p. 9 | Man and Prayer by H.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 14, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 27.

Man and Prayer

By H.

SOME will tell us that it is useless to pray; some will say that it is not only useless, but foolish. Science, which deals with the externals of nature, often sees little of the inner workings of nature’s God; failing to see, science denies the power behind the workings of nature, even the laws of nature which it studies.

But what is the habit of man? Pressed to his last hope, he prays. In the last extremity, in the hour of death, he calls for a priest or a parson. In the human heart there is the feeling that when man utterly fails, God can be importuned to help. Science is forgotten; her laws are recognized as unavailing, however carefully studied out and classified; only in God is there hope.

Travelers who pass through sections of country where all the trees lean the same way know the direction of the prevailing winds, even tho there is no wind at the time, even tho the wind blows in another direction. When the souls of men reach toward a certain quarter, bend in one direction, it is evidence that there is a cause. Something outside of and beyond man himself has kept him in the attitude of prayer. “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.” Man would not have thus persisted in prayer had no answer ever come to his petitions.

A child makes a request of its father, a request which is proper and right; the father, seeing the reasonableness of the request, is happy to grant it. It may be that in the natural course of events, he would not have done so, at least not in the same way; but he is willing to alter the details of his own plan that the child may be made happy. It is not a departure from his course of life in regard to the child. He desires that the child shall be successful and happy in life; if by granting the request he accomplishes this, or if it is accomplished by refusing, or by substituting something better, the spirit of the request is answered.

God’s plans are unchangeable in purpose; but the prayers of His people have changed the natural course of events. Three weeks of prayer on the part of Daniel changed the heart of a heathen king. Hezekiah’s prayer brought an angel of God to defeat the almost victorious Sennacherib. The silent petition of Nehemiah brought the favor of Artaxerxes in behalf of his captive people. Elijah’s prayer shut up the windows of heaven for three years and six months that it rained not. For modern examples look to the mission fields. Ask Dr. Jacob Chamberlain of India whether God answers prayer; he has written a delightful book upon the subject. Read the words of George L. Pilkington on the new Pentecost in Uganda, where through the prayers of a few earnest souls a revival of unusual power reclaimed hundreds of the natives from heathenism. Recall the well dug in a drouth-stricken island of the sea, where a well was never heard of before, and the water which filled it. Prayer was the lever, the influence, which turned aside the course of nature to the salvation of men and the glory of God’s name.

It is not a mystery; God operates, we co-operate. “We do not change things or forces in their essence, but do change them in their relation to us. The seeds and the soil are fixed quantities, are stamped with certain powers; if we let them alone, these remain, but we lose them. If we use our powers to relate these seeds and soil properly, certain results come to pass, and we are enriched thereby. The river runs on to the sea. If we ask, it will turn our wheels and bear our burdens.” “Prayer is the highest form of cooperation known. In it the soul deals directly with God. In such dealing such changes are wrought, not in Him, nor in His purpose, which is always for the best, but in us and the relations which God’s purposes have with us.” H.