il!"; their prayer is heard
by the heavenly Father exactly like that of the pious son of Israel.

Chapter XLI. Prayer and Sacrifice

1. The gap between man and the sublime Master of the universe is vast, but
not absolute. The thoughts of God are high above our thoughts, and the
ways of God above our ways, baffling our reason when we endeavor to solve
the vexatious problems of destiny, of merit and demerit, of retribution
and atonement. Yet religion offers a wondrous medium to bring the heart of
man into close communion with Him who is enthroned above the heavens, one
that overleaps all distances, removes all barriers, and blends all
dissonances into one great harmony, and that is--Prayer. As the child must
relieve itself of its troubles and sorrows upon the bosom of its mother or
father in order to turn its pain into gladness, so men at all times seek
to approach the Deity, confiding to Him all their fears and longings in
order to obtain peace of heart. Prayer, communion between the human soul
and the Creator, is the glorious privilege enjoyed by man alone among all
creatures, as he alone is the child of God. It voices the longing of the
human heart for its Father in heaven. As the Psalmist has it, "My soul
thirsteth for God, for the living God."(831)

2. However, both language, the means of intercourse between man and man,
and prayer, the means of intercourse between man and God, show traces of a
slow development lasting for thousands of years, until the loftiest
thoughts and sublimest emotions could be expressed. The real efficacy of
prayer could not be truly appreciated, until the prophetic spirit
triumphed over the priestly element in Judaism. In the history of speech
the language of signs preceded that of sounds, and images gradually
ripened into abstract thoughts. Similarly, primitive man approaches his
God with many kinds of gifts and sacrificial rites to express his
sentiments. He acts out or depicts what he expects from the Deity, whether
rain, fertility of the soil, or the extermination of his foes. He shares
with his God his food and drink, to obtain His friendship and protection
in time of trouble, and sacrifices the dearest of his possessions to
assuage His wrath or obtain His favor.

3. In the lowest stage of culture man needed no mediator in his
intercourse with the Deity, who appeared to him in the phenomena of nature
as well as in the fetish, totem, and the like. But soon he rose to a
higher