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CT
ORTHODOX
THEORIES OF PRAYER.
BY
A BARRISTER.
*
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS SCOTT,
NO. 11, THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD,
UPPER NORWOOD, LONDON, S.E.
Price Threepence.
��ORTHODOX THEORIES OF PRAYER.
OME time ago, a controversy was raging in various
■ periodicals on the subject of prayer—our reason
for noticing which, at this late period, will udirectly
appear.
The real issue raised was this—Is there any reason
for supposing that human supplications are capable of
influencing directly the processes of external nature ?
We say “ external,” because no one seems to deny that
a man may, by this agency, produce a great effect upon
himself, and his own nature. To be sure, the modus
operands is a matter of dispute between the philosopher
and the theologian, the former attributing whatever
result may have followed solely to what is called reflex
action, the latter to the immediate action of the Deity.
Still, an effect is in both cases admitted, and it is not
round this point that the controversy has raged. Again,
we have used the word “ directly,” because it is quite
plain that human supplication may have a considerable
indirect effect, say, upon a religious person at a critical
period who knows that he is being prayed for, and who
believes that a great force is being exerted on his behalf.
So, too, curses (which are a species of prayer) have
often brought about their own fulfilment, by the fears
they have instilled into their objects. In these sorts
of cases, candid theologians, even when adhering to
their own views, are willing to admit that a solution,
such as does not suppose any interference with natural
laws, may fairly be submitted for consideration. If
S
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Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
men would go on praying for benefits on behalf of
themselves, or of others in reach of their voices, or in
reach of knowledge that those voices were being
thus raised ; then, although there would be a differ
ence of opinion as to the mode in which the results of
such action, admitting that it had results, must be held
to have been brought about, still the man of science
would have very little to say. But the contention of
theologians goes a great deal farther than this, and it
appears to us that the men of science have been justi
fied, nay, that they have only discharged an imperative
duty, in entering a most earnest protest against it. The
contention is, as we have said, that human prayer is
capable of modifying directly the course of external
nature. No better illustration of this claim can be
given than the familiar case of rain and fine weather.
The churches maintain that the faithful are able to
procure at one time a downfall, and at another a cessa
tion of rain ■ and they have imposed it as a duty upon
their members, when called upon by the officiating
minister, or other higher authority, to put in force the
machinery for this end. Upon this well-worn subject,
we repeat that we have hitherto refrained from offering
any observations to the readers of this series, in which,
indeed, two or three excellent papers on Prayer in
general have already appeared.
We have been induced to break our silence in con
sequence of an article which has recently appeared in
an able contemporary (Fraser’s Magazine, Sept. 1873).
This article puts forward a theory of prayer, which is
not new,* but which is very clearly stated and agree
ably illustrated by the writer. For aught we know, it
may have been still better set forth elsewhere—for we
do not profess to have read everything which has been
written on this subject of late. We, at any rate, have
not met with any clearer recent statement of it, nor do
* For instance, it is to be found in Euler’s Lettres a une princesse
Allemande.
�Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
5
we remember to have seen it anywhere distinctly ex
posed. Probably men of the calibre of Professor Tyn’dall have thought that it would be a waste of time to
show its inherent weakness. Yet it is never a waste of
time to refute theories of this kind, which, from their
plausibility are particularly liable to attract superficial
minds, and which, under the guise of offering scientific
solutions are really the offspring, of a spirit which is
fundamentally opposed to true science.
The theory is this, that prayer may be able to ope
rate directly upon the sequence of external events,
without any violation of law. The Almighty may have
so adjusted the course of nature as to make the favour• able issue of a prayer an effect dependent upon the
prayer as a cause; the particular cause having been
foreseen and having its effect assigned to it in the
general scheme. Thus, for example, a high reading of
the barometer at Bergen, and a low reading at Dundee
will indicate the approach of a storm, for the inhahitants of the East Coast of Scotland; yet, a pious
mother, with a son in the North Sea, may succeed in
averting it by her entreaties to Heaven, without any
violation of law, or consequent disturbance. For the
law may be that the wind blows from a high to a low
barometer, with a force proportioned to the differences
of the barometric pressures in all cases where prayer to
the contrary is not put up, or, rather, put up success
fully. In cases where it has been decided that the
prayer shall be granted, as suppose in the foregoing
instance, there may have been “ an adjustment from
eternity of physical causes to this specific moral end,”
the result “ being serenely wrought out by the natural
operation of remote causes, the combination of which
no science could have predicted beforehand, albeit after
the fact no science can detect any trace of violence or
interference with the steadfast order of things. The
event which answered to the prayer had lain latent
from of old in the undeveloped plan of nature, just as
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Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
surely as it had lain from the beginning in the secrets
of the Divine foreknowledge."
