236 FACTS AND FANCIES 



ological effect in promoting the secretion of 

 milk in her udder. The mother who hears the 

 cry of her child, crushed under some weighty 

 thing which has fallen on it, will never pause 

 to consider that it is the law of gravitation which 

 has caused the accident ; she will defy the law 

 of gravitation, and if necessary will pray any 

 one who is near to help her. Prayer, in short, 

 is a natural power so important that without it 

 the young of most of the higher animals would 

 have little chance of life ; and it triumphs over 

 almost every other natural law which may stand 

 in its way. If, then, irrational animals can over- 

 come the forces of dead nature in answer to 

 prayer ; if man himself, in answer to the cry of 

 distress, can do things in ordinary circumstances 

 almost impossible, — how foolish is it to suppose 

 that this link of connection cannot subsist be- 

 tween God and his rational offspring! One 

 wonders that any man of science should for a 

 moment entertain such an idea, if, indeed, he 

 has any belief whatever in the existence of a 

 God. 



There is another aspect of prayer insisted on 

 in revelation on which the observation of nature 

 throws some light. In the case of animals, there 



