1. IN passing from the objections to prayer made from the side of science to those which are of a more philosophical or theological character, let us see how the doctrine of prayer is modified, or may yet be modified, by the growing study of psychology. Modern psychology is changing all the old landmarks of that science. Two facts are gaining prominence. One concerns the direct influence of mind on mind. Amidst all the clashing of opinions as to the exact value of so-called spiritualistic phenomena, it is important to remember that scientific belief is steadily veering towards an acceptance of many facts proving the transference of thoughts in hitherto unrecognized ways. Such distinguished scientists as Sir William Crookes and Sir Oliver Lodge accept the facts of telepathy very decidedly. At the least, it may be conceded by all that mind-transferences are not so dependent upon material organs as we imagined. In physical science the amazing discovery has been made that electrical energy can be transmitted over vast distances without any connecting wires. A precisely similar advance is being made in psychical science. Wireless telegraphy is possible in the mental sphere as well as in the material world.
The other fact is the existence of sub-consciousness in the individual. Very little is known with certainty about this dim region. But it is quite clear that the roadway of our thoughts is built upon arches. The goods that are carried along that elevated road are then stored under the arches; and they may be brought up again on any day. Our mental life has its horizon, where the sky of our impressions seems to meet the ocean of our consciousness; but thoughts that sink beneath the horizon are no more extinguished than the sun is when it sets in the west, and, like it, they will rise again into view. Now, it is highly probable that this sub-conscious region is capable of receiving impressions that do not appeal to our conscious life. Tints that awaken no sensation in the eye, tones that lie beyond the dull hearing of the ear, may find a responsive faculty in this mysterious region of being. The sub-conscious area or state may be likened to the receiving instrument for Marconigrams. It may be sensitive to suggestions sent out by other minds, and may interpret them for consciousness.
Do not these two facts offer a strictly scientific basis for a doctrine of intercessory prayer? He who prays may be radiating forth from himself waves of mental energy highly charged with ethical significance. He for whom prayer is made may receive these ripples, whether consciously or unconsciously, and will be influenced by their moral message. A Christian does not need any such theory to urge him to pray for others. But the hints which psychical science is throwing out so rapidly are an encouragement to those who sympathize with Tennyson’s desire—
Let knowledge grow from more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell;
That mind and soul, according well,
May make one music as before,
But vaster.
2. There are other ways in which the study of psychology is throwing light on the problems of prayer. Thus it is a fact of experience that to pray against certain sins to which we have rendered ourselves liable is to strengthen them; and that for the reason that prayer against them is directing attention to them, and to direct our attention to them is to find ourselves once more enjoying them, which is more than half the victory for the sin. This explains why some men sin in spite of their prayers. Delacroix, in describing the life of St. Teresa, says: “This state of division and war kept her tendencies in check, but also kept them alive”. The continual struggle against sin keeps it active. Men fight their iniquities and their temptations hand to hand, and the more they do so the stronger the iniquities or the temptations become.
Psychology tells us to turn our eyes away from the sin. And with this the gospel agrees: “looking away unto Jesus”. The only effective inhibition of any inward evil is to turn the attention not on the evil we mean to flee but on the life we mean to attain. Forgetting the things which are behind, we press towards the mark of our high calling. And we forget, not by trying to forget, but by setting our mind on the goal. We do not first die to sin in order that we may thereafter live to God; we live to God, and so die to sin.
In my boyhood I was taken to see a famous quarry. Over what appeared to me a great gulf had been made a pathway one plank broad for wheel-barrows, and over that perilous path quarrymen were wheeling loads of earth. I asked how the thing was possible, and a quarryman explained that he was able to wheel the barrow without stumbling by fixing his eye on the farther goal. He did not ignore the gulf and the danger, certainly did not deny their existence; he was aware of them. It was because of their presence that he kept his eye fixed on the goal. But it was his concentrated attention on that that kept him safe. [Note: George Steven, The Psychology of the Christian Soul, 134.]
3. Coming now to the philosophical or theological difficulties which have been felt against prayer, we may begin with the practical objection that the self-reliant man finds no use for prayer; next touch the rather superficial objection that where interests differ prayer is an absurdity; then pass to the now nearly exploded but once formidable argument that man is too insignificant for God to attend to his prayers. When these three objections are shortly discussed, we shall still have to deal with the two great difficulties, that God’s providence being already perfect cannot be deflected in any direction by the prayer of man, and that in any case God’s will is unalterable.
