With God in the World: A Series of Papers — John Shaqi
With God in the World: A Series of PapersBrent, Charles Henry
Religion
With God in the World: A Series of Papers
Brent, Charles Henry
Christianity
There are some requests the answer to which returns with the speed of a
flash of light, as, for instance, when we ask God to give us some
Christian grace or disposition of heart. The giving comes with the
asking.[7] A man may not be strong enough to retain the gift, but it
actually becomes his before he rises from his knees. The rationalist
will object to this, that such an answer to prayer is nothing more than
the subjective effect of a given attitude of mind. Granted; but that
makes it none the less the direct work of God. Secondary or scientific
causes exhibit to the observer the method by which God fulfils His
purposes. The stone falls to the ground according to the law of
gravitation, but God is behind the law controlling it. The
distinguishing feature of the Jewish mode of thought was the way in
which it related all things to God's immediate activity. The Old
Testament is the book of God's immanence. The present attitude of mind
leads men to rest in all causes short of God, and even to forget the
need of a Cause of causes. An earnest student of nature remarked upon
leaving her microscope: "I have found a universe worthy of God." She at
least felt that a revelation of secondary causes was, at the same time,
a new revelation of the God of causes.
If it could be proved that all answers to prayer came according to the
working of natural law, it would not eliminate God from the process, or
have any sort of bearing upon the efficacy of prayer. All we know of
God's method of work demonstrates His love of law; and it would be no
surprise, but rather what we should expect, to find that all the unseen
stretches of life are equally within the domain of His law and order.[8]
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