OCR Rendition - approximate

134 STATISTICAL INQUIRIES IN'I'u If' prayerful habits had in0aeon' art Iei rporftl auccct ss, it is toy probable, as we nest again repeat, that insurance otbt•cs+, of at It• rit sonnc dcsctn iplurn.s, would ago httt discurercd anti mridb allownice for it. It would be reosf. uuwisc, frorrr a bu4iu,'.ss point of vita-, to allow the tlevoul, supposing their t'rt itt'r longevity I,%*( it probable, to ohlaiit unituities aL the aims• low rata; aS lilt• loofem. Before in.i n•rntce uflices accept it life, they collfidt'1113:11 into the outeccdonis of do, a1r1rlicaut. ISut unit a (1ul,itien Inns rttet rr been heard of ns, " lkles ho habitually trait I'll rriIv pravcr)I anti pI IV "It" devotions ?" Insurmioe offices, So wal:efnl to e•anatory infiuencl,:, .absolutely ignore prayer as one of then). 'urn some is frill, for insllrfnnee.q of till descriptions, as Lhoseconnccted with lire', :;rifts, light ning, hail, accidental death, fund cattle sirl;urss. 11tnv is it. posaihlo to explain why Quakers, who aro roost devout, and most sheeted mien of business, hive ignored these cons ideI'll tious, exceptt on III(' grourrtl that they do not. really believe in what. they and others frefly assertt about the efficacy of prayer? It teas tit eae Iinte considered tint act of mist trust in atn overruling 1tr•ovidt nce to put lightning conthu•tors overruling on churches; for it was said that Uotl would Sorely take cur of his own. But, Arago's collection of the accidents front lightning showed they were sorely needed; and now lightning conductors are universal. Other kinds of accidents befall churches, equally with other buildings of the same class; such as architectural flaws, resulting in great expenses for repair, fires, eartbqunkes, find avalanches. The cogency of till these arguments is materially increased by the recollection that many items of ancient faith have been successively abandoned by the. Christian world to the domain of recognised superstition. It is not two centuries ago, long subsequent to the days of Shakespeare and other great naumes, that the sovereign of this country was accustomed to lay hands on the sick for their recovery, under the sanction of a regular Church service,awhich was not omitted from our prayer-books till the time of George II. Witches were unanimously believed in, and were regularly exorcised, and punished by law, up to the beginning of' the last century. Ordeals and duels, most reasonable solutions of complicated difficulties according to the popular theory of religion, were found absolutely fallacious in practice. The miraculous power of relies and images, still so general in Southern Europe, is scouted in England. The importance ascribed to dreams, the barely extinct claims of astrology, and auguries of good or evil luck, and many other well-known products of superstition which are found to exist in every country, have ceased to be believed in by us. This is the natural course of events, just as the Waters of Jealousy apd the Urim and Thummin of the Mosaic law had become obsolete in the times of the later Jewish kings. -The civilised world has already yielded an enormous amount of honest conviction to the inexorable' requirements of solid fact; and it seems to me clear that all belief in the efficacy of prayer, in the sense in '1'111; 1•aFFICACY OF 1'tiAYEit. Iii) tchirlt 1 have hoes cousideriag it, must bo yielded also. The evidcnee I have, boon eblo to collect beer's wholtily and Solely ill flint tlir•cciion, and ill till, face of it tilt: una.v lrrobirrulf lies henceforth ,,If tilt otbrr side. Nothiwr that 1 Intro said nCl,utirc:y the fuel that the mind tuay 1w rr•lievod by the nttcrnucu of, prayer. 'the intpul.5o to putt' wit, trtl, frcl og' in sound is nut 1rt•eulinr to rutut. Any mother• ,> that hat lost her yoturg, and utuulert; about. nro;utini, and looking r rb t' n' s nn l;ltl pnst,csat't much of tiritt which t s trorll1)t8 I .1. a ly l r .} E l ty , no'tt to Ill-ay ill ru-ii,tt t lot.-• words. Thorn• ist a 'carnillf, of t.ho lie;u'I, I,. rtrvtti' :, fur 1i11), , it knows loot wht•rr' certainly front no source that -r it -;gas. ()1' a simihtr kind is the bitter cry of' the 11;1'e, when the u r is •thh ost a1tin lire; slue nbiutdous hope throartt it her otvtl nrc~ h tar 1 ~ , t thtrta, and screams,----but to chord: It is a voice c.ouvulsively sent r lot into ' s1 r:tit, t , uUt 'rttneo is a ]th}•sic_al relict'. These feelings of - t•hta.st distress innnl of terror tu'n siuiple, and an itill rticulate cry sutlices to give will to them ; but the reason why mint is not satisfied by uttering; iaarticuhtle cries (though sentetintes they are felt to be the most, appropriate) is owing to his superior intellectual powers. His memory travels back through ifnterlaciug paths, and dwells on various connected incidents ; his emotions ai•e complex, and'-ho.prays at length. Neither does anything I have said profess to throw light on the question of how far it is possible for man to commune in his heart with God. Acre know that many persons of high intellectual gifts and critical minds look upon it as an axiomatic certainty; that they possess this power, although it is impossible for them to establish any satisfaetoy criterion to distinguish between what may really be borne in upon them from without and what arises from within, but which, through a sham of the imagination, appears to be external. A confident sense of communion with God must necessarily rejoice and strengthen the heart, and divert it from petty cares; and it is equally certain that similar benefits are not excluded from those who on conscientious grounds are sceptical its to the reality of a power of communion. These can dwell on the undoubted fact, that there exists a solidarity between themselves and what surrounds them, through the endless reactions of physical laws, among which the hereditary influences are to be included. They know that they are descended from an endless past, that they have a brotherhood with all that is, and have each his own share, of responsibility in the parentage of an endless future. The effort to familiarise the imagination with this great idea has much in common with. the effort, of communing with a God, and its reaction on the mind of the thinker is in many important respects the same. It may not equally rejoice the heart, but it is qdite as powerful in ennobling the resolves, and it is -found to give, serenity during the trials of life andin the shadow off approaching death. FstAxors GALTON.