Prayers for Rain.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2018, 17 January 1887, Page 2

Prayers for Rain.

To the Editor of the Standard.

Sir, —A Churchman is anxious that th» parsons should pray for rain. The propose! is so absurd that thinking men only laugh a it, and the wonder is that in these days of enlightenment any minister can be found to ask that the Giver of all Good should send rain because we want everything very nice and comfortable. If there is a Supreme Being surely he knows how to work this globe without having his memory jogged by a lot of sycophants who want good crops and herds tor the sake of the money value attached. When Australia was suffering with drought last year, any amount of prayer went up, but the drought continued—the creeks were dry, the cattle starved and died and their carcases putrified in the sun. The whole scene was a desolate one and the sufferings terrible. Why was prayer not answered ? Let Churchman answer the question if he can. Perhaps there was one righteous man in Australia who, like Elijah, prayed fervently that it should not rain, and God answered him. Tours &0., Faithless.

Sin'—The idiot who in yonr issue ol the 14th aims himself • Churchman ’ must certainly be a resurrection of the last century. Surely no person of the present day would offer such an insult to intelligence, reason and science as to say that prayers and faith will bring down rain. This is certainly a superstition which ought to have died ont long ago. Churchman says “It is right tbat we should ask for these things, as answers t“ prayer are more convincing to infidels." If he can prove that prayers and faith will brine down rain he can do more than his millions of predecessors have been able to do, and I am sure he would find very tew infidels in the world if such proof were forthcoming. I presume that Churchman believes in an omniscient (rod. How flattered that God must have felt in reading the letter alluded to calling him to a sense of bis duties. All the churches in New Zealand may meet together and pray for rain till their tongues drop out. and then we shall be no better off than we are now. Put as soon as the unalterable laws of Nature decide, depend nno-v it it will come down—then and not before. I am, *c , lx FIDEL.