OUR experiences are little worth unless they teach us toreflect. Let us then pause to consider this hourlyexperience of human beings - this remarkable1 efficacy ofprayer. There can hardly be a contemplative mind to which,with all its difficulties, the inquiry2 is not familiar.
To begin with, 'To pray is to expect a miracle.' 'Prayer inits very essence,' says a thoughtful writer, 'implies abelief in the possible intervention3 of a power which is abovenature.' How was it in my case? What was the essence of mybelief? Nothing less than this: that God would havepermitted the laws of nature, ordained4 by His infinite wisdomto fulfil His omniscient5 designs and pursue their naturalcourse in accordance with His will, had not my requestpersuaded Him to suspend those laws in my favour.
The very belief in His omniscience6 and omnipotence7 subvertsthe spirit of such a prayer. It is on the perfection of Godthat Malebranche bases his argument that 'Dieu n'agit pas pardes volontes particulieres.' Yet every prayer affects tointerfere with the divine purposes.
It may here be urged that the divine purposes are beyond ourcomprehension. God's purposes may, in spite of theinconceivability, admit the efficacy of prayer as a link inthe chain of causation; or, as Dr. Mozely holds, it may bethat 'a miracle is not an anomaly or irregularity, but partof the system of the universe.' We will not entangleourselves in the abstruse9 metaphysical problem which suchhypotheses involve, but turn for our answer to what we doknow - to the history of this world, to the daily life ofman. If the sun rises on the evil as well as on the good, ifthe wicked 'become old, yea, are mighty10 in power,' still, thelightning, the plague, the falling chimney-pot, smite11 thegood as well as the evil. Even the dumb animal is notspared. 'If,' says Huxley, 'our ears were sharp enough tohear all the cries of pain that are uttered in the earth byman and beasts we should be deafened12 by one continuousscream.' 'If there are any marks at all of special design increation,' writes John Stuart Mill, 'one of the things mostevidently designed is that a large proportion of all animalsshould pass their existence in tormenting13 and devouring14 otheranimals. They have been lavishly15 fitted out with theinstruments for that purpose.' Is it credible16, then, thatthe Almighty17 Being who, as we assume, hears this continuousscream - animal-prayer, as we may call it - and not only paysno heed18 to it, but lavishly fits out animals with instrumentsfor tormenting and devouring one another, that such a Beingshould suspend the laws of gravitation and physiology19, shouldperform a miracle equal to that of arresting the sun - forall miracles are equipollent - simply to prolong the briefand useless existence of such a thing as man, of one man outof the myriads20 who shriek21, and - shriek in vain?
To pray is to expect a miracle. Then comes the furtherquestion: Is this not to expect what never yet has happened?
The only proof of any miracle is the interpretation22 thewitness or witnesses put upon what they have seen.
(Traditional miracles - miracles that others have been told,that others have seen - we need not trouble our heads about.)What that proof has been worth hitherto has been commentedupon too often to need attention here. Nor does the weaknessof the evidence for miracles depend solely23 on the fact thatit rests, in the first instance, on the senses, which may bedeceived; or upon inference, which may be erroneous. It isnot merely that the infallibility of human testimonydiscredits the miracles of the past. The impossibility thathuman knowledge, that science, can ever exhaust thepossibilities of Nature, precludes25 the immediate26 reference tothe Supernatural for all time. It is pure sophistry27 toargue, as do Canon Row and other defenders28 of miracles, that'the laws of Nature are no more violated by the performanceof a miracle than they are by the activities of a man.' Ifthese arguments of the special pleaders had any force at all,it would simply amount to this: 'The activities of man'
being a part of nature, we have no evidence of a supernaturalbeing, which is the sole RAISON D'ETRE of miracle.
Yet thousands of men in these days who admit the force ofthese objections continue, in spite of them, to pray.
Huxley, the foremost of 'agnostics,' speaks with the utmostrespect of his friend Charles Kingsley's conviction fromexperience of the efficacy of prayer. And Huxley himselfrepeatedly assures us, in some form or other, that 'thepossibilities of "may be" are to me infinite.' The puzzleis, in truth, on a par8 with that most insolvable of allpuzzles - Free Will or Determinism. Reason and the instinctof conscience are in both cases irreconcilable29. We areconscious that we are always free to choose, though not toact; but reason will have it that this is a delusion30. Thereis no logical clue to the IMPASSE31. Still, reasonnotwithstanding, we take our freedom (within limits) forgranted, and with like inconsequence we pray.
It must, I think, be admitted that the belief, delusive32 orwarranted, is efficacious in itself. Whether generated inthe brain by the nerve centres, or whatever may be itsorigin, a force coincident with it is diffused33 throughout thenervous system, which converts the subject of it, justparalysed by despair, into a vigorous agent, or, if you will,automaton.
