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III.

In the previous lecture we have shown that there is a possible way in which God may interpose in the course of nature in order to produce results corresponding to our petitions, or may move the forces of nature to definite foreseen issues, all without violations or disturbances; and so have shown that the doctrine of providence and Prayer is not incredible, and have taken the edge from the argument against it from the invariability of nature. Nothing more can reasonably be demanded from us than just to indicate a possible and conceivable mode of answering prayer. It is not required to show how God actually answers prayer, but only how He may answer it: and probably the actual mode can never be known by us, but only surmised. If one were to assert that a certain action must have been done by a certain man called A, it would not be necessary, in order to neutralize the assertion, that I should declare who did it: it would be enough to show that it might equally well have been done by B, or C, or D. Or, if one were to assert that a certain thing could only happen under one set of circumstances, it would not be necessary to show it happening under other conditions, it would page 28 be enough to show that it might equally well happen under a different set of circumstances. So, I am not required to do—what never can be done—to show the actual mode in which God interposes in providence and hears prayer: enough to show a possible way in which He may do so, without infringement of the fixed order of Creation. I have shown you one such way, but there are other possible ways to which we may refer.

It is possible that in the act of fervent prayer a veritable force, as real as the force of magnetism, goes forth from the spirit of the suppliant, which links itself to the course of nature, and enters as a factor in among the forces which bring results to pass. We do not know what fiery energy may pass from God into the soul when it touches Him in true prayer. We do not know what wondrous forces are hidden in the spirit of man—energies which prayer may unlock. We do not know by what wondrous links the world of spirits may be interlocked: nor do we know to what extent mind may be connected with matter and nature, and exercise power over it. Some branches of Science seem to be feeling their way to some great facts and truths in this direction. Why did Christ demand Faith in the soul before ever He could send His healing virtue through the body? Had the divine power to stream through the soul and pass from it to the material frame? It cannot be deemed absurd or incredible that communion with God may unlock a hidden power, or that in fervent prayer a real energy passes out from the suppliant's spirit. This is at least a possible explanation. Real prayer does go out of a man like subtle fire.

Or again : it is a possible supposition that the course of nature has been pre-arranged so as to run parallel with the moral and spiritual world: that what transpires in nature has been fore-ordained, so as to dove page 29 tail into what transpires in the world of mind: that the providences which meet a man from without have been arranged from the beginning so as to run parallel with his behaviour and his moral history : and that the events which are answers to prayer have been hidden in the womb of eternity, to reveal themselves in time, when behold! we are praying for them! We are taught that the physical creation is moving on to a grand crisis, which will culminate at the same time with a grand crisis in the moral world and the history of the kingdom of God. (Matthew, xxiv. 29-30. 2 Peter, iii. 7-14. Book of Revelation—passim.—May it not be so through all the previous stages and events, both great and small? It is possible that the flood happened in nature's course, pre-arranged to transpire at a certain moral condition of the world. It is possible that the pestilential wind which slew the army of Sennacherib happened in nature's course, prearranged to transpire when Hezekiah prayed. It is possible that the storm which shattered the Spanish Armada happened in nature's course, fore-ordained to issue forth as a providential rescue of the world from the moral and intellectual thraldom of the Papacy. The wonderful parallel between the course of nature and the moral history of the world has often forced itself upon the observation of historians : and if so, it is no superstition at once to recognize the divine and the natural in what transpires,—no superstition at once to view a pestilence as a divine judgment, and as caused by certain physical antecedents. We have here, then, another theory : one certainly, which cannot be proved, but which also cannot be disproved, and must be allowed to be at once possible and conceivable.

To such suppositions, however, or to any others which I have seen, I prefer the one which I have previously indicated—namely, that the Creator sends out, from His living Will, a force which enters, at a point page 30 invisible to us, the chain of cause and effect, so as to produce results which are at once providential and natural, which are answers to prayer and yet meet us as only the outcome of the order of nature. We have seen how vividly the recorded miracles of Christ enable us to represent such a mode of action on the part of the Creator, for we see a force issuing from Christ's living Will and entering into nature to produce new effects, but without violations or disturbances. But this supposition finds points of support and analogy in the whole Scriptural representation of the mode of God's interference in the life-experience of the individual and the moral history of the race.

