last week, lay empha- sis on the Christian habit of prayer? answer, Yes" The statement of one of its founders is very explicit on that point He speaks of this effort to per suade people by suggestion and by ethical and religious appeals "to sur render hurtful and disadvan.ageous habits, to create new and health pro- voking ones, to make their nervous system their powerful ally in the strug- gle for existence" Among these mo- bier habits" he continues. that Of prayer stands first. Many have been taught to pray in any real sense for the first time, and many others have been instructed how to make their prayers fruitful in blessing. At the weekly meeting for patients and their friends, prayer and especially microscopy prayer, is leading feature. Here by misfortune, or distracted by care and worry, can pour forth their plaint and find surcease of pain. If the Elm manuel experiment should turn out a failure in all else, it has at least shown how the prayer meeting can become again what 1t was, a great and bessed reality, the spiritual dynamic of the whole ecclesiastical machinery. From these meetings many have gone home full of hope and trust. determined to
 lead a better life. to realize religion as they had never done before, and many others. melancholy and despairing, have in the strength of the truth they heard. been enabled 10 rest and sleep in perfect peace. committing their cares to the Great Companion of the soul"
 You will see from this quotation which I have used that the claim is not made that prayer will work a miracle; that Is. bring about the violation of those laws that God Himself has insti- tuted The claim is nothing more than this, prayer will open up the fount of a mans inner being. thus giving the Divine Spirit chance to flow through the soul. Science shows us that the world is throbbing with subtle forces. Why may there not be some exact law of prayer by which mans conscious ness is able to take to itself those forces, thus purifying, and strength ening and giving health to his spirit ual nature We can only touch the fringe of a mighty subject here: but everything we see and know leads us to believe that there are vast agencies working to restore man to health of body as we'll as to health of soul.
 At least this is my faith and I hold it as something precious and worth standing for It Is not something would try 10 argue you Into, but l would commend 1t to you as a faith
 
 night who have given up the habit of prayer, some of you because some un- Christian course of life has shamed you out of it. But I suspect the reason, with many of you. is to be found in an, other direction. You have lost your faith in prayer. and given up the habit of prayer, because 1t seems to you that we live in a world which Is under the ab- solpute reign of law. Everywhere, in
 the sky above and in the earth be-
 neath-everywhere is to be found order universal order. It must be confess ed that the study of science turns a mans mind away from a certain kind of prayer: the prayer that would un- dertake to dictate to God, the prayer that would twist and break the laws of nature, the prayer that would seek to change Gods will to conform to mans desires. There is no place for such prayer in the, world, there is no war rant for it in the teachings of Jesus. What" you exclaim, did he not say to the disciples In the Scripture lesson for the evening, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto the mountain, Remove hence to wonder place; and it shall remove: and nothing shall be impossible to you'?'' Yes. they are his words, but do you for moment believe that Jesus meant that it was possible for you to have such faith that by a simple prayer you could lift East Rock out of it's bed
 and drop it somewhere outside of New York? This is what I mean by using our common sense on the Scripture. If
 this passage is to have any sane inter- pretation it must be this, There is a
 wonderful power in the prayer Of faith to give direction and energy to a mans efforts, The context bears out this in I depreciation, for was he not saying tC | his disciples that if they were to sue i ceed they must put forth all the pow