We have here, by the way, an illustration of the
strange mode in which theologians are endeavouring to
engraft on their system the modern conception of
“Uniformity of Law.” A little while ago, compara
tively speaking, it would have been considered by their
predecessors in the highest degree blasphemous to sug
gest that the Almighty either would not, or could not
comply directly with the requests of his supplicants, in
the same manner as men are able to oblige others ; andthat inconceivably complex and intricate chains of ar
rangements stretching up into infinite time must neces
sarily have been made in every case where prayer had
to be answered. Science, however, having forced this
conception of Law upon them, they are in the position
of men in the fairy tale who have got hold of a Genius
without being possessed of the means of making him
obey them. They really suppose that they have en
listed science on their side, or at any rate have dis
armed all reasonable opposition from that quarter, when
in view of a series of phenomena the precise causes of
which have not been ascertained, they exhibit another
series of entirely dissimilar phenomena, and without
proving the faintest connection between the two, call
upon us to recognise in the latter a 11 possible cause ”
of the former. It is the old story of the Goodwin
Sands and Tenterden steeple. And supposing the phe
nomenon in that case had been, as it is easy to conceive
that it might have been, the disappearance of a shelf
that had stopped up Sandwich haven, instead of the
appearance of a new one, it might have been argued on
these lines, that the building of Tenterden steeple, an
act presumably agreeable to the Almighty, was a “ pos
sible cause ” of the harbour being opened. We might
then have been able with Mr Bacon, the author of the
article we are considering, to detect “ in the day when
the earth and sea shall yield up their secrets, running.
�Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
7
parallel with a line of moral influences, the vestiges of
an old train of geologic causes, working down through
all the periods of creation until the two lines of diverse
operation converge upon a distinct predeterminate point
of time and space,” the points upon which these parallel
lines have all along been converging having been on
this hypothesis the building of the steeple, on the one
hand, and the clearing away of the sand on the other.
■“ Tous les evenements sont enchain&s dans le meilleur
des mondes !” in a way which even Pangloss did not
suspect. On reading the above, we are irresistibly re
minded of Sheridan’s simile. Whatever science there
■may be in all this, has been disfigured, as gipsies are
supposed to disfigure stolen children, to prevent its
being recognised.
Of course, where real causes are unknown, anything
whatever, the agency of which in producing the given
phenomenon has not been actually disproved, may be
-labelled as a possible agent or cause. We can prove
that the presence of the Sun above the horizon is not the
cause of dew, because we have dew by night after the
setting of the sun. But we cannot disprove the hypo
thesis of some of the low church papers, that Ritualism
and Infidelity attract cholera to our shores. Nor can we
disprove the hypothesis, that prayer is able to influence
storms. But we can submit some considerations which
render these and similar hypotheses so violently im
probable, that they may be safely neglected. Indeed,
if any account had to be taken of them, there could be
no science in the proper sense of the term.
Whenever we are able to trace natural phenomena up
to their real causes, it is found that human prayer is
not among these causes. This is a conclusion co-extensive with human experience, and must be accepted as a
truth of universal application. No person, for instance,
supposes that eclipses are now-a-days in any.way affected
by prayer. The opposite is demonstrable.
For an
eclipse, say of the Sun, being immediately due to the
�8
Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
interposition of the moon between us and that lumi
nary, a calculation is made of the time when this collo
cation of the three bodies will be known to take place,
and it is found not to be subject to any disturbance
such as would be produced by the introduction of a new
cause not previously accounted for. What is true of
an eclipse holds good of the most ordinary physical
phenomena of every-day life, with the causes of which
we have become acquainted. The presumption is enor
mous, that in all those cases in which the imperfection
of our instruments leaves us unable to trace phenomena
to their true causes, there is similarly no room left for
the agency of prayer. This conclusion is immensely
strengthened by the fact, that even where we are un
able to penetrate to the ultimate laws of phenomena,
yet, whenever we are able to make any way at all in a
discovery of their nature, we find ourselves in a region
of absolute law, i.e., in the presence of secondary laws-,,
which may be plainly conjectured to be dependent
upon more general laws. At any rate, the onus probandi is thrown upon those who assert the contrary,
and it is difficult to see how they can shape their ob
jections so as not to fall under one of the three follow
ing heads.