We are taught to believe in a divine Inspiration and supernatural enlightenment of the human mind, reaching its ideal point in the Light kindled in the minds of Prophets and Apostles. Yet inspired men thought, reasoned, felt, and spake after the manner of man, and each one after his own way : it was as if their intuitions of moral and religious truth sprang up from within rather than came down from above. They could never draw any sharp line of demarcation between what their own labouring minds produced and what the Holy Ghost conveyed, any more than one of the five thousand fed by Christ in the wilderness could separate between the original bread and the supernatural addition in the portion which he ate. We believe that that there is still a direct immediate teaching of the Holy Ghost, an illumination from above, a suggestion of thought and a purifying of the vision by God: but certainly no one can ever with mathematical precision separate what is God's from what he owes to his own reading and thinking, or the teaching of man. In the work of illumination God seems to enter the mind at a point which is to us invisible, and to link on His activity to the laws and faculties of reason, to produce a new result, without violation or disturbance.

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We are taught to believe in a supernatural moral renewal of the human soul: that the Holy Ghost breathes out a moral force, which, entering into our minds, thrills them with a new consciousness, becomes wisdom, peace, love, health, purity, which makes us love what we despised, and makes easy what was difficult. But we know that the action of the Holy Ghost links itself so sweetly with all our actions—so coalesces with our own thinking, reading, praying, and striving—that no one can ever with certainty indicate the point or the moment at which the divine beam mingled its rays with the light of reason, or the divine force united itself to our moral powers. Certainly, the laws of our minds are never violated by the Spirit of God, but, on the contrary, confirmed. He works a miracle in us, and yet in most noiseless manner, and entering us we know not how.

We find, further, that the Scripture language, in re-presenting the divine action and interference, is so framed as ever to convey the idea of an interposition, in a way unknown and at a point invisible, in the course of nature, in the world of human volition, and in the heart and life of man. Thus: "Evil shall come upon thee and thou shalt not know whence it riseth,"—it shall enter at a point beyond your vision. "I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath." "His roots shall be dried up beneath." Above and beneath : at a point higher than you can see, at a point deeper than you can reach to, my curse shall enter: and ye shall see its effect. "I will be unto Ephraim as a moth,"—the divine action wondrously hidden in the very folds of a nation's life, eating away its glory and giving no sign. "I will be as the dew unto Israel,"—silently dropping blessing, distilling it, as out of the atmosphere, in a way no man can trace. "I will come on thee as a thief, and thou page 32 shalt not know what hour I will come,"—with silent step, as in the dead of night, entering into our life experience, at a point unknown and unsuspected. Do not such words indicate that the mode of the providential action of God is to send out a force from His will, which enters the order of nature and the world, at a point invisible, so as to produce foreseen results? I feel as if this thought enabled me to thread my way through all the perplexities of our subject.

We can now better understand why we do not, and may not, pray to God for things unnatural and preternatural. I am not anxious to affirm that we may not pray to God to work miracles on our behalf; for indeed we do pray for miracles, if we mean thereby results to be effected by an immediate interposition of the divine power; we pray for a miracle, more stupendous than any physical miracle, when we pray for the renewal of a human soul, we pray for a grander putting forth of the arm of God when we pray for the Holy Spirit than when we pray for rain and dew. At the same time, we do not pray for the unnatural or preternatural—for visible and tangible divine inter-positions—for the production of any effects which are out of harmony with nature's course, or would startle by their very aspect. We pray that a sick man may be cured, but we do not pray that God would raise a man from the dead; we pray for a bountiful harvest, but not that God would convert stones into bread; we pray for the former and latter rain, but not that God would roll back the current of a river. Why not? Partly because we know that such wonderful signs are reserved for special times and uses, for great turning-points in the history of the kingdom of God and to accredit special messages, and that if they were common they would not only lose all special use, but be in all respects hurtful to the world. Partly, because the express promises given us in the Scriptures page 33 must be the standard of all our petitions: every prayer must resolve itself into this—'let it be unto me according to the word on which Thou hast caused me to hope'; and we have nowhere a promise that anything preternatural will ever be wrought for us. But further because it is not necessary that God should at any moment either violate or transcend the order of nature in order to answer any legitimate prayer or send any providential mercy; for God honours His own laws, and links His action with nature's onward course.

