seen, that if we do not ultimate into actual life, or striving, what we pray for, we do not most sincerely and deeply pray. The life therefore is the prayer, most thoroughly of all; for when it is true, the man is continually in the desire and endeavor to receive of the Divine influx, and does receive it, and is directed most faithfully in the paths of providence, although unconscious of the means. His whole life, therefore, may be a continual prayer, and more full of true worship than the most unfeigned devotions of the closet or the temple. Finally, we need not wonder at the effects which have been ascribed to prayer, in all ages of the church. If we have become more rational and intellectual, let us beware that we quench not the spirit in the cold waters of truth. We need it, humbly, patiently, perseveringly. Nothing is more dangerous than to become so philosophical as to be impractical. "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." And if we have succeeded in presenting this matter so as to encourage any one to a more prayerful spirit, our labor will have been not in vain. Confident we are, it is a great secret of success in many an adventure, many a danger, many a trial, many a complete life. God cannot do for us without it, any more than we can do for ourselves. But the grand prayer of all is, next to a good life, “Thy will be done." If we are in this state, then, even though we may not have answered to us all the prayers of the heart, we may be more thoroughly assured of the answer of so much; and that is all that man really needs. And frequently, when we have long and earnestly sought, and ardently desired of God to bless us in this or that particular manner, it is not granted according to our requests, because it would not be good for us; but in another way, and when we are not thinking of it. Thus it is that we have power with God by our prayers. Nothing is plainer, nothing simpler. Here is philosophy, and here is faith; and it is high time they were put at one. And to say nothing here of mere forms, which may be left to every individual to settle for himself, a praying spirit is a mighty spirit a spirit at one with the deep secrets of the universe, and at one with God: and man, so feeble and so sinful, yea, and even a little child, is gifted with a power in the heaven of heavens, to array Omnipotence on the side of its interests, and live like an angel defended from on high. 29 CHAPTER XX. DIVINE PROVIDENCE CONCERNING FORTUNE, CHANCE, AND ACCIDENTS. "One adequate support For the calamities of mortal life All accidents, converting them to good."- Wordsworth. THERE is nothing, perhaps, which tends more to create an occasional shock of our faith in the Divine Providence, than the many things which are continually occurring that look so much like chance and accident. As observed in our opening chapter, it is the confusion, the hap-hazardness, with the apparent necessity that reigns through all human affairs, involving not only indifferent things, but many great and alarming evils, which sometimes bewilders all faith, and casts a momentary shadow over the brightest soul. But here let it be observed, that it is in little things, chiefly, where fortune and chance are most apt to be recognized; and in evil and calamitous things where accidents are most thought of. No rational and religious man ever thinks of attributing to fortune or chance the movements of great nations, the rise and fall of empires, the inauguration of particular persons as kings and governors, and the advent of men who exert vast influences for good or evil on the destinies of the human race. These are all acquiesced in as providential occurrences. So, also, in great and conspicuous natural events, such as earthquakes, floods and storms; even the natural laws are sufficient to account for these; they are as far from chance as heaven is from earth. But why, then, in little things do we reason or think any differently? Had we the ability to trace the origin of many a mighty nation, king, potentate, or movement of mankind, (that is, what we call the origin,) we should find it in things quite as little, and apparently the merest chances, as any thing of fortune that is daily occurring in the world around us. If Rome was "saved by the cackling of a goose," or if it was not, it is all the same: how many things are daily happening which are both unnoticed and unnoticeable by us, which must lead, inevitably, to the mightiest results! Thus, "a fit of passion in Mrs. Masham arrested the course of Marlborough's victory, and preserved the tottering kingdom of France; a charge of a few squadrons of horse, under Kellerman, at Marengo, fixed Napoleon on the consular throne; and another, with no greater force, against the flank of the old guard, at Waterloo, chained him to the rock of St. Helena.' In a true sense, there are no little things; all are but parts of a stupendous whole; and it is thus that we feel the importance of our least actions in the great and universal connection. As to accidents, who, for instance, would think of denying a Providence in the results which have been attained by the art of printing, by the mariner's compass, and the telescope? And yet each of these great discoveries, to say nothing of many more, has been by what we call the merest accident. One man, sauntering in a wood, and idly cutting some letters in the rind of a beech-tree, and then fancifully impressing them upon paper; some other curious persons amusing themselves with a piece of loadstone attached to a cork, and causing it to swim in a basin of water; and still another, in the merest pastime, happening to hold two spectacle glasses between his finger and thumb, and varying their distance; and lo! the world is teem * Alison's History of Europe. ing with books, the ocean is traversed and all lands discovered and enriched, and everlasting science looks down upon us from the stars, with hopes and aspirations infinite! Call you this accident? Then every thing is accident, or every thing is most particularly and wonderfully providential. But the trouble is, we do not make the proper distinction between intimates and ultimates. The moment we admit a God, that moment we admit a Providence in every thing. Every thing must have rolled out from his Infinite Essence, which is Divine Love and Wisdom itself. Then it cannot be mere nature; much less chance. Every thing must be originated in infinite Wisdom, and be governed by that Wisdom - even the perversions which take place by man. These latter were not originated by the Divine Being; but they could not have existed without his permission, and they are governed on all sides by him. For this, the reader must be referred to the chapter on permissions. If, now, we could look into the interiors of this vast universe, and behold the wonders that are going on there; if we could see- reverently be it spoken into the mind of God, and behold those thoughts, those infinite substantial connections which, in the intimates, embrace all future ultimates, then we should comprehend how these apparently fortuitous things are simply the Divine Providence in the ultimates of nature. And in these ultimates, where there are so many things hidden, which exist to perfection in the spiritual world. and in the mind of God, and where the connections of such things even in this world are but very imperfectly seen, there is much of the appearance of fortune and chance. But we may know that it is not so, as sure as there is a God who is the First Cause of all things. We may know, as has been before said and illustrated, that there must be a necessary universal Providence. But again, another distinction must be made between what may be called constant and inconstant things. By constant things is meant those laws of nature which are established and |