280 THE REV. CHANCELLOR LIAS, M.A., ON 



all things accorclina; to the counsel of His Will," are demon- 

 strable evidences that we are surrounded on all sides by 

 supernatural forces, which are working every moment " for 

 us men and for our salvation," and to which the operation uf 

 natural laws is invariably and inevitably subject. 



It is here that prayer finds its legitimate sphere. We are 

 not in the midst of an universe where everything proceeds in 

 an invariable sequence. We are in an universe ruled accord- 

 ing to the most generous and elastic principles consistent 

 with justice and right. The Great Moral Governor is not a 

 despot, governing us by the iron rule of the " Medes and 

 Persians which altereth not " ; He is a Father Who listens 

 to the lightest cry of a creature's anguish, and hastens to 

 relieve it, or give him strength to bear it. Forces, with their 

 invariable laws of action, are the most plastic of instruments in 

 the Hand of the Framer of the Universe, We may liken the 

 Lord of heaven and earth to an operator placed at the point of 

 convergence of innumerable telegraph wires, in which precisely 

 the same force, electricity, acting by invariable laws, is yet the 

 obedient vassal of Avill, and can produce the most wide-spread 

 and the most contrariant results on the same mechanical prin- 

 ciples. The illustration of course falls infinitely short of the 

 reality, but so do all our conceptions of God. Yet tliey are 

 nevertheless extremely useful to us, if tliey tend in the right 

 direction. The miraculous, on this view, is but a further 

 development of a principle continually in action — the power of 

 God over Nature^ exerted for the welfare of the beings He has 

 created. Therefore we need not fear to lift our petitions to 

 the Giver of all good for anything of which we may suppose 

 ourselves to stand in need. If it be good for us, it Avill be 

 vouchsafed in answer to our requests. If it be not good for 

 us — so we may argue from the analogy of good earthly parents 

 — it will be withheld, and something better Avill be given 

 us instead.* We need not fear to ask even for fair weather 

 or for rain, as though we were doing something illogical or 

 absurd. . The forces of nature, we may Avell believe, are under 

 the absolute control of Him Who called them into being. If 

 He thought fit, He could cause it to rain on half a field, and 

 leave the rest of the country dry. That He is not likely to 



* " He may ask to have them granted . . . but it does not follow 

 that they will be. There may be reasons why the granting of what 

 seemed to him to be ad\dsable may be the very reverse. Hence his 

 i-equest is to be subject to the condition, expressed or iinderstood, that 

 the granting of it is in accordance with God's will." Gifford Lectures, p. 60. 