1. It maybe said that, even granting all this, no
absolute case is made out against the efficacy of prayer
of this particular kind. For it cannot be demonstrated
that the future order of nature will resemble the past
order. This has been admitted by Hume ; and we
think that Theology in its struggles is capable of
snatching at the admission as at a straw. Indeed, Canon
Mozley has turned it to considerable account in his Bampton Lectures. According to this view, even although
eclipses should be shown to have been due to certain
well-defined causes in the past, yet it by no means
necessarily follows that they will not be influenced by
prayer in the future; and it would be therefore by no
means an absurdity to pray against the occurrence of
�Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
9
one, supposing such, a course should at any time seem
desirable in the interests of the supplicant or others.
This theory would, of course, render an entreaty for
any miracle (as we term it), however stupendous, per
fectly legitimate. This point, however, the value of
which may be left to the consideration of the reader, is
not taken by Mr Bacon. The argument here is that
prayer may be conceived as having such and such an
effect in an altered constitution of nature, to which our
past experience could furnish no guide. Whereas, his
contention is, that there is reason to suppose it may
have an effect in the present constitution of things.
And indeed, unless this latter ground be established,
it is clear that although many ingenious metaphysical
invitations might be addressed to them, yet, as a matter
of practice, no persons would offer up these prayers.
2. Prayer may be asserted to be one of the possible
causes of physical phenomena, till the other causes are
discovered. The law may be so arranged that when
these other causes are found out by man, prayer ceases
to act as an agency, in consequence, it may be said, of
its ceasing to be put up, though this, by the way, is
not strictly the case, for long after the truth as to any
phenomenon is laid bare by science, the uninstructed will
continue to pray in the direction of their supposed
interests. According to this view, although a thousand
years hence meteorology may be so far advanced as that
rain and fine weather will be predicted with certainty
a long while beforehand, and prayer will accordingly
then be futile, it may not be futile now. Or, to take
eclipses again, some thousands of years ago prayer may
have been effectual in warding them off, though it
would be idle to offer it up now-a-days. This is some
thing in the shape of the former theory reversed. It
is a projection of chaos into the past instead of the
future. The Egyptians may have been right when they
informed Herodotus that the sun had twice risen in the
west and twice set in the east. And this singular re
�IO
Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
suit will follow, that any one who gets hold of what
afterwards t turns out to be a natural law, for the first
time, and keeps it to himself, will be wrong, as omitting
one important ingredient, viz., prayer, which would
still be presumably capable of being followed by an
effect not allowed for. But what is here supposed as
to a person keeping a discovery to himself for a while
is, as has already been stated, exactly what takes place,
if for one person we substitute a small body of scientific
men. These discoveries do not penetrate to the mass
of citizens in civilised communities for many years •
and here is an excellent opportunity for observing
whether the calculations of philosophers are liable to
be disturbed by such an agency as prayer. Yet no
single instance of any such disturbance has been verified.
3. The above theories may excite a smile in the
minds of those who are unfamiliar with the methods of
theology. But is there anything one whit less absurd
in the remaining theory to which we shall be driven,
and which is supported by most of the leading thinkers
on the orthodox side,—which is indeed the one upon
which the case of Prayer (in the sense in which we are
using the word) is mainly rested ? It is thus clearly
stated by Mr Mill:—Originally all natural events
were ascribed to such (special) interpositions. At pre
sent, every educated person rejects this explanation in
regard to all classes of phenomena of which the laws
have been fully ascertained, though some have not yet
reached the point of referring all phenomena to the
idea of law, but believe that rain and sunshine, famine
and pestilence, victory and defeat, death and life, are
issues which the Creator does not leave to the opera
tion of his general laws, but reserves to be decided by
express acts of volition.” * In judging this latter
theory it will be found that as is constantly the case in
matters not admitting absolute determination, we are
reduced to a balancing of probabilities. We must re_
* “ System of Logic,” fifth ed., vol. ii., p. 521, note.
�Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
n
peat that the matter stands thus. Prayer having once
been held capable of producing an effect upon all phy
sical phenomena, and being now by general consent
restricted to those only the laws of which have not
been discovered and established, and this process of
adding phenomena to the domain of law, and conse■quently subtracting them from the domain of prayer,
having gone on uninterruptedly, and pari passu with,
accurate observation, is it more probable that pheno
mena the causes of which are unknown resemble those
which have been explained, in being governed by simi
lar laws, or that they are exceptions, in which our
prayers, demonstrably useless in all other like cases (if
the present constitution of the universe is to be main
tained), may be, after all, efficient causes ? Or, in other
words, no single instance being scientifically established
in which prayer has had any effect on external nature,
and the course of nature, as far as it has been ascer
tained in countless cases and for countless ages, abso
lutely excluding this agency, is there any ground for
-claiming it as a power in those cases where we are at
present unable to trace effects to their true causes ?
Theologians reply that there is such a ground ; and
we do not know that in our day they have found a
more able spokesman than the late Dean Mansel, whom
we shall accordingly quote. In his “ Limits of Reli
gious Thought ” he writes as follows :—
“ Even within the domain of Physical Science, how
ever much analogy may lead us to conjecture the uni
versal prevalence of law and orderly sequence, it has
been acutely remarked that the phenomena which are
most immediately important to the life and welfare of
man are precisely those which he never has been, and
probably never will be, able to reduce to a scientific
calculation.” *
This, by the way, is a very slovenly classification, for
if there be any phenomena “ immediately important to
* P. 134, fifth edition.
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Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
the life and welfare of man,” such are, certainly, before
all others, the regular transmission of light and heat
from the sun, the alternation of day and night and the
seasons, in compliance with laws which prevent our
being sent wandering through space or absorbed in the
central luminary, and other phenomena of the kind
which are capable of being reduced to a scientific cal
culation. However, Dean Mansel continues :—
“ This argument admits of a further development, in
which it may be applied to meet some of the recent
objections urged, on supposed scientific grounds, against
the efficacy of prayer, as employed in times of national
calamity, such as pestilence or famine. The celestial
phenomena, recurring at regular intervals and calculable
to a second, are by no means a type of the manner in
which the whole course of nature is subject to law.
On the contrary, there are other classes of natural phe
nomena, with respect to which matter is to some extent
directly subject to the influence of mind; man being
capable, by his own free action, not indeed of changing
or suspending the laws of nature, but of producing, in
accordance with those laws, a different succession of
phenomena from that which would have taken place
without his interposition. Franklin sends up his elec
tric kite, and directs the fluid with which the thunder
cloud is charged to a course different from that which
it would otherwise have taken, and the same thing is
now done by every man who erects a lightning-con
ductor. Subject to these influences, the material world
must be regarded, not as a rigid system of pre-ordained
antecedents and consequents, but as an elastic system,
which is undoubtedly capable of being influenced by
the will of man, and which may, therefore, without any
violation of scientific principle, be supposed to be also
under the influence of the will of God.” *
* P. 135, note. How about earthquakes (against which men are
taught to pray), and in which of the two classes of phenomena
shall we rank them, and the cognate phenomena of volcanic
eruptions ?
�Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
ij
The argument is, that where phenomena are capable
of being directly influenced by man, and so removed
from the sphere of exact prediction, they may be sup
posed to be capable of being directly influenced by
God, and so made the subject of prayer. The reverend
Dean has put the point rather strangely, but we will
not dwell on this. Every one, that is, every Theistr
admits the above proposition and something more.
We believe that all phenomena are capable of being
directly influenced by the Almighty. But this is not a
fair statement of the point in issue. The argument, to
have any bearing on the subject, should be capable of
being maintained in this form. “ Where phenomena
are capable of being directly influenced by man, there
is reason to suppose that they will be directly influenced
by God at the request of man.” The real question is
not as to the power of God, but as to his mode of
working as revealed to us. That the Deity could, if
he thought fit, in answer to human prayer, arrest the
course of a thunder-storm or a pestilence, may be con
ceded, without any appreciable weight being thereby
accorded to the argument for prayer. What we have
to consider is, whether there is any reliable evidence of
his ever having worked in this fashion. If there is
not, then to talk about prayer as a “cause” is an idle
speculation. On the other hand, human labour or
effort is a vera causa capable of producing determinate
results on external nature, as every day experience
shows us. Not only does Franklin divert the course
of the electric fluid, but men have changed the climate
of large tracts of the earth by cultivation, thus entirely
altering what, but for their intervention, would have
been the course of rain, storms, &c. Zoophytes have
produced an analogous effect by raising coral islands.
