xplored region? Why
should we limit either the goodness or the power of God by our own
knowledge of what we call the laws of nature? Why should we not admit
that "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in
our philosophy"? In a universe governed by moral law, why should not
moral laws take precedence of all others? Why should we deny that there
is a power in prayer to which we have not commonly attained? We are
straitened in ourselves, and suppose that we are straitened in God. We
interpret the gracious promises of our most loving Father in heaven by
the rule of our own imperfect and unbelieving piety. We ask for light
from without, while the light can only come from a more elevated piety
within. We ask for examples of the effects of faith at the present day,
corresponding to those spoken of in the sacred Scriptures. Thoughtful
men acknowledge that there must be a meaning in these promises, which
they have not yet understood, and they see plainly that the kingdom of
God can never come with power until this prevalence in prayer shall have
become a matter of universal attainment; and yet they dare hardly
believe that God is as good as he has revealed himself to be.

There have, nevertheless, from time to time, occurred, what plainly
appear to be, remarkable instances of answers to prayer. Many of them
have faded from recollection, with the generation in which they
occurred; those which are remembered, however, seem to teach us that God
is a living God now as truly as in times past. The history of
persecutions is always filled with remarkable answers to prayer. The
rescue of Peter from the power of the Sanhedrim in one case, and from
the power of Herod in another, has been a thousand times repeated in the
history of the church of Christ. The answer to prayer for divine
direction as to the time and manner of performing some Christian
service, to which an individual has felt himself specially called, has
frequently been very remarkable. The biographies of the early and of
many of the later Friends are replete with such instances. Any one who
will read the edifying memoirs of George Fox, John Woolman, William
Allen, and Stephen Grellet, will find what I have alluded to abundantly
exemplified. The well-authenticated accounts of the late revivals in
this country and in Ireland teach us that most remarkable instances of
answers to prayer were of almost daily occurrence. In the last century a
single instance