The Efficacy of Prayer.

Auckland Star, Volume XII, Issue 3546, 17 December 1881, Page 4 (Supplement)

The Efficacy of Prayer.

WHATEVER the materialists and sceptics may say about prayer } and however learnedly they may deny its compatibility' with the laws of nature, the American people, including Governors of States, Mayors of cities, boards of trade, stock exchanges, as well as professed, religionists of all denominations, have given the fullest proofs that they believe in praying for President Garfield, , Who has not said a thousand times in his heart, God be merciful to the President ? Who has not felt the wish glowing like d furnace in his bosom ? Who, when, all earthly help seemed in vain, did not turn his eye to tne Great Being from whence nature sprang and whose almighty will makes its laws ? the truth is there are extremities in individual life, and sometimes in national life, when prayer to God becomes an irresistible neces- - sity, and is as natural to the soul as breath is to the body. ; Prayer under certain ciicumcumstances becomes as much a, law of nature as - gravitation, or the radiation of heat. This has always been a praying world,- and such it will continue to be as. long as man remains vrhat he is and life is what it is. Sorrow and death lead men to pray. It is natural in the hour of deep want to make an appeal to God. Who shall say that this law of, prayer, which.has been so conspicuously disclosed with reference to our President, isa mere superstition?. Who shall say that that 13 a mere freak of fancy, which all men most want to do:when they, are in deepest, distress ? Who can affirm that the sorcalled laws .of nature are more.than a match for the Alniighfy Lawgiver? ;;\Vb.o. is sufficiently acquainted wim, the spirit world.,to, know, that prayer has, no power with God? Tbe faith of all ages and all religions declares that there is power in prayer; and that the Infinite is not so! unsocial toward the finite, as to preclude the possibility of any access by prayer. -A God to whom prayer cannot, be addressed would hardly be a God for the human soul.l Our dependence is so great and our necessities so. urgent that,-it, we have in thought a God at all. we must have a i God tp'whoni we "can speak. An Infinite .Absolute,' impassive, unconscious, t. 'without will or thought, with no.ear for the cry of distress, with no heart, for human woe, with no hand of relief, is not the, sort of God the soul wants. If:ihere : be any truth in hdman nature, God is no I such a God.—, From ttie'" Inaepettdent.'* , ,'. ~r .'/. {