Now, those who admit this much argue, with no little force,that the efficacy of prayer is limited to its reaction uponourselves. Prayer, as already observed, implies belief insupernatural intervention. Such belief is competent to begethope, and with it courage, energy, and effort. Supposecontrition and remorse35 induce the sufferer to pray for Divineaid and mercy, suppose suffering is the natural penalty ofhis or her own misdeeds, and suppose the contrition34 and theprayer lead to resistance of similar temptations, and henceto greater happiness, - can it be said that the power toresist temptation or endure the penalty are due tosupernatural aid? Or must we not infer that the fear of theconsequences of vice36 or folly37, together with an earnestdesire and intention to amend38, were adequate in themselves toaccount for the good results?
Reason compels us to the latter conclusion. But what then?
Would this prove prayer to be delusive? Not necessarily.
That the laws of Nature (as argued above) are not violated bymiracle, is a mere24 perversion39 of the accepted meaning of'miracle,' an IGNORATIO ELENCHI. But in the case of prayerthat does not ask for the abrogation40 of Nature's laws, itceases to be a miracle that we pray for or expect: for arenot the laws of the mind also laws of Nature? And can weexplain them any more than we can explain physical laws? Apsychologist can formulate41 the mental law of association, buthe can no more explain it than Newton could explain the lawsof attraction and repulsion which pervade42 the world ofmatter. We do not know, we cannot know, what the conditionsof our spiritual being are. The state of mind induced byprayer may, in accordance with some mental law, be essentialto certain modes of spiritual energy, specially43 conducive44 tothe highest of all moral or spiritual results: taken in thissense, prayer may ask, not the suspension, but the enactment,of some natural law.
Let it, however, be granted, for argument's sake, that thebelief in the efficacy of prayer is delusive, and that thebeneficial effects of the belief - the exalted45 state of mind,the enhanced power to endure suffering and resist temptation,the happiness inseparable from the assurance that God hears,and can and will befriend us - let it be granted that allthis is due to sheer hallucination, is this an argumentagainst prayer? Surely not. For, in the first place, theincontestable fact that belief does produce these effects isfor us an ultimate fact as little capable of explanation asany physical law whatever; and may, therefore, for aught weknow, or ever can know, be ordained by a Supreme46 Being.
Secondly, all the beneficial effects, including happiness,are as real in themselves as if the belief were no delusion.
It may be said that a 'fool's paradise' is liable to beturned into a hell of disappointment; and that we pay thepenalty of building happiness on false foundations. This istrue in a great measure; but it is absolutely without truthas regards our belief in prayer, for the simple reason thatif death dispel47 the delusion, it at the same time dispels48 thedeluded. However great the mistake, it can never be foundout. But they who make it will have been the better and thehappier while they lived.
For my part, though immeasurably preferring the pantheism ofGoethe, or of Renan (without his pessimism), to theanthropomorphic God of the Israelites, or of their theosophiclegatees, the Christians49, however inconsistent, I stillbelieve in prayer. I should not pray that I may not die 'forwant of breath'; nor for rain, while 'the wind was in thewrong quarter.' My prayers would not be like thoseoverheard, on his visit to Heaven, by Lucian's Menippus: 'OJupiter, let me become a king!' 'O Jupiter, let my onionsand my garlic thrive!' 'O Jupiter, let my father soon departfrom hence!' But when the workings of my moral nature wereconcerned, when I needed strength to bear the ills whichcould not be averted50, or do what conscience said was right,then I should pray. And, if I had done my best in the samedirection, I should trust in the Unknowable for help.
Then too, is not gratitude51 to Heaven the best of prayers?
Unhappy he who has never felt it! Unhappier still, who hasnever had cause to feel it!
It may be deemed unwarrantable thus to draw the lines betweenwhat, for want of better terms, we call Material andSpiritual. Still, reason is but the faculty52 of a very finitebeing; and, as in the enigma53 of the will, utterly54 incapableof solving any problems beyond those whose data are furnishedby the senses. Reason is essentially55 realistic. Science isits domain56. But science demonstratively proves that thingsare not what they seem; their phenomenal existence is nothingelse than their relation to our special intelligence. Wespeak and think as if the discoveries of science wereabsolutely true, true in themselves, not relatively58 so for usonly. Yet, beings with senses entirely59 different from ourswould have an entirely different science. For them, our bestestablished axioms would be inconceivable, would have no moremeaning than that 'Abracadabra60 is a second intention.'
Science, supported by reason, assures us that the laws ofnature - the laws of realistic phenomena57 - are neversuspended at the prayers of man. To this conclusion theeducated world is now rapidly coming. If, nevertheless, menthoroughly convinced of this still choose to believe in theefficacy of prayer, reason and science are incompetent61 toconfute them. The belief must be tried elsewhere, - it mustbe transferred to the tribunal of conscience, or to ametaphysical court, in which reason has no jurisdiction62.
This by no means implies that reason, in its own province, isto yield to the 'feeling' which so many cite as theinfallible authority for their 'convictions.'
We must not be asked to assent63 to contradictory64 propositions.
