is unanswered prayer. When men pray for things which do not come that
way--pray with sincere belief that prayer, unaided and alone, will
compass what they ask--then, not getting what they ask, they often
give up prayer.
This is the natural history of much atheism, not only an atheism of
atheists, but a more terrible atheism of Christians, an unconscious
atheism, whose roots have struck far into many souls whose last breath
would be spent in denying it. So, I repeat, it is a mistaken
Christianity which allow men to cherish a blind belief in the
omnipotence of prayer. Prayer, certainly, when the appropriate
conditions are fulfilled, is omnipotent, but not blind prayer. Blind
prayer is a superstition. Prayer, in its true sense, contains the sane
recognition that while man prays in faith, _God acts by law_. What
that means in the immediate connection we shall see presently.
What, then, is the remedy? It is impossible to doubt that there is a
remedy, and it is equally impossible to believe that it is a secret.
The idea that some few men, by happy chance or happier temperament,
have been given the secret--as if there were some sort of knack or
trick of it--is wholly incredible and wrong. Religion must be for all,
and the way into its loftiest heights must be by a gateway through
which the peoples of the world may pass.
I shall have to lead up to this gateway by a very familiar path. But
as this path is strangely unfrequented where it passes into the
religious sphere, I must ask your forbearance for dwelling for a
moment upon the commonest of commonplaces.