bar now has the power to
affect, without contact, another rigid bar of iron even when removed
to great distances, provided the second bar possesses a similar
characteristic, and that that characteristic has been brought into
perfect _sympathy_ with that of the first bar. I have a second bar
which fulfils these conditions, and, although, at the outset, it had
no power whatever to respond, it has been gradually, as it were,
educated, namely, brought nearer and nearer into sympathy with the
first bar, until it is now able to respond across long distances; it
has acted across the whole length of one of the largest halls in
London so strongly that it could be heard by all present. We will now
reverse the process of bringing these bars into sympathy, and I will
throw the first out of harmony by slightly changing its
characteristic; the change is extremely small, quite inappreciable to
the human ear, the bar giving out as full and pure a note as it did
before the alteration was made; in fact, the change is so slight that
it can still, with a little force, be stimulated by the same
generator, and yet the whole power to influence has been lost; the
first bar, although it is praying with great force, gets no response
from the second bar, and, even if the bars are now brought on to the
same table and put within a few inches of each other, there is still
no reply, there is no sympathetic action, the efficacy of prayer
between the two has been completely destroyed.

Do we not then see the principle upon which the efficacy of Prayer
depends, that the whole object of a Human Soul, when using the words
"Thy Will be done," is to bring itself closer and closer into perfect
sympathy with the Absolute? When that is accomplished, we may
understand, from our simile, that not only shall we and our
aspirations be influenced by the Will of the Deity, but that then our
wishes, in their turn, must have great power with God, and it becomes
possible for even "Mountains to be removed and cast into the midst of
the sea."

How truly the Philosopher Paul at the beginning of our Era recognised
that the knowledge of God, which Christ Himself tells us is
Everlasting Life, may be gained by the study of the material creation;
His words were sadly overlooked by many who, half a century ago, were
afraid that the discoveries of Science were dangerous to belief in the
Divine. He says: the unrighteous shall be without excuse because "The
invisible things of