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whether any one prayed for it or not, and that its synchronism with prayer could not be attributed to interference on the part of a prayer-granting agency. in any sense. There are many co-incidences always occurring in nature which even the most unreasoning deism would refuse to regard as evidence of a divine response to prayer, e.g., the death of an enemy or his being overtaken by calamity. But if we are debarred from regarding these dark occurrences as response to prayer, because of their tendency to leave a stain on the honour and goodness of their perpetrators, what is our warrant for ascribing any other to the agency of a God?
So much for the first point; as for the second which is covered by the question, who is to ask or pray? I think you will agree with me that the real grantor of wishes being the inner God, only he who is a devotee' of His is entitled to pray to Him. As for others who do not do His will, they are hypocrites and workers in iniquity ; they know not their God, and cannot have their wants attended to. The Book of Proverbs (The Old Testament of the Holy Bible) points out the attitude of Life towards them in striking terms (chap. i. 28 and 29);“They shall call upon me, bat I will not answer; they shall
seek merelv, but they shall not find me. "For that they hate i knowledge, and did not choose the fear
of the Lord.” Again it is said: "The Lord is far from the wicked, bat he heareth the prayer
of the righteous" (Proverbe, xv. 29).
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