Tracks Of A Rolling Stone by Henry J. Coke (top ten books of all time .TXT) 📕

'I Corrected Him,  And Thus Replied:

'"Do You Remember A Bend Near Some Willows,  Where You Wanted

To Cross Yesterday?"

'"Yes."

'"About Two Hours Higher Up The River?"

'"I Remember."

'"Would You Know The Place Again?"

'"Yes."

'"Are You Sure?

'"Yes,  Yes."

'"You Will See Me By Daylight In The Morning.  When I Start, 

You Will Take My Mare,  My Clothes,  And Some Food; Make For

That Place And Wait Till I Come.  I Will Cross There."

'"All Right."

'"Keep Me In Sight As Long As You Can.  Don't Forget The

Food."

'It Will Be Gathered From My Words That Definite Instructions

Were Deemed Necessary; And The Inference - At Least It Was

Mine - Will Follow,  That If A Mistake Were Possible Samson

Would Avail Himself Of It.  The Night Was Before Me.  The

River Had Yet To Be Crossed.  But,  Strange As It Now Seems To

Me,  I Had No Misgivings!  My Heart Never Failed Me.  My

Prayer Had Been Heard.  I Had Been Saved.  How,  I Knew Not. 

But This I Knew,  My Trust Was Complete.  I Record This As A

Curious Psychological Occurrence; For It Supported Me With

Unfailing Energy Through The Severe Trial Which I Had Yet To

Undergo.'

Reflect.  Let Us Then Pause To Consider This Hourly

Experience Of Human Beings - This Remarkable Efficacy Of

Prayer.  There Can Hardly Be A Contemplative Mind To Which, 

With All Its Difficulties,  The Inquiry Is Not Familiar.

To Begin With,  'To Pray Is To Expect A Miracle.'  'Prayer In

Its Very Essence,' Says A Thoughtful Writer,  'Implies A

Belief In The Possible Intervention Of A Power Which Is Above

Nature.'  How Was It In My Case?  What Was The Essence Of My

Belief?  Nothing Less Than This:  That God Would Have

Permitted The Laws Of Nature,  Ordained By His Infinite Wisdom

To Fulfil His Omniscient Designs And Pursue Their Natural

Course In Accordance With His Will,  Had Not My Request

Persuaded Him To Suspend Those Laws In My Favour.

The Very Belief In His Omniscience And Omnipotence Subverts

The Spirit Of Such A Prayer.  It Is On The Perfection Of God

That Malebranche Bases His Argument That 'Dieu N'agit Pas Par

Des Volontes Particulieres.'  Yet Every Prayer Affects To

Interfere With The Divine Purposes.

It May Here Be Urged That The Divine Purposes Are Beyond Our

Comprehension.  God's Purposes May,  In Spite Of The

Inconceivability,  Admit The Efficacy Of Prayer As A Link In

The Chain Of Causation; Or,  As Dr. Mozely Holds,  It May Be

That 'A Miracle Is Not An Anomaly Or Irregularity,  But Part

Of The System Of The Universe.'  We Will Not Entangle

Ourselves In The Abstruse Metaphysical Problem Which Such

Hypotheses Involve,  But Turn For Our Answer To What We Do

Know - To The History Of This World,  To The Daily Life Of

Man.  If The Sun Rises On The Evil As Well As On The Good,  If

The Wicked 'Become Old,  Yea,  Are Mighty In Power,' Still,  The

Lightning,  The Plague,  The Falling Chimney-Pot,  Smite The

Good As Well As The Evil.  Even The Dumb Animal Is Not

Spared.  'If,' Says Huxley,  'Our Ears Were Sharp Enough To

Hear All The Cries Of Pain That Are Uttered In The Earth By

Man And Beasts We Should Be Deafened By One Continuous

Scream.'  'If There Are Any Marks At All Of Special Design In

Creation,' Writes John Stuart Mill,  'One Of The Things Most

Evidently Designed Is That A Large Proportion Of All Animals

Should Pass Their Existence In Tormenting And Devouring Other

Animals.  They Have Been Lavishly Fitted Out With The

Instruments For That Purpose.'  Is It Credible,  Then,  That

The Almighty Being Who,  As We Assume,  Hears This Continuous

Scream - Animal-Prayer,  As We May Call It - And Not Only Pays

No Heed To It,  But Lavishly Fits Out Animals With Instruments

For Tormenting And Devouring One Another,  That Such A Being

Should Suspend The Laws Of Gravitation And Physiology,  Should

Perform A Miracle Equal To That Of Arresting The Sun - For

All Miracles Are Equipollent - Simply To Prolong The Brief

And Useless Existence Of Such A Thing As Man,  Of One Man Out

Of The Myriads Who Shriek,  And - Shriek In Vain?

To Pray Is To Expect A Miracle.  Then Comes The Further 

Question:  Is This Not To Expect What Never Yet Has Happened? 

The Only Proof Of Any Miracle Is The Interpretation The

Witness Or Witnesses Put Upon What They Have Seen. 

(Traditional Miracles - Miracles That Others Have Been Told, 

That Others Have Seen - We Need Not Trouble Our Heads About.) 

What That Proof Has Been Worth Hitherto Has Been Commented

Upon Too Often To Need Attention Here.  Nor Does The Weakness

Of The Evidence For Miracles Depend Solely On The Fact That

It Rests,  In The First Instance,  On The Senses,  Which May Be

Deceived; Or Upon Inference,  Which May Be Erroneous.  It Is

Not Merely That The Infallibility Of Human Testimony

Discredits The Miracles Of The Past.  The Impossibility That

Human Knowledge,  That Science,  Can Ever Exhaust The

Possibilities Of Nature,  Precludes The Immediate Reference To

The Supernatural For All Time.  It Is Pure Sophistry To

Argue,  As Do Canon Row And Other Defenders Of Miracles,  That

'The Laws Of Nature Are No More Violated By The Performance

Of A Miracle Than They Are By The Activities Of A Man.'  If

These Arguments Of The Special Pleaders Had Any Force At All, 

It Would Simply Amount To This:  'The Activities Of Man'

Being A Part Of Nature,  We Have No Evidence Of A Supernatural

Being,  Which Is The Sole Raison D'etre Of Miracle.

