formation took place. The scales dropped from the face, the watery eye became firm, and the muscles of the body resumed the beauty and symmetry of health. The leper was healed. Startled at the change, the affrighted monk gazed in astonishment at the face it was the face of the Christ. It was his Lord whom he had served, whose wants he had supplied, and who had afforded the monk the joy that will come into every heart that hears the words, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me."

He comes in that hour when heart and flesh fail us, when the tabernacle is taken down, and the occupant goes forth to another life. "Let not your heart be troubled. 1 will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also."

These are the only comings for which we may look. We do not believe in that literal, material advent, concerning which early and later Christians have been alike disappointed. That the heavens will open and reveal his returning form, preceeded by an angel with the trump of resurrection, and followed by a retinue of celestial beings, we do not believe. We are not, therefore, affrighted, when a comet flashes across the sky or an earthquake thrills the land. These, cry the literalists, be the signs of his approach. Prepare to meet him. It was the failure of such signs as these, that in an earlier day, gave rise to the sneering question, "Where is the promise of his coming?" It were well for us to-day to let the mistakes of the past teach us, at least, the lesson of caution.

ARTICLE XXII.

Prayer.

In addition to all that has ever been said and written about prayer, a word more is ever in place, because the subject is radically important, and worthy of much serious and candid consideration; because, too, many crude notions are still quite prevalent concerning prayer, its nature and use, that ought to be outgrown. In the hope of contributing a mite toward the better view and better practice of devotion, the following considerations are addressed to the readers of the QUARTERLY.

Though prayer is everywhere observed among men, though through all the ages of history the observance has obtained, though the belief is and always has been general that prayer is useful and necessary, there seems to be a lack of understanding and of agreement as to its nature, the manner in which benefit is derived from it, and the character of the benefit. Many, indeed, are doubtful of the consistency and the utility of prayer; and quite often reflections are made on the practice as an absurdity. An utter unbelief in it as a good, necessary and proper thing is often declared.

It seems, however, that this unbelief must result from an attention too slight and a reflection too limited for a just and final decision; because, to a habitually reverent and thoughtful person, it appears almost incredible that such total unbelief should exist; that men in the exercise of their observing powers and rational faculties should remain unconscious of the necessity and the utility of prayer; since the fact is plain that the essence of prayer is seen in all life, and that the very first cry of nature always is a petition.

The prayer of nature is expressed by the feeble nestling as it stretches its neck upward with open mouth at every sound of approach; and in this we see the sign that nature ever prays. No human mother doubts, for an instant, the natural. ness, any more than the sincerity, of her helpless offspring's plea, as it turns to her bosom for sustenance; nor can she

deny that this plea, this petition of the young and tender life outborne from her own being, is but one expression of a yearning in all finite nature, whose sphere of manifestation reaches far beyond the limits of bodily needs, and extends through the invisible as well as through the visible realm of conscious being.

Prayer is a natural necessity of dependent life. We must pray, we actually pray, from the very nature of our being and environment, in one form or another, for the supply of our bodily needs; and it is no less certain that, as we have also soul needs far transcending those of the body, we must pray, too, for the supply of these, according to the sense in which they are apprehended.

All this must be seen as soon as suggested; admitted as fact. There is no lengthy or sinuous argument required to prove that prayer is a natural and necessary function of our being; that we must, per force of nature, from a sense of dependence and need, look to a Higher Power as the source of a good without which our life must utterly fail.

We need not tax our powers of logic to show that an invisible world, as well as the visible, is naturally and necessarily included within the range of our petitions, and that the resources of that world are as needful for our appropriation unto spiritual strength, as are the supplies of the earth for bodily strength.

It is true that, in a sense, certain men may be called prayerless characters. There are those who themselves aver that they never pray; while others are called praying men. No doubt there are thousands who honestly think they live without prayer; but the fact is, that this idea of utterly prayerless men occurs from the technical or formal sense in which prayer is generally regarded. As men view prayer, as it is generally considered and exhibited, even by the pulpit, the impression might easily prevail that the majority, perhaps, of the people never pray. But when prayer is regarded as to its substance, leaving out of consideration all forms and observances, we find that no man lives an utterly prayerless life; and no one,

when the substance of petition is fairly stated as a reverent yearning of spirit for that which is better in being, for a needed support when heart and flesh fail, will deny that, in some way, his spirit ever prays.

The fact also has to be admitted by every one, that this universal prayer of our being for support, both to the physical and the spiritual, the inner and the outer man, is certainly answered; and that every one receives, through the channel of petition, each according to his condition and measure, the aid that is requisite and legitimate. None will deny this when the principle is philosophically and clearly presented, when it is expressed in accordance with the working of natural law and the knowledge of human experience.

Prayer is, then, as to its substance, a natural and necessary function of our being; and it is always performed through the desire for good with which all are exercised according to their state. But this is not all; for what we perform thus spontaneously through instinctive longing, through almost unconscious as well as conscious desire, can also be intelligently and voluntarily performed; and so the benefit of prayer may be greatly enhanced, provided always that our voluntary praying is in harmony still with the nature of things and the law of spiritual action and intercourse; and that we thus avoid the abuse of prayer which occurs in all unreasoning and unreasonable petition.

We know that our voluntary and intelligent prayer for earthly good is generally answered according to our faithfulness and the conditions we supply, to the extent of our essential needs; and all who have experience in genuine prayer for spiritual comfort, strength and joy, for soul healing, and for growth in moral power, know that here, too, the answer is equally certain, and that he never prays in vain who prays aright.

It is a mistake to suppose that answer to prayer depends on any particnlar and exact views or belief concerning the nature of God, and the order and plan of the divine economy and government, or concerning any assumed or supposed scheme

for saving men, as defined in theological systems. Answer to prayer depends on nothing of the kind, but on the sincerity, earnestness, unselfishness and perseverence with which men aspire to the best things in spirit and look heavenward for blessing.

With all our thought about God, all our search through creation for anything like an objective and personal presence of the Almighty, we find nothing to warrant any definite statement or dogma concerning him, as necessary to be accepted or believed in order to salvation; the prime necessity being to believe" that he is, and that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him;" that in proportion as he is sought with pure intent and diligent mind, not as an object in form, but as pure spirit, the sense of an all pervading and all loving Spirit is felt by our spirits, as their eternal portion and All.

The Creator's being is incomprehensible to our present capacity; and all his ways are indeed past finding out in one life time, or in many. To discover and comprehend in what the being of God exists, to understand more of His nature, and learn more of His ways, will doubtless afford us occupation for ages to come in our immortal career. I say doubtless, for the desire to know more of the Creator is natural to the mind, and warrants the assumption that progress in knowledge conforming to this desire, is a perpetual practicability; so that we shall live, and learn, and understand, and enjoy, more and more of the eternal Spirit, while our being endures.

Meanwhile, men think of God differently. This is a necessity, for they are differently conditioned. They cannot avoid regarding His being and His ways with diverse thoughts, and arriving at conclusions as diverse. Some think of Him as personal, others as impersonal; some as the one intelligent and infinite Power, others as indeed the absolute, but still unconscious Force operating every where and in every thing to eternity; some, as a localized intelligence having a personal habitation and throne in some special department of the universe; others as the one Mind consciously and equally present at every conceivable point throughout infinite space.