IN MODERN SCIENCE, 237 



must be a certain relation between the one that 

 prays and the one that answers-— a filial relation, 

 perhaps — and in any case there must be a cor- 

 respondence between the language of prayer 

 and the emotions of the creature appealed to. 

 Except in a few cases where human training has 

 modified instinct, the cry of one species of an- 

 imal awakes no response in another of a differ- 

 ent kind. So prayer to God must be in the 

 Spirit of God. It must also be the cry of real 

 need, and with reference to needs which have 

 his sympathy. There is a prayer which never 

 reaches God, or which is even an abomination 

 to him ; and there is prayer prompted by the 

 indwelling Spirit of God, which cannot be ut- 

 tered in human words, yet will surely be an- 

 swered. All this is so perfectly in accordance 

 with natural analogies, that it strikes one 

 acquainted with nature as almost a matter 

 of course. . 



In tracing these analogies, I do not desire to 

 imply that natural science can itself teach us 

 religion, or that it is to afford the test of what is 

 true in spiritual things. I have merely wished 

 to direct attention to obvious analogies between 

 things' natural and things spiritual, which show 



