Him to do so is precisely what belongs to Him to do as the infinite, wise, and good Father.

Besides, we must remind those who object to the * idea of God as actually attending to and regulating all single events, that this minute attention and regulation may have an intimate relation to the great plan of the Divine government of the universe as a whole. We have often seen what wide-reaching consequences seemingly unimportant events may have; and we have read of ten thousand instances of things as trivial as the spilling of a cup of tea on a lady's silk dress affecting the destiny of states and nations. And how can we tell, but the most trivial event in our life (as it may seem to us) may have a bearing on the whole future course of our existence-here and hereafter-and also upon the fortunes of humanity and of the universe? There is a passage in De Quincey's writings that illustrates this truth in his grandly periodic style. Speaking of memorable attempts at escape, and in particular those of Charles I. and Louis XVI., he says:

"But alike the madness or the providential wisdom of such attempts commands our profoundest interest. These attempts belong to history. And it is in that relation that they become philosophically so impressive. Generations through an infinite series are contemplated by us as silently awaiting

the turning of a sentinel round a corner, or the casual echo of a footstep. Dynasties have trepidated on the chance of a sudden cry of an infant carried in a basket; and the safety of empires has been suspended, like the descent of an avalanche, upon the moment earlier or the moment later of a cough or a sneeze. And high above all ascends solemnly the philosophic truth, that the least things and the greatest are bound together as elements equally essential in the mysterious universe."

Now, this may not be equally true of all single and seemingly trivial events. We need not say or admit that it is. But it may be true of some such events. And who but God can tell which to make matters of special attention and regulation, and which to "leave to themselves," as we say ?

But what it chiefly concerns us to do is always to think of God as at least as good as a wise and loving earthly father, who cares for his children individually, and not merely in the lump.

Jesus Christ always spoke of God as "our Father." Father! That is a word of the heart. Our infinite Father! With a Father's heart of love for all His spiritual children, Who concerns Himself with all our wants and needs in ways as particular and minute as would be implied in the

actual numbering of the hairs of our heads. Jesus bids us pray to God for things temporal as well as for things eternal, for material as well as for spiritual blessings, saying, "Ask, and ye shall receive." Whatsoever "good things"-things good for youask, and ye shall receive.

VI. I abstain from going into a particular discussion of the Christian doctrine on Prayer-its full and exact meaning and contents, and the precise conditions under and within which it holds true.

I will only remind you that the rationale of God's Providential action and control in the universe of Matter and of Mind, which I have given at some length in this discourse, furnishes the sufficient and abundant reasonable ground for the Christian faith in a Prayer-answering God; and that you see it is both absurd to say God can not, and impossible to demonstrate that He does not answer prayers for physical as well as for spiritual blessings.

I may add, too, that it is indispensably necessary to bear in mind that the question in regard to God's answering prayers for physical blessings turns not on the invariableness or immutability of the laws of nature, but on the relation of the power of the Divine Will to the forces of nature. And you will

remember that I have already shown how, in ten thousand cases, the power of man's will is perpetually combining and managing the forces of nature so as to change the order of events without disturbing the order of nature or violating its laws, and how absurd it is to say that God can not do the same.

A word or two here in reference to the pretension made by some "men of science" (as they call themselves) to the right of subjecting the question respecting the efficacy of prayer for physical blessings to a "scientific" determination.

I object, by the way, in limine, to the fashion in which our modern physicists arrogate to themselves exclusively or eminently the title of "men of science," as if there were no science but physical science. For myself, I believe there is another than a merely physical science, and a higher one. There is a metaphysical science as truly as there is a physical science; a science of the supernatural as truly as of the natural; of the non-phenomenal as truly as of the phenomenal; of the infinite as well as of the finite; a science of God, as well as a science of Nature.

But it is idle to make the matter a merely verbal question-a question about the right use of the word science. Let us-in respect to the point now

before us-let us let these "men of science" (as they are fond of calling themselves, with a superior air), let us let them have the word in their own

sense.

Science, according to them, is only of the phenomenal, the physical world. It has to do only with the laws of Nature-laws that relate to physical forces-laws that are necessary and immutable.

But prayer relates to spiritual and supernatural forces, to the finite free-will of man and to the infinite free-will of God. How then can their science determine any thing about the action of such forces? Think of it. A physical determination of a metaphysical relation! Why, the pretension is absurd. It proceeds upon a violation of the old logical maxim and necessary law of human thought-heterogenea non sunt comparanda-things generically disparate can not be brought into comparison. They might as rationally attempt to tell us how Imuch the whiteness of snow is whiter than the sweetness of sugar, or to determine the height of a mountain by smelling at it with their noses, or to weigh an imponderable essence in a pair of scales, or to put a mathematical proposition into a crucible and melt it, in order to demonstrate "scientifically" that the angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles. Prayer lies outside the sphere of science,