tions, for the further discussion of them would lead us far beyond
the task of the present publication. We shall only point out the fact, that
precisely the knowledge of the image of God in man shows us the way to the
knowledge of how it is conceivable that God can create personalities
through whose freedom of will he relatively limits the absoluteness of his
own will.

In all our discussions hitherto, the scientific basis of a faith in the
possibility of an _answer to prayer_ has been evident. All reasons for a
divine providence, also speak with the same force of persuasion for the
hearing of our prayers, as soon as the _idea of being a child of God_ has
become an integral part of our idea of God. And this idea--the idea of God
as the father, and of a relationship of love between the divine and the
human personalities--is so much a part of the Christian idea of God, that
it belongs to its very essence. Only one {358} consideration might offer
scientific difficulties to our faith in the hearing of prayer: namely, if
God hears the prayers of his children, in the course of time new motives
for his action present themselves to him; now, is it reconcilable with the
idea of God, that God makes himself in any such way dependent on that which
first appeared in time, and on the changing moods of the creature? But this
difficulty is precisely the same which we met, when acknowledging human
freedom and its reconcilableness with a divine providence; and we have
tried to indicate above the path which leads to its solution.

It is the principal idea which penetrates all our reasoning about the
relation of God and the world--namely, the idea of a _teleology in the
world_--which is to lead us to a correct conception of the _miracles_ and
their reconcilableness with a mechanism of nature and with the Darwinistic
ideas of development. In the much discussed contest about the problem of
miracles, clearer results would certainly have been attained, if one had
questioned more closely what the record of the Christian religion means by
miracles, and what position, according to it, these miracles have to take
in the order of the world and in the divine plan of salvation; and after
having satisfied himself as to this position, had further asked what
position they take in reference to our exact science and our theistic view
of the world. Instead of doing this, we have often enough seen friend and
foe of the idea of miracles, as soon as the questi