Yet Thousands Of Men In These Days Who Admit The Force Of

These Objections Continue,  In Spite Of Them,  To Pray. 

Huxley,  The Foremost Of 'Agnostics,' Speaks With The Utmost

Respect Of His Friend Charles Kingsley's Conviction From

Experience Of The Efficacy Of Prayer.  And Huxley Himself

Repeatedly Assures Us,  In Some Form Or Other,  That 'The

Possibilities Of "May Be" Are To Me Infinite.'  The Puzzle

Is,  In Truth,  On A Par With That Most Insolvable Of All

Puzzles - Free Will Or Determinism.  Reason And The Instinct

Of Conscience Are In Both Cases Irreconcilable.  We Are

Conscious That We Are Always Free To Choose,  Though Not To

Act; But Reason Will Have It That This Is A Delusion.  There

Is No Logical Clue To The Impasse.  Still,  Reason

Notwithstanding,  We Take Our Freedom (Within Limits) For

Granted,  And With Like Inconsequence We Pray.

It Must,  I Think,  Be Admitted That The Belief,  Delusive Or

Warranted,  Is Efficacious In Itself.  Whether Generated In

The Brain By The Nerve Centres,  Or Whatever May Be Its

Origin,  A Force Coincident With It Is Diffused Throughout The

Nervous System,  Which Converts The Subject Of It,  Just

Paralysed By Despair,  Into A Vigorous Agent,  Or,  If You Will, 

Automaton.

Now,  Those Who Admit This Much Argue,  With No Little Force, 

That The Efficacy Of Prayer Is Limited To Its Reaction Upon

Ourselves.  Prayer,  As Already Observed,  Implies Belief In

Supernatural Intervention.  Such Belief Is Competent To Beget

Hope,  And With It Courage,  Energy,  And Effort.  Suppose

Contrition And Remorse Induce The Sufferer To Pray For Divine

Aid And Mercy,  Suppose Suffering Is The Natural Penalty Of 

His Or Her Own Misdeeds,  And Suppose The Contrition And The

Prayer Lead To Resistance Of Similar Temptations,  And Hence

To Greater Happiness,  - Can It Be Said That The Power To

Resist Temptation Or Endure The Penalty Are Due To

Supernatural Aid?  Or Must We Not Infer That The Fear Of The

Consequences Of Vice Or Folly,  Together With An Earnest

Desire And Intention To Amend,  Were Adequate In Themselves To

Account For The Good Results?

Reason Compels Us To The Latter Conclusion.  But What Then? 

Would This Prove Prayer To Be Delusive?  Not Necessarily. 

That The Laws Of Nature (As Argued Above) Are Not Violated By

Miracle,  Is A Mere Perversion Of The Accepted Meaning Of

'Miracle,' An Ignoratio Elenchi.  But In The Case Of Prayer

That Does Not Ask For The Abrogation Of Nature's Laws,  It

Ceases To Be A Miracle That We Pray For Or Expect:  For Are

Not The Laws Of The Mind Also Laws Of Nature?  And Can We

Explain Them Any More Than We Can Explain Physical Laws?  A

Psychologist Can Formulate The Mental Law Of Association,  But

He Can No More Explain It Than Newton Could Explain The Laws

Of Attraction And Repulsion Which Pervade The World Of

Matter.  We Do Not Know,  We Cannot Know,  What The Conditions

Of Our Spiritual Being Are.  The State Of Mind Induced By

Prayer May,  In Accordance With Some Mental Law,  Be Essential

To Certain Modes Of Spiritual Energy,  Specially Conducive To

The Highest Of All Moral Or Spiritual Results:  Taken In This

Sense,  Prayer May Ask,  Not The Suspension,  But The Enactment, 

Of Some Natural Law.

Let It,  However,  Be Granted,  For Argument's Sake,  That The

Belief In The Efficacy Of Prayer Is Delusive,  And That The

Beneficial Effects Of The Belief - The Exalted State Of Mind, 

The Enhanced Power To Endure Suffering And Resist Temptation, 

The Happiness Inseparable From The Assurance That God Hears, 

And Can And Will Befriend Us - Let It Be Granted That All

This Is Due To Sheer Hallucination,  Is This An Argument

Against Prayer?  Surely Not.  For,  In The First Place,  The

Incontestable Fact That Belief Does Produce These Effects Is

For Us An Ultimate Fact As Little Capable Of Explanation As

Any Physical Law Whatever; And May,  Therefore,  For Aught We

Know,  Or Ever Can Know,  Be Ordained By A Supreme Being. 

Secondly,  All The Beneficial Effects,  Including Happiness, 

Are As Real In Themselves As If The Belief Were No Delusion.

It May Be Said That A 'Fool's Paradise' Is Liable To Be

Turned Into A Hell Of Disappointment; And That We Pay The

Penalty Of Building Happiness On False Foundations.  This Is

True In A Great Measure; But It Is Absolutely Without Truth

As Regards Our Belief In Prayer,  For The Simple Reason That

If Death Dispel The Delusion,  It At The Same Time Dispels The

Deluded.  However Great The Mistake,  It Can Never Be Found

Out.  But They Who Make It Will Have Been The Better And The

Happier While They Lived.