But they go on to say,--'And
therefore there is no use in prayer. You cannot expect God to alter
the laws of His universe because you ask Him: the world will go on,
and ought to go on, its own way; and the man who prays against
danger, by sea or land, is asking vainly for that which will not be
granted him.'
Now I cannot see why we should not allow,--what is certainly true,--
that the world moves by fixed and regular laws: and yet allow at the
same time,--what I believe is just as true,--that God's special
providence watches over all our actions, and that, to use our Lord's
example, not a sparrow falls to the ground without some special
reason why that particular sparrow should fall at that particular
moment and in that particular place. I cannot see why all things
should not move in a divine and wonderful order, and yet why they
should not all work together for good to those who love God. The
Psalmist of old finds no contradiction between the two thoughts.
Rather does the one of them seem to him to explain the other. 'All
things,' says he, 'continue this day as at the beginning. For all
things serve Thee.'
Still it is not to be denied, that this question has been a difficult
one to men in all ages, and that it is so to many now.
But be that as it may, this I say, that, of all men, seafaring men
are the most likely to solve this great puzzle about the limits of
science and of religion, of law and of providence; for, of all
callings, theirs needs at once most science and most religion; theirs
is most subject to laws, and yet most at the mercy of Providence.
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