To argue that because man is able to act immediately
on nature in certain cases, therefore God in those par
ticular cases may be supposed to act in a like way, is a
complete non-sequitur. Again, to argue from the power
�34
Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
of human effort over nature, the power of human prayer
to accomplish like results in the same field, is equally
•absurd. In the one case, as, for instance, in the clear
ing away of large forests, and the consequent diminntion of rainfall in those districts, we have a regular
■ chain of causation, entitling us to rank the burn an
effort as an antecedent and the increased dryness as
a consequent. Here a fresh antecedent being intro
duced is followed by a change in the phenomena, and
in this sense of course all nature is an “ elastic system,”
the stars of heaven as well as drops of rain. When
prayer has been exhibited to us as an unmistakeable
antecedent, followed in like manner by clearly ascer
tained consequents, we shall think it as much a matter
of duty to pray as to labour; but not till then.
Strange to say, theologians have never made an at
tempt in this direction. More than this, they have
looked upon all efforts to ascertain the value of prayer,
even when undertaken with the most single-minded
■desire of arriving at the truth, as so many attempts
nearly resembling blasphemies. Surely this is a mis
take on the part of the upholders of this supposed
agency. For, if it be capable of influencing pheno
mena, in the way suggested, this influence may pos
sibly in some one case (and one would suffice) be
capable of being traced ; and this possibility would be
a sufficient justification of research, even in the eyes of
the theologian, inasmuch as if it were realised, the
sceptic would be silenced. Meanwhile, we are com
pelled to say with the lawyers, “ De non apparentibus
et non existentibus eadem est lex.”
To return to the theory of which Mr Bacon, the
author of the article in Fraser, is the latest spokesman.
It possesses what to many will be the incontestable
advantage of extending the power of prayer by making
it applicable to past as well as future events. He in
forms us at the outset that he was travelling twenty
years ago in Mesopotamia with two American theolo-
�Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
15
gians, one of them a missionary. A letter reached the
latter, dated long months before at Shanghai in China,
informing him that his brother was dangerously ill of
a typhus fever that was approaching its crisis. The
question arose, would it be right to pray for the sick
man ? To which the theologians replied, no. He is
either recovered or dead. In the first case, prayer is
superfluous; in the second, it is useless. Mr Bacon
was not satisfied with this answer at the time, and after
much consideration he deems it wrong. “ The reasons
against excluding such a case from the domain of
prayer are like those which apply against excluding all
cases which come within the sphere of physical law.”
“ The difficulty involved in it is not substantially different from that involved in prayer for future physical
blessings; it is only more vivid, and more incapable of
being evaded. It does not need a great philosopher, it
is possible for a childlike mind, to recognise that an
unknown fixed event in the past, as well as in the
future, may have been fixed with reference to its rela
tions, not only in the physical but also in the moral
system; so that it is no absurdity to believe that a cer
tain chain of invisible and imponderable morbific in
fluences, terminating in an unknown issue of life and
death on the banks of the Yang-tse-Kiang might have
been adjusted with fatherly reference to what, six or
twelve months later, was to be the spiritual attitude
and act of a heavy-hearted missionary wanderer floating
on a goatskin raft down the Tigris.”
The common-sense of the reader will, it is needless
to say, be perfectly satisfied with the reply of “the
theologians.” There is, indeed, a very great difference
between praying for future and praying for past “ phy
sical blessings.” In the one case it is possible that theprayer may have an effect: in the other case, to sup
pose this is in reality a contradiction in terms. A thing
cannot have for a consequent that which has preceded
it. It must be remarked, however, that, according to-
�16
Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
this theory, the possible antecedent e.g., in the case of
the missionary’s brother recovering or dying, is not,
strictly speaking, the missionary’s act (praying or de
clining to pray), but God's foreknowledge of what the
act would be. Not that this really mends the matter.
