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PRAYER AND RAIN.
Now that the wet season ib bout lb
set in the Method st chuichesin Sydn y
have decided to pray for rain. Tix ir ap
peal will certainly do no harm but on the
other hand it is fair to qnestioni what
good it will eftect. Iu Its appointid
season the rain will come and not one
Bec nd before, although all thei Methc
dist churches in the world trarted on
their full, praying force. Were the
question only one of the dicacy of
prayer as a rain-producer, it might
well be left alone, for those who believe
in the power of prayer to "produce
rain will continue so to believe ini
’ spite of all theincontestible facts that i
can, be. brought against it. Iu this •
case’’we desire specially’to deal
with a statement made by a prominent
Methodist Minister in. Sydney, who,
when questicned - by s presaman re
garding the day set apart for prayer,
filtered into some -meteorological ex
planations- whch fare worthy of more I
than passing notice. He stated that
nodoubt enormov.s suffering had been
caused both amoag human beings and
and animals / through the drought
which had pc*availed last year, but no ,
day bad beer. set. apart for prayer for
rain earlier i.a the year as it was felt
$wt the. rwin was
a punishm ent by the Almighty for the
sins of m,en. The Rev. gentleman did
not coridescend to explain how it
happened that’the Methodist Church
decided, just as the wet season was
setting in, to plead on .. -behalf of
erring humanity, when it felt that it
could not do so while no rain promised;
but that is a mere detail/ Possibly it
felt that Providence would be more in
, dined to fall in with its ideas, at a
time .when those ideas .were just about
to be carried out, or it 'may be that
pryer for rain has more efficacy. in
damp weather, than io dry. However,
that may be; the Methodist or any
other church, has a right to pray for
rain when it likes, and if it chooses a
period when, the drought is breaking, so
much the better for its chances of ane
.cess, Where we join issue- with
the interviewed parson is over his
stateruent that Providence causes
untold suffering to millions of innocent,
suffering animals in order to punish
their human owners. Who, standing
on he edge of a Western tank in the
drought season, Seeing the feeble
struggles of emaciated animals as they
strive to reach the water through feet
of stiff mnid could endorse such a senti
mont ? As day after day, and month
after month the crows pick out the
eyes c;<
left to ..
poged animals which are
and lingering death,
while n burning sun glows out of a
brezen sky, acd the wretched brutes
I
moan in their agony, who could witness
such a scene and honestly believe that it
was devised by the Given of all good in
order that some one else who had done
.wrong should be punished ? It is the
theory of vicarious soffering. with a
vengeance. We do not know how the
views of the Revd. meteorologist strike
the members of his denomination, but
to 08 they appear blasphemous, and
each blasphemy as could be uttered
only by an ignorant man; One thing
seems certain and that is if we are forced
to rely upon the prayers of such men
for rain, we are likely to have a pro
longed' drought, for his deity is evi
dently one that he has fashioned in his
own mind.
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