terms of a real interchange that takes place between the parties — the two terms of a sequence, in fact, whereof the antecedent is a prayer lifted up from earth, and the consequent is the fulfilment of that prayer in virtue of a mandate from heaven." 1
Prayer also supposes that the government of God extends over the minds of men, over their thoughts, feelings, and volitions ; that the heart is in his hands, and that He can turn it even as the rivers of water are turned.
It is evident, therefore, that not only atheism, pantheism, mate- rialism, and every other system of philosophy which involves the denial of the existence or the personality of God, but also all other theories, whether scientific or philosophical, which do not admit of the control of God over the operations of nature and the character and conduct of men, are inconsistent with prayer. Ac- cording to all these systems there is either no one to pray to, or nothing to pray for. If there be no personal God, there is no one to pray to ; and if God, supposing such a Being to exist, has no control over nature or man, then there is no rational mo- tive for prayer ; there is nothing to be accomplished by it. The idea that the service would still be of value for its subjective effect is irrational, because its subjective effect is due to faith in its objective efficiency. If a man believes that there is no God, he cannot make himself a better man by acting hypocritically, and pouring forth his prayers and praises to a nonentity. Or, if a believer in the existence of God, if he has such a theory of his nature or of his relation to the world, as precludes the possibility of his hearing, or if He hears, of his answering our prayers, then prayer becomes irrational. Candid men, therefore, who in their philosophy hold any of the theories referred to, do not hesitate to pronounce prayer superstitious or fanatical. Kant, although a theist, regards all as unphilosophical enthusiasts who assume that God hears or answers prayer.2
Professor Tyndall, one of the representative scientific men of the age, says, " One by one natural phenomena have been as- sociated with their proximate causes ; and the idea of direct per- sonal volition, mixing itself in the economy of nature, is retreating more and more." Science, he tells us " does assert, for example, that without a disturbance of natural law, quite as serious as the stoppage of an eclipse, or the rolling the St. Lawrence up the
1 Chalmers, ut supra, p. 321.
2 Kant's Leben, von Borowsky, p. 199 (Biichner's Biblische Real und VerbaLConcor- danz, word " Bitte " ); Halle, 1840, 6th ed. p. 560.
696 PART in. Ch. XX. — the means of grace.
Falls of Niagara, no act of humiliation, individual or national, could call one shower from heaven, or deflect towards us a single beam of the sun." [Man may deflect the beams of the sun at pleasure, but God cannot. Man, according to Professor Espy, can make it rain, but God cannot.] " Those, therefore, who be- lieve that the miraculous is still active in nature, may with per- fect consistency join in our periodic prayers for fair weather and for rain : while those who hold that the age of miracles is past, will refuse to join in such petitions." a With Professor Tyndall and the large class of scientists to which he belongs, there never has been an event in the external world due to the exercise of any other force than the undirected operation of physical causes. " Nothing has occurred to indicate that the operation of the law [of gravity] has for a moment been suspended ; nothing has ever intimated that nature has been crossed by spontaneous action, or that a state of things at any time existed which could not be rigorously deduced from the preceding state. Given the distribu- tion of matter and the forces in operation in the time of Galileo, the competent mathematician of that day could predict what is now occurring in our own." 2 What is meant by " spontaneous action " ? Spontaneous is antithetical to necessary. Spontaneous action, therefore, is free action ; the action of intelligence and will ; such action as Professor Tyndall displays in writing or de- livering his lectures. His assertion, therefore, is that there has never occurred in nature any effect which may not be referred to necessary, i. e., to blind, unintelligent causes. This of course precludes the possibility of miracles. For a miracle is an event in the external world which cannot be referred to any natural cause, but which must from its nature be ascribed to the im- mediate efficiency, or the " spontaneous action " of God. When Christ said, " I will; be thou clean," and the leper was cleansed, the only cause, or efficient antecedent of the cure, was his will ; a volition. So when He said, u Lazarus come forth," or when He M said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm." The scientific man has no idea how small he looks, when, in the presence of Christy he ventures to say that nature has never been crossed by " spontaneous action ; " that Christ's will was not a cause, when he healed the sick, or opened the eyes of the blind, or raised the dead, by a word ; or
a Fragments of Science for Unscientific People, by John Tyndall, LL. D., F. B. S., London 1871, pp. 31, 32, and 36. » Ibid. pp. 63, 64.