But, before looking into this question a little more
closely, let us see whither we shall be led if we adopt
the line of action which Mr Bacon prescribes.
Any past event whatever, the issue of which is un
known to the person praying, may be made the subject
of prayer, and (provided there be nothing improper or
immoral in the request) of legitimate prayer. To entreat
that Judas Iscariot, or even Cain, may have repented
before dying, that the number of slaughtered in some
• ancient battle was not so great as reported by ancient
historians, that Seneca may have made acquaintance
with Paul and become a convert to Christianity, all
these are fair objects of supplication. The event may
have been adjusted in reference to the subsequent
spiritual attitude and act. Prayer for the dead becomes
■ a solemn duty for all of us, as wre are reminded by the
illustrations just given. For their permanent condi
tion may have been adjusted (we cannot help using Mr
Bacon’s own tenses) in the same way. If the missionary
on the Tigris was authorised to pray that his brother
at Shanghai had recovered six months before, he wTas
just as much, nay, very much more, called upon to pray
that, in the event of that brother not having recovered,
he might have departed this life in the odour of sanc
tity. Similarly we may pray this on behalf of any
person whatever whom we know to be dead, and whose
final earthly state of mind we do not know. And this
being so, surely all those who believe in the efficacy of
retrospective prayer, ought to set to work and pray for all
the dead. We may add that a very rude shock is given
by this theory to the doctrine of free-will, as might
easily be shown. This, however, we shall not press,
-though we apprehend that it would have weight
�Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
17
with a writer holding the theological views of Mr
Bacon.
According to this theory, prayer, impertinent and
indeed impious to one man, would he a solemn duty to
a person standing by him—we mean in reference to an
■event one and the same, and possessing an equal in
terest for both.
Let us suppose that, instead of being on the Tigris,
the missionary had been at a hotel in New York, and
that a gentleman had called upon him with the an
nouncement that he had recently come from Shanghai.
“ Here is a letter,” he says, “ which I had intended to
post to you on my arrival here, but have preferred
bringing with me, on accidentally learning your address.
It informs you of a serious illness of your brother’s, six
months ago, and of the issue. Open the letter and
you will see whether he recovered or died.” It would
seem that it would be the missionary’s duty, before
breaking open the seal, to kneel down and pray that
his brother had recovered, inasmuch as to him the
result is unknown. Indeed, Mr Bacon puts a pre
cisely similar case in reference to a “telegraphic de
spatch.” Would it not be the duty of the visitor to
reply, “ My good sir, if you don’t know, I do. No
thing that you can devise can alter the event you will
find recorded in that letter.” “ 0 ! but the Almighty
may have so adjusted a chain of morbific influences,
&c., with fatherly reference to what is nowr going to be
my spiritual act.” “ But the very words you have
used, ‘may have adjusted,’ show you what nonsense
you are talking.” The pious missionary, however, ad
heres to his view, offers his prayer, opens the letter,
.and reads the result. Hereupon his equally pious and
very delicate sister chances to come into the room, and
is informed of the illness, but the result' is withheld
from her. How is the missionary to advise his sister ?
•Clearly that she ought to pray.* Prayer, which is a
* "W e might go further.
It would be the duty of the missionary
•
�18
Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
futility for him, still remains a duty to her, or else all
this theory tumbles to pieces. But he cannot advise
her to pray with any reference to the result, for the
result is known to him. He is in the position the
visitor stood in a short time before. He can only ad
vise her to pray in a sense quite different from that in
which prayer is used in this theory, viz., as a pos
sible means of influencing past events. Now transport
the missionary back to the Tigris, and suppose the
visitor (Smith) at Shanghai. Smith (and a number of’
other people) know the event: the only difference is
that he does not happen to be at hand to tell the mis
sionary that he knows it. But this does not make the
prayer less futile.
