hat the
force latent in the chemical composition of one drop of water, equals
that manifested in an average thunderstorm. In our limited knowledge of
the relation of forces therefore, a scientific man is rash to deny that
the chemico-vital forces set loose by an earnest prayer may affect the
operation of natural laws outside the body as they confessedly do in
it.

Experience alone can decide such a question, and I for one, from theory
and from observation, believe in the material efficacy of prayer. In a
certain percentage of the cases where the wished-for material result
followed, the physical force of the active cerebral action has seemed to
me a co-operating cause. A physician can observe this to best advantage
in the sickness of children, as they are free from subjective bias,
their constitutions are delicately susceptible, and the prayers for them
are in their immediate vicinity and very earnest.

But this admission after all is a barren one to the truly devout mind.
The effect gained does not depend on the God to whom the prayer is
offered. Blind physical laws bring it about, and any event that comes
through their compulsive force is gelded of its power to fecundate the
germs of the better religious life. The knowledge of this would paralyze
faith.

Further to attenuate the value of my admission, another consideration
arises, this time prompted not by speculative criticism, but by
reverence itself. A scholar whom I have already quoted justly observes:
"Whenever we prefer a request as a means of obtaining what we wish for,
we are not praying in the religious sense of the term."[134-1] Or, as a
recent theologian puts the same idea: "Every true prayer prays to be
refused, if the granting of it would be hurtful to us or subversive of
God's glory."[135-1] The real answer to prayer can never be an event or
occurrence. Only in moments of spiritual weakness and obscured vision,
when governed by his emotions or sensations, will the reverent soul ask
a definite transaction, a modification in the operation of natural laws,
still less such vulgar objects as victory, wealth or health.

The prayer of faith finds its only true objective answer in itself, in
accepting whatever befalls as the revelation of the will of God as to
what is best. This temper of mind as the real meaning of prayer was
beautifully set forth by St. John: "If we know that he hear us,
whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired