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Show Religion and Progress. 'fjB Neither Tindall nor Emerson believed in 'alii prayer. They were both born with that order of 11 mind which is expressed by the words "show val mo." They would believe nothing until tho WW proof of its truth was made clear to them. But, 'M after all, man's dependence on a higher power is rJu all that has made any progress in this world, . J m That very dependence has made eager minds . i strive the harder to find if possible why the laws 'tT'f that guide and control nature were framed. pl Tyndall tells of a priest that he onco saw near ' j fe the foot of the Rhone glacier, who was going up Vjjr the mountain to bless it. As Tyndall expresses it: "This was an annual custom. Year by year , i the Highest was entreated by official intorces- 'i sions, to make such meteorological arrangements ! as should insure food and shelter for the flocks j3 I and herds of the Valsaisians." But Tyndall m n pointed out that this priest would not think of 'fj praying to have a river turned aside in order to 'W& ; irrigate the land and insure a crop. That is true. I That priest might not, nor his successor, but by R L and by would come one who would begin to $ jjl .1 jj M Btudy the real meaning of the prayer, and then B f realize that it was not fair to ask the Highest B to do something which He had already placed B it in the power of men to do for themselves. B Then his mind would ho quick to see that what B he was really praying for was more moisture to B give life to the soil, and then he would look B down iind see the river rolling helow him, the B river that had always been rolling there, and B which it was in the power of man to turn and B thus find an answer to his prayer. B Copernicus was a Canon of Mother Church B . He was a devout man. He watched the order B of nature as shown in the processions of the B stars. He believed that an Infinite Mind had B v fashioned them and given to them the order of B v their silent marches. He remembered that the B promise had been given to man to have dominion B ' over the earth, by which he understood that B when man had reached his highest state his B mind would grasp and understand all that seems B so hidden and mysterious in nature and in the B '' problems of this earth of ours which seem so B f complex now. So, as Tyndall says: "For three B-'f and thirty years he had withdrawn himself from B Iho world, and devoted himself to the study of B;- r his great scheme of the solar system." At last B' 'f the truth came to him. He saw that Aristotle B was wrong; that all the world had been wrong; B before his eyes this little world of ours dwln- B died until it was but a speck, so to speak, in the B., universe; and then something of the grandeur B of the infinite worlds that are lighted by their B ' own coronals came to his thought, and above B'' those the mind that conceived them, then cre- B I ated them, started them on their awful voyages B ' and established the laws that should hold them B I , without a jar in their spheres, came to him, and B?1 that hour of his triumph was at the same timo B j the humblest hour of his life, and the chances B are a thousand to one that he fell upon his knees B ' and cried: "Lord, what am I that thou art mind' I 1 i ful of me?" B A ' Following the inherent dependence of man B j upon a higher power, the priests of old fash- B j ioned a religion and had gods for every want of B If man. They gave to Jove a messenger who could B ifr' carry his commands everywhere in a moment B r I of tIme Did Td111 ever think that that was i,' i the first telegraph? At fiist man, following the t thought, prepared a code of signals, making the s. I light their messenger. This was extended by t ' climbing mountains and signaling from them. The sunlight was the messenger by day, signal L I fires by night. Out of this the heliograph was H j perfected. Then when the nature of electricity i it was a little understood, the magnetic telegraph " I, grew into form; but the old haunting thought j was upon man. Hermes had no wire when he j carried the thought of Jove, and out of that re- flection the wireless was born. It is but the an- t swer to the old Greek's prayer that Zeus would ' send Mercury to his help. Some wonderful dls- 1 i coveries were made by the Arabs in the Middle & ! j Ages, when Europe intellectually was almost in a tcoma, and for every one Allah was given the 1 praise. Wo are not prepared to give any opinion as to the effect of prayer, but the spirit of prayer is behind almost every discovery of note that men have made sinco the beginning of time, and no barbarous nation has ever yet accomplished j aught in either the fields of literature or science. There is an altar in every man's heart. When he neglects to dress that altar he lives on but accomplishes nothing that is of the slightest benefit to his fellow men. |