PRAYERS FOR RAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 15, 19 January 1932, Page 9

PRAYERS FOR RAIN

KINGSLEY'S COMMON-SENSE

AND PRAYERS AGAINST

Prayers, it. is stated/ were recent-' ly offered in parts of Australia for i-ain, to quell the bush fires. Possibly, corning nearer liome, Canterbury farmers may be offering up prayers for rain to relieve the drought. Mankind "will probably always be helplessly divided as to the efficacy of such prayers. If rain comes, the believer takes it as an answer to his prayer, while the unbeliever retorts that it. would haW come just the same without prayers'. It is not a matter capable of proof either way. ■ : But it is interesting to reeollcet what Charles Kingsley said in August, 1860, when ho refused to unite with most other clergy. Theiy however, It was a ease of offering' prayer* for ' fine weather, the countrybeing deluged with rain. The vigorous-minded and independent Charles Kingsley refused to subscribe . to his : brother, clergymen's .prayers. " "First, I do not know that the prayer is needed," he said. "It speaks of a plague of rain and waters. It speafc's of the rain as a punishment. Therefdro I see no reason to use it unless we are sure" that these' particular rains now falling are a plague and a punishment: and ,of that I have no proof. I have rather proof to the contrary,' There is' great reason to believe th"a> these rains, over-heavy imd hurtful as they seem, are really a, booii and 'a blessing; ana.in this way. A certain, quantity of water, and that a very vast quantity, needs to "pc circulating throughout the world, as ■ b100d.," runs through our bodies, simply to keep fife world going; to keep up life and health in vegetables, in animals, in man. Oak of the most common, it is certainly th> mbs.t useful, of all things which we^see around us! One half of all liviii^ things, whether trees, vegetables, animals, or our own. bodies, is water. The seemingly driest air, the heart of inoun. tains,, and the very stones beneath oTtf feet contain water 'rind would not'be what they are without it. ' Withoirt water, and water enough, the earfli would be a useless desert. Water has produced, and is still producing, the soil which man tills, the minerals and metals which he manufactures, and "in these days of steam, almost everything; Tvhfch he needs for his daily life. This water must rise from the sea in clouSs; and fall again on the earth in rain arid that according to a regular average": and unless that average is kept up wa shall - have barrenness arid poverty disease and death; and God has so well ordered His earth that the proper average Tainfall is-kept up, not altb:: gether year by year, but taking o£a year with another." ' •■:. :■."•'.•.;■-■;

Ho attacked the prayer on the ground of presumption,also; saying:—"Bitter-' we; expect that out" prayers will alter . tiie weather, or we do not. ' If we "do not expect it, we are most prosumnth» ops .in praying this prayer, for we a¥a simply mocking; Gpd: and if we do expect it, are ,we. not , somewhat presuroptnotts also? I know, little or nothing abont the weather, and God knows all. Which is most likely io -be nght—God or I? God knows by what these rains are produced. I "da not. God knows what effect they will have:.l do not. And shalM set uptiay msdom—or rather . my~ ;., ignorance^ against God's wisdom? Shall I set lUp my narrow notions of what isgood^dr England against God's boundless, knowledge of what is good for.England"and for. the whole world at.the same time? (shall I presume, because I think if is raining too long here, to .ask God'to. alter the tides of the ocean^ the form of the continents, the pace at which, tha earth spins round, the force, and ligiit, and speed of sun and moonf -for Ml this, and no less, I shall .ask, if I ask Him to alter the skies, even for a iinjrfa' day." ." '. , ;■■-:. ' ' \

• Mark Twain exhibited much: commoksevse, m his ." Abroadr" when he made the first officer *f t%« Quaker.City give his opinion of the-pas-sengers' prayers .for, a fair wind. There they are, down there every mght at eight bells, praying for fair winds^-whett they; know,:as well as-1 do that this is the only ship going East this time of;the year,'but thera'a a thousand coming. West—what's a fair wind for us is a head wind to.them:' The Almighty's blowing a fair wind for a- thousand vessels, and this "tribe wants.Him to turn it. clear around «o as to accommodate one^-and: she -!■ -i steamship at that! It airt't good sfense, it ain't good reason, , it. . ain't good ■ Christianity, it aini't common huinW charity.1' ■ . • . '.-