CONCERNING PRAYER,* Wm.'s)! James in a famous passage of his
Psychology says that in these days of seientifio enlightenment many reasons are given why we should not pray, "but in all this very little is said of why we do pray, which is simply that we cannot help praying." These words will constantly recur to the reader of the latest bodk upon prayer. It is by many authors, all of some distinction. We find essays by "a lady (the author of Pro Christ() et Ec,clesia), three laymen, two parish clergymen, two clerical dons—all Anglicans—a Wesleyan theological tutor, a Congregational minister, and an American Professor belonging to the Society of Friends." The result in a rather difficult book requiring close attention. The reader feels at the end that he has had a long tussle with irresistible logic—and has not won. He will feel almost as though he had been trying to prove the existence of God by argumentation. All this does not mean that the essays are not interesting. Those who make the strong mental effort required to get through five hundred pages of close theological reasoning will not be without considerable mental and spiritual profit. All the most obvious doubts and difficulties, which must occur to the religious man who considers the subject of prayer at all, are enumerated in the intro- duction. The heart of the reader sinks as he reads the list :— "Can we believe in Providence at all ; or In what spirit can we pray to the Creator of a world so full of misery ? llas Prayer any meaning in a Universe governed by universal law ? If God wills our good and knows our needs, why tell Him of them in prayer ? What practical results ought we to expect from prayer ? What ought we to think of God's relation to human sin and to the Power of Evil in the world ? The Mystics—have they anything to teach us ? "
When men reason about prayer and the problem of suffering they must open their minds and show *something of their experience, and In this revelation of experience lies the power of their words. Almost all the writers agree that sin and suffering have, at least so far as the individual is concerned, no direct connexion. The best suffer most, that is the common experience. All the same, it remains true that the best natures gain by it, though no one could desire those terrible gains for themselves or others. Here is a very fine description of an ideal character tempered, as an ideal character must be, by suffering. The picture is, we think, true to life :— " There remains the man who, inspired by a great purpose or ideal, accepts the changes and chances of life, in small things, like the old Viking with a frolic welcome,' like obstacles in a steeplechase, or bruises in the football field ; in larger things, with cheerfulness and courage, as wounds received in battle ; and in great sorrows, with the acceptance wherein is peece. He is at the Gate of Heaven. He has tasted the life of God. For if Christ is, as St. Paul puts it, 'the portrait of the invisible God,' His Life, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, and Return to save and bless, are a picture to us, under conditions of time and space and in terms understandable to human intelligence, of something which is Eternal in the Life of God. And that something includes sorrow felt to the uttermost."
Mr. Streeter has drawn a fine and soldierly portrait, on which many to-day who have no heart to reason may look and be comforted. In his essay, "God and the World's Pain," he dam not fall into the heresy of Goethe, and say that "Christianity is the worship of sorrow " ; but he does dwell, as all candid writers must, upon this side of Christianity, and he insists that in the doctrine of the Incarnation lies the beet justification of the ways of God to men, and urges the modern preacher boldly to maintain the co-suffering of Creator and creature. This, he evidently thinks, Is, in spite of all difficulties, the keystone of Christianity.
The question of prayer for material benefit is more or less juggled with throughout most of this volume. For instance, the essay on faith-healing is quite inconclusive. Mr. Bevan alone meets it quite fairly, or should we say squarely ? His conclusion Is a very simple and manly one. He believes in prayer for non-spiritual as well as spiritual benefits :— "it is no derogation from the divinity of God to think of Him as
• Concerning Prayer: ita Nature, its Difficulties, and Its Value. yTiriCAS ital1013. Landon; 11...undlan and Go. 17a. 64. net.] interested in my affairs, but it would be a derogation to suppose that any least detail was overlooked in
'That Master's art, who in Himself so loves' it That never cloth His eye depart therefrom.'" These words are in absolute accordance with the words of Christ, whioh are in accordance with the almost universal instinct of man, an instinct which his reason is powerless to justify.
The most arresting of the essays is, we think, the one by the writer of Pro arida et Ecclesia. It is original in its orthodoxy ; our authoress finds explanation and hope in the thought of original sin. To-day such a retirement upon an old position sounds almost ludicrous, but she makes out an excellent case. We do not, of course, moan that she harks back to Adam and Eve, but she regards each human soul as "deeply involved in the world's sin," and she denies that all men know right from wrong by a divinely imparted instinct. She even quotes, and appears to agree with, Henry Sidgwick, who said that "if all men did what they thought right without further enlightenment. the world would be a worse place." The Quaker notion of the essential Incorruptibility of conscience is, to her mind, false and dangerous. Her view of moral responsibility is far from a simple one, and could never find favour with simple people. That is, however a quite insufficient argument against its truth. The best men have always, she believes, felt the guilt of the world upon them, and have implored forgiveness for their ignorances, and even for their best ideals, knowing them to fall short of perfection, as well as for their sins. It is right, she admits, that every man should do what seems to him his duty, but he is not free of sin unless at the same time he is striving with an open mind to take a new and better view of his duty. This for a vast number of men is a sheer impossibility. She stops at no obstacle, but is logical in her conclusion. Many a man has improved his character by an act of kindness which went against his conscience. The persecutor who refrained from cruelty because his heart misgave him violated his conscience to the salvation of his soul. All the ends of her argument hang loose, because if conscience is a found-out authority, what authority still holds ? Nevertheless, she does describe and justify the instinct at the bottom of the Calvinistio notion of am in a manner to compel attention.
Mr. Streeter's " Worship " also will, we are sure, be widely read. Young people in all classes are now wearied by public worship. Why f Mr. Streeter discusses the question with sympathy. He would like to see some changes in the Prayer Book, which has come to be regarded as monotonous. He would like some freedom for extemporary prayer and some intervals of silence. It is interesting to read such criticism. We are sick of hearing that " brightness " will attract to church men and women who are kept away by the weight of a troubled spirit. No church will ever be able to rival a place of amusement in "brightness." Public worship should be designed to assuage the spiritual hunger of the world, otherwise it becomes nothing more than an edifying performance.
Professor Rufus Jones's article on " Mysticism " is, considering the subject, quite extraordinarily lucid. Any one who desires to know what the Society of Friends stands for, and is willing to regard it as something else than a spiritual haven for conscientious objectors, should read it. With the Mystics of all ages, he may imagine for a moment that he is able to "cut all cables and swing clear out to sea." Very few people will ever be Mystics, yet "No man, scientist or layman, knows where the curve Is to be drawn about the personal sell.' No man can say with authority that the circulation of Divine currents into the soul's inward life is impossible. On the contrary, Energy does come in. In our highest moments we find ourselves in contact with wider spiritual Life than belongs to out normal 'me.'" The flock of men and women who, to quote Bunyan, are "asking their way to Mount Zion with their faces thither-ward" are many. The guides will always be few. They belong to all Churches; they all know the way, but none of them can draw a map and point to the road.
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