We must not be asked to believe that injustice65, cruelty, andimplacable revenge, are not execrable because the Bible tellsus they were habitually66 manifested by the tribal67 god of theIsraelites. The fables68 of man's fall and of the redemptionare fraught69 with the grossest violation70 of our moralconscience, and will, in time, be repudiated71 accordingly. Itis idle to say, as the Church says, 'these are mysteriesabove our human reason.' They are fictions, fabricationswhich modern research has traced to their sources, and whichno unperverted mind would entertain for a moment. Fanaticalbelief in the truth of such dogmas based upon 'feeling' haveconfronted all who have gone through the severe ordeal72 ofdoubt. A couple of centuries ago, those who held them wouldhave burnt alive those who did not. Now, they have toconsole themselves with the comforting thought of the firethat shall never be quenched73. But even Job's patience couldnot stand the self-sufficiency of his pious74 reprovers. Thesceptic too may retort: 'No doubt but ye are the people, andwisdom shall die with you.'
Conviction of this kind is but the convenient substitute forknowledge laboriously75 won, for the patient pursuit of truthat all costs - a plea in short, for ignorance, indolence,incapacity, and the rancorous bigotry76 begotten77 of them.
The distinction is not a purely78 sentimental79 one - not abelief founded simply on emotion. There is a physical world- the world as known to our senses, and there is a psychicalworld - the world of feeling, consciousness, thought, andmoral life.
Granting, if it pleases you, that material phenomena may bethe causes of mental phenomena, that 'la pensee est leproduit du corps80 entier,' still the two cannot be thought ofas one. Until it can be proved that 'there is nothing in theworld but matter, force, and necessity,' - which will neverbe, till we know how we lift our hands to our mouths, - thereremains for us a world of mystery, which reason never caninvade.
It is a pregnant thought of John Mill's, apropos81 of materialand mental interdependence or identity, 'that the uniformcoexistence of one fact with another does not make the onefact a part of the other, or the same with it.'
A few words of Renan's may help to support the argument. 'Cequi revele le vrai Dieu, c'est le sentiment moral. Sil'humanite n'etait qu'intelligente, elle serait athee. Ledevoir, le devouement, le sacrifice, toutes choses dontl'histoire est pleine, sont inexplicables sans Dieu.' Forall these we need help. Is it foolishness to pray for it?
Perhaps so. Yet, perhaps not; for 'Tout82 est possible, memeDieu.'
Whether possible, or impossible, this much is absolutelycertain: man must and will have a religion as long as thisworld lasts. Let us not fear truth. Criticism will changemen's dogmas, but it will not change man's nature.
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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ordained
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| v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定 | |
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omniscient
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| adj.无所不知的；博识的 | |
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omniscience
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| n.全知，全知者，上帝 | |
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omnipotence
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| n.全能，万能，无限威力 | |
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par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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abstruse
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| adj.深奥的，难解的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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smite
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| v.重击；彻底击败；n.打；尝试；一点儿 | |
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deafened
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| 使聋( deafen的过去式和过去分词 )； 使隔音 | |
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tormenting
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| 使痛苦的，使苦恼的 | |
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devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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lavishly
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| adv.慷慨地，大方地 | |
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credible
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| adj.可信任的，可靠的 | |
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almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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physiology
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| n.生理学，生理机能 | |
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myriads
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| n.无数，极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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precludes
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| v.阻止( preclude的第三人称单数 )；排除；妨碍；使…行不通 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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sophistry
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| n.诡辩 | |
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defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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irreconcilable
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| adj.（指人）难和解的，势不两立的 | |
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delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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impasse
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| n.僵局；死路 | |
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delusive
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| adj.欺骗的，妄想的 | |
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diffused
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| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
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contrition
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| n.悔罪，痛悔 | |
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remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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amend
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| vt.修改，修订，改进；n.[pl.]赔罪，赔偿 | |
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perversion
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| n.曲解；堕落；反常 | |
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abrogation
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| n.取消，废除 | |
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formulate
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| v.用公式表示；规划；设计；系统地阐述 | |
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pervade
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| v.弥漫，遍及，充满，渗透，漫延 | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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conducive
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| adj.有益的，有助的 | |
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exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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dispel
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| vt.驱走，驱散，消除 | |
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dispels
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| v.驱散，赶跑( dispel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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enigma
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| n.谜，谜一样的人或事 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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abracadabra
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| n.咒语，胡言乱语 | |
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incompetent
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| adj.无能力的，不能胜任的 | |
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jurisdiction
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| n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权 | |
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assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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tribal
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fables
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| n.寓言( fable的名词复数 )；神话，传说 | |
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fraught
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| adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的 | |
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violation
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| n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯 | |
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repudiated
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| v.（正式地）否认( repudiate的过去式和过去分词 )；拒绝接受；拒绝与…往来；拒不履行（法律义务） | |
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ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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quenched
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| 解（渴）( quench的过去式和过去分词 )； 终止（某事物）； （用水）扑灭（火焰等）； 将（热物体）放入水中急速冷却 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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laboriously
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| adv.艰苦地；费力地；辛勤地；（文体等）佶屈聱牙地 | |
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bigotry
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| n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等 | |
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begotten
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| v.为…之生父( beget的过去分词 )；产生，引起 | |
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purely
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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80
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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81
apropos
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| adv.恰好地；adj.恰当的；关于 | |
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tout
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| v.推销，招徕；兜售；吹捧，劝诱 | |
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