We can now better understand why we do not expect God providentially to interfere for our help, and answer our petitions, without the use of means on our part. It is written, We are fellow-workers with God. And again: We are made partakers of the divine nature. And again : God made man in His own image. Man is appointed to become Lord and King of the realm of nature (Psalm viii.). He is to grasp and master it by knowledge, by penetrating to its secrets to yoke it to his will, by comprehending its proper-ties to mould it by his hand, by bowing under its laws to command it to perform his behests. His rational will is to make him King of Nature: the reflection of the divine sovereignty. God himself will not violate nature: He treats his own arrangements with awe and reverence. Are not the laws of nature as much the expression of the Divine Will as the Decalogue? What shall we then think of ourselves if we expect results without using the means, or count on results while treating God's manifest will with scorn? Shall we not work with God and as God works? When a man wantonly ignores the constitution of nature, and trusts that God will interfere to avert the consequences of his misconduct, he becomes presumptuous: God may interfere, doubtless does interfere, many times, wholly or partially to avert the consequences of our page 34 folly, sending from some quarter a current of influence which neutralizes them : but the probability is always that we shall be left to reap the fruit of our ways. If a man wantonly casts himself down from the pinnacle of the temple and trusts that God will give His angels charge over him to prevent his receiving serious injury, he is guilty of tempting the Lord,—he puts a severe and unnatural strain upon God's power, kindness, and wisdom: God may thus interpose, and doubtless has saved us all from the bitter consequences of many a suicidal action, saved the whole race from many a self-destruction : but we are not to tempt the Lord our God, but solemnly reverence His appointed laws in all things as He Himself does. We cannot rob ourselves of the belief that there is One ever near us who can supplement our weakness, pity our ignorance, rectify our errors, guide our perplexities, succour us in our extremities, extricate our feet from all the meshes in which they may be caught, who can never want means to effect any result, "whose arm is never shortened that it cannot save," and who is very gentle and pitiful, suffering incredible drains upon His resources from our ceaseless perversities. But the thought that even He will effect no result excepting in sweetest harmony with law and order, and will never violate the course of nature, and has appointed rational man to be a fellow-worker with Him, leaves no room for presumption and superstition, and points to us to expect results only in a legitimate way.

Again: We can now understand why it is that providential interpositions and answers to prayer always meet us wearing a quite natural aspect: how nothing ever transpires in providence or as answer to prayer which might not have happened in the course of nature, and which will not look as if it had so happened. Some men seem to be hindered believing in a Divine Providence, and the hearing of prayer, by page 35 a secret demand of their minds, that they should be able to see the point at which the Divine Will enters the chain of cause and effect, or should hear the Divine command given, or should be confronted by some event conspicuously transcending nature. They would believe in Providence if—at least occasionally—an angel were sent to a widow's home carrying food and raiment for her children : but they cannot believe in it, when the only angel who ever appears is in the shape of a sister of mercy, a Bible woman, or a kind neighbour: they find it very hard to credit it that God touched the springs of the human heart and will, and sent the timely help along the channel of the world's common life. They would believe that God hears prayer if—at least occasionally—an angel appeared and said, 'Thy prayer is heard!' But when the answer comes in the pages of a book, or in the voice of a man, or in the salutation of a stranger, or in an accidental meeting on the street, or in a thought or emotion welling up within us of itself, they find it hard to credit it that God had anything to do with it—or interfered at some point beyond our range of vision. We shall have no difficulty here henceforth. If God's method in answering prayer is as we have indicated, there may be ten thousand providential interpositions and answers to prayer which we shall have no means of distinguishing from the course of nature. In this very arrangement lies no insignificant part of our moral discipline. God is never far from every one of us, but never intrudes Himself forcibly upon our observations : we may ignore Him if our hearts incline. God gives us all things richly to enjoy, but gives with a veiled hand: if we will, we are permitted to deny that ever He gives us anything. His active will is ceaselessly interposing and arranging for our good, but in such a manner that he does not permit us to see Him working: it is left us to page 36 shut Him from our hearts, if they have no room for Him. He is ever hearing prayer, but so that we are left at liberty to say : 'It was all only the course of things.' It was left free to the Pharisees to say, "He casteth out devils—by Beelzebub.' It was left possible to Judas Iscariot to say in his heart, that night Christ stilled the storm, 'It was about to abate of itself. The wind would have lulled anyway, as we have seen it do before.' In our interpretation of the Creation, and Providence, and Grace, there is of set purpose, space left to show what manner of men we are, to declare the contents of our hearts. There is always room for a double interpretation, that the heart may throw its weight into the scale : for we are under discipline that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

