TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE OCTOBER NUMBER. ᎪᎡᎢ, I. The Scientific Demolition of Prayer. 601 Robert H. Parkinson, St. Louis, Missouri. 625 635 Rev. William Patton, D.D., New Haven. 649 V. Flies in the Ointment. 664 By Rev. Daniel Butler, Groton, Mass. VI. Doctrinal Creeds as Tests of Church Membership. 670 Rev. Kinsley Twining, Providence, Rhode Island. VII. The Study of Words. Rev. Andrew P. Peabody, D.D., Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 691 VIII. A Reminiscence of the Stackpole House. 706 Rev. I. N. Tarbox, Boston, Mass. IX. The Friendship of Goethe and Schiller. 718 Prof. W. H. Wynn, Ames, Iowa. ARTICLE X.-NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. THEOLOGICAL AND RELIGIOUS. Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. By Heinrich Augustus Wilhelm Meyer, Th.D. A Suggestive Commentary on the New Testament. By W. H. Van Doren, D.D. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. By Thomas Robinson, D.D. 738 741 The Apocalypse, translated and expounded. By James Glasgow, D.D. A Grammar of the New Testament Greek. By Alexander Buttman. The Revision of the English Version of the New Testament. By J. B. Lightfoot, D.D., Richard Chevenix Trench, D.D., C. J. Ellicott, D.D. Suggested Emendations of the Authorized English Version of the Old Testament. By Elias Riggs, D.D., LL.D. 741 758 752 757 History of the Kingdom of God under the Old Testament. Translated from the German of E W. Hengstenberg. 758 Commentary on the Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, by C. F Kéil, DD. Translated from the German by Sophia Taylor. The Historic Origin of the Bible. By Edward Cone Bissell, A.M. nest Words on True Success in Life. THE NEW ENGLANDER. No. CXXV. OCTOBER, 1873. ARTICLE I-THE SCIENTIFIC DEMOLITION OF PRAYER. THE proposition for what has been popularly termed The Tyndall Prayer Guage, which appeared in the Contemporary Review a few months since, has already excited considerable discussion. Though baptized by Mr. Tyndall's name, it will be well remembered that he was rather its sponsor than its parent. In an age less accustomed to startling propositions, this, clashing as it does with the oldest and most universal sentiments of man, would have occasioned more than a transient ruffle upon the surface of popular thought. The belief that there is a Power above which controls the happening of events in this world, is moved by the intercessions of men, averts catastrophes, and dispenses favors in answer to their prayers, is not a distinguishing feature of Christianity. It is not peculiar to any religion or any era. Its impress is indelibly stamped on all history. It is written in unmistakable characters on all mythology. Laying aside the Christian revelation, and judging in the light of the histories and traditions of the past and the literature of the present, we might not unreasonably pronounce it the common starting-point from which all religious systems have diverged, the grand central principle from which all religious thought and faith have sprung. It would then be a remarkable indication of either the candor or the indifference of the age, if this belief, so long established, so widely prevalent, and so interwoven with the thoughts and convictions of men upon subjects of the deepest and most enduring interest, had been dispelled in so short a time and with so meagre a struggle as that which has followed the proposition to which we have referred. We have then been surprised at the frequency with which it is assumed by contributors to our current literature, that the result of this discussion has been to compel all intelligent men, in and out of the churches, to renounce that belief so far as it pertains to the physical world. It is intimated that only those who are grossly ignorant of facts, culpably indifferent to them, or possessed of an obduracy which no reason can penetrate, can longer entertain a theory whose absurdity has been so completely demonstrated. We are congratulated on having at last discovered, that the legitimate objects of prayer are found alone in the mind and soul. These expressions do not come from the materialist or the skeptic alone, but are apparently, to some extent, the expression of sincere conviction from those who would shudder at the thought of denying God all personal and conscious existence in the world. Some have even seemed to experience relief in the thought that prayer has at last found a retreat where the remorseless hand of science cannot reach it. During ages of ignorance it found a safe abode among the mysterious agencies of the physical world, but as science has robbed these agencies one after another of their mystery, prayer has been compelled to flee before it. Its territory has become more and more circumscribed, till at last there has not been left shade enough to cover it. Abandoning all claim to a place in the world of matter, it must betake itself to the more inscrutable world of mind. The intellectual vigor of this age is to an extraordinary extent engaged in the natural sciences. It is but reasonable to suppose that bye-and-bye metaphysics and psychology will have their turn. Will prayer receive more indulgence in their province? Will not a similar course of reasoning to that which now causes it to withdraw its preten tions before the investigations of science force it from its last. citadel? We propose to question the validity of the distinction which has been assumed in the application of the arguments, urged against prayer, to the physical and moral world, and afterward to test those arguments by applying them to phenomena most within our observation. This we think must be admitted to be an eminently scientific test. They are substantially these. The phenomena of the phys ical world are determined by fixed and invariable laws. Throughout all, extends an inevitable chain of causation which is never interrupted. Nothing ever happens without a cause traceable to natural law. This connection between cause and effect is essential to our security, since if it were liable to be broken by an arbitrary interference, we could act with no certainty of the result. The same cause might fail to produce the same effect. To suppose any change in the happening of events in answer to prayer, is to assume either that those laws established by the Supreme Being are imperfect and need the amendment of man, or that being perfect they are to deviate from their perfect working to gratify his petty caprice. The universal order whose maintenance is the security of a world is to be disturbed, convulsed to gratify the foolish and whimsical aspiration of a man, or of a community, dissatisfied with the laws Omniscience has inade. The magnificient system of government which His wisdom and beneficence have established, is to yield to human ignorance and folly. The humble man, mindful of the narrow range of his own vision, will reverently bow to whatever Eternal Wisdom may appoint, and shrink with awe from advancing any pretensions to interference in His government. To urge upon Him any change in His eternal decrees is the most impious presumption. No man prays for a change of the seasons or the arrest of the earth in its orbit. Why not these as well as lesser variations in the order of nature? There will often be a conflict of prayer. While one asks for rain, another asks for sunshine. While one asks for the triumph of an army or principle, another asks for their defeat. Both cannot be answered. |