Hence the adage that the only sensible prayer is the earnest prayer. And right here is found the point of the parable of the unjust judge, the "because this widow troubleth me"; also that of the loaves loaned at midnight,† the "because of his importunity 'anaideia], his 'cheek." So runs my dream; but what am I? Alfred Tennyson (In Memoriam, liii.). And here be it observed that the name of that Somewhat is, in one regard, of no consequence,- whether " Ma," " Mother," "Mater or "Pater." The entity, "the rose," is just " as sweet," the growth of gratitude, of jurisdiction, just as sure.‡ As the mother comes and bends by night over her sick and sleeping child, all unconscious of her presence, so the Lord comes and looks on us with tenderest pity when we think nothing of him. Yet sometimes the sick and sleeping child may half arouse itself, and stretch up its little drowsy arm to its mother, and put it round her neck, drawing her face close down to his, and giving her a little sleepy kiss; and the mother is well pleased. So I think that God is well pleased when we, half-awakening from our drowsy sleep in sense and sin, just look up a little moment, and cry out of our heart, though it may be only a single cry of longing, or one unuttered whisper of vague hope. Dr. J. F. Clarke (Sermon on Acts ix., 11, Boston Saturday Evening Gazette, June, 1881). Sometimes from troubled dream in fear he starts: The unspoken want by love's divining art. still Thou Love divine, who knowest the things we need Before 'tis spoken, who of old didst say, *Luke xviii., 5. † Luke xi., 8. Thy children dear; that neither life nor death, Nor things that are, nor things to come, nor height, Thy children from thee. And when breaks the cry Of Father! from our glad or troubled lips, Whisper sweet words of peace : "Dear child, I know. H. D. Catlin ("Love's Divining." Christian Register, May 26, 1881).. CHAPTER XXX. ASPIRATION. What generally Indorsed Sentiments of Experienced Thinkers upon best promoting the Aspirational Element of Prayer? WITH these, hymnology overflows. The Buddhist priests are said to have responded to the French missionaries, Huc and Gabet: "We ought to respect all prayer. Men of prayer belong to all countries: they are strangers nowhere. Such is the doctrine taught by our Holy Books." Under the intermediate thesis just considered, one may commend the objective theory of "help from on high," even while having in view only the subjective_good of self-help, aspiration, and exertion. The father in La Fontaine's fable has never been deemed at all disingenuous for directing his sons to keep the heritage and dig for a concealed treasure. "treasure was in the digging itself, and in the consequent health, harvests, and habits of industry,- a prosperity which an immediate attainment of the object directly longed for would have defeated. "Labor is worship," the wild bee is ringing. Idleness ever despaireth, bewaileth; The Keep the watch wound, or the dark rust assaileth. Frances S. Osgood. Labor is nature's physician.- Galen. I have fire-proof, perennial enjoyments called employments.— Jean P. F. Richter. The reward of doing one duty is the power to perform another.— Ben Azai. Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Joy's soul lies in the doing.- William Shakspere. Charles Kingsley. The reward is in the doing, Henry W. Longfellow. Evidently there are two extremes, each having its peculiar evil. The man who never sequesters himself (or, as the New Revision beautifully renders it, enters into his "inner chamber "), and, when he has shut the door against the overbearing pressure of secular pursuits, contemplates his higher destinations, becomes a grovelling earthworm rather than A glorious thing Of buoyant wing. If The woman's mind that is always in a giddy whirl of frivolities remains inane. "As one thinketh in his heart, so is he." he longs to be submissive, patient, modest, liberal, considerate of his relations to his moral environment, such must he tend to become. To be godlike, he must meditate upon God; to make any part of the attributes of Deity his own, he must aspire to the true, the beautiful, and the good. Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and, lo! virtue is at hand.- Confucius. Thrice blest whose lives are faithful prayers, Whose loves in higher love endure; What souls possess themselves so pure, Or is there blessedness like theirs? Alfred Tennyson (In Memoriam, xxxii.). You need but will, and it is done. But if you relax your efforts, you will be ruined; for ruin and recovery are both from within.Epictetus. Use the temporal; desire the eternal. Thomas à Kempis. Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die to-morrow. Ansalus de Insulis. Accordingly, many who hold only to the aspirational view take supplication simply as a means of aspiration. This appears to be the gist of the averment of George Eliot : The most powerful movement of feeling with a liturgy is the prayer which seeks for nothing special, but is the yearning to escape from the limitations of our own weakness, and an invocation of all Good to enter and abide with us; or else a self-oblivious lifting up of gladness, a Gloria in Excelsis that such Good exists; both the yearning and the exultation gathering their utmost force from the sense of communion in a form which has expressed them both for long generations of struggling men.— Daniel Deronda, p. 333.* This recalls the prayer of another noble soul, Phoebe Cary: I ask not that for me the plan But that the common lot of man I know I may not always keep But pray that when the tempest's breath I make not shipwreck of my faith H. and T. B. for C. and H., 565. A like model prayer is that of James Merrick: Author of good, we rest on thee: Alone our real wants can see, Oh, let thy power be our defence, And since, by passion's force subdued, We blindly shun the latent good, And grasp the specious ill,—–— Not what we wish, but what we want, Let mercy still supply: The good unasked, O Father, grant; Methodist Hymns, 633; H. and T. B. for C. and H., 583. There is truth in Jeremy Taylor's aphorism: "Every man can build a chapel in his breast, himself the priest, his heart the sacrifice and the earth he treads on the altar." But just how far a liturgy is a help to that "powerful movement of feeling," just quoted from George Eliot, is a trite theme. Perhaps no more advanced thought can be found thereon than in a recent discourse by Dr. J. F. Clarke, on Jer. xxiii., 28, "What is the chaff to the wheat?" The Gentiles worshipped a God of power from fear and hope, deprecating divine vengeance, invoking divine favor. The Jews worshipped a God of Justice, seeking pardon for their sins, and thanking God for his help. No doubt, both Jew and Gentile saw *For a rather exceptional illustration of "the theological paradox," "In order to pray for grace, we must have grace to pray," see J. T. Trowbridge's story, "Preaching for Selwin," in Coupon Bonds, and Other Stories, p. 329. |