As this is a theory extremely likely to lay hold of
certain persons of a theological turn, we do not think
it a waste of time to repeat that prayer of this kind is
an attempt to tamper with a past event by getting at a
past antecedent which (admitting the theory) has already
produced a consequent. It is plain that a person, C.,.
who knows what happened six months ago,—say that
A. then recovered of a dangerous illness,—and who is
a believer in Mr Bacon’s general theory, would reason
correctly thus as to B., A.’s surviving brother : “ God
may have so adjusted the result in this particular instance
in accordance with his foreknowledge that B. would
either pray or not pray. If B. prays I shall think that
this was very likely the case. If he does not pray,
■ then clearly it was not the case. But either way prayer
can be of no avail now/’ One of the numerous falla
cies of this theory lies in supposing that this view
which is true to C. need not be true to B. ; that be
cause a thing is not known to B. it may be presumed
to be in a certain sense undetermined, by B. If it is
true to C. it must be true generally. It follows that
wheD any event is known to any being in creation
not to inform his sister of the result, with the view of inducingher to pray.
�Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
19
prayer about it becomes useless to everybody. Another
fallacy consists in not observing that in either case,
i.e., whether the issue of the disease be or be not known
to the supplicant, a known past event has to be dealt
with, viz., the Deity’s complete foreknowledge of what
would be the supplicant’s course. The prayer is offered
up in order that the Deity foreseeing it—which now he
■is enabled to have done—may have been thereby dis
posed to save the sick man. But if a cannon may
have been fired off, or not fired off, at Waterloo, ac
cording as a foreknowledge of whether I should this
day pull or not pull a string influenced a superior
power, I can no more by my action on the string affect
that foreknowledge than I can fire off the cannon of 1815.
This theory, then, viz., that of the Supreme Being
adjusting the issue of sickness, &c., to subsequent en
treaties, is not only a wild figment of the brain, opposed
to the lessons derived from a study of nature, but it
does not even justify the practice which is sought to be
founded upon it.*
* Theologians, like common jurymen, require to have things
often put before them ; so I shall make no apology for again set
ting the matter out thus. Granting Mr Bacon’s wild theory of
the existence of a law in virtue of which persons’ lives or deaths
may, in certain cases (for there is no pretence that this is always
•so), depend on subsequent prayers, we will suppose that a certain
event, the issue of which is to me unknown, has reached me, e. gr.,
the illness of my brother six months ago. Now I believe that the
Deity 'nwjy have ordered that issue in reference to his foreknowledge of what would be my action. The only effect of my prayer
now can be to inform me whether the issue, when ascertained, can
be brought into possible connection with the law.
I pray—news comes of his recovery—law has possibly come into
operation.
I pray—news comes of his death—the case did not come under
the law.
I don t pray news comes of his death—law has possibly come into
operation.
I don’t pray—news comes of his recovery—the case did not come
under the law.
In the two cases where my prayer does not correspond with the
past event, law could not have operated.
In the two cases where my prayer did correspond with the past
event, law might have operated.
�20
i
Orthodox Theories of Prayer.
What, we may ask in conclusion, is gained to the
cause of theology by these wild assertions of the power
of prayer over external nature ? To what purpose all
these astounding complications ? The belief, it may
be said, is necessary to stimulate a prayerful spirit.
Yes, but then it ought to be shown that this is a prayer
ful spirit exercised in the right direction. No one, it
is clear, from the theological point of view, can know
for certain whether supplications of this kind meet
with success or not. We should have thought that the
spirit which it is deemed so desirable to cultivate might
find a sufficient scope in the internal sphere, where,
though the modus operand,! may be in dispute, no one
denies that prayer is capable of producing effects,
which is the chief thing. With regard to external
nature, may not a spirit of submission to supreme wis
dom—rather than one of a desire for change in our
own interests—be, at least as “ theological” as it is
philosophical ? Are not, we say, true philosophy and
true religion at one, the former in urging that it is
wiser, the latter in admitting that it is more devout, to
leave external nature in the hands of the Author of
Nature ?
The fallacy consists in putting it that, if I pray God may have
saved my brother; or, if I (Lortt pray, God may not have saved
my brother.
The fact is, that my brother has been saved or not saved with
full foreknowledge of what I should do.
If saved, saved either Secawse it was known I would pray; or,
though it was known I would not.
If dead, dead either because it was known I would not pray ; or,
in spite of its being known that I would pray.
TURNBULL AND SI’BAKS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Dublin Core
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Title
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Orthodox theories of prayer
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 20 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Date of publication from British Library catalogue. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. "by a Barrister'. [Title page].
Publisher
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Thomas Scott
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[1874]
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CT205
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[Unknown]
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Religious practice
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Orthodox theories of prayer), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
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English
Conway Tracts
Prayer