RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 71, 23 March 1918, Page 14

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER.

"What degree of certainty in human iaffairs have we a right to anticipate as a result of the exercise of faith?" asks a writer in "The Living Church," and, citing the case of the mother whose son is at the front, this writer proceeds as follows to answer the perplexing question:—

"She is praying as only a mother can Pray; and God knows that nowhere is the. force of intercessory prayer more earnestly put into operation than when a pious mother prays for her boy. So, also, nowhere amidst human conditions On earth will there be a better example of fixed faith in God than that which a pious mother praying for her boy will exercise. No doubt the prayer, even so. is imperfect and thb faith weak. But when our Lord spoke of the power of the prayer of faith He must have referred to an exercise of faith that is not beyond human po_-er. The mother's prayer and the mother's faith are imperfect, but they are as perfect as earthly imperfections will admit, and they must be assumed to come within those conditions which our Lord has stated. For otherwise, if the divine standard of human faith and human prayer is so high that the pious mother, praying for her son, cannot attain to it, then neither prayer nor faith, in the sense that our Ldrd used the words, is possible to man. In teaching us, with our hum-a limitations, to pray, He must have meant to assure us that those limitations did not make prayer impossible. In limiting the efficacy of prayer according to the exercise of faith, He must have understood that faith, in sufficient degree, is possible to us under the conditions in which ordi-' nary Christians live in the world. Prayer and faith are not merely counsels of perfection, possible to the few great saints who arise in every age. Rather are they the marks and the right of the everyday sinner who, yet, has the right to call himself a Christian.

. "But the mother prays the prayer of faith and her boy dies. Evidently, therefore, we have no assurance that prayer can certainly secure the human safety .of the person prayed for.

"Let us frankly admit it; and let us go further and show that it would be a supreme disaster if it could. For the moment a human Ibeing could secure the power, by means of prayer, to obtain such an end as this, that moment God would be dethroned, supreme power would ibe vested in the praying individual, human limitations and "individual selfishness would rule the universe, and the conflict of opposing prayers between individuals would produce chaos. Irresistible force would then be pitted against absolute immovability, when prayer clashed with prayer.

"This limitation to the cower of prayer is therefore 'both a protection to the universe and a mercy to the individual. There could be no greater calamity than to be able, by prayer, certainly to cause something to happen to a third party when, not being all-know-ing, there were no way of being sure that the desired end were a good, either for him or for humanity or our cosmic order. To a conscientious person, therefore, prayer would be impo-feible if it were to ibe absolutely effective, with no restraining power anywhere to correct the petition in the interest of a greater good.

"Thus we pray £o Almighty God for tefnporal blessings for ourselves or others always with a condition attached: Grant this, if it be Thy will; or, in the usual language of the liturgy. Grant this, through Jesus Christ our Lord. This latter clause, so common and so misunderstood, means much more than a suggestion of the agency by which prayer shall he granted. It means that j we pray God to grant what we ask, i through the loving censorship of One who has assumed y»ur nature, who has experienced human sensibilities and human pain, who is one with us, and who is tooth able and willing to change our petition in such wise as to make it a perfect prayer for an end that will certainly be good. Praying thus, leaving our Blessed Lord to reframe our prayer so as to ask that which will be a true blessing, there is a certainty that our prayer will be answered. We have then set in motion a positive, effectual force which, once started, will be directed by a supreme and loving and perfect intelligence to produce a result which that intelligence shall direct. We are not starting a blind force that must irresistibly carry out the will of the fallible person who prays." - CHURCH NEWS AND NOTES. St. Peter's Church, Bombay, has had a number of the blocks underneath the building renewed. In tho course of the work, a bottle was found containing a Teport of the laying of the foundation stone in 1867 by the late Mr. S. Kempthorne- At that time it was St. Peter's Church in the Forest. The "Jewish World" says: "To-day the greatest Christian and the greatest Mahommedan Power of all the world takes to herself a third religious dignity 1 The capture of Jerusalem and the Government deolaration in regard to a Jewish Palestine have made England as well the greatest Jewish power on earth."

"' The late Captain Neil Primrose, son Of Lord Rosebery, was only 34 years of age when he was killed while charging the enemy in Palestine. Nonconformists in England will not soon forget how he.and his friend Agar Rooartes fought for justice to Dissenters on the magisterial bench. They were very much in earnest, and succeeded to a considerable exterit.

! The twenty-sixth annual distribution of the funds of the New Tabernacle Dividing Society, the largest " sharing•out" society in the kingdom, will this year be spread over a week, from December 10 to 17, instead of being undertaken on one evening. Some £_i,OOO daily will be paid out to the many thousand members. The total sum shared out by this society since its inception amounts to nearly £200,000 whilst in sickness and other benefits a further £65,000 has been paid. Over £5,000 has .been paid to the relatives of Service members killed in the war, and nearly £25,000 of the members' savings has been permanently invested in War Loans through the society.

The number of Catholic chaplains serving with His Majesty's forces is now 618. At the beginning of the year the number was 440. In neither case do these fi". ures include the Catholic chaplains attached to the Anzac and Canadian contingents. One hundred and five other priests with the British forces (inclusive ot killed, invalided and resigned) have ceased to serve. About 60 are still needed to complete the establishment sanctioned by the War Office.