147 
23. There is no need that we should encumber the present simple 
discourse with any lengthened examination of the argument of 
Professor Mozley on “ miracles/' to which Dr. Tyn- 
dall so earnestly objects; because it does not stand in question 5 the 
our way in the least. It appears to us that Professor “j™™ 10 " 8 
Mozley denies the mathematical necessity of any 
“order of nature" that we are acquainted with. Science rightly 
assumes the order of nature, but has no right to assume its neces* 
sity. Nature may, conceivably, have been other than it is, and 
may therefore be hereafter quite different. “ Behold I make all 
things new " involves no mathematical contradiction, so far as 
we know, as Mr. John Stuart Mill would himself admit; and 
we can hardly imagine that any mathematician disputes this, 
which seems to be the basis of Professor Mozley's argument 
With the development of the professor's thoughtful exposition 
of his subject, especially as to the probability, object* and proof 
of miracles, we are not here concerned; and we might agree 
rather at times with Dr. Tyndall in his view that “ phenomena 
are associated with their natural causes" (p. 31), and his openly 
confessed dissatisfaction with “ mere sequences ; " in nature^ 
Yet he is inconsistent even here; for, to reduce all nature to 
necessity is to deny primary causation, or to seek for it 
beyond the material universe.— But we are treating now of 
Prayer as capable of holding a place in the system of nature, 
and we have no need at all to pursue the subject of miracles. 
24. One practical remark, however, of Dr. Tyndall must 
arrest us before we conclude, because it is an appeal to facts, 
and by facts alone can we stand. He says he believes Butof f tB 
that, if tested by experience of its results, its 
“material benefits" (p. 45), prayer would not “last a decade" 
among us. Now, we are quite aware that the subject of “answers 
to prayer" is one of frequent difficulty even to religious persons, 
and it would not be possible in this place to enter upon it ; but 
it must not be forgotten that thoughtful and patient inquirers 
have arrived at the opposite conclusion from Dr. Tyndall's. In 
the nature of the case, no one could, however, exactly judge of 
the answer to any particular expression of human desire, reve- 
rently offered to the Moral Buler of the world, except the man 
who had so prayed; and the experience of religious persons has, 
in all ages, been strikingly uniform as to this. Perhaps there 
is no class of facts in all human cognizance so unmistakable as 
this which Dr. Tyndall unconsciously appeals to ; and the 
actual connection of prayer with the realities of life is, humanly 
speaking, the very stronghold of its power. — And this will lead 
us to point out how the “ pure materialist's " science entirely 
leaves out of consideration all facts except those of sensible 
