Puslapio vaizdai
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natural course of action if only there were a Ruler of the Universe known in existence to whom they could offer petitions. For their part they have not yet become aware of the existence of any such Being, and, if candid, do not say they know there is not such a Being; but from what they have discovered by the closest observation and study of Nature, they believe that she hath within herself all needful energies for the evolution of phenomena, so that the question of the existence of God seems to these persons entirely irrelevant. "Atheist" is the term applied to thinkers of this class—a term which, when applied to them by persons of sufficient power of abstract thought to be able to understand the purely intellectual approach to Nature that is made, has in it nothing of an opprobrious element, but is simply the designation of a theory; but, in the minds of those whose habits of thought are associated with religious emotions, the very name stands for harshness for discord and irreverence. According as the Intellect or the Emotions predominate in the Religionist, the Atheist is treated with contemptuous defiance or condescending pity.

Well, now the question arises as a very important one for the times, What is the proper attitude for a person to assume in reference to Prayer? Has the time not come for wiser and more chastened uses of Prayer? Is the refusal to pray at all, consistent with lofty morality?

It is not possible for a young man into whose mind hesitation has ever entered, to consider questions of graver import than these. Let the answers that follow be taken as the answers of one who, unless the duty had been brought to him, would

willingly have waited for a clearer and more efficient solution of the problem.

In the first place, we must call to mind a few of the facts that phrenology and anatomy have laid special emphasis upon. These sciences speak of the configuration of the brain and of the relative poise of one part of it with another, as being remarkably indicative of the mental and emotional force that an individual possesses. The phrenologists profess to be able to tell from an inspection of the writings of an individual what the contour of his head actually is, without seeing it, as well as to predict what general directions an individual's actions or utterances would assume, from an examination of his head. There is doubtless plenty of mere hypothesis in either branch of science, but the general facts of phrenology are so easily verified by any one in doubt, that we may pass on to make use of them. Leaving out of consideration that large class of the human race in whom the brain is part with part pretty evenly balanced, and who quietly, and with more or less of effectiveness, deal with life's problems according to the aptness and health of physique that ancestors have successively transmitted to them leaving out of consideration this class, we have remaining two powerful classes that always seem, upon problems concerning "mind" and “ matter," in extreme antagonism. One class is well developed in several or all of those faculties that phrenologists find located in the crown of the head, the chief being known as Veneration, Hope, Imitation, Wonder, Ideality and Conscientiousness, and comparatively undeveloped in those faculties that are found located in the forehead, and known as Causality, Comparison,

Eventuality, Individuality, Mirthfulness, &c. ; while the opposite class have the predominancy of devel

The development of the speaking broadly, would

opment the other way. back part of the head, add proportionately to the capabilities of exertion of either of the other general developments. Now, these typical manifestations of the structure of the brain denote accurately enough for the purpose of a generalization, that the Poets, Artists, Musicians, and Religionists of all denominations will be found in the first-mentioned class; the Logicians, Metaphysicians, Mathematicians and Scientists in the second. Men of vast general power unite in themselves a splendid combination of the two sets of faculties-Goëthe is a conspicuous illustration.

"But," probably urges the reader, "what has this to do with Prayer? Surely you do not seriously mean to allege that the solemn yet joyous abandonments of the Soul in Prayer to God are intimately associated with the more or less development of the brain at a given point?". Yes, such is exactly what I wish to allege and to ask particular attention to the statement, for, unless some satisfying explanation be possible, it would hinder man in the future, as it has in the past, from understanding and therefore from helping his fellow-man.

Yet one is disposed to feel that "the grossest ignorance does not disgust like this impudent knowingness," if only one did not recollect that by obedience to the laws of Nature, or, "by abandonment to the nature of things, man is capable of a new energy, as of an intellect doubled on itself; that besides his privacy of power as an individual man, there is a great public power on which he can

draw, by unlocking at all risks his human doors, and suffering the ethereal tides to roll and circulate through him."

Now, Prayer is the attitude of a man who feels the weakness of his own physical, intellectual or emotional strength, at the same time that he realizes in his Imagination the ceaseless rolling of illimitable forces around him, which, in his superficial moments, have seemed at cross-purposes, yet, in some supreme moment of enthusiasm have appeared perfectly significant of a profound and central Unity. He longs to co-ordinate his own powers with the powers around him, but finds a terrible condition annexed to the act-nothing less than the renunciation of his selfconsciousness, his personality. Shall he not wrap himself in snug security, and, like the rain-drop in the fable try to persuade himself that the ocean needs not one tiny drop? No, for the phrase of Jesus was no unmeaning one when He said "he that loseth his life shall find it." Only through surrender of this kind can one's energies make any large circuit of usefulness. Only after surrender of this kind can any imaginative person to whom the vision has come, arrive at that state which "is blessedness and peace."

"This insight, which expresses itself by what is called imagination, is a very high sort of seeing, which does not come by study, but by the intellect being where and what it sees, by sharing the path or circuit of things through forms, and so making them translucid to others.'

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"The sublime vision comes to the pure and simple soul in a clean and chaste body.

The religions of the world are the ejaculations of a few imagina

tive men."

But yet we have not dealt with those who, according to our phrenological observations, are incapable of these idealistic experiences, and consequently of Prayer, since such individuals, though capable of dealing with all those manifestations of phenomena which are discoverable by the intellect, are unaware of their correspondence with phenomena of their own consciousness. Things do not stand in their minds as images which may contain secrets of their own nature, so much as objects of study for purposes wholly general.

Are such men as these to be accounted inferior to men of the other class? Are they necessarily, or frequently, less happy? No, not either. On the authority of Christ himself, the Blessed of His Father are those who clothe the naked, who visit the sick and the criminals, while amongst those who do not inherit the kingdom are some who, with whatever rapture, have cried, "Lord! Lord!" The true

touchstone of character is—" By their fruits ye shall know them." Christ's discrimination is at one with the suggestions of justice-that to use one's energies to help the weak is in itself a far nobler occupation than the loftiest aspiration by itself. And most of these non-praying men do happen to be found, in all great problems of the day, to be exerting their energies on the side of the weak. In the exigencies of human life they are not known to be less heroic than their more imaginative and emotional fellows. The fact that "Salvation" and "Redemption" mean to them only the beneficent application of human agencies, is the strongest reason to their mind why they should promptly respond to the needs of distressed humanity. A deal too much condescending

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