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church— no fight w ith it— b u t simply h as forgotten th a t it exists. The world don’t need it! P ray er may have an auto-inspirational effect— it often has a seem ing resu lt — b u t a resu lt th a t would have doubtless come anyhow. P ray er seems to hypnotize its subjects into a sta te of ecstacy, and self- importance, th a t rank s not unfavorably w ith o th er form s of intoxication. The tro u b le ' w ith frenzied prayer, revivals and o ther form s of intoxication, comes in th e reaction, th e relapse.” The charge that the church is failing to make good in prayer-results hews so near to the truth that it should cause a lot of professing Christian people to sit up and take notice. It is a fact that scores of churches today are not praying churches and multitudes of Christians are only saying prayers instead of praying. Prayer is being abused instead of used. Many seem to think the power of prayer, should operate without any regard to the laws of the power as laid down in the Bible. People talk of prayer who are far from being on praying ground—who do not meet the first conditions of true prayer as taught by Jesus Christ. They know not what it is to “ pray in the Spirit” (Rom. 8:26, 27) and “ according to the will of God” (1 Jno. 5:14) and the result is, they see few results. Many Christians have come to think of prayer (because of their failures to get results) as some thing for only the gifted few. God will certainly hold every saint account able for the use of the mighty lever of prayer which he has placed in their hands with full directions as to how it may be used to the blessing of the world. But when any man makes so wild a claim as does the writer above— that prayer will not do what is claimed for i t ; that there never was a case of answered prayer that would stand investigation ; that its only use is to hypnotize believers into a state of ecstacy and self importance, he thereby brands himself as an ignoramus on the subject. He pits himself against the commands and promises of the Lord Jesus Christ—he proclaims thou sands of intelligent people in all ages to be either self-deceived or im posters. He shows that he has given a wide berth to prayer meetings and spiritual people. His ravings are not worthy of notice, except as a warn ing to some drowsy disciple. If this editor wanted evidence, he could have gotten any amount of it in any town or hamlet in the country. The argument of the reflex or psychological value of prayer is utter nonsense. Imagine a child asking of its parents something for the relief of a real want. Hour after hour, the requests continue. The mother only answers, “ Go on asking; it does you good. The more you ask, the better you’ll feel, and after a while you’ll cease to want the_thing you’re asking for.” If prayer does not actually avail to change things, as Jesus Christ declared it would (Jno. 14:14) then indeed it is a sickening mockery; the injunction to pray is cruel deceit and every praying Christian has been making a fool of himself. Prayer is either a prodigious force or a pitiful farce.—K. L. B. a » i » N o b o d y Right But God Some of the letters we receive from Christian Scientists are most re markable demonstrations of the fact that they are more or less dominated by this thing called “ mortal error.” Most of the epistles which we receive are either unsigned or without address. Some have the habit of writing
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