We have been endeavoring to grapple with a formidable difficulty—for a difficulty we have owned it to be. Need it astonish us to have met with one here? Supposing some elements of difficulty to remain yet unresolved, shall we be astonished? We have only found obscurity where we might beforehand have expected it: for how should we be able to see through the relationship in which the Infinite Mind stands to His creation and the free volitions of His creatures? Supposing we were to admit some outstanding obscurities, shall we therefore turn for mental relief to the affirmation that prayer is futile and trust in Providence a superstition? Are there no difficulties there? I find many. It is very hard to believe that the Creator has put His own works out of His universal control, has left man as a helpless orphan to be the sport of blind remorseless laws,—that there is a Creator at all, and that Creator not as a father in His house. It is very hard to understand how there is a deeply-implanted instinct of prayer in the human soul—how whenever the human soul is powerfully thrilled by page 37 any emotion, it almost irresistibly breathes out prayer—and yet there is no response to it in Him who made us. It is very hard to understand how the holiest, sublimest action of the human mind, and that which more than all others has blessed, elevated, purified, and comforted tens of thousands of the best of the race, should be the wildest of superstitions and most delirious extravagance. It is very hard to understand how the innumerable multitudes of the race who can testify that the Lord has heard the voice of their supplication, and set their feet in a large place when they cried to Him, have all been the victims of an insane folly. You have no refuge from difficulties in unbelief: and that possibly all things are not yet quite clear, is no reason why you should cease to pray, or to acknowledge God in all your ways.

To sum up the matter. We believe that the whole physical creation, and the whole hidden world of mind, are in such a manner filled with the Eternal Spirit that His hand can at any moment touch their most hidden springs, and sweep all their chords as the hand of a musician sweeps the chords of a harp. We believe that it has pleased Him so to condescend to us, that our humble fervent prayer prevails with Him to accomplish both in nature and in the soul what else had not transpired, and that when the hidden secrets of the world's tragic course are revealed, it will be found that prayer has accomplished ten thousand wonders, and been the mightiest factor in determining what has transpired. We are not alarmed nor caused to stagger by the vastness and sublimity of the belief: and are sure that it is capable of progressive verification in the life experience of every man who will put it to the test, and not weary in supplication. We are not daunted by anything which Science advances: but feel that many of its discoveries seem rather to help us to a sublimer grasp of our old faith, and we anticipate page 38 the hour in which Science, by slow and painful labour, will arise to confess that the intuitions of Hebrew seers have anticipated its conclusions.

I have now said the best which it lies in my power to say in vindication of the Christian doctrine of Providence and Prayer. I sincerely hope I may have said what may help to clear up some difficulties or chase away the murky night of gathering doubt, or confirm your belief and make it strong against assaults. The subject is most vital, central, and crucial. There are many doctrinal subjects on which a man may long suspend his judgment and yet lead a pious life, many on which we can well afford to tolerate different conclusions and yet feel ourselves brethren of a common Faith. But nothing is more certain than that the question whether God hears prayer does not belong to the same category. It is manifest that piety cannot tolerate disbelief in a Heavenly Father and the power of Prayer, cannot even exist alongside of doubt and misgiving; and that if what certain men of science are saying be true, religion has received a death-blow, Christ's name must now begin to pale, and his fame be lost among the ever-deepening shadows of the past, and Christianity begin to succumb to doom, and slowly rot away as a time-worn superstition. Piety demands a most firm and profound affirmation to the sentence, 'God is the hearer of prayer.' The entrance of a doubt will strangle it and poison it in its very roots. The disbeliever will find himself, before many days have come and gone, not many steps removed from sheer blank Atheism. There are those who plainly enough see the momentousness of the issue involved in this controversy, whose souls shiver with terror as they feel their souls drifting away from the very centre, with no prospect but that of henceforth wandering over an abyss of doubts into an ever denser darkness. To page 39 have cried in the hearing of such, "We believe still with all our heart and mind, and find the old truth no way incredible," may not be without its reward.

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