KINGSLEY ON PRAYER.
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sta,—Charles Kingsley always argued that, as we go, in case of illness, to a physician of the body, so, in case of doubt, we should consult a physician of the soul. "Why not talk over the matter with me, fairly and soberly ? How do you know, till you have tried, whether I can help you or not P" he says to Templeton, in " Phaethon." Certainly, Kingsley himself, as many a correspondent of his can testify, was nobly eager to help all souls that were struggling through darkness towards light. Some years ago, I found, or seemed to find, in connection with prayer, the truth of the well-known lines,—
" What hope, what light,
Falls from the farthest, starriest way, On you that pray
And I obeyed Kingsley's injunction, and invoked his help. I need not reproduce my letter ; the tenor of my questions may be seen, by reflection, in the following reply, which I received, without delay, from the good and generous clergyman, who was always so ready to help those who in honest doubt turned, in sincerity, to him for counsel. His letter may be of service and -of interest to others, than for yours, faithfully, "You are a sanguine man, my dear Sir, who ask me to solve for you the riddle of existence, since the days of Job and Solomon, since the days of Socrates and Buddha; the especial riddle, too, of our time, with its increased knowledge of physical science. But what I seem to know, I will tell you. Knowing and believing a great deal of the advanced physical science of Darwin's school, I still can say I do not believe in the existence of Law. ' Lawrof Nature,' 'Laws impressed,' or 'properties impressed on Matter,' are to me, after careful analysis of their meaning, mere jargon. Nothing exists but WILL. All physical laws and phenomena are but the manifestations of that Will,—one, orderly, utterly wise, utterly benevolent. In Him, 'the Father,' I can trust, in spite of the horrible things I see, in spite of the fact that my own prayers are not answered. I believe that He makes all things work together for the good of the human race, and of me, among the rest, as long as I obey His will. I believe that He will answer my prayer, not accord- ing to the letter, but according to the spirit of it ; that if I desire good, I shall find good, though not the good which I longed for. And 'Law' and ' Necessity ' I look on as phantoms of my own imagination, always ready to reappear, but always certain, likewise, to vanish again, before one sound blow of careful logic or of practical life.—Yours, very truly, C. KINGSLEY.
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