OCR Rendition - approximate

11 132 F't'.\Tts1•ICAr, INQUIRIES INTO known to mo of eminently prayerful qualities. Four al. least of the existing ducal houses Ill.(,, umuble to Claim the title of having bretn raised into existence through the devout, httbilu of Your- progetritoro because lho fumilics of liucrleuch, (araftou, St. Albans, anal lticltinond tverc Ihus highly ennobled solcIy on the III ouad of their being; descended front (.'haggis 11. find four of hia ani,irr,.:i, 11, ttutm.li, Lur'v 1Vttlters, Iatrb;n•a Villicrs, 1N4,11 Gwvnnr, and Louis do (Iuerouailb•. The dukodouu of Cleveland mini,' ahnora. he reckoned as+ n fifth instance. 'L'lw civil liberty we enjoy in I:nglanl, nnrt the cnrrg-v oI, our 1-:1 have grven riso to a nnaaber of institutions, societies, cnnetnet'cial adventures, political meetings, find Combinations of till sorts. Santo of these, fire exclusively clerical, some lnv, find other: mixed. It is impossible for a person to have taken nn active share in social lift without having hall abundant means of estinntting for ltitns•ff. ;utd of hearing the opinion of other,,:, (,If the value of a preponderating clerical elementt in business cornuittees, Fur nn' own part, I never heard ii favourable one. The, procedure of Convocation, which, like all exclusively clerical tneelin`,.:, is opened with prayer, has not, inspired the outer world with uurcit respect.. The histories of' the great councils of the Church are most, painful to read. There is reason to expect that devout and superstitious men should be unreasonable; for a person who believes his thoughts to be inspired, necessarily accredits his prejudices with divine authority. Ile is therefore little accessible to argument, and he is intolerant of those whose opinions differ from big., especially on first principles. Consequently, he is a bad coadjutor in business matters. It is a common week-da}• opinion of the world that praying people are not practical. Again, thereis a large class of instances where an enterprise on behalf of pious people is executed by the agency of the profane. Do such enterprises prosper beyond the average ? For instance, a vessel on a missionary errand is navigated by ordinary seamen. A fleet, followed by the prayers of the English nation, carries reinforcements to quell an Indian mutiny. 're do not care to ask whether the result of these prayers is to obtain favourable winds, but simply-whether they ensue in a propitious voyage, whatever may have been the agencies by which that result was obtained. The success of voyages might be due to many other,agencies than the suspension of the physical laws that control the winds and currents; just as we showed that a rapid recovery from illness might be due to other causes than direct interference with cosmic order. It might have been put into the captain's heart to navigate in that pours®,and to perform those acts of seamanship which proved links in a chain that led to eventual success. A very small rnaittci• would suffice to male a great difference in the pad. 4 vessel navigated by a mane ivho was a good forecaster of weather anal at aecomplis1.eai hi drographer would considerably' outstrip anotl._r that d, fir+i-r` - -, neccn lrlish d a c_,mm^5der, hut. othe wise TUX t•:t"i.'1r cY or ra.t,ygtt. 133 farly equipped. 'file perfectly inetrueted navigator would deviate hot ii ill,, rttost direct r olrso by perhaps somo mere trifle, first here, tbrrt ill, r,-, in orrl-r to bring hi-, vessel within litvouritt;; slants of wind ;rung aulvanto;;. pus currentr;. .A ',tip cornnuutded by a c:tpt tin :toll at,•crcd bt• a aalb r whm;i' is;trtr wire nUraenlnt•,lt' acted upon it, :tu',ttt-r to prayer would uucon,ciou;.ly, as by in~liact., of Oven a; it were b,• ruistakc, pp rl'iter tot::+e d,•vialions f•rotu routine, which vvt,uld It a,, to ullituitto succc',s. ']'lit; agile .itrunrios who fir", oho noo=n eatruestly prayed for are ttntally tho~w who !,.til on rouges whir, there is little trrtfiic, and thctt-I'M." v.-hero titer' i< morn, opfrogluail-y for the effects of secret i ltrovidcntial uvorruling to di-1 h tltn• tltcntsclvcs than naunug then, who ~ rail iu og+Bung}. sea voyager. Ill tltc usual sea routes a great deal is known of• the peculiarities of Ow seasons and currents, rind of the whrrcabonls of bidden thinners of all kinds; their average risk is untnll, and the insurance is low. I3tttt wl'tt vessels trot borund to ports like those sought. by tltt±'missionaries the ,ado is different, The risk thatt attends their vovarns is largely increased, and the insurance is proporlionatelyuni-oldy hatt is flee risk equally increased iii respect to missionary vcsnels find to those of' traders and of slave-dealers? The uompari-ol between tilt, fortune that attends prayerful and nonprayerl'ul people tray here be most happily made. The missionaries fire eminently among the former category, and the slave-dealers and the traders we speak of in the other. Traders in the unhealthy and barbarous regions to which we refer fire notoriously the most godless and reckless (on the broad average) of' any of their set. We have, unfortunately, little knowledge of the sea risks of slavers, because the rates of their insurance involve the risk of capture. There is, however, a universal testimony, in the parliamentary reports on slavery, to the excellent aid skilful manner in which these vessels are sailed and navigated, which is a lrrbxd ,/teem reason for believing their sea risks to be small. As to the relative risks run by ordinary traders and missionary vessels, the insurance offices absolutely ignore the slightest difference between them. They look to the class of the vessel, and to the station to which she is bound, and to nothing else. The notion that a missionary or other pious enterprise carries any immunity from danger his-never been entertained by insurance companies. . To proceed with our inquiry,'whether enterprises on behalf of pious people succeed better than others when.they are ntrusted to profane hands, we may ask,-Is a bank, or other 'commercial undertaking more secure when devout men are among its shrireholders,--or when the funds of pious people, or charities, or of religious bodies are deposited: in its keeping, or when its proceedings are opened with prayer, as was the case with the disastrous Royal British Bank ? It is impossible to say yes. ' There are far too many sad experiences of the contrary.