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THE KING’S BUSINESS
power of prayer; and 'so he shuts himself up daily alone with God, and makes this grand self-conquest the subject of earnest wrestling with God. He believes God hears him, and that he receives a higher divine help and strength'. He goes out of his closet, consciously stronger, like a giant ex hilarated with new wine, and in course of time he actually becomes a transformed man; his bodily appetites are no longer his masters, but his' slaves; greed no longer vexes him with an insatiate lust of gold; ambi tion no longer excites him with an in sane desire for place and power—he becomes gentle and generous, meek and unselfish, and renewed in the whole tone and temper of his being. He attributes it all to the power of God, working in him, in answer to those mighty daily wrestlings with God. Now your transcendental philoso pher says: “All this is a harmless delusion, but let him believe it, if it comforts him. The fact is that God has nothing to do with the matter— it is simply self-culture. The man has been reflecting and sees his true self mirrored. He sees his moral deform ities and sets himself to correct them. He forms a true idea of what man ought to be, then he shapes his idea into an ideal, perhaps an example— some heroic soul, living or dead, be comes a perpetual presence before him, inciting and inspiring to a noble v victory over self.” EXAMPLE'S POWER. Seneca advised one of his, friends to represent to himself Cato, Socra tes or some other sage, as a constant observer, a formative power. Alex ander’s statue inflamed Caesar, ana Caesar’s image inspired Napoleon. The victories of Miltiades would not suffer Themistocles to sleep, and so Themistocles became the rival of Mil tiades for military glory. In some such way does modern naturalism ac
count for all spiritual attainments and achievements; secured by the praying soul. They are the natural results of self-scrutiny and self-conquest and self-culture, under lofty ideas and ele vating and educating ideals of char acter and destiny. A man puts his hand on a lever, and by it lifts a weight which, without it, he could not stir from its place; or he.pulls himself up by a pulley-rope. He thinks that God’s power is exerted on the lever, and raises him by the pulley; in fact, says the skeptic, it is only a right ap plication of human strength in ac cordance with laws of natural philos ophy. I give to ,the naturalist’s explana tion of prayer ample room, because I want the theory fully apprehended, that, we may be. warned against its plausible philosophy; and that I may present the answer, both of Bible truth and historic fact. A HALF-TRUTH. There is no doubt that, as far as this explanation goes,' it is true ; but it is only a half-truth. There is a whole hemisphere of truth and fact, not visible from this point of view, not included within this horizon. The Bible affirms a positive advan tage in prayer: “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and deliv- ereth them.” (Ps. 34:6, 7.) Here Jehovah is represented as hearing prayer and interposing to save the suppliant. And the idea is further expanded by a reference to the de liverances wrought by the “Lord’s angel.” This reforence carried great weight, to a Tew. The angel of the Lord was a historic reality, working supernatural signs and wonders, all through that wonderful career of the chosen people of God. Not less than one hundred times does this myste-
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