s in nature and
providence which have--so to speak--a distinctive personal expression, so
that the familiar metaphors of God's countenance, smile, hand, and voice
do not transcend the literal experience of him who goes through life with
the inward eye and ear always open.

The omnipresence of God makes it the dictate of natural piety to address
Him directly in *thanksgiving and prayer*,--not, of necessity, in words,
except as words are essential to the definiteness of thoughts, but in such
words or thoughts as constitute an expression to Him of the sentiments of
which He is fittingly the object. As regards prayer, indeed, the grave
doubts that exist in some minds as to its efficacy might be urged as a
reason why it should not be offered; but wrongly. It is so natural, so
intrinsically fitting to ask what we desire and need of an omnipresent,
omnipotent, all-merciful Being, who has taught us to call him our Father,
that the very appropriateness of the asking is in itself a strong reason
for believing that we shall not ask in vain. Nor can we ask in vain, if
through this communion of the human spirit with the Divine there be an
inflow of strength or of peace into the soul that prays, even though the
specific objects prayed for be not granted. That these objects, when
material, are often not granted, we very well know; yet we know too little
of the extent of material laws, and of the degree to which a discretionary
Providence may work, not in contravention of, but through those laws, to
pronounce dogmatically that the prayers of men are wholly unrecognized in
the course of events.

As the members of the same community have very numerous blessings and
needs in common, it is obviously fitting that they should unite in *public
worship, praise, and prayer*; and if this be a duty of the community
collectively, participation in it must, by parity of reason, be the duty
of its individual members. Public worship involves the fitness, we may
even say the necessity, of appropriating exclusively to it certain places
and times. Associations attach themselves to places so indelibly, that it
would be impossible to maintain the gravity and sacredness of devotional
services in buildings or on spots ordinarily devoted to secular purposes,
either of business or of recreation. Nor could assemblies for worship be
convened, otherwise that at predetermined and stated intervals; nor could
their devotional purpose be served, were there not stated